Pastor Tommy is the senior pastor of Cross Community Church (PCA) in Deerfield Beach, FL. Rev. Tommy Boland is his official title. Pastor Tommy often seems too formal. Most everyone calls him "Coach".
I will pour out my Spirit on all people – your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. (Joel 2:28)
The Scriptures are filled with accounts of both men and women who dreamed dreams and saw visions and brought them to life because of their faith in God. One of the best examples is Nehemiah. When he heard about the condition of the walls around Jerusalem, he began praying, thinking, planning, dreaming, and creating a vision of victory. But he did not leave it there. He acted on it in the strength of the Almighty. He obtained permission to return to Jerusalem, organized a task force, and stayed focused when facing criticism, distractions, and opposition. And in 52 days, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt to the glory of God and the good of His people.
What has the Lord laid on your heart these days? What is Jesus calling you to do to expand the cause of His Kingdom? Know this: God never gives a dream or a vision to someone without giving them every resource needed to make it come to life. God is not in the business of calling the equipped; rather, God equips the called. God will give you everything you need to do everything He is calling you to do.
If you feel unequipped or inadequate for something you know God is calling you to do, fear not! Moses felt utterly inadequate and gave God every excuse in the book to try to get out of his calling to deliver God’s people out of bondage in Egypt. When all else failed, Moses was finally reduced to pleading, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13). But God gave Moses everything he needed and used him to set God’s people free from the most powerful nation in the world at that time.
It’s not likely that God is calling you to confront some powerful world leader to expand the cause of His Kingdom. But He may very well be calling you to volunteer to help out in Sunday school or some other ministry at your church. Perhaps He is calling you to start a new ministry and you are feeling unequipped or inadequate. Remember, God loves taking ordinary people like you and me and equipping us to do the extraordinary for His glory and the good of others. We simply need to move from dreaming dreams to doing them, leaving the results in faith up to the One who gave us the dream.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14)
Because God’s greatest goal for us is to conform us to the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to live out the importance of growing up, not just growing old. Think about it this way: I can’t imagine anyone saying they want to be the same person today that they were a year ago. Those who are not committed to growing in their faith are mired in perpetual spiritual infancy.
Spiritual growth is not automatic after Jesus raises us from death to life. Spiritual growth requires that we desire to grow, decide to grow, do the work to grow, and persist in growing. This growth, of course, is a life-long process that will not be completed until we are brought into glory. And while our growth is all of grace, it will not be completed without our commitment.
We all know about commitment. We are all committed to something or some things. The question is, Are we committed to growing and maturing in our Christian faith? Identifying our commitments will make the answer crystal clear. Here are a few things to consider: Your prayer life . . . Your thought life . . . Your Bible reading plan . . . Your weekly church attendance . . . Your generosity . . . Your service to the expansion of the Kingdom of Christ.
To grow up and become more like Jesus, we must deeply desire to develop the mind of Jesus. We have to think His thoughts — we must take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) — and one of the best ways to begin doing is to follow this instruction from the apostle Paul:
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things (Philippians 4:8).
We must be very intentional about what we are putting into our minds. We must be careful to fill our minds with the wisdom of God’s Word, not the wisdom of this world. We must focus on “the truth that is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:21), not our feelings. At this level of living, we can be certain that we will not only be growing older, but we will also be growing up into maturity.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of are doing, but let us encourage one another. (Hebrews 10:25)
Once we understand that we have been saved to be part of a family of faith, we must answer this question: How do we cultivate community? The answer is, “Frequently!” In order to grow relationships within our family of faith, we must frequently make meaningful contact in genuine fellowship. Growing any relationship takes time, which is why our verse for today exhorts us to keep coming together.
Here is something we must keep in view if we are serious about building community. Community is not built on convenience, but rather on commitment and conviction. We can’t just come together when we feel like it, because, truth be told, most often we simply don’t feel like it! We must be intentional and purposeful about setting aside time out of our busy schedules because it is vitally important for us to continue growing in community. Solitary saints are the number one target of the evil one. Just like a hungry lion patiently circling a herd of zebras, Satan is always prowling around God’s people, looking to pounce on those who have wandered away from community and devour them. This is much harder for him to do when we intentionally immerse ourselves in a great cloud of witnesses.
One of the keys that unlocks the door to building community is forsaking the self and focusing on our Savior, who died to give us a relationship with Him and with all those who are His. We must be willing to jettison . . .
Self-absorption
Self-centeredness
Self-rule
Remember this: We are going to be together forever with our family of faith in the new heavens and the new earth, so the more time we spend with them here and now, the better we will be prepared for the there and then. The church as a whole is far more important than any individual. As my friend Steve Brown likes to say, “All those who belong to Jesus belong to all those who belong to Jesus.” May that truth set us free and inspire us to cultivate community.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! (Romans 3:3-4)
The more time we spend in the Word of God, the more familiar we become with His promises. The evil one likes to sow seeds of doubt in our minds — particularly when we are messing things up — to cause us to shrink back from the life God is calling us to live and pressing into God’s promises. But today’s passage makes one thing perfectly clear: Nothing we do can nullify any of the thousands of promises God has made to His people. I’d like to encourage you with just a few of those promises today, promises taken from both the Old and New Testaments:
God has promised . . .
