Category Archives: General

For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Corinthians 12:10)

I have learned by way of personal experience that the devil loves when we think we are standing strong and able to withstand any wind of temptation or trial in life that blows our way. Because when we think we are beyond the reach of temptation or certain trials, that’s when we are most vulnerable to find ourselves knee deep in it.

The apostle Paul gives us a wonderful reminder to acknowledge our weakness because we all have a tendency to think we are stronger than we actually are. We have a tendency to serve God in our own strength and ability and lean on our own understanding rather than His. And when we do, we are setting ourselves up for a fall. But when we acknowledge our need for God and our dependence upon Him, He is ready, willing, and able to fill us with His strength and that empowers us to withstand the slings and arrows of our enemy, the devil. Only when we are living in the power of the Holy Spirit can we be effective in living out the plan and purpose God has for our lives.

The key in understanding how Paul could live out this truth he penned is found in the words in the first part of the verse, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties” (2 Corinthians 12:10). It was for Christ’s sake, that Paul could acknowledge his weakness and depend totally upon the Lord to strengthen him regardless of the circumstances he was facing in life. Paul could actually find contentment in so many difficult circumstances because it was for Christ’s sake and the expansion of the cause of His Kingdom.

So, in Paul’s test of strength by acknowledging weakness, what grade do you get? We live in a world that abhors weakness. But God takes our weakness and uses it as a witness to His glory. As we trust and depend upon Jesus, we enter into the “Hall of Faith” along with some of the great saints of God “whose weakness was turned into strength” (Hebrews 11:34). Remember, when we acknowledge our weakness, God makes us more than conquerors through Christ who loved us.    

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

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. (Galatians 3:13)

Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the entire human race has been living in exile – far away from God and our true home. In the ancient world, a conquered people would be exiled from their homeland to be made slaves in the land of the conqueror. This brought with it a special kind of sorrow and the people of God knew this first hand as God’s judgment upon them for their continued disobedience. When we read through both the Old and New Testaments, we are to read all of it in light of it being an “end-of-exile” story, that finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

But when Jesus shows up, we begin our long journey home – not by our own efforts, but rather by His. You see, the journey is too long; the road is too rough; and the travel is way too tiring. Only in His strength can we make our way back into our Promised Land. When Jesus left heaven and took on flesh and dwelt among us, He was on His rescue mission. He came to rescue us from our exile and He did it by way of the cross. Jesus willingly laid down His life for all those who would trust in Him alone for eternal life.

Remember, through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection from the grave, Jesus became the End of our exile by inaugurating His eternal kingdom. He ended it through His suffering on behalf of us sinners. God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus and all the curses of the covenant were fulfilled because of His faithfulness. Jesus is the True Israel and through His total obedience to His Father, He came to set the captives free, and that includes you and me. We are pilgrims passing through as we make our way to our eternal home in the new heavens and earth. Let this be the confession of our lives.   

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

Whoever is patient has great understanding . . .  (Proverbs 14:29)

We all have heard the phrase, “Patience is a virtue.” The question is, do we know how to even define the word patience? One of the best definitions I have come across for patience is “waiting without complaining.” And who reading this today can say that is an easy thing to do in this life?

Now when the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy and everything is going our way, the practice of patience is easy to do. Only when the waves of challenge begin to wash over us do we have a tendency to grow impatient. But we need to remember how the Word of God praises patience as a fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of the disciple of Christ. This is a gift that is given to every believer and the way we demonstrate in our lives reveals our faith, trust, and dependence on our Redeemer.

It’s important to add some insight into the word “waiting.” It is not passive, but filled with activity that is submitted and surrendered to the will of God.

“Therefore since we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the in which so easily entangles, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1)

It’s hard to picture someone running by passively waiting on all the other runners. Rather, to run with patience is to run with perseverance through the storms winds that blow and the challenging circumstances that come up against us. Remember, because this is a practice, patience will not be developed in a day, but daily. God will send us circumstances designed to test our faith and train our faithfulness. Our goal is to keep our eyes on Jesus knowing He has promised to get us through our race with freedom, joy, and faithfulness, bringing glory to God and good to all others.

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

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Numbers 13:33)

God could not have been any bigger in the eyes of the Israelites. He had freed them from bondage in Egypt after 450 years. He decimated the land with ten plagues, turned the Red Sea into a highway, and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army after His people walked across on dry ground. He gave them water from a rock and manna from heaven. Now they were ready to go into the Promised Land and receive God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in that moment of decision, they shrunk the size of their God in their eyes and in their hearts.

