Author Archives: Pastor Tommy

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.(Proverbs 3:5)

You’ve heard it said that “Nobody likes change except a wet baby!” That certainly is true of me; I’m not that crazy about change. I tend to like routine and living within the walls of my comfort zone. But just when I am settling happily into the “same-old, same-old,” Jesus shows up with a little change He knows I need . . . and that brings me to our verse today.

Every disciple of Jesus must learn the discipline of change. Our God is unchanging (Malachi 3:6), but He constantly introduces change into our lives. We settle on a particular direction, and God steps in and changes it. We start to pursue a certain goal, and God steps in and changes it. We begin a new project in life and God steps in and changes it. The key to growing and maturing in our faith is not getting frustrated every time God sends us a bit of change. Rather, we are to echo Jesus and say, “Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do” (Matthew 11:26).

One of the most important life lessons we can learn is how often God takes us down the path of obedience before understanding. Noah had no understanding of the flood waters that were on the horizon, but he committed to a 100-year boat-building project, acting in obedience before understanding. Abraham had no understanding of where He was going when God called him to leave the home of his fathers, but he walked in obedience before understanding. Moses was adamantly opposed to going back into Egypt as God’s deliverer of His people, but he went in obedience before understanding.

When you think about it, much of life is simply lived in the dark. But this should not surprise us or shake our confidence in the One who is leading us every step of the way. We can face and accept change because we know it comes from the hand of our changeless God, who is working all things for the ultimate good of those who have placed their trust in His Son. When you look back on every change God has brought you through, are you not now thankful? We must remember that God changes us because He loves us. He is conforming us into the image of His Son, and that requires significant change!

Here is a word that can help you along the way as God sends you seasons of cosmic change:

It is not for you to know . . . (Acts 1:7)

We won’t always understand what God is up to in our lives and much of it won’t fit into our plans, but to know our changeless God intimately and personally is to know enough about the inevitable change that will come to all of us.

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

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. (John 17:15-16)

When we understand the dictionary definition of the word camouflage—“to disguise personnel or equipment to make them blend in with their surroundings”—we know, beyond a shadow of any doubt, that there must be no such thing as Christian camouflage!

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

To be sure, Christians are still in this world physically, yet we are not of this world. Having been raised from death to life, we are called to stand out from the world, not to blend in with it. We are saved to serve and to make an eternal difference in this world by being different from this world. We are not to submit to the corrupt values and evil systems of this world. The world says, “Take!” The Word says, “Give.” The world says, “Pay back evil for evil.” The Word says, “Pay back love for evil.” The world says, “Success at the expense of others.” The Word says, “Success is the service of others.”

In order to put the Gospel on display for the world to see, we must be both salt and light. The salt of the saint is designed to slow the corruption of the surrounding world and preserve what good is left. The light of the saint points the way to the Light of the world. But the world must see this salt and light in us. We cannot be camouflaged Christians! To stand out is to stand up for our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, even the unbeliever knows that “by their fruits you will know them,” so we should be doing everything we can, by God’s grace, to put the pure, unspoiled fruit of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us on display.

There is no greater need in the world today than for our God to become more and more visible. Yes, God is visible in the natural world around us. He created everything and wrote the book of nature. The beauty, creativity, and order of the universe clearly points to our Creator. But we must add our witness to the witness of creation by incarnating (that is, embodying) Christ as we live out our Christianity before the watching world.

How do we incarnate Christ? One word, four letters . . .

LOVE!

So . . . have you been blending in more and more with your surroundings, or have you been standing out for the glory of your Savior? Do those who come in contact with you in this world see the Word that is in you? Can they see how much you love the Lord and others?

The more you do this, the more you will stand out from the surrounding culture and bear witness for the One who died on a cruel cross to save your soul. There must be no Christian camouflage for those who have been bought, sought, and caught by Jesus Christ.

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

It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.  (Isaiah 53:10)

Those of you familiar with the Peanuts cartoons may be thinking I have misspelled the title of today’s word of encouragement. (Charlie Brown was fond of saying, “Good grief!”) No, today I want to look at God grief, because understanding His grief will take us a long way into growing and maturing in our faith.

The dictionary tells us that grief is the pain of mind produced by loss or misfortune, injury or evils of any kind that lead to sorrow. With that in mind, let’s first see that the grief that God the Father put God the Son to was our grief. Jesus suffered our grief. He took our sin, our beating, our crown of thorns, our nine-inch nails, our cross, our condemnation, our death, and our tomb. This God grief was our grief. Yet when Jesus willingly took our place on a cross and paid the full penalty for our sin, drinking the full cup of God’s wrath, He took our grief too.

