Category Archives: General

I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. (Hosea 2:14)

Regardless of where this message finds you today, I assure you that these words should greatly encourage you. Take a moment to really marinate in today’s verse; when you do, you will notice that God is speaking to His wayward people Israel, who had turned to lesser gods time and time again. But instead of a harsh rebuke, God speaks tenderly to Israel with a holy heart full of love—wooing her, if you will, into the wilderness.

Why does God lead His people into the wilderness? Because He loves us too much to let us continue in our worldly ways. Intimacy and intercourse with our Lord are best achieved when we are not focused on the cares of this world. And that, beloved, is The Wonderland of the Wilderness. Even the wilderness is a paradise, because God makes it so by His presence.

The love of our God is so great that He refuses to let us stay forever entangled with the cares of this world. Instead He withdraws us to His wilderness, where He can gain our undivided and unwavering attention and speak tenderly to us.

After His baptism, Jesus demonstrated the wonder of the wilderness when He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. During our Lord’s testing, Jesus was continually in communion with His Father in heaven. He was hungry and tired, yet His wilderness was a wonderland because His Father sustained Him every step of the way until Jesus vanquished the devil and angels came to minister to Him.

Make no mistake, paradise has been promised, and it is indeed coming to all those who have, by grace through faith, trusted in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. But this promised paradise will not be experienced until we cross the Jordan. Until then, whenever we treat this world like this is all there is, holding on to all this world offers with a white-knuckled grip, God will lead us into the wonderland of His wilderness and speak loving words to correct us, comfort us, and challenge us to return to our first love.

Remember, God so loved you that He gave His one and only Son in order to bring you into an intimate, personal relationship with Him. He did not send His Son to die for your sins so that you would give Him half of your heart. He has no desire to let you live with one foot in the world and one foot in His Word. God tolerates no rival. He wants all of you, and He will use whatever means He must to get all of your attention.

The next time you realize that your Lord has led you into a wilderness, know that it is for your good and His glory. Be still and listen for His voice, speaking tender words of hope and grace to you:

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

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

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3)

If you have seen The Visual Bible: Matthew movie, you’ll definitely remember the holy humor Jesus used in this part of His Sermon on the Mount. That humor was amplified in the movie when Bruce Marchiano, the actor who portrayed Jesus, picked up a long staff and held it next to his eye as he looked around at the crowds who were listening to him. The point was obvious; it is absurd to be concerned about the speck in someone else’s eye when you have a six-foot-long plank protruding from your own eye! In fact, as you approach the other person to take the speck out of his eye, your plank will keep bumping into him, causing a great deal of irritation. And so, our Lord tells us, it is best to Yank the plank before you check the speck.

It is interesting to note in the original text that the words “plank” and “speck” come from the same Greek root, which means they are of the same substance. Now, there is some truly inspired irony. Since both are of the same substance, it makes it easy for those with the plank to quickly notice those with the speck, because the faults and shortcomings in our own lives are the easiest to pick out in the lives of others. It is not at all uncommon for us to direct anger toward the speck we see in the eyes of others due to a level of suppressed guilt we have because we are dealing with the same exact sin!

Jesus was instructing His disciples, and you and me also, to first focus on our own sins and shortcomings and deal with them. Self-examination is the way of the disciple of Christ, rather than inspecting the lives of others. That does not mean that we do not come alongside of a brother or sister who is caught in a particular sin with the goal of gently restoring him or her, as Galatians 6:1 instructs. The Bible makes it clear that we are indeed our brother’s keeper. But in order to be truly helpful, we must yank the plank first. Otherwise our own sin will bump so roughly and rudely into the other person that they will find our well-intentioned words of correction to be an irritation at best . . . and gross hypocrisy at the worst.

How would you evaluate yourself today? Are you better at self-examination? Or speck inspection? Sometimes an honest answer to that question will go a long way toward setting us on the right track of dealing with our own plank before we begin dissect the speck in the eyes of others. Remember, what bothers you most in the lives of others is probably the very thing you need to deal with in your own life!

