Monthly Archives: November 2010

What “prize” have you been looking for lately?  How are you spending your discretionary time and money?  It has been rightly observed that our checkbooks and our free time reveals a great deal about what we value most in life. 

From the pen of the apostle Paul we are given the formula for keeping our eyes on the only prize that matters in life. 

One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. (Philippians 3:13-15)

Let’s briefly unpack the Bible’s formula for keeping our eyes fixed on the prize that should be the object of our greatest affection.

1. Forgetting what lies behind . . .

On the surface this seems to contradict what God says in other portions of Scripture when He says, “Remember . . . !”  So what is going on here?  Paul is not telling us to forget the past.  He is telling us not to live in the past.  We are to treat the past like a school and take the lessons God would have us learn into our promised future.

 I am not minimizing a painful past.  At some level, this is the reality for everyone simply because we are broken people living in a broken world with other broken people.  Yet God calls us to move beyond our past, regardless of the pain, and enter into our promised future by living fully in the present.  You will remember that Paul’s painful past was marked by his participation in intense persecution of the church; had Paul focused on his past, he would have become a prisoner to it, rather than the man God called to pen most of the New Testament. 

2. Straining forward . . . press on toward the goal . . .

Forward motion in life is difficult.  God made that clear to Adam and Eve after they sinned in the Garden of Eden.  Life would be difficult, filled with thorns, thistles, trials, and tribulations. 

 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”  And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  (Genesis 3:16-19)

3. The prize . . .

Paul says in spite of our straining, there is a promised prize that is to be our motivation for moving forward and it is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  In other words, Paul is pressing on into the truth of John 10:10—the abundant life in Jesus Christ.  God had already saved Paul and called him to be His own.  Now Paul desires, more than anything else, the deepest experience of his salvation and union with Christ.  So his life is marked by fixing his eyes on the prize . . . Jesus Christ.

Paul closes out this section of Scripture by identifying those who live this kind of life; he calls them mature.  Those who are mature do not prize possessions.  Those who are mature do not prize prosperity.  Those who are mature do not prize prestige.  Those who are mature do not prize pleasure.  Those who are mature prize only one thing: the Prince of Peace.  They organize their lives around the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus rules their hearts and ultimately shapes their lives; they rise early in the morning thinking about Jesus.  They go throughout their day thinking about Jesus.  They retire in the evening thinking about Jesus.  Like Paul, they believe that to live is Christ!  

Is this the confession of your life?  What has God been revealing to you lately?  Are you one of those who Paul identifies as mature?  Fix your eyes on the only prize that matters—in both life and death—and you will be. 

This is the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

What “impossible” thing are you facing today?  What Red Sea are you standing before, with no way out, as the enemy is closing in on you from behind?  What water needs to be turned into wine?  What dead thing in your life needs to be resurrected?  Today’s message, “The Steel Did Swim,” will prove profitable for your comfort and for your courage as you face whatever challenge is before you.  My prayer is that you would read this message with a spirit of great anticipation about what God will do both in and through you.  

2 Kings 6:1-7 recounts a remarkable story of the omnipotence of the Almighty and demonstrates that nothing is impossible with God for those who believe.

The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.

Can you imagine a more hopeless situation regarding the recovery of the axe head?  And to make matters worse, it was a borrowed axe that would now be forever lost.  To be sure, by man’s power, the axe head that fell into the water would have remained submerged and lost.  But with God, the steel did swim!  What sunken “steel” is in your life right now that needs to swim to the surface by the grace and power of the Almighty? 

• Shipwrecked by your singleness
• Pressured by your peers
• Anxiety over your academics
• Adversity in your athletics
• Mystified by your marriage
• Forsaken by your friends
• Perplexed about your parenting
• Worn out by your work
• Confused about your calling
• Snared by your sin
• Discouraged about your direction
• Struggling with your service
• Let down with your life

Notice in this passage three important truths that form the key to unlock the door of possibility when you are facing any problem in this life. 

