Category Archives: General

Tell me, you whom I love . . . (Song of Songs 1:7)

Notice the absence of any possible doubt in Solomon’s statement that we read in today’s word of encouragement. He did not say something like, “Tell me, you whom I think I love . . . Tell me, you whom I hope I love . . . Tell me, you whom I want to love” No, no, a thousand times no! In spite of his many failures, Solomon knew that He loved His God beyond the slightest shadow of any doubt, and he made it clear for all the world to read.

I find it striking that the early saints of God never wavered between two understandings when it came to their relationship with God. We do not come across a plethora of “ifs” or “buts” or “hope to’s.” Job cried out to God in his confusion and despair over all the calamity that had befallen him and his family; you would think that he might have been the most likely person to express his love for God with an “if,” a “but,” or a “hope to.” Yet Job provides perhaps the finest example in all of sacred Scripture of wholehearted devotion. He wrote:

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. (Job 19:25)

This statement, you might remember, comes from a man who had lost his wealth, his health, and all of his ten children. You and I know from the biblical account what was happening to Job, but Job did not. When his three friends showed up, after mourning with Job for a week, they became miserable comforters by accusing Job of sin in his life as the reason for all his calamity. If anyone had cause to question the goodness of the Almighty, it was Job. But he did not. Job never wavered in his belief that his Redeemer lives and that he could trust God even when he could not trace Him. Even when his wife encouraged Job to “Curse God and die,” he remained steadfast in knowing whom he loved.

We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our love for God is the fruit of His love for us, worked in us and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. But once we have been given this supernatural love, it is ours to give back to Him. To be sure, true love loves when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the sun is brightly shining; but true love also loves when the storm winds blow and the waves of challenge are washing over us. Is He not altogether lovely and worthy of our love, regardless of the circumstances we are facing in this life? Job knew this truth—he embraced this truth, even in the worst of conditions—and so should you and I.

Remember, child of God, it was not nails that held Jesus on that cruel cross. It was His love for you and me that would not allow Him to save Himself. His love bore the nine-inch nails, the crown of thorns, and that cruel cross of crucifixion. Can you not say with Job, regardless of what you are currently facing, “I know that my Redeemer lives”? And can you not echo Solomon by addressing your God as “You whom I love”? May this be the confession of our lives!

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

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:14-15 NKJV)

We all know the importance and value of light. Turn on a light in a dark room and what you could not see before is now made manifest. In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light to dispel the darkness. I pray that today’s word of encouragement will both comfort you who are the Lord’s light, and that it will also challenge you to let your light shine brightly into the darkness of this present age.

Knowing that we are the Lord’s light is an unmatched cosmic comfort. We received this light by way of the unwavering love, unimaginable sacrifice, and unmatched cost to our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. We who were once far off have now been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13), and we have been given the gifts of the Spirit to communicate His grace to a watching world.

But that’s not all! What comforts us must also challenge us. If we are the Lord’s lights, should we not shine so brightly that no one can come near us without coming near to our Lord? The words we say, the deeds we do, and even the expressions on our faces and the tone of our voices should fairly shout the witness of our walk with Jesus to a watching world.

We must remember that we were once groping in darkness until Someone shone His light into our hearts. We were drawn to His light by the power of the Holy Spirit and given the greatest gift the world has ever seen: eternal life in Christ. Now, as the Lord’s lights, we are to shine so brightly that those who currently walk in darkness will be drawn to the Lord’s light. Our words of light should lift others up. Our deeds of light should warm others’ hearts. Our thoughts of light should love others into the kingdom of heaven.

How is it with you today? How brightly does your light shine? Is there anything shrouding your light and making it difficult for others to see Christ in you? Perhaps a critical or unforgiving spirit? Maybe an angry or self-righteousness disposition? We have been given light to be a light to others, and I can tell you from personal experience that there is no greater joy than to know that your light has dispelled the darkness of discouragement, despair, or spiritual death in the lives of others.

Christian, you are the Lord’s light. May your light be a searchlight and not merely a candle.

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

Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:4-5)

Confronted by a completely packed house and a totally blocked doorway, a devotion that would not be denied made its way to the Master . . . for true devotion will always find a way to get to its Object.