Take your plank to Jesus and lay it at the foot of the cross. The more time you spend in self-examination, the less time you will have to inspect the speck in others. That’s better for you, quite likely better for them, and far more glorifying to God.

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

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here with me.” (Exodus 24:12)

To be sure, we have been created for community. It was God who, after having pronounced His benediction over all that He had created said, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18 NKJV). God Himself is community: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we, having been made in His image, are made to live life in the context of community. But inasmuch as God has called us to be together as His family of faith, He has also called us to be alone.

Jesus spent His three-plus years of ministry surrounded by people, from the massive crowds to the chosen twelve. He lived a life of community. But He also made sure to set aside time to be alone with His Father in heaven.

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:16)

Jesus frequently withdrew from the community to commune alone with His Father. This is the model for every one of His disciples to follow. The roots of our redemption drive the deepest when we are alone in communion with God. I am convinced that we do not learn deep things from others; rather, we learn them as we spend time alone in contemplation and communion with God.

As a pastor, I have seen an alarming trend today in the church—too many Christians are “all together” often, which is good, but rarely “all alone” with God . . . which is bad. For many, the group has become, in some strange way, their god, which can become a stumbling block to our relationship with the Savior.

Don’t misunderstand me; I am not suggesting that we seek the quiet solitude of the monastic life and seclude ourselves from others. But if the lion’s share of our time in discipleship is spent in community, we will end up looking more like the community than the One in whose name we gather: our Lord Jesus Christ. We must balance our time by being both “all together” and “all alone” if we are going to grow into the person God is calling us to be.

We have all heard the statement, “There is safety in numbers.” But we must remember that God is not calling us to safety, because safety does not sanctify. He is calling us to an intimate, personal relationship with our Savior, who alone sanctifies, and that relationship requires not only “all together” time, but “all alone” time as well.

So . . . how balanced is the time you spend each week with God? Would it serve you well to set aside a little more all alone time with Jesus?

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

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1)

Because we are created beings, we owe our existence to our Creator, whether we acknowledge this truth or not. The unbeliever owes the exact same debt to God that the believer does regarding our creation; as Job said, “In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10).

But is there anything “extra” when it comes to the Christian? Our Lord Jesus Christ has staked three claims upon every one of His children. Let’s take a look . . . and get ready to be supernaturally strengthened by the truth!

Claim #1 – Natural

First, God places His claim upon everyone from the natural (or creational) standpoint. In Exodus 20:11 we read, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” The psalmist writes, “It is he who made us, and we are his” (Psalm 100:3), and the Sovereign Lord has made His rightful claim: “Every living soul belongs to me” (Ezekiel 18:4).

Claim #2 – Legal

Second, God in Christ places His claim upon all those whom He has redeemed. The prophet Isaiah says, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22). The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Claim #3 – Personal

Finally, Jesus now stakes His claim upon us because of the relationship that He, by His blood, has brought us into: “I beg you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1).

Don’t miss this: Having made His rightful claim on us, both naturally and legally, our Lord Jesus still comes to us with the most intimate and personal appeal. Jesus makes His third claim, not based on His natural and legal rights as Lord of lords, but rather He makes His claim for our surrender and submission based upon His sufferings on the cross. As true and right as both His natural and legal claim are, they will only take relationship so far. It is mercy that ministers to the mind and melts the heart.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has three claims on every Christian—on you and me. You are His, naturally, legally, and personally. As powerful as it is to know that we are His, for He is “the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways,” (Daniel 5:23 NKJV), how powerfully encouraging it is to know that the Sovereign Lord of all the universe invites us into a personal relationship with Him! Jesus, the loving Lamb of God, says to you:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

(Matthew 11:28-30)

Christian, if that doesn’t light the fire of your faith and encourage you to live exclusively for Jesus, your wood is wet!

Let’s close with these words from Jeremiah, which reveal just how gracious and how glorious these three claims on you truly are: “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3).

