Category Archives: General

It is finished. (John 19:30)

Looking back a little over 2,000 years ago on Calvary’s Hill, the only people who would be thinking there was any “good” that Friday, would have been the enemies of Jesus. To be sure, the followers of Jesus would not have imagined anything good could come from what they had witnessed that day:

• Jesus was falsely accused
• Jesus was beaten and spit on
• Jesus was sentenced to death
• Jesus was scourged
• Jesus was given a crown of thorns
• Jesus was nailed to a cross
• Jesus was mocked and ridiculed while dying
• Jesus was dead before sundown

But three days later, on that first Easter morning, when Jesus walked out of the grave alive and well, the followers of Jesus, all those who loved Him, began to understand what God was doing on Friday, and it was indeed GOOD beyond measure. God sent His Son to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And God put His stamp of approval upon His Son on that third day when He raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus walked out of that grave alive and well. The question is this:

Has Jesus walked into your heart, making you alive and well?

If yes, then today is a great day of celebration, for it is indeed GOOD FRIDAY. If no, then why not simply surrender your life to Jesus right now. Admit your sin and the fact that you simply cannot save yourself, no matter how hard you try. Cry out to Jesus for salvation. He has promised to save all those who call upon His name, for there is “no other name under heaven given to man by which we must be saved” (Acts 4;12).

Remember, the GOOD in GOOD FRIDAY has a name and it is JESUS CHRIST. Call on Him and know these twin truths: Jesus will never leave nor forsake you . . .  and . . .  the good work he has begun in you, He has promised to bring to completion. Let those truths set you free.

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

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Between yesterday’s deliverance and tomorrow’s dreams, we will be confronted by the unpredictable and inevitable storms of life. Jesus has promised us storms as the Lord of the storm. Now, these storms come in many different forms: disappointment and defeat; poverty and pain; sickness and sorrow; alienation and accusation. And more often than not, they come when we least expect them. But they come not to cause us to doubt God’s love, but to drive us into His presence to experience the depth of His love.

Storms are His servant’s sent to teach us how to surrender more and more of our lives to His control. Many people have a hard time seeing God as loving if He is the One sending storms. But it is because God is Love that He sends storms as His servants in the life-long process of our sanctification – growing in Christ-likeness. God sent a storm to retrieve His rebellious and run-away prophet Jonah. God sent a storm on the Sea of Galilee with all the disciples in a boat in order to see the omnipotent power of Jesus to calm it right before their eyes. The storms God sends are not designed to disrupt your life. But rather, they are designed to deliver you from the disruptions in your life distracting you from God.

So, what storm has God sent into your life today? Remember, your past is littered with one deliverance after another and your future is filled with dreams and desires. In the “in-between” you will face many storms that you think has been sent to break you, but when God brings you through the other side, you will know it was sent to make you. Here is something I once read that has stuck with me –

I asked God, “Why are you taking me through troubles waters?”

God replied, “It’s because the enemies chasing you can’t swim.”

May that truth set all of us free to find the Lord of the storm in every storm we face knowing God has promised to get us safely to our divine destination.

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

Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? (Job 1:10)

When Satan came to God asking permission to tempt His servant Job, Satan speaks about a hedge God has put around him. Satan knew God had a special hedge of protection around His servant Job, and in order to be able to do anything to Job, God would have to allow him access inside of His “HOLY HEDGE.” Make no mistake, we serve a God of hedges.

God is in the business of protecting His children. He installs hedges of protection – spiritual walls, fences, or partitions – around us to protect us. But we must learn a biblical truth from the story of Job. Sometimes, God allows Satan to gain access inside of the hedge He has put around us in order to grow and mature us in our faith. In His infinite wisdom, God allows Satan to tempt us, and just like in the story of Job, we often do not know the exact reason why. But what we do know is this – God is using all things for our ultimate good and His glory. When God allowed Satan inside the hedge around Job, Satan was allowed to take everything from Job except his life. And in the end, Job never lost his integrity and commitment to God.

You see, as children of God, we are eternally protected. Satan can do nothing to keep us out of heaven. But God does allow him to tempt and test us. What we need to remember is we have a “HOLY HEDGE” in Jesus. He is our refuge and our fortress and has promised to keep us from eternal harm. Whatever storm wind God allows to blow in our lives is to strengthen us in our faith and conform us more into the image of Jesus.

Remember, when you face trials of any kind, if God does not remove you from the trial, He is refining you in the trial. Look to Jesus and trust Him no matter what it is you are facing, knowing you are never facing it alone. You not only have a hedge of protection, Jesus is that “HOLY HEDGE” for you.  

