Author Archives: Pastor Tommy

God said, “I will be with you.” (Exodus 3:12)

We have a tendency to think about our calling this way: we believe we have been given new life to live for the glory of God and the good of others, having been sent by the Sender into this world. All this is true, but it does not contain the whole truth. That is because we are not only sent by the Sender into this world as His witnesses, but we are sent with the Sender too! I hope to encourage you with that truth today.

Today’s verse is from the account of God sending Moses back to Egypt to command Pharaoh to let the Israelites go from their bondage. Moses needed to know that God would be with him because he was fearful. He was fearful of Pharaoh. He was fearful of his inadequacies. He was fearful to return to the place where he had murdered the Egyptian forty years earlier. Fear had Moses paralyzed, so God told Moses he was not only being sent, but the One who was sending Him was going with him too. And the same is true for each one of us today.

We can be assured that the Eternal One is with us during every eternal errand we go on. God would no more send you out into this world alone to do the work of expanding His kingdom than He would send Moses to go alone. God knew what Moses would have to deal with, and He knew Moses could not deal with it in his own strength. God sent Moses, and Moses knew he was going in the strength of the Almighty.

And yet God is not satisfied with that first level of knowing. He told Moses that He Himself would be with Moses on this mission of redemption. Think about it this way: we not only have His power when we are sent out in service to our Lord, we have His presence too. To be sent with the Sender is to be sent with the assurance that we simply cannot fail. No weapon formed by Pharaoh or his sorcerers or his army could stop Moses from completing his calling as the deliverer of Israel. And no weapon formed by the world, the flesh, or the devil can stop you from completing your calling either.

So what kind of people should we be, knowing that we will never be alone in our ministry of service to God? We should be fearless, regardless of what we are facing, because we are not only sent by the Sender, we are sent with the Sender too.

God made this promise to Moses, and the Lord Jesus Christ made the very same promise to you and me. After uttering the Great Commission, which sends us out into the world to make disciples of all the nations, He who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, assured us:

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

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

He will guard the feet of his faithful servants. (1 Samuel 2:9)

You may remember the 2006 animated musical comedy film Happy Feet, which portrayed penguins being attracted to each other by a “heartsong.” When the male penguin’s heartsong matched the female’s, they would mate. One penguin, named Mumble, was unable to sing, but he could tap his feet in an attempt to find his heartsong—hence, the title of the move: Happy Feet.

In our verse for today we are told in no uncertain terms that we are all to have “happy feet,” because our Lord has promised to guard our feet every step of the way into glory. I see this verse as a great comfort to us as we make our way toward the Celestial City, and I also see three things that we can glean from it to strengthen our walk with Christ.

He will guard our feet from weakness

Our Lord will give us the strength we need to accomplish what He has called us to do. Weakness will not separate us from the work God has set before us. The Lord will sustain us every step of the way (Isaiah 41:10).

He will guard our feet from wounding

There is much to wound the feet of the faithful in this fallen and broken world. Yet our Lord will guard our feet from wounding. Our feet will not swell or blister as we walk in the ways of our Lord (Deuteronomy 8:4), regardless of how long, winding, and rough the road before us is.

He will guard our feet from wandering

And as if it was not comfort enough to know that our God will guard our feet from weakness and wounding, He has also promised to guard our feet from wandering. Now, this does not mean that we will walk the path before us perfectly. Far from it! But in those times when our feet do indeed wander, as the feet of all sheep have a tendency to do, our Good Shepherd will gently but firmly guide us back onto the path He has called us to travel (Ezekiel 37:23). We will all wander, but we shall never wander away.

Do you have happy feet today? If you understand God’s promise, you certainly will! Knowing that God guards our feet allows us to run with confidence into the call we have been given, free from doubt or fear. He who began a good work in us has promised to carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6), and He will do exactly that until we walk through the gates of heaven and onto the streets of gold.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation . . . (Isaiah 52:7)

Oh, the joy of having the “happy feet” that our Lord is using to proclaim good tidings of peace and salvation!

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

He will bless those who fear the Lord, small and great alike. (Psalm 115:13)

Regardless of whether you see yourself today as great or small, God has a blessing for all those who fear Him . . . who revere Him . . . who love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. In the eyes of the Lord, size matters not, for His blessings are poured out upon all, small and great alike!