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

God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Medical textbooks define myopia as a condition which causes visual images to come into focus in front of the retina, resulting in defective vision of distant objects. In other words, myopia is an improper focus, which causes faraway objects to appear fuzzy or blurred, though we clearly see what is close to us. A recent study by the National Eye Institute found that the prevalence of myopia grew from 25% in 1971 to a whopping 41% of Americans aged 12–54 today.

Whether you are one of those affected by physical myopia, I do not know. But I do know that virtually 100% of Christians are affected by spiritual myopia more often than we would care to admit. Our improper focus makes the promises of God appear uncertain, while our present problems are crystal clear, which causes us to be overcome by doubt, fear, and despondency.

So what is the cure for this kind of myopia? Odd as it may sound, we will be restored to 20/20 spiritual vision when we remember that every problem we face actually proves the promises of God. Look at it this way: in today’s verse we read that God has promised to meet all of your needs. Any true problem that you are currently facing is a need that certainly must be met.

• Difficulties at work
• Loneliness in your singleness
• Troubles in your family life
• Too much month left at the end of the money

Not only does the problem prove the existence of God’s promises, but also His provisions too. The riches of His glory in Christ Jesus are limitless and available for all who call on His name. Every problem we face has a corresponding promise and provision that will meet us in our deepest place of need. The problem for the children of Israel wandering out in the desert was a lack of food and water. The problem proved the promise and provision of God, because God had promised to care for His people, and that meant He would give them food to eat and water to drink. So manna rained down from heaven and water sprang forth from a rock.

What problems are you facing today? God has promised to supply all that you need, and He will do it! As I wrote in the previous article, Scripture assures us that “No matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:20). And He promises time and again to meet us at our every point of need.

Remember that every problem, no matter how daunting, presupposes both the promise and provision of God. Tell Him what you are struggling with today. He cares for you. He wants to hear from you! Look past your problem to see the Prince of Peace, who has promised to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Instead of heading to the optometrist’s office, let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace and let the Great Physician correct our myopia today.

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

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. (Ezekiel 36:25)

Oh, what a word of encouragement we have before us today! The Lord, who shed His blood on Calvary’s hill to pay the penalty for all our sins and bring us into the family of faith, has promised us the supernatural cleansing of the Holy Spirit. Notice these words: and you will be clean. Of all the promises of God that are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20), this one should come to us like a cosmic cheer, encouraging us to keep fighting the good fight of faith.

However, I am convinced that this truth will cheer us only to the extent that we understand just how unclean we truly are. If we, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, believe ourselves to be already clean and thank God that we are not like other men, this promise won’t mean all that much to us. But if we are like that tax collector who cried out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13 NASB), we will be supernaturally strengthened and encouraged to press on toward the goal. Only the dirty can fully grasp and appreciate what it means to be truly clean.

Look at just how great this promise is. God will cleanse us from all our impurities. He will clean up our language; He will sanctify our desires; He will purify our thought life. But that’s not all! God also promises to cleanse us from all our idols. And who of you reading this right now can count the number of idols to which you have bent the knee and bowed your heart?

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Idols? What idols? I don’t bow down to some sacred cow or golden calf!” No, in this culture we are far too sophisticated for that. Instead, we bow to the approval and applause of others, the achievements we produce, and the assets we possess. We make idols of our work, our families, our relationships, even our hobbies and recreations. But God will send His Spirit to make us clean from our sins . . . and our idol worship too.

So regardless of where this finds you today, please be encouraged! God has promised a supernatural shower that will one day bring to completion the work He has begun in you. Until that day, keep looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, knowing that He who has promised to cleanse you will not fail, regardless of the uncleanliness that still remains.

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

My expectation is from Him. (Psalm 62:5 NKJV)

One of the common denominators that comes up in many pastoral counseling sessions is “unmet” expectations. The primary reason for this is due to the fact that we tend to put our expectations upon someone other than God. Let me make something perfectly clear right up front: no one other than God Omnipotent can bear the weight of our expectations. Oh, the world will make promises multiplied, but they simply cannot produce.

David knew this truth and centered his expectations on the Eternal One. When our expectation is from Him, we are never left with an unmet expectation. When we set our desires on nothing less than God’s perfect will in our imperfect lives, our expectations will not only be met, they will be abundantly exceeded.