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

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. (John 4:10)

Today’s passage comes from a divine appointment Jesus had at the well of Jacob with a Samaritan woman. This woman had absolutely no idea who Jesus was. The furthest thing from her mind was that Jesus was the promised “GIFT OF GOD!” Yet, there Jesus was, in a place respectable Jewish men would never be in. This was Samaria, the place of the hated and despised half-breed Samaritans, and Jesus was speaking, no less, to a woman.

Now this woman was a shunned outcast even in her society. She came out to draw water at high noon, the apex of the heat of the day, when no one would be at the well. Jesus identifies her as having five previous husbands and currently living with a man who was not her husband. He knew everything about her and by the end of the conversation, she understood that Jesus was indeed the promised “GIFT OF GOD.” We know this truth because of her report when she ran back into town shouting, “He told me everything I ever did.”

This woman was transformed by the love of Jesus. Here is a powerful example of one of the deepest gospel truths – we are fully known and completely loved. Think about it. Jesus knows everything you ever did and He is still for you, with you, and in you. Now I know this is hard for us to understand because so often love comes with conditions in this life. But not with Jesus. His love is unwavering even when we are wavering. That’s the beauty and the blessing of understanding Jesus as the “GIFT OF GOD!”  

So, how are you experiencing the love of God in Christ Jesus today? Do you believe Jesus loves you with no strings attached? Remember, Jesus is the “GIFT OF GOD” and a gift is something that is freely given. You have been rescued from your rebellion not because of anything you have ever done or ever will do. But simply because Jesus loves you. Not that’s the “GIFT” that keeps on giving.

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

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. (John 15:16)

All throughout the Scriptures we see that salvation is of the Lord. We are saved by grace, through faith, and not because of anything we are or anything we do. Yet, after we are saved, we are then responsible to report for duty and the duty is to bear fruit, not behave like nuts.

When Jesus raises us from death to life, He renews the mind, recalibrates the heart, and realigns the will. In other words, the same grace that saves us is the same grace that sanctifies us – empowering us to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable to the One who has so graciously saved us. Now, when we see our salvation more as a religion than a relationship, we can become a little nutty. When I say ‘religion,’ I am speaking about the empty rituals and ceremonies that come from the imagination of man, not the revelation of God. It is the kind of life many of religious leaders were living at the time of Jesus, that so angered and disappointed Him. They kept God at a distance, because their religion replaced their relationship with God. And that, beloved is nuts.

To bear fruit is to be in a surrendered and submitted relationship with Jesus, living for His glory and for the good of others. As we engage in expanding the cause of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, we are bearing the eternal fruit we were saved for. Remember, our verse today comes from Jesus as He was teaching about the Vine (Jesus), and the branches (us). Now that paints a pretty picture of a real and right relationship with our Lord. We are connected to Jesus. We are committed to Jesus. We are controlled by Jesus. As we remain in Him, we soak up His life-giving supernatural sap that causes us to bear fruit that will last.

So, how could you describe your current walk with Christ? More fruity or more nutty? Inasmuch as we all have a combination of both in our lives, we will be far more fruity when we fix our focus on Jesus regardless of the circumstances we face in life.   

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

Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. (John 8:7)

The religious leaders brought to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery. Notice, they caught her in the act. Where was the man and why did they not bring him too? This gives us an indication as to their intent, as the text tells us they were trying to trap Jesus, “in order to have a basis for accusing him” (John 8:6).

Now the Law commanded the penalty for adultery was to be stoned to death. So, what does Jesus do? He stoops to write something on the ground, not once, but twice, during this encounter. The text never tells us what Jesus wrote. And this is the only place in Scripture where we see Jesus writing anything. But it just might be that Jesus wrote on the ground the names of those holding the stones and their hidden sins, known only to our all-seeing, all-knowing God.

After Jesus makes His stone-throwing statement and writes on the ground with his finger, “those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there” (John 8:9). With the older ones dropping their stones and leaving first, it seems to suggest the wisdom of their age helped them understand the message of Jesus. They realized Jesus could have exposed the depths of the depravity in each of their hearts.

Question: Was there anyone without sin in that group? Yes, of course. It was Jesus. Only Jesus had the right to pass ultimate judgment. We all are sinners and in need of a Savior moment by moment. We need to leave judgment to the One who judges justly. When we keep judging others, we grieve the Holy Spirit and give the devil a foothold in our lives. We all need to stop slinging stones – gossip, slander, judgment, anger, etc. – in our minds, in our words, and in our behavior. Remember, the greater our devotion to Jesus, the better we become at dropping our stones.

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

 If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

By nature, today’s passage of Scripture is one of the hardest to take hold of and appropriate to our hearts. At least it is for me and my heart. To be sure, I am not as free as God intends me to be in the gospel freedom He has died to give to His children.

Often, I let the devil accuse me in spite of the fact that I know there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus. I have a tendency to think the more obedient I am the more God will love me, forgetting the fact that I am already completely loved in Christ no matter what I think, do, or say. That old sin nature that is still alive and well deep inside is busily engaged in trying to keep us all in bondage. And often the tactic is to use the deceitful promises of sin that for a moment, can deliver on their promises, but eventually leave us empty and wanting.