To be near us when we pray – Deuteronomy 4:7 To be with us wherever we go – Joshua 1:9 To be our peace – Judges 6:24 To turn our darkness into light – 2 Samuel 22:29 To fill our dry valleys with water – 2 Kings 3:16 To direct our steps – Proverbs 3:6 To bind up our wounds – Hosea 6:1 To be our refuge in times of trouble – Nahum 1:7 To make us fishers of men – Matthew 4:19 To give us rest – Matthew 11:28 To give us the Holy Spirit – John 14:16 To come back and take us to be with Him – John 14:3
Remember, what God has promised, God will do. He has assured us that “What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do” (Isaiah 46:11). God is the consistent keeper of His promises. He has never broken a promise in the past, and He is not about to start now. That is because He does not change (Malachi 3:6). He does not lie, and He does not change His mind (Numbers 23:19).
Look to the promises of God. Rest in them, trust in them, and let them propel you into the perfect plan and purpose He has for your imperfect life.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. (Psalm 145:9)
Our God is in the blessing business, and let me assure you that He wants to do much more than bless your food. Yet for far too many brothers and sisters in our family of faith, that is as far as they go when it comes to seeking the blessings of God. We serve a big God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and we ought to be looking to Him each day for big blessings!
You see, God wants us to come to Him with open minds, open hearts, and open hands, ready to receive all that He has in store for us. God wants us to trust more, seek more, believe more, wait more, expect more, pray more, and depend more. God wants us to pour out our lives out in service to Him for His glory and the good of all others. As we engage in advancing the cause of His big Kingdom (rather than our own little kingdom), God will bless our efforts beyond our wildest imaginations!
Perhaps you are facing a challenge right now that seems impossible to overcome. It will serve you well to remember that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). Hudson Taylor, who spent more than 50 years working as a missionary to China, said this about God doing the impossible in our lives: “There are three stages to every great work of God; first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” Remember, even when circumstances argue against all hope, we are still to have hope. Because Jesus is our Living Hope, we have a hope that nothing in this world can affect.
What would you like God to bless in your life right now? Come into His Presence and share what is on your heart and prepare to be blessed. You have our Lord’s Word on that!
“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11)
Jesus told us that we are to always pray and not give up (Luke 18:1). Did He say that so that we would ask and then be frustrated and discouraged when we don’t get the answer we want? That would be cruel, and the God-Man who died for us on a cross is anything but cruel! No, Jesus told us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking so that He could do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine (Ephesians 3:18). Think big, Christian! Pray big!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:26-27)
In this segment of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was teaching about worry, and He made it clear that the reason why we are not to worry is the fact that He has promised to meet our every need. Now, don’t confuse the word worry with concern. To be concerned is to be moved to action through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Worry, on the other hand, keeps you from moving at all. Worry paralyzes any meaningful forward progress.
Jesus pointed to the birds and their lack of any concern whatsoever for their daily needs. Birds neither sow, nor reap, nor store away in barns, yet their every need is met. We are image-bearers of the Most-High God; we are much more valuable to God than the birds; therefore worry makes no sense at all!
Here is a lovely thought that was provided to us by an anonymous author:
Said the robin to the sparrow, “I should really like to know Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin, “Friend, I think that it must be That they have no heavenly Father Such as cares for you and me.”
Only by pressing in to the presence of our Lord Jesus each day will our lives begin to reflect the attitude of the birds. Worry will be as far as the east is from the west as we look to Jesus, knowing that our God has promised to meet all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). And He has always made good on every one of His promises. You have His Word on it!
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Christian, let the next bird you see be a reminder that God cares for you completely.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV)
The Bible tells us that we play a vital role in deepening our faith. I call it “fitness for your faith.” Did you ever wonder why the Word of God contains so many athletic metaphors for growing and maturing in our faith? It is because our faith is like a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger it becomes. The opposite is also true; the less we exercise our faith, the weaker it becomes.
D. L. Moody, the great 19th-century evangelist and founder of the Moody Bible Institute, shared profound insight into this truth. Moody wrote, “I prayed for faith, and thought that some day faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.” Spending time in God’s Word was the key that unlocked the door to Moody’s ever-increasing “faith fitness.”
Every time we read a passage of Scripture, we gain greater insight into both the Word of God and the God of the Word. As we read the Word, the Word reads us. This process strengthens our resolve to put into practice what we are learning. Never forget that faith without works is dead. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). Fitness for your faith is the desire to do what Jesus wants us to do, when He wants us to do it, and how He wants us to do it. And when we mess things up, we must remember that we are secure in our relationship with Jesus — not because of our faithfulness to Him, but His unwavering, eternal faithfulness to us.