Second, our God is a grieving God because of His eternal and sacrificial love for His people. We read in the Old Testament that the Lord said of Israel, “I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols” (Ezekiel 6:9). God is grieved as His people turn, time and time again, to the false gods of the pagan nations. The psalmist lamented, “How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert” (Psalm 78:40).

Like any parent whose children rebel is grieved by their poor choices, so too is our God grieved when we turn away from Him and embrace the way of the world. Jesus Christ, who made God known to us (John 1:18), wept as He drew near to the city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), reflecting on His people’s unbelief and idolatry. He told the crowds there, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). Christian, God loves you; He is love (1 John 4:16). When we reject His love and follow our own paths, we put Him to grief.

So . . . if you take a few minutes to prayerfully consider the life you are currently living, is it possible you are responsible for a bit of God grief? Fear not; we all find ourselves grieving our God from time to time. There are times when we would rather do our will than do the will of God. There are times when we want what we want rather than what God wants for our lives. Our rebellion which leads to God grief should lead us to a godly sorrow, just like Peter experienced on the night Jesus was arrested. After Peter denied Jesus three times and heard the rooster crow, he went outside the courtyard and wept bitterly.

God grief led to godly grief, and it is my prayer that this would be the confession of our lives. May that godly sorrow produce the good fruit of repentance in you and me.

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

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!

I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.  (2 Corinthians 12:15 ESV)

Scripture provides many examples of what it means to “spend” and “be spent” for the glory of God and the good of others. To be sure, there is no better example than our Lord Jesus Christ, but today I want to encourage you with a brief look at the apostle Paul.

Ministry is costly. One of my seminary professors told us, “Don’t go into full-time vocational ministry unless there is nothing else you can do.” Initially I misunderstood; I thought he was saying, “If all else fails in life, you can go into ministry.” Today I am a lot older and a little wiser, and I realize that our instructor was warning us that the weight of ministry is so great that only those who are called by God can bear it, because it can only be done in His strength.

The high price of ministry reaches into all areas of life: physical, emotional, mental, financial, and, of course, the spiritual. Yet every Christian, regardless of his or her vocation, is called to minister for the glory of God and the good of others, and that too is quite costly. The key to living a life marked by “spend and be spent” is found in today’s verse. Paul was essentially telling the church at Corinth . . .

I seek not what is yours but you!

We cannot and will not spend and be spent if we are focused on what we are going to get in return. We don’t give to get; we simply give. We don’t serve to be served; we simply serve. And remember, our decision to continue in the process of spending and being spent has nothing to do with the response we receive from others. Paul ministered to one of the most ungrateful, unfaithful, and undeserving groups of people in the church at that time: the Corinthians. But because Paul kept his focus where it needed to be—on Jesus—he continued pouring out his life for the sake of others. Paul know that the life of his Lord was defined by “spend and be spent,” and he simply wanted to be like his Savior, giving every ounce of himself for the lives of others.

Can the same be said of you and me? If you think about it for a moment, the reality is that all of us are spending and being spent; the only question is whether we are doing it for self or for the Savior. Only by fixing our eyes on Jesus will we be able to continue to pour ourselves out for others, regardless of the cost or circumstance. That is how Paul ministered to those worldly Christians at Corinth, and that is how you and I will be able to continue expending and being utterly expended for the glory of God and the good of others . . . all others.

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

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

Picture a pencil with the eraser attached on the end . . . perhaps the #2 pencil you had to bring to school for all those “Fill in the dot” tests. Do you have it in your mind? Now picture this: you are the pencil; Jesus is the Eraser; and God is the Hand that holds and writes.

A pencil can do nothing on its own. Someone must take it in hand and begin to write with it, and that is exactly what God has been doing in your life. As David wrote, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).

But even though you and are held firmly in the hand of God, there are times when you and I have a tendency to want to write some of our story ourselves. When we do that, mistakes happen along the way—lots of them! We will say some things we wish we had not said. We will do some things we wish we had not done. We will think some things we wish we had not thought. And every time this happens, Jesus, our Eternal Eraser, is right there to erase the mess we’ve made as if it had never happened.

Let me be clear; I am not saying that there will be no consequences for our sin. Far from it! Hebrews 12:7-11 tells us very plainly that our Father disciplines us, just as a human father will discipline his child. What I am saying is that our Eternal Eraser removes the stain of our sin in the sight of God; when our Father looks upon us, he sees no dark, ugly blot of sin, but only the pure and perfect righteousness of Christ. Thanks to the sacrifice of God the Son, God the Father assures His people, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist” (Isaiah 44:22 ESV). Though our sins be as scarlet, we are white as snow in the sight of God.

Here are a few things to remember as you go through the unfolding story of your life. The part of you that will leave your mark on this world for the glory of the One who holds you in His hand—that part is on the inside of you. Every time God writes with you, more of who He is making you to be on the inside will come out. And, from time to time, the hand that writes with you will need to sharpen you. That sharpening doesn’t come through times of success, contentment, and joy; no, it comes through difficulties, obstacles, and challenges. These times are painful, but you will be a much more useful pencil because of God’s sharpening.