Only when we receive the truth of the gospel freedom we have in Jesus will respond by faith to the emancipation we have been given. This emancipation has two sides – because of our spiritual union with Jesus – we are freed from the penalty, the power, and the pleasures of sin – and we are freed to walk in the newness of life we have been given. Because we are new creatures in Christ, we are set free from the bondage and burden of sin and freed to the beauty and bounty of new life in Christ.

May that dual truth set us all free indeed to live the life Jesus has set us free to live, by grace through faith for the glory of God and the good of others.

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

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

There is one phrase I heard more than any other during my early elementary school days and that was, “SIT STILL TOMMY!” I had a difficult time staying in my seat and when I was in my seat, much of the time I was fidgeting. So, when I first encountered today’s verse, I just assumed God was telling me to ‘SIT STILL’ not ‘BE STILL’ and there is a world of gospel difference between the two.

I understand now how I would drive my teachers a bit crazy because I was in constant motion throughout the school day. I was a distraction to them and to the other students from time to time. But this is not true in my relationship with God. I am never a distraction in God’s cosmic classroom. I never frustrate God and He never grows impatient with me, no matter how much my fidgeting interferes with my focus. But because I am His, and you see how distracted I can become on the inside, you remind me to ‘BE STILL.’

God is reminding the psalmist then and us today to rest in our redemption no matter what is going on around us. This is a call to trust in God even when we cannot trace Him. To know God is in complete control of everything that is going on in every aspect of our lives is “to know that I am God.” Because our God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, we can surrender to His plan and purpose for our lives because He knows exactly what He is doing all the time, even when we cannot understand any of it.

Even today, I still have trouble “sitting still.” But I am growing in my ability to ‘BE STILL’ no matter what is going on in life. Knowing that there is indeed a God and I am not Him has been the key to being still even when I am not sitting still. Can I get a witness?

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

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. (Romans 9:15)

God has given to us an incredible privilege as we are called into full-time ministry of expanding the cause of His Kingdom in this world . . . regardless of our occupation. And our work is clear. We are responsible to sow His seeds of gospel truth and leave the results up to God. We must become indifferent to the outcomes so as not to be overwhelmed by them. The parable of the Sower tells us that some do and some don’t; some will and some won’t.

You might remember, when Jesus preached to the rich young ruler, whom He loved, He accepted His rejection as simply a fact of life. This is an important lesson we all must learn by way of personal experience. We cannot look at our sowing from a success-oriented cultural perspective. We are simply responsible to sow the seed, not grow the seed. We are to share the truths of the gospel and leave the results up to God.

So, how are you doing in all the areas of life that God has called you to? Are you sowing seeds of gospel truth? Remember, there are always two aspects of sowing. We are to sow seeds of gospel truth to those who know not the Christ, and we are to sow seeds of gospel truth to those who are in Christ. Yet, both results of growth are in the hands of the Almighty. We simply cannot let results affect us in any way. Paul said, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

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

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. (Jonah 2:2)

We have a tendency to see the story of Jonah more about a rebellious prophet than a redeeming God – more about a huge fish than a holy and faithful God. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Jonah said ‘No’ and headed in the opposite direction. He found a ship and tried to sail away from the Lord. While asleep in the boat, God pursued His rebellious prophet on the run and sent a storm that threatened to sink the vessel.

Now many see the storm as simply a punishment from God to His disobedient prophet. Yet, rather than seeing the storm as punishment, we are to see it as God pursuing His run-away prophet. God is interrupting Jonah’s flight away from Him with the grace of gale-force winds. This is God’s pattern. Throughout Scripture we see God’s people on the run away from Him followed by His hot pursuit of them by any means necessary. God is simply in the business of pursuing rebels on the run and that includes you and me.

When the sailors on the ship woke Jonah and questioned him, Jonah told them he was the reason for the storm. God sent it in response to His rebellion. He instructed them to simply throw him into the sea and the storm would subside. Instead of following his instruction, they decided to row harder back to shore to no avail, “for the sea grew even wilder than before” (Jonah 1:13). As strange as the solution sounded, it was God’s solution to the storm. So, when they finally threw Jonah overboard, the sea instantly grew calm.

Often God’s solution to the storms in our lives seems strange. But when we look back, we can see how often our attempt to row to safety was simply more rebellion. Only when we submit and surrender to the storms God sends, do we find ourselves rising above the winds and the waves as God works His grace in our lives.

So, regardless of the storm you might be facing today, receive it as God’s sent messenger of sanctification in your life. He is conforming you to the image of Jesus. Stop rowing and get going in the direction He is calling so God will not need to send a big fish to strengthen your faith.

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