When the apostle Paul exhorted us to “work out your salvation,” he was not telling us our salvation is in jeopardy. Scripture is crystal clear on that fact; nothing can snatch us out of our Savior’s hand (John 10:28-29). Paul was encouraging us to actively pursue — to work out — our obedience by going to the supernatural Source of our salvation and our sanctification: the Word of God.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. (Deuteronomy 33:29)
I think we would all agree that everyone seeks the blessed life. Some seek it in power . . . others in fame . . . still others in the pleasures of this world. But the Scriptures make it clear that the life that is truly blessed is the life that is saved by the Lord and serving the Lord. I pray that this word encourages you mightily today!
There are those who say that Christianity is nothing more than a list of rules and regulations, a veritable ball and chain of “Thou shalts” and “Thous shalt nots” wrapped around the neck. Surely these grumblers are strangers to this great faith. To be sure, God has issued commands — call them rules and regulations if you wish — that shape the way we live the Christian life. But make no mistake, a right relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of Christianity, not rules and regulations. You see, Jesus Christ fulfilled all those rules and regulations on our behalf so that we could be, by grace through faith, adopted into the family of faith, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and given a seat at the great banquet feast. We are blessed by the Best. The Christian can echo the prophet Isaiah’s joyous exultation that “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).
And notice that the primary blessing is not found in material things, but in our Master Himself. To be sure, our God blesses all of us materially. We have all received good gifts from His holy, helping hand; but if we limit our focus to these things, we will miss the deeper message of what it means to be blessed, and when the storm winds blow, we will be left stranded on the sandbar of suffering.
The greatest blessing we can receive is the One doing the blessing. Only when we see our relationship with God as our greatest blessing will we be able to weather the winds of challenge that our Lord has assured us will blow our way (John 16:33). Gifts are indeed the good blessings that God gives us, but the Gift Giver is infinitely better, for He is our shield, our helper, and our glorious sword, and He has promised to bring us safely home.
When Jesus left this earth, He promised to send us His Holy Spirit. Knowing that we have the guarantee of our inheritance in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) is to know a blessing that will last forever, because we have been blessed by the Best. Be encouraged this day, and be empowered to be all God created you to be.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. (Isaiah 1:14)
I devoted attention to Isaiah 1:14 earlier this month (July 5 “God’s Burden”); I’d like to return to this verse to show that the Bible makes it clear that we are to love the things God loves and we are to hate the things God hates. To be sure, there are many things our God loves, for He is a God of love . . . and we love because He first loved us. But there are also many things our God hates, and we are to keep those things in view as well.
Let’s take a look at some of the things that the Lord hates and be challenged to live in a deeper conformity to the likeness of His beloved Son. God has told us that He hates —
Haughty eyes (a proud look)
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood
A heart that devises wicked schemes
Feet that are quick to rush into evil
A false witness who pours out lies
A person who stirs up conflict in the community.
That’s a pretty straightforward list from the sixth Proverb. And I think we would all be in agreement that we are to hate these things as God hates these things. But if you go back to Isaiah 1:14, you will find something that God hates even more, and it is often harder to detect than the things on the list from Proverbs 6. Our God particularly hates a sacrifice that comes from the head or the hand but not from the heart. The empty sacrifice is abhorrent to God, and we must guard against offering it at all costs. Think of our Lord’s stern warning to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:16 — “Because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” May such a terrifying admonition never be directed at you or me!
Look at it this way. We can offer our sacrifices out of duty, and we know we owe all duty to God. Or we can offer our sacrifices out of devotion. Devotion leads to delight, but duty can descend into drudgery, which can open the door to the heartless sacrifice. What we must continually do is examine the “Why” behind all the “What” we do for our Lord. When the “Why” springs out of a heart that beats with love for our God, we can be sure that our sacrifice is not a burden to our God, but a blessing which He will never weary of bearing.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. (Revelation 4:4)
There are many ways in which the Christian is to be living on earth as it is in heaven. I want to encourage you with today’s verse, which communicates the idea of nearness to your Savior. The twenty-four elders seated surrounding our Savior represent all the saints in heaven.
This glorious verse presents us with a few biblical truths: Their vision is clear, their access is constant, and their fellowship is close. Inasmuch as we shall not all be equal in the rewards we receive for faithful and fruitful service rendered during our time on earth, each saint has an equal share of their Savior, resting in His unwavering love, unending mercy, and unrelenting grace. All the saints in heaven will equally enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Should we not, as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, imitate on earth what is in heaven? Should we not joyfully embrace our proximity to the Prince of Peace? Close and constant communion is to occupy both the center and the circumference of our lives. Let us not allow anything to come between us and our Savior — not the temptation to sin nor the trials of this life. We have been made more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that He took our place on a cross so that we might take our place at His table.
Let me ask you: How near have you been to your Savior lately? Have you been spending time in His Word? Have you been in daily communion with Him through prayer? Has anything come between you and your Savior? If the answer to that last question is yes, I urge you to take the necessary steps to remove it as far as the east is from the west. And if that thing is something in the past — some failure, some mistake, even some willful act of flagrant sin — remember the glorious truth presented to you by the apostle John: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Jesus will tolerate no rivals – nor should He. Keep close communion with Jesus on earth as it in heaven, and you will experience the truths of John 15:5 and 11 — “If you remain in me and I in you,” Jesus promised, “you will bear much fruit. . . . so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 