Author Archives: Pastor Tommy

When you said, “I believe,” what did you expect would happen next?  Did you expect that by faith in Christ you would live a life free from pain and suffering?  Did you think Jesus saved you so that you could be happy, healthy, and wealthy?  If you did, you heard it from someone who was not teaching the whole counsel of God.  To be sure, once we have been saved, we are happy (happiness is a by-product of our freedom), healthy (we have been raised from death to life), and wealthy (we are now is possession of the riches of Christ).  But along with this “good news” comes some pretty bad news too!

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:18-23)

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake . . .  (Philippians 1:29)

Clearly, if you were expecting a life without pain and suffering you had the wrong expectation!  And wrong expectations can lead to a life of frustration and fear, guilt and grief, disappointment and disillusionment, anxiety and anger.  That is why the Bible tells us that only the truth will set us free; and the truth is that we are broken and messed up people living in a broken and messed up world.  Sure, Jesus came to set the captives free, and when He returns He will make all that is crooked straight.  But our freedom is not fully realized; the crooked is not yet straight; and these things won’t occur until we get beyond the grave or until He returns.  On this side of heaven, Jesus made it clear that “You will have tribulation,” no matter how hard we try to avoid it.

Because of this truth, it is best for us approach pain and suffering like the apostle Paul, who considered the sufferings he was going through in this world not worth comparing with the glory that would be revealed to him in the next.  When we ignore the reality of pain and suffering in this life we ignore it to our own peril.

What is remarkable in reading the writings of Paul is that he considered suffering for Christ as much a grace and gift from God as it was to serve Christ.  Paul even boasted in his suffering because it more closely identified him with the One who had called to Him on the road to Damascus and saved him.

Those who tell us to expect a crown of glory when our Lord received a crown of thorns are not telling us the whole truth.  Now, I am not minimizing pain and suffering, but I want to make it clear that trials in this life are an incontrovertible and unpleasant reality—one that is better to receive than from which to try and escape.

So . . . what did you expect?  God promises in His Word that He will always give us the grace to handle anything that comes our way, telling us that His grace is sufficient to meet our every need (2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:13).  Remember, nothing—nothing—happens to you that doesn’t first pass through His nailed-scarred hands.  Your Savior is with you in your storm.  Your Prince is with you in your pain.  What more could you ask or hope for during the little time you have in this life compared to the glory you will experience forever in the next?

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

Today we will take a brief look at some of the idols of the heart, what I like to call the “odd gods” that work to crowd Jesus out from our lives.  Before we embark: I know the words idol and idolatry often conjure up pictures of primitive people worshipping all sorts of things except the One to whom they should be bowing.  But make no mistake, in our contemporary and prosperous society we bow down to a great many things smaller than God.  We Americans find ourselves living out the truth pronounced about us by Alexis de Tocqueville: “There is a strange melancholy that haunts the inhabitants in the midst of abundance.”  There will always be a “strange melancholy” that haunts those who look to, chase after, and attempt to find satisfaction, meaning, and purpose in anything smaller than God.

So . . . have you made anything in your own life more important than Jesus?  If you have you have bowed down to an idol—if you have mentally or spiritually given yourself over to an “odd god”—that idol will not only rule your heart, it will shape your life.  It will enslave you to it and have you live for it.

We all know about the power contained in these odd gods from personal experience, because whenever we failed to attain them (or lost them after we had attained them), life simply did not seem worth living.  And remember, as I have written before regarding idols, they can be good things, really good things that God gives to us as blessings—family, the marriage bed, relationships, children, work, finances, health, recreation, hobbies, church service, etc.—but they have become ultimate things . . . which makes them bad things.

Throughout years of pastoral counseling, it is not uncommon to meet people who were in mad pursuit of really good things that turned into supreme things.  Sure, there were those who were chasing after some bad stuff.  But, for the most part, the greater the good that was found in the “thing,” the more passionately they pursued it.  Why?  They falsely assumed that it would meet them in their place of deepest need, satisfying their drive for meaning, purpose, and significance.  God will tolerate no rival, nor should He, and He will always take us to the place where these idols leave us wanting, wishing, and often wailing.

Where are the gods you have made for yourselves?  Let them come and save you when you are in trouble.  (Jeremiah 2:28)

That passage puts our odd gods in their proper perspective, doesn’t it?  Every promise our idols make leaves us wanting.  They simply cannot deliver and never were meant to deliver on their promises.  They promise happiness and deliver despair.  They promise contentment and deliver restlessness.  They promise freedom and deliver shackles.  They promise fulfillment and deliver emptiness.  They promise love and deliver loneliness.  Only Jesus can deliver—and does deliver—every single time on every single promise.  Only Jesus can save us from ourselves and our natural tendency to run toward things smaller than Him, and He does it day after day . . . week after week . . . month after month . . . and year after year.