Jesus never had an unmet expectation because every moment of His life was spent in the eager expectation of the Father’s perfect will. His life of prayer and constant communion with His Father caused Jesus to seek and savor God’s eternal plan for His life, which met His every expectation.

Here is the key to unlocking the door leading to never having another unmet expectation. It is not in lowering your expectations; rather, it is in raising your expectation to God. God has promised to meet your every need, but not your every want. To be sure, God meets many of our wants along the way, but the promise is for our needs:

“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

God has never broken that promise to anyone at any time. He hears our prayers and answers them according to His plan and purpose for our lives. As I often remind the congregation at Cross Community Church, sometimes God says “Yes,” and our expectation has been met; sometimes God says “Wait,” and our expectation has been met; and sometimes God says “No,” and our expectation has been met. How can it be that our expectation is met when God’s answer is “Wait” or “No”? Because when our expectation is from God, we receive His response with joy and gladness, whatever it is, because we trust that our God always works in our lives for our ultimate good.
Where does this find you today? Have you been dealing with some unmet expectations? If so, then you can be sure your expectation is not from Him. You have put your expectation in something smaller than God, and it simply cannot support the weight of your expectations.

When your expectations are from Him, they will never go unmet. That is true not only in this life, but in the next life also. Heavenly glory awaits you and the joyful expectation of hearing the words, “Well done.” Your room has already been prepared, but the door has not yet been opened for you to enter . . . which means that God still has work for you to do here! So do that work for His glory, and you can be assured that your expectations will be abundantly exceeded.

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

While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

After having spent all of his inheritance on riotous living, the Prodigal Son was left with nothing but the memory of what he once had: a roof over his head . . . food to eat . . . a bed to sleep in. Most importantly, he had a father who loved him with all of his heart. But he had turned his back on all that and set off to a distant country. It did not go well for him there. Now, sensing his overwhelming need, he imagined what it would be like to be back home, even if only as a servant rather than a son. And so, with a heart filled with a godly sorrow for the way he had spurned his father, the Prodigal set out for home. No doubt he was feeling some trepidation; when he had asked for his inheritance while his father was still alive, he was essentially saying, “I wish you were dead now!”

Take a second look at today’s verse; you read that the father saw the son “while he was still a long way off.” Do you see what that presupposes? The father was looking for and longing after the return of his son. Each day the father looked off into the distance, hoping that this might be the day when his son would return home. Finally that day arrived, and the father could not even wait for the son to walk up to the front door. Filled with compassion, the father ran out to meet him. Now, in the patriarchal culture of Jesus’ day, fathers just did not do this sort of thing! It would be considered undignified and embarrassing.

As the father was running toward the son, you can be sure that the son’s anxiety was accelerating. What kind of greeting was he about to receive? Would his father scold him for his utterly foolish behavior? Would his father rebuke him for his harsh, unfeeling words when they had last been together? The son knew he had that coming—he deserved a good tongue-lashing! But this was his great fear: Would his father disown him and order him to turn around and leave at once? No doubt the Prodigal was nervously rehearsing his apology one more time: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men” (Luke 15:18-19).

But because the father in the story represents God our Father, he did the one thing that the Prodigal hadn’t expected—what he hadn’t dared even to hope for. The father threw his arms around his son and kissed him! The son began to confess his sin, but his father interrupted him:

The father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:22-24)

In other words, the son would be received back in the same capacity in which he left—as his father’s son! This is what I call the “Prodigal Promise.” We are all prodigal children who wander away from our Father more often than we would like to admit. We turn away from our Father’s plan and purpose for our lives, determined to blaze our own trail. Perhaps it may seem like we made the right decision for a while. But before long, we find ourselves in the same sorry circumstances as the Prodigal: empty, unfulfilled, and desperate.