What a word of encouragement this is for many of us! We, who are the small in the kingdom—small in talent . . . small in gifting . . . small in influence . . . small in possessions . . . small even in faith—are treated just as the great are, for our God will bless all those who fear Him. Our size matters not.

The woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years had small faith—only enough to reach and touch the hem of Christ’s garment—and she was completely healed in an instant (Luke 8:44). The little boy with five loaves and two fish had a small lunch indeed. But in the hands of Jesus, it was blessed and fed over 5,000 (John 6:8-11). Zacchaeus was so small in stature that he had to climb a tree just to see the Lord, who was pressed in on all sides by the crowd. Yet Jesus called Zacchaeus down out of the tree and into ministry for the kingdom (Luke 19:5).

Where does this message find you today? Perhaps you are small in faith, small in possessions, or even small in stature? Oh, beloved, you may feel like you are among the least of the people of God, but let me encourage you to set your heart upon serving Him, for our God will bless all those who fear Him, regardless of their stature!

Today’s verse confirms that there are, indeed, both small and great among the Lord. Some are mature and others are babes. Some are abounding with talent and others have no obvious gift. But all are blessed, simply because they are His, and all have been given gifts to use for the benefit of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). The same Lord went to the cross for both the small and the great alike. The same precious blood has washed them both clean. Even now, His intercession is made equally for both small and great.

I’d like to make one final point about our verse today, and if you will but meditate upon what I am about to say, I promise that you will receive a double portion of the Lord’s blessings. We know that the Scriptures tell us that God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality to anyone. But in my simplistic way of looking at things, if there would be any preference in the mind of our Great High Priest, notice that He does not set the order in the verse as “great and small,” but rather “small and great.” Let that truth set you free today!

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

The Lord says, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

(Hebrews 10:17)

That’s a strange title isn’t it? How can the all-knowing God, the omniscient One who knows the beginning from the end and everything in between, forget anything? Well, He chooses to remember our sin no more! Read on and be encouraged today!

God has made countless promises to His people, but this one in particular should be a source of unimaginable comfort for us, especially when we know just how sinful we truly are. The Eternal One has promised to erase from His memory every one of our transgressions . . . and to look on us and treat us as if we had never sinned. Think about that for just a moment; our God does what would seem impossible for Him to do. Omniscience has omitted from memory every sinful mess that you and I have ever created. Oh, what amazing grace!

When we, by grace through faith, are clothed in the robes of righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ purchased for us on the cross, God sees us as He sees His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. He loves us with an everlasting love because He has forgiven us with an eternal forgiveness. Because God the Father judged God the Son on our behalf, He is no longer a judge to us. All those whom the Son sets free are free indeed because of the forgetfulness of the All-knowing.

Here is the key to unlocking the power of this promise. When you sin and have repented of that sin with a godly sorrow, yet you still find yourself dealing with gnawing guilt, know this: it is not God who is reminding you of your sin, it is the devil. The accusations of the devil are designed to keep us buried under the weight of our sin and shame. The devil knows that the more we think about our sinful past, the less we think about our Savior in the present.

But this is not for you! In truth, God knows everything all the time, so He can’t really “forget” anything. But what He has promised to do is to never recall our past sins. God refuses to say, “Do you remember when you said this or did that or neglected to say or do something?!”

So . . . have you been dealing with any gnawing guilt lately? Have you been living in the past, rather than learning from the past? Look to the cross and see the One who took your place and paid the penalty for your sin. When He said, “It is finished,” He meant what He said! Sin debt paid in full . . . death conquered . . . devil soon to be cast into outer darkness where there is a weeping and a gnashing of teeth.

The forgetfulness of the All-Knowing is a promise to remember!

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

Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.” (Colossians 4:17)

Before us today is a word of both comfort and caution, given by the apostle Paul to Archippus, Paul’s fellow laborer and fellow soldier in the Lord, who is also spoken of in Philemon 1:2. Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul provided a cosmic caution to his friend that is as appropriate to us today as it was to Archippus 2,000 years ago. We are all called by God to “complete the ministry we have received in the Lord” . . . and that caution is also a comfort. Why do I say it is a comfort? Because we all have been given a ministry in the Lord to complete.