Whatever captures your heart controls your hope, and whatever controls your hope is your functional savior.  If you are hoping to be accepted by the “in” crowd, your station in life has become your functional savior and you will sacrifice everything in order to attain it.  If you are hoping for the body you had at 20, your self-image is your functional savior and you will sacrifice everything in order to attain it.  In Out of the Saltshaker, Rebecca Pippert writes, “Whatever controls us is our lord.  The person who seeks power is controlled by power.  The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please.  We do not control ourselves.  We are controlled by the lord of our lives.”

So . . . let me ask you again: who or what is the Lord of your life?

The One True God, who came down from heaven and went up on a cross for you, is the only God worth bowing to.

I am the Lord your God . . . you shall have no other gods before me.  (Exodus 20:3)

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

Everything we have we have been given (1 Corinthians 4:7); and the more we have, the more we are in debt to the One who has given it to us.  So how is it possible that there is something we do not owe God?

Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”  A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:28-30)

All men are debtors to the justice of God.  All men, having transgressed the law, are under its condemnation and deserve the wrath of Almighty God.  However, for the Christian, the debt to God’s justice has been paid in full by the Lamb of God and is now no longer owed.  The Christian will never again be a debtor to the justice of God and will never be called upon to pay the penalty for his or her sins.  All those sins were paid for in full on the cross by Jesus, and God will not collect twice for a debt that was paid once for all.

To be sure, there are consequences for our sinful behavior.  But those consequences are never punitive.  God is not exacting His “pound of flesh” from us because we have sinned and fallen short of the mark set before us by sacred Scripture.  He exacted more than His pound of flesh once for all on the cross through the sacrificial death of His precious Son.  Charles Spurgeon beautifully captured this truth in a way like few can:

Of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God’s justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt His people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love.  I am a debtor to God’s grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to His justice, for He will never accuse me of a debt already paid.  Christ said, “It is finished!” and by that He meant, that whatever His people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance.   Christ, to the uttermost, has satisfied divine justice; the account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we are debtors to God’s justice no longer.

How freeing it is to never have to look over your shoulder, fearing that God may angrily smite you because of your sin!  How liberating it is to know that there is no frown on the face of God or clenched teeth when He is looking at you.  God is not angry with you, regardless of what you do.  You are forever accepted in the beloved . . . you are forever loved in the beloved . . . you are forever forgiven in the beloved.  Nothing can change your standing before a holy and just God when you are standing in Christ, covered by His blood poured out for you on the Hill Golgotha.

What freedom we find in this truth!  We are no longer under the penalty of your sin, but rather we are under the promise of the finished work of Christ.  Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves, and what He has done no one can undo.  No one can open a door Jesus shuts or close a door He opens.

So if we are no longer in debt to God’s justice, how should we live?  We should live in debt to His grace.  His grace sought us.  His grace caught us.  His grace bought us.  The debt we owe is not to justice but to grace.  Those who understand this truth live with a joy unspeakable, because all we need we already have in Christ, and all we need to do has already been done by Christ.  Give freely of yourself, making yourself a living sacrifice—not because of what you might get from God, but because of what you already have in Jesus.

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

Some think of God as being gracious after Adam and Eve fell into sin, especially in light of the promise of the Savior.  But we should never forget that God was not only gracious after the fall, He was gracious before the fall.

The Bible says, “In the beginning, God created”—not because He needed something external to Himself to find fulfillment.  He was completely fulfilled within the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—self-sufficient, self-contained, in need of nothing.  Creation was rooted solely and wholly in God’s grace.  He was gracious to create a world of beauty and wonder that is a source of unimaginable wonder and joy.

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  (Genesis 2:9)

We have a tendency to see only one tree in the Garden as pleasing to the eye and good for food: the one that tempted Adam and Eve.  But Scripture makes it clear that God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground that would be a source of pleasure and profit for His people.  And if that isn’t enough to convince us of God’s gracious nature, consider that He gave Adam a helper.

It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for Him. (Genesis 2:18)

No need would be left unmet.  God gave Adam a world of beauty and provision and a helper suitable to share it with.  He met Adam in his every place of need—not because Adam earned it, but simply because God is gracious!  And God’s grace did not end there.  After Adam and Eve turned their backs on God, God refused to turn His back on them.  Instead, God came to the two cosmic traitors and graciously provided for their every need once again, this time with the promise of sending a Savior.  Let’s camp out here for a moment.