There is only one thing left to do at this point: return to our Father. That’s right; no matter what we have done or failed to do, the Prodigal Promise is offered to all who will simply return to the Father.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

How is it with you today? Do you feel like a prodigal son or daughter? Have you wandered away from your Father in heaven? Fear not! Your heavenly Father is waiting and watching for your return. And please remember this: your Father will not wait for you to get all the way home.

“Come near to God,” James promised, “and he will come near to you. . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:8, 10). While you are still a long way off, your God will come running with open arms and nail-scarred hands. Your final steps toward home will find His kiss still warm upon your cheek.

Now that’s a homecoming worth coming home to!

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

I have refined you in the furnace of affliction.  (Isaiah 48:10)

Some Christians believe that redemption is the end of God’s great work of salvation. That is simply not true; redemption leads to refining. We have been redeemed to be refined, and God will not stop His work in us—conforming us to the image and likeness of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ—until He has completed it.

God saved us just as we are—dead in our trespasses and sins. But He steadfastly refuses to leave us in the condition in which we redeemed. Redemption’s goal is to refine us into the image and likeness of our Redeemer. It doesn’t happen in a day; God is refining us little by little, day by day, removing the sinful self and replacing it with the sinless Savior. And we must remember that God has promised to accomplish this through the furnace of affliction. God uses the fiery furnace to refine us, and if that furnace must be heated seven times hotter to accomplish the task, so be it! But we can be confident that our Lord is right there in the fire with us, just as He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3:25).

It is far better to be refined by God and rejected by the world than to be refined by the world and rejected by God. In the beginning, God created us in His image. But when sin entered into humanity, that image was marred. When God raises us from death to life by giving us the gifts of repentance and faith, He begins the process of refining that distorted image into the very likeness of His Son. And what God starts, He always finishes, which means that He who began this good work will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6). But that simply will not happen without time spent in the refining fire.

So . . . what fiery furnace are you facing today—personally, professionally, or relationally? Remember, when Jesus prayed for you in His High Priestly Prayer, He did not pray for you to be taken out of this world; no, He prayed that you would be protected from the evil one (John 17:15) while you remain in the world. We are here in the world to witness for our Savior; God often calls us to live out that witness in the furnace of affliction—not the furnace of affluence!

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

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God has blocked my way with a high stone wall. (Lamentations 3:9)

How we love to proceed unhindered from point A to point B in our daily pursuits! So how is it possible that there is a blessing to be found when the way we are attempting to travel is blocked? When God blocks the way in which we are going, we can be assured that He has ordained a special blessing for us by sending us in another direction.

One thing we can be sure of: God did not block the way because He means us harm, nor does He intend to weaken our witness. On the contrary, the blocked way is delivered to us by our loving heavenly Father, who is calling us to trust Him even when we cannot trace Him. The blocked way is designed to direct us in a new direction that God wants us to travel, one which will be for His greater glory and our greater good. The Bible is full of examples of the blessing of the blocked way, but perhaps none is better than the account of Saul on the road to Damascus.

Saul was in hot pursuit of those who were followers of the Way, “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples,” (Acts 9:1), and seeking to arrest and imprison any that he found. He requested letters to take to the synagogues in Damascus to get assistance in arresting Christians, both men and women, with the goal of bringing them back to Jerusalem in chains. But God had another plan for Saul.

As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:3-4)

Jesus blocked Saul’s way to Damascus because He had a much better way for Saul to travel. After receiving a divine healing from his brief bout of blindness, Saul began to go into the synagogues, preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. The blessing of the blocked way turned Saul the persecutor into Paul the preacher, who penned almost half of the New Testament. Saul had his own plans for his life, but God sovereignly directed every one of his steps (Proverbs 16:9).

And the same is true for you. The blessing of the blocked way simply cannot be overstated. Regardless of where this message finds you today, if God has blocked the way before you, you can trust that He has a better way for you to go! God formed you and shaped you; He knows you intimately, even numbering the hairs on your head. He knows exactly what you need and when you need it. He is calling you into His perfect plan for your imperfect life—and, more often than not, that plan will include a few “detours” along the way.

Remember, the blessing of the blocked way will only be realized when you get to the other side of it. So, don’t give up and don’t give in!

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