1. The man who lost the axe head cried out and shared his challenge.

2.  When the Lord intervened, Scripture says the man “reached out his hand.”

3. Finally we read, the man “took it.” 

What obstacle do you need to turn into an opportunity to magnify the name of your God?  What problem has God sent your way to stretch your faith?  What boat is He calling you to step out of and come to Him?  Sure, the wind is howling and the waves are crashing, but Jesus is right there with you in the middle of your storm. 

God will always place the grapes of goodness within your reach . . . but not in your mouth.  You must reach out your hand and take them, by the grace of God.  God has promised to do His part.  Are we willing to do ours?

Remember, God has given us everything we need to live the life he is calling us to live—with freedom, faithfulness, and fruitfulness to Jesus.  Call on Him, regardless of the challenge you are facing.  Approach the throne of grace with confidence and plead the blood of the Lamb.  The same God who made the steel swim for Elisha is standing at the ready to make steel swim for you.  He will never disregard your predicament and He will never dishonor your plea. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I cannot think of a better way to kick off the season of THANKSGIVING than with a message of giving thanks from the Word of God.

Take a moment to contemplate and answer the following three questions:

1. Would you describe yourself as a person who spends more time in a posture of THANKSGIVING or a posture of COMPLAINING?
2. How would those closest to you answer this question about you?
3. If the answer to question #2 does not start with the letter “T” then what changes do you need to make in your life right now so that you may be known by better fruit?

Regardless of your answers, I think we all would agree that we could use a little more of the fruit of THANKSGIVING in our lives and a lot less of the fruit of COMPLAINING!  Regardless of how well life is working for us right now we have a tendency to look at what is not working well.  This has been the story of God’s people from the beginning.  After having been set free from over 400 years of bondage in Egypt, the Israelites were marked more by the fruit of COMPLAINING than THANKSGIVING.  You would have thought after having witnessed the hand of God deliver the ten supernatural plagues on Egypt and after marching right on through the Red Sea without ever getting wet, that THANKSGIVING would have risen up to heaven like smoke billowing up from a furnace.  However, it was not.  Instead of giving thanks they whined, grumbled, and complained every step of the way. In the following verse, the psalmist gives us the cure for COMPLAINING and the key to living a life of continual THANKSGIVING.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!

Psalm 107:8

When we focus more on God than we do ourselves, we find that we live in a posture of THANKSGIVING rather than COMPLAINING.  Take a moment to think about all that God has done for you.  And I am not even talking about the “BIG” things such as redemption, justification, adoption, eternal life, and the like.  Think about the eyes that are reading this blog right now.  God gave you your sight.  Think about the mind that is processing this blog right now.  God gave you your mental capacity.  Think about the breath you just took or the beating of your heart.  God gave you the gift of life.  What do you have that you have not been given?  Consider, in a sense, that the more you have the more you are in debt to the One who has given it to you.  The only thing you have that God did not give to you is your sin.  You own all of that!!!

So, as we begin our season of thanksgiving together, let us resolve to be someone who is known by others for a heart of THANKSGIVING rather than a head of COMPLAINING.  To be sure, this blog post may not find you in a season of great prosperity.  Perhaps sickness and disease are testing the outer edges of your health plan.  Maybe this time of year brings back memories of some great loss in your life.  This is the result of living in a fallen and broken world with other fallen and broken people.  Yet, in all of it you have a God whose love sought you, caught you, and bought you with the precious blood of the Lamb.

Write down today’s verse and put it up somewhere.  Put it up on your refrigerator.  Put in up on your bathroom mirror.  Attach it to the sun visor in your car.  Or even better, take some time to memorize it and meditate on it when you lie down, when you get up, and when you walk throughout your day (Deut. 6:7).  The more you focus on the steadfast love of God and the wondrous works He has done for you, the more your life will be defined by the fruit of THANKSGIVING rather than COMPLAINING.  I promise you this…a little effort now in keeping this verse before you will return multiple rewards not only during this season of thanksgiving, but throughout the rest of your journey toward the Celestial City.

This is the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!