God had already been gracious to His people, giving them everything they could want or need—not because of any merit on their part but simply because of His gracious mercy.  Now, with every reason to withdraw His grace from the ones who willfully rebelled against Him, God still responded graciously. First there is the promise of the redemption that would come through the seed of the woman. In assuring Satan that his vicious dream of eternally destroying those who were made in the image of God would never be realized, the Sovereign Lord made this promise:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

(Genesis 3:15)

You would think that God might have stopped with that word of incredible hope. But no, once again He looked to Adam and Eve’s physical needs, as well.

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  (Genesis 3:21)

Here we find the Judge of all the earth assuming the role of a tailor and meeting Adam and Eve in their deepest place of need.  As they stood before Him, naked and shivering with fear, God clothed them, figuratively covering their terrible sin.

Perhaps we can understand God’s grace prior to the fall, but how are we to comprehend it after the fall?  The answer, of course, is that we are to understand it the very same way.  God’s gracious response to us is never dependent upon our response to Him.  Our merits never earn God’s grace, and our demerits never remove God’s grace.  By His eternal nature God is gracious, and it is His nature to respond graciously to those who don’t deserve it and have in no way earned it.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Regardless of where this finds you, God is gracious to you from beginning to end.  God is gracious to you at the very beginning of your walk with Him, and His steadfast love remains with you in your triumphs and trials . . . in your witness and your wandering.  God was gracious to Adam and Eve before they sinned and after they sinned, and that should make it clear that His grace is never earned.  It is freely given by the One who is gracious from beginning to end.

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

Ever wonder why some in the body of Christ seem to stop moving forward while others just keep going and going, regardless of the circumstances they are facing?  They move onward and upward, not only when the road is easy and their burden light, but also when the road is rocky and their burden is weighty.  The key to understanding the difference between the two is found in the following maxim:

The degree of forward movement you experience in life will always be

in direct proportion to the placement of your hope!

When your hope is in Jesus there is no obstacle too great to overcome . . . no mountain too high . . . no valley too low . . . no river too wide.  However, when you build your hope on anything smaller than Jesus, obstacles and opposition can and will overwhelm you and cause you to stop moving onward.

Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all who hope in the Lord.  (Psalm 31:24)

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  (Romans 5:5)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 15:13)

The only hope that will never disappoint is Jesus.  If your hope is in your physical abilities, one day they will abandon you.  If your hope is in your intellect, one day it will disappoint you.  If your hope is in your money, one day it will sprout wings and fly off to the sky (Proverbs 23:5).  If your hope is in another person, one day he or she will let you down.  Your physical abilities are not capable of carrying your hope.  Your intellect is not capable of carrying your hope.  Your money is not capable of carrying your hope.  Your relationships are not capable of carrying your hope.  When your reason for continuing onward into the life God is calling you to live is built on anything other than Jesus, eventually the foundation will crack and the walls will come crashing down.

All horizontal hope disappoints.  It was designed by God to do just that.  Only vertical hope can keep you going when you would rather not.  Adam and Eve learned this lesson the hard way, as did many men and women in the Bible.  Because everything on this side of the grave is damaged by the brokenness of the fall, everything you hope in other than Jesus is broken . . . and broken things are designed to disappoint.

If this finds you in a place where you are struggling to move onward, take some time to check what you have placed your hope in.  Are you hoping for your spouse to get romantic?  Are you hoping for your job to get fulfilling?  Are you hoping for your station in life to get better?  Stop hoping in anything that is smaller than Jesus.  Sure, in the short run the promise of these false gods can be powerful and pleasing.  But in the end, they leave you wanting; they simply cannot deliver on their promises.

When your hope is in the God of hope, you can even have hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.  When your hope is in the God of hope, there is nothing that can stand in the way of your onward progress.  Your safety is in the hands of Omnipotence . . . your security is in the hands of Omnipresence . . . your success is in the hands of Omniscience!

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.  (Isaiah 54:17)

The only place to find the kind of hope you need to keep moving forward is found in the One who died for you, so that you could live for Him.  Onward Christian; onward, for He is with you every step of the way!

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

The Gospel is the good news of the birth, sinless life, sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, and triumphant ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ took our place on the cross, received God’s judgment and wrath, and paid our sin debt fully and completely, placing us under the banner of His finished work.  When this truth is accepted by faith, the person believing it is saved.  But the Gospel doesn’t end there.  The Gospel is not only the truth that unbelievers need to believe to be saved; the Gospel is the truth that Christians need to believe in order to experience being saved daily.  The Gospel is the gift that keeps on giving!