Jesus’ reputation had preceded Him, so when He entered Capernaum, the people flocked to receive Him. Some were interested in His message, but everyone was interested in His miracles. Earlier in Mark’s gospel account we read that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town because of the frenzied mobs of people who were magnetized by His amazing ministry, a ministry unlike anything the world had ever seen. And in today’s passage, we see a paralyzed man and his four friends display a devotion that would not be denied, in spite of the wall of people blocking their way to the Master.

The question we all must ask ourselves is this: Does my commitment to my Master demonstrate this kind of sold-out, single-minded, will-not-be-denied devotion, regardless of the cost or circumstance? I am convinced that this is exactly what the church needs today if we are going to fulfill the two greatest commandments—to love God faithfully and love our neighbor completely. We must demonstrate a disruptive and a disturbing devotion, just like the men in our story. Picture yourself sitting in that packed house, straining to hear every word from Jesus. Can you imagine just how disruptive and disturbing the devotion of thee five men was, as they dug through the roof and dust and debris began dropping onto the crowd below?

Let us all prayerfully consider this day how we can amp up a devotion that will not be denied. Let nothing block the way between you and your Master, and let nothing stand in the way of you bringing others to sit at His feet. To be sure, we should begin by knocking on the door or climbing through an open window, but if we cannot make entry, let us stop at nothing to get ourselves and our neighbors into the presence of the One who stopped at nothing to get to us—going all the way to the cross and to the grave so that we would be with Him for eternity. May we, like our Lord, demonstrate a divine devotion that will not be denied.

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

Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

The idea of a “begging believer” may sound strange, but, oh, how it needs to be revived in the body of Christ today, for we are all likely to lean toward self-sufficiency. An independent spirit is an ungodly spirit, because the self longs to sit upon the throne of life. But God, in His grace, will at once strip away all the resources that we cling to in order to cause us to cry out to Him for the help we so desperately need.

I learned this remarkable truth a long time ago: You will never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have! This is the truth that Peter expressed in our verse for today.

I think that one of the best ways to fully grasp this biblical concept of the begging believer is to contrast its antithesis—the proud believer. One of the best pictures of self-sufficient Christians comes from the words of our Lord to the church at Laodicea.

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:14-17)

In the eyes of the watching world, the church at Laodicea was the place to be. These Christians were the picture of self-sufficiency. A beggar’s spirit was as far from them as the east is from the west, but, from God’s perspective, there was no church in a worse condition than the one the Laodiceans were in. They received His sharp indictment: far from being wealthy, they were poor, blind, and naked. They acknowledged the name of Jesus (they were not “cold” toward Him), but because of their self-sufficiency they were about to be spit out of our Lord’s mouth.

So . . . where in your life right now are you leaning more toward self-sufficiency? What do you need to change in order to assume the posture of a “begging believer?” What will it cost you if you don’t? Remember, Jesus has promised never to leave you nor forsake you, and He has promised to meet your every need . . . not every want. And He will meet your needs in His way and in His timing. And so, as our Lord said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

May we all echo the apostle Peter and say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

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)

The Bible makes it clear that we are to love the things God loves and to hate the things God hates. There are indeed 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 those things and be challenged to live in deeper conformity to the likeness of His beloved Son.

• 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 straightforward list taken from the sixth Proverb. And I think we would all agree that we are to hate these things as God hates these things. But if you go back and reread today’s verse, you will find something God hates even more, and it is often harder to detect than the things on the Proverbs list. Our God particularly hates a superficial sacrifice that comes from the head or the hand but not from the heart. The empty sacrifice is abhorrent to God and we must at all costs guard against offering it.

Look at it this way: we can offer our sacrifices out of duty, and we know that we owe all duty to God. Duty can descend into drudgery, and that opens the door to the heartless sacrifice. But we can also offer our sacrifices out of devotion, which leads to delight.

What we must continually do is ask about the “Why” behind all of the “What” we do for our Lord. When the “Why” is simply 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 rather, a blessing which He will never grow weary of bearing.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,” David wrote, “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. . . . I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord” (Psalm 27:4, 6). David was called by God “a man after my own heart.” David was a sinner, just like you and me, but his wholehearted devotion to the Lord his God, through times of both great success and terrible failure, was the sacrifice of praise that pleases our God and marked David as a man after God’s own heart.

May you and I also lift our hearts to God, asking Him to move our hearts to love what He loves and hate what Hates, always remembering that our great God loves vile, hateful sinners—sinners like you, like David, and like me—so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross so that we might live with Him forever.