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are in full-time ministry, whether you are a stay-at-home mom, the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, or a full-time vocational leader in your church. All of God’s children have been called to serve God wherever they have been planted. As a believer, you have been given at least one spiritual gift to complement the myriad natural talents and abilities you have received to do all God has called you to do to expand His kingdom in this world.

Is it not a great comfort to know that the God of the universe has called you into His service? Think about it this way: to be called into service by God, who doesn’t need your service but actually wants your service, is a cosmic comfort of unimaginable proportions.

So . . . how are you doing in your ministry of service to your Savior? Are you busily engaged in doing all God has called you to do for His glory? Or have you become distracted by the world, the flesh, or the devil? Remember, God will never force you into faithfulness. Faithfulness is a choice—not only daily, but moment by moment. What you do is your decision, and it is a decision that echoes in eternity.

Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, began his eulogy of Dr. D. James Kennedy with Acts 13:36, one of the most stirring verses in all of Scripture: “When David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.” David completed the ministry God had given to him, then he “fell asleep” (died) and crossed the Jordan into heavenly glory.

Wouldn’t that be well said of all of us? But the only way that will be said is if we stay focused on the ministry God has given to us. Mind you, we don’t focus on the ministry He has given to others. Far too many people are far too focused on someone else’s ministry, and all too often they are jealous of it. May God forbid that for us! We are to mind our own ministry and fulfill our own calling. When we do, we can be assured that we are living lives that truly matter, making an eternal difference in this world for the good of others and for the glory of God.

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

This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  (1 John 4:10)

A love that is not earned and cannot be lost is true love, and such love is found only in Christ. We did absolutely nothing to deserve this love. God did not love us because we were good; God did not love us because we were successful; God did not love us because we were lovable; God loved us simply because He chose to love us before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), wholly apart from anything in and of ourselves. Should you ever start thinking that there simply must have been something “special” about you that caused God to choose you, I encourage you to reread 1 Corinthians 1:27-30 –

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us . . . our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

If there was something that caused God to select you or me, you can be sure that it’s nothing that we want to brag about! When you read the Old Testament account of God’s chosen people, you find this same “true love” truth. Moses told the people of Israel, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Later in the same book we read that the Lord did not bring His people into the Promised Land because of their “righteousness or uprightness of heart” (Deuteronomy 9:4). The covenant promise of God’s “true love” will always act according to His eternal purpose, in spite of our rebellion . . . because God is love.

Understanding this true love is the first portion of God’s promised rest (Hebrews 4:1). To be sure, that rest will not be fully realized and experienced until we get to the other side of the grave, but along the way, we begin to experience this rest as we cease from our man-centered attempts to make God love us. We no longer have to try and broker God’s favor and blessing. We no longer need to fear His judgment and curse. We can stop doubting our standing before God. Why? Because Jesus paid the penalty of our sins in full, bringing us into an intimate, personal, loving, eternal relationship with God.

Like a child who has done nothing to earn the love of his or her parents and knows nothing of the fear of losing it, we must be child-like in our understanding of the true love we have been given from above. Do you know this love? Do you experience this love on a daily basis? Better yet, do you experience it moment by moment? Remember, God so loved you that He sent Jesus to die in your place that you might live with Him forever.

We read in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world” . . . God “so loved” you! This is true love, and true love is rooted in the God of love, who loves you perfectly today, tomorrow, and forevermore. And because we are so loved, we are now free and filled to go forth and “love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

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

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” (John 21:12)

This invitation from Jesus to His disciples was given after His resurrection and just prior to His ascension. Jesus met His disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and provided another meal for them. After the meal, Jesus reinstated Peter and told him to go out and feed His sheep. As much as this was a word of both consolation and confirmation for Peter, it is a word of instruction to us all. We are all fed by our Master so that we might feed others in our ministry of service to Him. We eat the bread of heaven to bless the people of earth. The strength we receive from our Savior is to be used in His service to strengthen others.

We are to be conduits of all that God has given to us. We are not to be cul-de-sacs, where the flow of grace terminates with us. Every gift that has been poured out on us is to flow through us to those whom God brings into our lives. We are fed at the Master’s table day and night—not just to be filled, but to fill others. When we are no longer called by our God to feed others, we can be assured that we will have eaten our last meal on this side of the Jordan. But until that day comes, let us continually feed upon the grace of our God so that we can feed others.