God sent twelve men to spy out the land He had promised to them and ten came back with a negative report (they shrunk the size of God), and two came back with a positive report (they magnified the size of God). It was true that the people in the land were big and the city walls were fortified, but God had promised to give it to them. Ten spies saw powerful people. Two spies saw God’s powerful promise. Where ten spies saw obstacles, two spies saw opportunities. Where ten spies saw problems, two spies saw possibilities. Ten spies said, “We can’t!” Two spies said, “We can!” All twelve spies saw the exact same things in the Promised Land. The difference in the report was rooted in the fact that ten spies looked through the eyes of the flesh while two spies looked through the eyes of faith. What lenses have you been looking through lately in your life?

When was the last time you shrunk the size of your God because you were looking through the eyes of the flesh? Remember, with man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible. When God makes a promise to you, you can be sure He will keep it. Nothing can keep God from fulfilling His promises to you. No weapon formed against you shall prevail because your God is bigger than any obstacle that stands in your way from entering into your Promised Land. So, how big is your God? It all depends on whether you are looking through the eyes of the flesh or the eyes of faith!

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

On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:16)

In the game of checkers, the statement “King Me” refers to the time when a player moves a piece to the last row on the enemy’s side of the board and gets to elevate the rank of his piece to “King” by stacking another piece on top of it. In the game of life, the statement “King Me” refers to the time when we remove Jesus from the throne of our lives so we can sit atop of it.

When we remove Jesus from the throne of our lives and take His rightful place, we make everything in our lives all about me. Rather than love for Jesus ruling our hearts and shaping our lives, love for self takes over. We become a demanding king who expects to be served and satisfied by everyone and everything. At this level of living, we are looking to get from others only what God can give to us. This only leads to frustration and disappointment in our relationships because no one can ever measure up to those kinds of demands.

But when we shift our focus away from the self and put it on our Savior, we say, “King He” allowing Jesus to rule and reign in our lives. Now His rule and reign is not always what we expect or even want, but it is always what we need and when we need it. When we look back over the years we can see when Jesus did not meet our expectations, it was because He exceeded them. Jesus is always working things out in our lives for our ultimate eternal good and that includes all the things we don’t like. You see, sin often causes us to question the goodness of our God because we see only a tiny portion of our lives. But because God sees it all from beginning to end, we can always trust that He is guiding us into His perfect plan and purpose for our lives through all of our imperfections.

So, what do you say today? Is it “King Thee” or “King Me?” How you answer that question makes all the difference in the world in how you experience the abundant and victorious life Jesus has promised to all those who keep Him on the throne of their lives.

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

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path. (Matthew 13:3-4)

The soil of the sanctified life can get a bit hard from time to time. It can happen when we face unexpected challenges. It can happen when we face unmet expectations. It can happen when we encounter unforeseen loss. Because life is hard it can, from time to time, harden us. So, we must always be on the lookout for any signs of “hard soil” in our hearts and allow God to till it with the truths of the gospel. Below are two simple steps to take that can help in the process of softening the hard soil in the heart.

Examination:

The first step is to take time for self-reflection. This is the time to let the Scriptures search our hearts to uncover and areas that may be growing cold, distant, or hard. We must first identify where the hard soil is before we can go to work on softening it.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

In this passage David is asking God to make sure his hatred for his enemies is not man-centered, but rather, God-centered. David was zealous for the justice of God and he wanted God to point him in the direction of any wrong motives so God could change them.

Excavation:

The second step is to let the Lord do His work in softening the hard soil by digging down into the depths of the heart through the truths of Scripture.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

Here David is asking God to excavate his heart that was hardened through his adultery and murder. He knew it would take a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to till the hard soil so God could then begin to plant new and better seeds of both thoughts and desires.

In today’s passage we are to understand that unlike our paved roads today, in Jesus’ day, most of the roads were simply hardened dirt-packed paths. The more they were traveled upon, the harder they become. The consequences were clear, “and the birds came and ate it up” (Matthew 13:5). Perhaps you have been trampled upon by the difficulties of life. Don’t let the birds steal your seed. Look to Jesus and He will soften the soil and the seed will take root and produce new fruit.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

As it has been said, “There are no coincidences in this world. Only God incidences.”  Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of Almighty God. If God knows the number of hairs on our heads and a sparrow does not fall to the ground apart from His care, then we can be assured that everything is happening according to His plan and purpose.

God has left absolutely nothing to chance. Rather, He has left it all to Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Author and the Perfector of our faith. The writer of Hebrews says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3).

Now, in our finitude, we simply cannot fully plumb the depths of how God in His providence, is controlling all things for His glory and our eternal good. Yet, we must still affirm, “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever” (Romans 11:36). This truth is to empower us to move through life with a confidence that is rooted in the One who accomplishes everything according to the counsel His will through His perfect wisdom, perfect power, perfect holiness, perfect goodness, perfect mercy, perfect grace, and perfect love, just to name a few of His perfections.