One final point: each time you are sharpened, something truly lovely happens. You shrink a little and become a little smaller. And that is a good thing! Because as you decrease, those around you who are watching your story being written will see more and more of the Hand that is holding you and less and less of you. You will begin to resemble John the Baptist, who said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

So . . . how is your life story going? Who is doing the writing—you or God? Remember, the more God writes, the better your story becomes. But also remember that in those moments when you try to do a little writing on your own and mess things up, Jesus, your Eternal Eraser, is right there with you, erasing your mess so that the Father will continually hold you in His hand and look upon you with love.

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

Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:4)

Far too many in the church today are confused about the kind of person God uses to expand the cause of His kingdom. Satan, the accuser, is relentlessly engaged in convincing Christians that they have disqualified themselves from serving our Lord. The devil uses every means at his disposal to call our attention to our loose language, tainted thoughts, disgraceful deeds, and despicable desires. And when the enemy has done his work, many believers are convinced they are of no use to God.

That is simply not true! God is looking for our selflessness, not our sinlessness. The same grace that saves us also sanctifies us. God knows that we are still sinners by nature and by habit, even after our conversion to Christ. To be sure, we are new creations in Christ, having been born again into the lifelong process of growing up into Christ. But sin will dog our steps all the way into glory. God is looking for those saints who will be selfless . . . even in their sinfulness.

We can point to several passages in sacred Scripture that reflect this truth. Here are just two:

Please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. (Exodus 32:32)

I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people. (Romans 9:3)

In his sold-out selflessness, Moses was ready and willing for God to blot him out of the book of life for the sake of his people Israel. In his sold-out selflessness, the apostle Paul was ready and willing that God would curse him for the sake of his people Israel. The selflessness of both Moses and Paul is as shocking as it is supernatural. This could never be realized in the flesh. Only in God’s strength were these two giants of the faith willing to give the last full measure of themselves for the good of others. Both men understood that God was not looking for their sinlessness, but their selflessness. And that is exactly what God is looking for from you!

So regardless of where this finds you today, regardless of your past record of falling short of God’s will in your life, are you ready and willing that God would use you for His glory and the good of others? Remember, selflessness can only be done in God’s strength. By nature—even in our new nature—we are still terribly sinful and self-absorbed. But when we shift our focus away from self and put it on our Savior, selflessness grows in our lives and we begin to be the blessing in the lives of others God that has called us to be.

The most perfect example of selflessness, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ . . .

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death —
even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)

Jesus took care of our sinfulness on that cross; now He asks us to live in selflessness.

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

Gad, a troop shall tramp upon him, but he shall triumph at last. (Genesis 49:19 NKJV)

Perhaps you are familiar with the phrase, “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.” Its origin is a bit unclear, but the saying seems to have come to us from the unlikely intermingling of two areas of endeavor: the opera and baseball. The meaning of this oft-repeated phrase is rooted in the understanding that nothing is irreversible until the final act (or inning) is played out.

I want to encourage you today, not with the singing, but with the speaking of our Lord, rooted in today’s verse. As fallen, broken people living in a fallen, broken world, the experience of Gad is the experience of all of us. How often our adversaries seem to have gained the upper hand! Countless waves of challenge threaten to drive us onto the sandbars of life. How many fiery furnaces have we experienced, only to be left in the ashes of defeat? The dark night of the soul has often been our experience. To the watching world, we have days that look a bit like Good Friday; it appears that we are utterly and finally defeated.

But, beloved, all that has been proven at that point is the first part of our verse today. We, like Gad, have been tramped upon and would be left in irreparable ruin . . . if not for the second part of the verse!

It ain’t over ‘til our faithful Lord speaks!

The promise is clear for the child of God: we shall triumph at the last. The poet who said, “All’s well that ends well” spoke the most amazing and comforting biblical truth: For the believer, no battle, no conflict, no challenge is to be judged by its beginning, for you will triumph at last.

Remember this: everything you are going through . . . you are going through it. God is conforming you into the image and likeness of His beloved Son. He is using every life experience to that end, and He has given you the promise He is working all things for your eternal good.

I pray that a calm confidence will embrace you today, regardless of where this finds you. Remember, God did not bring you this far just to leave you here. He who began this good work in you has promised to complete it at the last. Victory is assured.

One final word about “the last”—as Bunyan said, “Last means forever, for nothing can come after the last.” Let that truth set you free—not just today, but every day as you make your way toward the Celestial City. It ain’t over ‘til our faithful Lord speaks . . . and He has spoken: “He shall triumph at last.” Easter Morning always follows Good Friday!

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