Take even a cursory glance at the life of Peter from Pentecost on, and you will see this principle in supernatural action. Peter fed daily upon the Paschal Lamb, and daily he went about feeding others for the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom. After Peter preached his first sermon, we read that “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41). Peter understood that every meal he received from the hand of His Lord was intended to strengthen him for his ministry to his Master and to others.

The question you must ask yourself is: “Do I understand that?” When was the last time you thought about the biblical principle of being fed to feed others?

The children of Israel were instructed to eat the Passover meal in a very specific way: “With your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste.” (Exodus 12:11). To be sure, God was preparing His people for an immediate exit out of their bondage in Egypt, yet the meal was eaten with ministry in mind. This truth is confirmed by the way they came to the table dressed for action.

I pray these words will encourage you today as you consider the bounty God has given to you. You have been blessed to bless others. You have received to respond to others. And you have been fed to feed others. May this be the confession of our lives.

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

Keep not back. (Isaiah 43:6 KJV)

The Bible tells us that we will be witnesses for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Also in the Bible, we see two different kinds of witnessing: one for the glory of the Savior and the other for the glory of the self. Today I want to encourage you to “keep not back” your witness for the glory of your Savior in the three “T’s” of Time, Talent, and Treasure.

Keep not back your time. Every breath you take is a gift from God. Every beat of your heart is a gift from God. The question that must be answered is, “What are you doing with the time God has given to you?” Remember, when you spend an hour, you have one less hour to spend, so spend it wisely! With 168 hours in a week, we should evaluate what we are doing with those hours by asking, “Is what I am doing right now the best use of the time God has given to me?” 

Keep not back your talent. Every talent you possess in every area of life is a gift from God. From the classroom to the locker room to the boardroom to the family room, every talent you possess is to be put into fruitful service for the glory of God and the good of others. If your talent is in music, make a joyful noise to the Lord. If your talent is on the field of competition, play for the glory of God. If your talent is in the business world, work as if you were doing business with Christ Himself. Regardless of where your talents lie, use them for the expansion of the kingdom of Christ. Remember, what you don’t use, you eventually lose. If forced to choose one or the other, it is far better to “burn out” than to “rust out.” You get the point.

Keep not back your treasure. Everything you have is a gift; the more you have, the more you are in debt to the One who has given it to you. Whatever your heart beats for your treasure will be spent on. Sadly, the witness of withholding wealth is at the top of the list where far too many professing Christians squeeze a quarter so tightly that the eagle screams!

So . . . how are you doing in the area of witnessing with your time, talent, and treasure? Are any of these areas tainted by the witness of withholding? The key to rising above this failure to do what God commands is to remember that Jesus refused to withhold anything in order to bring you into relationship with Him.

• He gave His time. Jesus kept on preaching and teaching and healing to the point where there were times that He was so exhausted that He would fall dead asleep, even in the midst of furious storms that terrified others. (Matthew 8:25)
• He gave His talent. We read that the crowds were amazed at His teaching (Matthew 7:28), and the miracles He did were so spectacular that huge crowds often pressed in around Him (Luke 8:42).
• He gave His treasure. We know that He left the glory of His heavenly throne to become a man, taking the very nature of a servant (Philippians 2:7).
• And He gave His life. As He hung on that cruel cross, with every breath causing fresh jolts of agony to sear through His body, He heard the jeers of the crowd around Him: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42).

And here’s the incredible truth: He could have! He could have come down from that cross in an instant, uttered one word, and twelve legions of angels would have turned that hill Golgotha into a slaughter pen (Matthew 26:53). It wasn’t nails that held Jesus Christ to the cross; Christian, it was his love for YOU!

When you keep these truths in view, you will “keep not back” anything to advance the cause of His kingdom. You will live a life of meaning, significance, and purpose; and you will not waste your time, water down your talent, or withhold a single cent of your treasure.

Remember, in God’s economy, you cannot advance the cause of His kingdom without advancing yourself in the process. As Jesus said —

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)

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

The Lord will give grace and glory.  Psalms 84:11 (NKJV)

Pause for a moment and reread today’s verse; let that truth set your heart on fire for your precious Savior. The promise is almost too great to comprehend: the Lord will give grace and glory—never one without the other, for the first always leads to the second. Let’s take a look at both aspects of this glorious promise.

