Monthly Archives: March 2018

A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value. (Provers 31:10-11)

Dear Kim,

Thank you for spending the last quarter-century with me as my best friend and my wife.
By God’s grace, yesterday marked a great milestone for us as we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary by renewing our vows with our four children by our side in Disney World, the place we got engaged and where we honeymooned.

We were married on March 6, 1993, at the Church by the Sea in Fort Lauderdale; the past 25 years have simply flown by! We truly have lived out the vows we spoke to each other that day, for our life experiences have brought us both good times and bad, plenty and want, sickness and health. And through it all, God has been so good, so merciful, and so faithful to us.

We married as unbelievers, but God was at work behind the scenes, laying the foundation for our conversion in September of 1995. Just more than a year later, on December 28, 1996, God gave us our first child, Brock. Jenna followed on September 12, 1998, then Katie on October 26, 2002, and the Tank on March 20, 2004. How beautifully and sacrificially you demonstrated the truth of what it means to divide your time and multiply your love as God grew our family; you continually put the Gospel on display, even when I did not. And today, because of God’s grace poured out onto our lives, we can say along with the apostle John, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4).

Your love for me has been as unconditional as it has been forgiving. You have always been there for me with every dream, hope, and vision I had for our future together. From the Wellness Center to the great gift God gave us as a family in planting Cross Community Church six years ago, you were the one who connected the dots that brought every vision to life. I love you with all my heart, and I look back with awe and wonder at all that God has brought us through as husband and wife, father and mother. God has used all of it, even the broken threads, to weave a tapestry of what it means for two to become one flesh and leave a legacy under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Looking ahead, whatever life God is pleased to give to us, may we spend it in such a way that demonstrates our gratitude to Him for bringing us together and keeping us together until He carries us across the finish line of this life. Inasmuch as we will not be given to each other in marriage in heaven because of our marriage to Jesus, I so look forward to spending eternity with you in the new heavens and new earth, where we will live in unbroken fellowship with Jesus and each other. Until that day, I pray that God will continue growing me into the godly husband He wants me to be and that you absolutely deserve.

I love you Kim. You are my best friend and my true love. Happy 25th Anniversary! To God be the glory, forever and ever. Amen!

And Kim . . . thank you for saying “I still do!”

Tommy

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  (Romans 8:14)

Christianity makes no sense without sensitivity to the shaping of one’s life by the Savior. Until we become sensitive to what Jesus is doing with us, for us, and in us, we will not develop the sensitivity to understand, accept, and grow through it all. God’s greatest goal for us is to conform us into the image and likeness of His Son; but unless we become sensitive to this biblical truth and hold to it, regardless of the cost or circumstance, His shaping will make no sense to us.

Our eyes must be sensitive to see what is unseen. Too often we fix our gaze on the things of this world, and thus we miss so much of what God is doing in us and in the world around us. Our ears must be sensitive to hear what is unheard. Too often we hear only the noise of this world and we miss so much of the voice of our God. Our tongues must be sensitive to speak only truth and to speak it in love. Too often we speak our minds and hurt the ones around us.

Our hearts must be sensitive to beat for nothing smaller than Jesus. To the degree to which we become sensitive to the leading of our Savior through His Holy Spirit, to that degree will we be able to make greater sense of the unfolding story line of our lives.

At this point, you may be thinking, “How do I do that? How do I become more sensitive to my Savior?” There are, of course, a variety of ways that God has ordained for us to draw near to Him and increase our sensitivity to Him. Today, I want to encourage you with just one of them:

Practice the Presence of God

Notice that this is something you and I must choose to do. To be sure, God is ever-present and with us moment by moment. But often we don’t sense His presence. The choice we need to make every day is to cultivate an awareness of His promised presence. The more we pray to Him, talk to Him, and cry out to Him, the more we will sense His presence. The more we thank Him, praise Him, and worship Him, the more we will sense His presence.

The key to practicing the presence of God is to actually practice it! It is true that practice does not make perfect, because everything we do is imperfect, but practice does make progress . . . and progress is what we desire as we walk through the details of life with our Savior.

So if you find yourself in a season of life that is not making much sense, go to your Savior and ask Him to make you more sensitive to Him. Remember, the more sensitive we are, the more quickly we will respond to His whisper . . . before He needs to speak in other, more forceful, ways to arrest our attention.

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

[God] does great things beyond searching out,
and marvelous things beyond number.
Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him. (Job 9:10-11 ESV)

We are all a bit “bipolar” wouldn’t you agree? Life is marked by a series of both highs and lows; ups and downs; joys and sorrows; scarcity and abundance. Why? Because we are broken people living in a broken world with other broken people. We have all had the bipolar experience of . . .

“I will never leave nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)

and

“My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

We may never experience the trials of Job, but we all experience those times when the presence of God is as powerful as it is palpable. The fire burns brightly and we feel as though all things truly are possible with God . . . yet we also experience those times when Jesus seems as far away from us as the east is from the west. Our hearts are burdened and heaven is silent.

The psalmist knew this bipolar experience personally: “You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me?” (Psalm 43:2). The psalmist knew God was His strength, yet he felt weak; he knew God was for him, yet he felt like God had cast him away. To be sure, this is the life experience of every believer . . . because every believer is a bit bipolar.

So what is the best way to deal with our condition? Keep this gospel truth in view:

The way to heaven is not a straight line upward.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But God is not always interested in the shortest distance for us to travel as we live out His plans and purposes for our lives. Do you remember how the Lord directed the people of Israel on forty years of wandering in the wilderness after they were released from their captivity in Egypt? If they had marched in a straight line, it would have only taken only a few days to get to the promised land of Canaan. But God had work to do in the lives of His people, and the shortest, most direct path simply would not have worked. Because God is God, He knows exactly what we need and when we need it, and that often leads us to the believer’s bipolar experiences in life.

We are never to presume on God, because when we do, we leave no room for God to work His way in our lives. We simply need to trust Him, especially when we cannot trace Him, knowing that He who began a good work in us will one day bring it to completion. Your bipolar life experiences will one day come to an end when you are received into glory. Until then, walk by faith and not by sight, trusting that all things are ultimately working toward your eternal good.

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