Far too many in the church today see the Gospel only as the door leading into the Christian life.  They correctly see the Gospel as necessary in the life of the unbelieving sinner in order to get them saved; but they fail to recognize the need for the Gospel in the life of the believing sinner in order to get them sanctified.  The Gospel is not only the door leading into the life of faith, it is the floor upon which that life is to be built.  The good news of the Gospel not only saves the unbeliever from the penalty of sin (justification), it saves the believer from the power of sin (sanctification).  The Gospel is the gift that keeps on giving!

Those who only see the Gospel as the means of salvation inevitably look to their good works as the evidence of their continued right standing before God.  They are forever running on the performance treadmill, trying to gain God’s favor and blessing (and trying to avoid His displeasure) by their own spiritual sweat.  But this is not for you!

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.  If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us.  If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.  In this sense, we live by works rather than by grace.  We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to “try harder.”  We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way.  We give lip service to the attitude of the apostle Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, “God helps those who help themselves.”

The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience.  —  Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace

The gift that keeps on giving—the Gospel—is the only way to living a life of freedom and joy.  And that is because we live in the truth and knowledge of the finished work of Jesus.  When Jesus said, “It is finished!” He meant what He said!  Each day we need to be reminded of this transforming and liberating power.  We are not accepted because of our behavior; we are accepted because of His behavior, and for those who truly understand just how prone we are to wander, that is good news that keeps on giving!

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

You might think from the title that today’s blog would discuss diet and exercise.  Many of you know my history as a coach and fitness trainer; but as much as I still stress sound nutrition and appropriate exercise, my focus today is quite different. I want to examine the heart and the role it plays in healthy living for the disciple of Christ.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13)

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He took his audience to a place called love: love for God and love for others (Mark 12:28-31).  The sign of healthy living for the Christian is not rooted in diet and exercise.  The apostle Paul acknowledged that “Bodily training is of some value,” but, as the passage above explains, vibrant Christian living is rooted in love, and that love must start within our family of faith.

Without true Christians loving one another, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers.  Let us be careful, indeed, to spend a lifetime studying to give honest answers.  For years the orthodox, evangelical church has done this very poorly.  So it is well to spend time learning to answer the questions of men who are about us.  But after we have done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians.  — Francis Schaffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster 

What Schaeffer called “the final apologetic” seems more like the forgotten or “absent” apologetic in the church today.  Sometimes we seem to believe it is more important to be right than to be loving.  At other times we act as if it is more valuable to get our way than to lay our lives down for others.  We fuss about the music . . . we fight about which ministry gets highlighted . . . we hyperventilate about the person standing up in front of us raising his or her hands in worship.  This is unhealthy living for members of the Body of Christ, and it gives the watching world ample excuse to stop looking, quit listening, and walk away.

We make God attractive to the watching world when we demonstrate the selfless love of Christ—a love that is not only unconditional, but sacrificial.  It was the pattern of our Prince to love sacrificially, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  He received those who were outcasts from society.  He talked with those who were shunned by society.  He traveled with those who were the low-class of society.  His love was observable and offered to a fallen, broken, and hurting world as the final apologetic.

What would those who know you best say about your observable love?  How attractive do you make your God?  Are you reflecting the love of Christ to those you come in contact with—starting with your family of faith?  Make no mistake; we are diseased to the degree that we fail to love, regardless of cost or circumstance.  Your level of healthy living will always be in direct proportion to the level of love you have for God and all others.

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

If you took a moment to reflect on all that you have been asking God for in your times of prayer and meditation, what would that list look like?  Now . . . if you were restricted to ask only one thing of God, what would that one thing be?

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.  (Psalm 27:2)

It’s one thing to make your “one thing” to dwell in the house of the Lord when the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy.  It’s another thing altogether for David to have asked this in the middle of the storm he was facing.  Under attack, David didn’t ask for victory or vindication, rescue or retribution.  No, David asked for the one thing he was created for, the one thing we were all created for: to be in the house of the Lord and to gaze upon His unparalleled and unprecedented beauty, majesty, and glory.  This is the divine design of every image bearer of God.

So . . . what is your one thing today?  What one thing will bring you the happiness, satisfaction, or contentment you crave?

• In your singleness, is your “one thing” marriage?
• In your marriage, is your “one thing” the thing your spouse needs to change?
• In your parenting, is your “one thing” successful children?
• In your profession, is your “one thing” advancement?
• In your social circle, is your “one thing” approval?
• In your self-image, is your “one thing” the body you had at 20?
• In your religion, is your “one thing” what you are doing . . . or what Jesus has done?