This is the Gospel. Thi 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)

Everyone seeks the blessed life. Some seek to find blessing in power, others in fame, and still others in the pleasures of this world. But the Scriptures make it clear that the life that is truly blessed is the one that is saved by the Lord and that is serving the Lord. I pray that this truth will encourage you mightily today.

Those who say that Christianity is nothing more than a list of rules and regulations, a veritable ball and chain wrapped around the neck of its long-suffering followers, are surely strangers to this great faith. To be sure, there are certain behaviors that our Lord expects His children to embrace and others we are commanded to eschew. But make no mistake, a right relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ is the mark of Christianity, not adherence to rules and regulations. You see, when God saves a sinner, that man or woman is at once transformed from being a slave to sin into an adopted child of the Most High God. The new believer is now a member of the family of faith, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and given a seat at the great banquet feast. Every Christian believer has been blessed by the Best!

And notice that the primary blessing is not found in material things, but in our Master Himself. Indeed, our God blesses all of us materially. We have all received good gifts from His helping, holy hand. But if we limit our focus to these things, we miss the deeper message of what it means to be blessed, and when the storm winds blow (which they inevitably will) we are left stranded on a sandbar of suffering.

The greatest blessing we can strive for is knowing the One doing the blessing. Only when we see our relationship with God as our ultimate blessing will we be able to weather the tribulations that have been promised to confront us. Material gifts are good blessings that God gives us. But the Gift-Giver is far better, for He is our shield, our helper, and our glorious sword, and He has promised to bring us safely home into His glorious presence.

When Jesus left this earth, He promised to send His Holy Spirit. Knowing that we have the earnest (that is, the deposit) of our inheritance in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is to know a blessing that will last forever, because we have been blessed by the Best. Christian, be encouraged and empowered to be all God has created you to be!

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

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30)

I pray this message will bring you great comfort today as you rest in the wisdom of the Word. By nature, man’s intellect looks everywhere for wisdom except in the one true place it can be found . . . in our Lord Jesus Christ. And even after man has, by grace through faith, been made right with God, we are still prone to wander in our search for wisdom.

Much like the Christians at Corinth, the Colossians also strayed in their search for wisdom, and the apostle Paul was moved by the Spirit of God to remind them of the all-sufficiency of Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” so that these young Christians would not be deceived by the “fine-sounding arguments” of men (Colossians 2:3-4).

Now, when Paul said the treasures of wisdom are “hidden” in Christ, don’t misunderstand and think that this wisdom is difficult to find, like some kind of buried treasure that requires a map with an “X” that marks the spot. Rather, what Scripture is telling us is that, for all those who are in Christ, wisdom is available and accessible.

Here is how the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry put it:

The treasures of wisdom are hidden not from us, but for us, in Christ. . . . The world does not understand this truth about the witness of wisdom that is found in Christ. In fact, the world of fallen humanity considers it to be “foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23). They have been bewitched by their unbelief. But to those who have placed their trust in Christ alone, wisdom is as available as the air we breathe. It satisfies the deepest mind, the highest intellect, and the strongest constitution, because “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

Here is the key that unlocks the doorway to cosmic comfort as it relates to the witness of wisdom. Where the world seeks wisdom as some kind of “what,” we seek wisdom as some kind of “Who,” and His name is Jesus Christ.

Job, in all his unimaginable anguish over the loss of his children, his wealth, and his health, never lost sight of where wisdom could be found. He said –

Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds of the air. Destruction and Death say, “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.” God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. . . . And he said to man, “The fear of the Lord — that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” (Job 28:20-24, 29)

Just as we look to our loving Lord for care and protection and blessing, we are to look for Him for wisdom, for He is “wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

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

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33)

To be sure, we are saved to community. We are enlisted to be members of the body of Christ; we are empowered to build up the body; and we are to remain engaged with the body. But we must ever remember that we are saved individually, and it is only as we walk our walk and live our faith individually that we will find God’s perfect plan for our lives.

The Almighty ad hominem (ad hominem is a Latin phrase meaning to the man) means that we do not find our place in God’s plan and purpose for our lives by following someone else’s “secret formula” to being a successful saint. The true disciple of Jesus is content to let someone else’s formula remain a mystery as he sits at the feet of His Master, because he understands that His Master knows exactly what every one of His disciples needs.