So, let us cling to the promise of our Scripture verse today. Regardless of what we encounter throughout this day and every day on our way into glory, we can rest assured that God is in control of it all and using it all for His glory and our good. Remember, we need not fear what the future holds because we know the One who holds it. As we receive, rest in, and thank God for His providence in our lives, let us leave coincidence to the unbelieving and watching world, who believe stuff just happens for no particular reason.  

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

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

When Jesus said we would not get through this life without experiencing pain in a variety of different forms, He meant what He said. Yet, inasmuch as we experience pain on our way into glory, we will not be marked by stain. C. S. Lewis put this biblical truth in this most profound way:

“God, who foresaw your tribulation has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.”

Notice how Lewis tells us how God has armed us to go through our trials and tribulations. He did not say God would steer us over, under, or around it. Rather, God takes us through it to grow and mature us in our faith and in so doing, He is conforming us to the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus. Perhaps our first prayer should not be, “Lord, please take this trial away!” but rather, “Lord, as you take me through this trial, thank you for making me more like Jesus.”

In the Old Testament story of Jacob and his twelve sons, we learn how Joseph was favored by his father and hated by his brothers. One day Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him, but instead decided to sell him into slavery. Joseph was taken down into Egypt and served as a slave and a prisoner for 13 years. After God used him to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, he was elevated into the second position of authority in Egypt. During the famine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Here they encounter their brother Joseph without knowing it. Eventually Joseph reveals himself to them and said these life-changing words, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is not being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

Clearly Joseph experienced much pain throughout those thirteen years, but this statement makes it clear his pain was without stain. He saw God’s sovereign hand in all of it and knew that God was in complete control of everything. Joseph knew there was purpose in his pain and God’s purpose would not leave a stain. Let that truth set us all free to say along with the apostle Paul, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

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

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  (John 15:13)

Today, many will enjoy time off from work while grilling out with friends and family as they celebrate Memorial Day. This is the day we pause to say thank you to those brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice by freely giving their last full measure of devotion in defense of our country and for the cause of freedom around the world. We honor those heroes who willingly served and sacrificed their lives because they loved their country and their fellow man. We say thank you to all those who died defending our nation and to all those family members left behind. But that’s not all.

From a biblical perspective, I want to offer a deeper meaning to this annual holiday under the title Memorial Day Everyday, a sermon I preached yesterday at The Cross (www.thecrosscc.org – click on “watch our livestream”). The sacrifice of our military personnel is both moving and meaningful. But the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is miraculous. Our military sacrificed defending our nation. Jesus sacrificed for every tongue, tribe, and nation. The sacrifice of our military personal has brought to us benefits that are only temporal and physical. The sacrifice of Jesus brought to us benefits that are eternal and spiritual. And if that was not enough, when God the Father sent God the Son into this world to pay the penalty for sin, it was for His enemies, not His friends.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, thought for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

Here we see the sinless Savior of the world dying for those who were his enemies. This demonstrates a love that is simply supernatural. Jesus took the place of rebels on the run away from Him when He was nailed to a cross and died an unimaginable death while we were still sinners and His sworn enemies. Jesus died to make it possible for enemies like us to be redeemed and reconciled to Him as His friends.   

So, today, we celebrate the freedom we enjoy in our nation because of all those who have fought and died for it. But let this day remind all of us of the truth that Christ’s death brings the greatest freedom one can hope for – freedom from our bondage to sin, Satan, and our last enemy death. Pause to praise Jesus today, who purchased all those who trust in Him, by grace through faith, as their Savior, freely laying down His life to make available to us the greatest gift of all, eternal life with Jesus and all the saints of God.    

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

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)

There is a story of a woman in England who came to her vicar with a troubled conscience. The vicar knew her to be a habitual gossip – she had maligned nearly everyone in the village. “How can I make amends?” she pleaded. The vicar said, “If you want to make peace with your conscience, take a bag of goose feathers and drop one on the porch of each one you have slandered.” When she had done so, she came back to the vicar and said, “Is that all?” “No,” said the wise old minister, “you must go now and gather up every feather and bring them all back to me.” After a long time the woman returned without a single feather. “The wind has blown them all away,” she said. “My good woman,” said the vicar, “so it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again.”

Not much commentary needed on a story like that. To be sure, the tongue is a very small thing indeed, but what enormous damage it can do to those we wag it at. Gossip isn’t harmless. It is a poisonous form of communication and has shipwrecked the lives of countless relationships between family members, friends, co-workers, and our brothers and sisters in the Lord. So how do we rise above the toxic talk that can come out of our mouths. We need to remember this one simple Scripture and keep it before us every time we open our mouths –

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

If we are going to speak life, we must think before we speak. We need to think about the power of our words and be committed to speaking life through words that build up rather than tear down. Remember, unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again. As the wise preacher tells us, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18). By God’s grace, may reckless words never be the confession of our lives.

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