The list could go on and on.  How easy it is to take Jesus off the throne of our lives and put something or someone infinitely smaller than Him on it!  Sure, the promise of that “one thing”—if we were only to get it—is powerful, but in the end, it is never able to deliver.  Divided affections lead to distraction, disappointment, and ultimately defeat for the child of God.  It is only the grace of the Gospel that can cause our every affection to be rooted in one affection, and His name is Jesus Christ.  And make no mistake; if Jesus is not your one thing, Jesus is not your Lord.  Your functional lord is whatever your one thing happens to be at the time. And anything smaller than Jesus shrinks the size of your life down to the size of your life, a size far too small for the committed Christian!

In the heart of every believer there is a war raging for control of our lives as the “one thing” we desire more than any other thing.  In the middle of a season of great struggle David cried out for one thing—and that one thing was God.  Whether we are in the middle of raging storm winds or a season of great success, may the grace of the Gospel empower us to do just that.

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

Have you ever thought about the difficulty of remaining faithful in fullness?  Many of us are far more likely to remain steadfast in the storms of life than in our successes.  How easy it is, while riding the crest of the wave of success, to forget who sent the wave and placed us safely on top of it!  Charles Spurgeon profoundly underscored this truth:

The Christian far oftener disgraces his profession in prosperity than in adversity.  It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous.  The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the fining-pot of prosperity.  Oh, what leanness of soul and neglect of spiritual things have been brought on through the very mercies and bounties of God!

How sad to be doing well in life and forget the Well from which we have been given the privilege to drink!  But this is not for you . . . and the apostle Paul provides some great insight for us all.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  (Philippians 4:12)

How instructive to read about the life of Paul, who knew how to be just as faithful in fullness as he was in emptiness.  Most of us have a tendency to believe it easy to walk by faith when we are walking in fullness.  But this is not necessarily true!  God is well aware of the sinful proclivity of our hearts and warned the people of Israel:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

Fullness often makes us forgetful.  We forget the Giver of the gift.  We forget the grace of the gift.  We forget the goal of the gift.  Spurgeon said, “Satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven.”  God in His grace gives us good gifts for the goal of blessing others and advancing the cause of His kingdom, not to relax our focus and forget our Redeemer. 

Paul knew how to be faithful “in any and every circumstance” because he never lost sight of the reason for his fullness.  He knew that what he had he had been given was because of God’s grace, not his own goodness.  He never forgot that the more he had, the more he was in debt to the One who had given it to him.  So, with a heart filled with gratitude, Paul progressed further up and further into his calling, regardless of the circumstance he found himself in . . . even to the point of being faithful in his fullness. 

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

Have you ever wondered why we have a Leap Year?  I don’t often get to date a blog entry February 29.  It only happens every four years.  This year is a leap year; it consists of 366 days, as opposed to a common year of 365 days.  Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.  It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun.  If we didn’t add a day on February 29 every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year.  After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

OK, perhaps the reason for leap year was not the most pressing thing on your agenda for today. But let me use leap year to make this point: with an extra day given to us this year, let us pause and think about all our days and just how precious each and every one of them truly is. 

O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!  Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.  Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!  (Psalm 39:4-5)

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

One of the best things that can happen to us today is to be reminded that every day is a gift from God.  The past is gone.  The future is promised to no one (on this side of the grave).  All we have is right now . . . this day.  And that is why it is called the present.  Today is a gift from God, and our gift back to God is the way we go about investing this day.

So . . . what are you going to do with your extra day?  Perhaps you have been putting off sharing Jesus with someone who doesn’t know Him.  Maybe you have been planning to write a thank you note to someone special and haven’t gotten around to it.  Possibly there is someone who is in need of your forgiveness and today is the day you ask God to give you the grace to do that.  Perhaps there is someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness and today is the day to ask God for the courage and the humility to do that. Is there anything you have been putting off doing until tomorrow that you can do today?

If the extra day this year gets us thinking about how we are using all our days, it’s a very good thing!  The Bible speaks about the difference between the wise and the foolish.  It is only the wise who understand the brevity of life and make it their goal to invest their days in ways that bring glory to God by advancing the cause of His kingdom, right here and right now.  There really is no time to put off till tomorrow what God is calling us to do today!

Let us all pause today and ask God to penetrate our hearts with this truth: may this “extra” day remind us of that final day!  Because only God knows when that final day will come, let us invest wisely each precious, unrepeatable day that He has given to us along the way.

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