To the sinner who has trusted in Christ alone for eternal life, grace is poured out beyond measure. You see, this grace not only saves, it also sanctifies along the way. It comes to the believer is every imaginable way.

• Instructing grace is given to train us up in the disciplines of our faith, that we might grow and mature in our faith in order to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable in His sight.
• Comforting grace is given to meet us in our deepest place of need, as we are confronted by the storm winds that blow our way.
• Disciplining grace is given to correct us when we wander away from our Good Shepherd, which we, like sheep, are all prone to do.
• Preserving grace is given to keep us from finally and fully falling away, even though we stumble and fall as we walk through the valleys of life with our Lord.

These are just a few examples of the grace upon grace that is poured out in your life today. But that’s not all! There is that three-letter conjunction that immediately follows the word grace and immediately precedes the word glory . . . AND! The psalmist is revealing the incredible truth that after grace comes glory. That little word “and” is the golden chain that connects our past with our promised future. And what God has brought together, no man, no demon, no power can separate. When grace has done its work in the life of the believer, glory awaits. When we cross the Jordan, we cross from grace to glory. The first promise of grace prepares us for the second promise of glory.

Believer, does the promise of these “Bookend Blessings” encourage you today? Regardless of where this message finds you—whether you are standing at the summit, basking in the sunshine of victory or struggling to keep your head above the waves of challenge that are crashing all around you—God has given you grace that will ultimately lead to glory . . . the glory of the new heavens and the new earth, which eye has not seen and ear has not heard . . . the glory of the streets of gold that you will walk upon one day . . . and the glory of the radiance of the Son that will continually shine upon you forever and ever, world without end.

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

From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (2 Corinthians 5:16)

Did you know that there are two ways of knowing Jesus? The first way is naturally. When we are first exposed to Jesus, we know Him through our reason and perhaps our research, but all this knowing is “according to the flesh” and not of the Spirit. We know some facts about Jesus – what He said, what He did, and who He claimed to be. We knew Jesus, as Paul described it, “from a worldly point of view.” But knowing Jesus from a worldly point of view is no knowing at all! From a worldly perspective, we know Jesus as a man, not the Messiah; we know Jesus as a prophet, not the Prince of Peace; we know Jesus as a servant, not the Savior of the world. I say that knowing Jesus naturally is no knowing at all because simply gathering information will not lead to transformation. We need the Holy Spirit for that.

Remember that the disciples, who walked and talked and ministered with Jesus for more than three years, all ran and hid when He was arrested and crucified. Clearly, they knew Jesus “according to the flesh,” having walked with Him by sight rather than by faith. But on the day of Pentecost, when God poured out His Holy Spirit on them, they knew Jesus supernaturally. At this level of living, the Holy Spirit took their information and turned it into revelation, which ultimately resulted in transformation . . . and the rest is history. These disciples, who had once been so terrified of what men might do to them, went out boldly and turned the world upside down! They suffered all manner of hardship and persecution; church tradition tells us that all but John died a martyr’s death.

So . . . how do you know Jesus today? Is your knowing natural or supernatural? The answer is found in where you have placed your trust for salvation.

To know Jesus naturally is to walk by sight, according to the flesh. It is to acknowledge Him as a good teacher and perhaps even to follow some of His teachings, which many in the world do today. But let me say it again: Knowing Jesus naturally is no knowing at all. We must know Jesus supernaturally. You will know that you know the Lord Jesus Christ at this supernatural level when you have placed your trust in Christ alone—in His life, death, and resurrection, apart from anything you have done or ever will do—for your eternal salvation. When you know Jesus, not as a good man, but as the Good Shepherd who laid His life down for His sheep (John 10:14-15), you can be sure that the eyes of your heart have been opened by the Holy Spirit to see Jesus for who He truly is—the Lamb of God who died to atone for all your sins.

I want to close with a wonderful prayer from the apostle Paul that I hope you will meditate on and marinate in for a while. And if you do know Jesus at that supernatural level, thank Him one more time for answering this prayer in your own life.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you . . . (Ephesians 1:17-18)

May that hope of a life everlasting in Christ Jesus propel you forward today to live and work and speak in such a way as to encourage others to know Him . . . not naturally, but supernaturally!

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