God’s plan for your life is not the same plan He has for anyone else in this world, because you are not the same person as anyone else in this world. You have your own unique personality, life experiences, gifts, talents, and abilities, and God will guide you into His perfect plan and purpose for your imperfect life, not into what someone else might have planned for you. Remember, if you are not following God’s plan for your life, you will be following someone else’s plan, and those man-made plans frequently do not align with what God has planned for you . . . which means they are inferior plans!

The key to understanding God’s plan for your life is to spend time with Him. Immerse yourself in His Word. Spend time on your knees in prayer. Engage in corporate worship with your family of faith. Give your time, talent, and treasure to expand the cause of His kingdom. The more you engage personally with your God, the more personally He will engage with you.

Remember, our God is the God of individuals; He meets people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ruth, and Esther individually—He comes to the man and not just to the group—and He will meet with you too, because He is The Almighty Ad Hominem!

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

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:18)

It is a difficult truth to comprehend, but it is a truth nonetheless: When we, by grace through faith, place our trust in Christ alone, we are to resign all our rights to our Redeemer AND we have every responsibility to Him. Let’s take a look.

We are responsible to surrender our right to choose where we will serve Jesus, for we know that our Lord “set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51), the place where God the Father sent His Son for our redemption.

We are responsible to surrender our right to do whatever we feel like doing, because our Lord came from heaven “not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).

We are responsible to surrender our right to our every possession, for we know that our Lord “had no place to lay his head” (Luke 9:58), yet He is the Creator and Sustainer of everything that was, is, and is to come.

We are responsible to surrender our right to be the center of attention, for our Lord told us that He “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28), making Himself the servant of all.

We are responsible to surrender our right to the making of our own reputation, because our Lord Jesus, who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, “made Himself of no reputation” (Philippians 2:7).

We are responsible to surrender our rights to neglect the needs of others, for Jesus “went around doing good” (Acts 10:38), and that even included doing good to those who were doing bad to Him.

Oh, the joy of becoming a child of God and to be rid of the penalty and the power of sin, which stained everything in our lives! But at the same time, as disciples of Jesus, we have immense responsibility to bend out the grace that has been given to us and direct that grace toward all those with whom we come in contact. Remember, those without rights are slaves, and that, as Paul tells us in today’s verse, is exactly what we are: slaves of Christ. Never forget that our Lord Jesus Christ “took on the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:7); if we are to be called His disciples, we too must take on this form, regardless of cost or circumstance.

No rights and every responsibility to our Redeemer is the way of the redeemed. And that way is as comforting as it is challenging.

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

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy . . . (Jude 24)

May what we are not now—faultless—yet one day shall be—faultless—meet you in your deepest place of need today and every day until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ calls you home to Himself.

There are two things that each child of God should know about this word of divine blessing. First, we are not in ourselves faultless today. We are a mixture of both good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, perfection and imperfection. There are times when we are sold out in our service to our Lord and there are times when we are not. There are times when we invite Jesus to sit upon the throne of our lives and there are times when we do not. There are times when our heart beats for nothing smaller than Christ alone, and there are times when it does not. Our dedication is mixed with doubt. Our service is mixed with selfishness. Our faith is mixed with faithlessness. We are not yet faultless in our motives or our mission.

But the second thing to remember is that, in the eyes of the Almighty, we who have, by grace through faith, placed our trust in Christ alone are as faultless today as we shall ever be, for we are seen by the Father as clothed in the righteous robes of the Son. To the Father we blameless. To the Father we are sinless. To the Father we are faultless. Why? Because of our blameless, sinless, faultless Savior. In the eyes of the Father, we are what the Son is because we are in Christ. We have been cleansed by His precious blood and clothed in His priceless robes.

Christian, there is still one more thing we must keep in view regarding this word faultless. Our Lord Jesus Christ never stops short of absolute perfection, and that includes both me and you. The day is coming when we will cross the Jordan and be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. We will be truly faultless. We will keep the law perfectly. We will love our Lord completely. We will praise our God faithfully. We will be, in a word, finally and fully be . . . faultless! May the comfort of that glorious truth have you rehearsing songs of eternal praise today, as you prepare to participate in the chorus of the faithful, faultless redeemed.

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