Category Archives: General

Most church pews are filled with men and women who affirm the inspiration and authority of sacred Scripture. This is a good thing. However, if affirming the inspiration and authority of sacred Scripture does not translate into changing our beliefs and altering our behavior, it is of very little value in the life of the Christian.

The searing searchlight of sacred Scripture has been given to us by God to renew our minds, enlarge our hearts, and bend our wills. Is this the confession of your life today? Is the Word of God the functional authority in your personal and professional life?

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  (Hebrews 4:12)

Because the Word of God is living and active, it is to function in our lives in such a way as to rule our hearts and shape our lives. It is to test our tightly held traditions and challenge our current comfort zones. It is to dismantle every deity we have designed in the idol-making factory of our unholy hearts—from power and pleasure to prosperity and prestige. Because the Word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword, it will cut away everything that does not conform us to the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ—in thought, word, deed, and desire.

Because the Word of God is living, it will impart life to those who marinate in it and meditate on it. The apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, asserted that “The holy Scriptures . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). The Word of God brings life where there is death. It brings health where there is disease. It brings hope where there is hopelessness. And because it is active, it is designed to empower the believer to pursue a life that is pleasing to God. It changes the orientation of the heart from beating for the self to beating for the Savior.

The searing searchlight of sacred Scripture is always on. If the world around you begins to darken, the Word of God shines brighter! If you begin to lose your way, it becomes a celestial compass to guide you through every storm and return you to the path God is calling you to walk. Regardless of where this message finds you today, you can be sure that the searing searchlight of sacred Scripture will be . . .

•  A lamp to your feet
•  A light to your path
•  A rock for your foundation
•  An anchor for your soul
•  A shield of protection against the attacks of the enemy
•  A deep well of living water to slake your every thirst

As the Word of God judges the thoughts and attitudes of your heart, it will be the catalyst and cause of your spiritual growth. Whether you hear it in a sermon, Bible study lesson, in your personal time of devotion, or through the loving counsel of a godly friend, it will be the rich soil in which the seeds of the supernatural are carefully sown, producing a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

The Word of God both tells and transforms . . . announces and accomplishes . . . and nothing in all creation can stop it from doing exactly what God has ordained it to do in your life. “For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:27.)

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

If someone was going to write about you in a book and describe the life you are currently living, how would you like to be described?  As a faithful friend?  A loving parent?  A hard worker?  A super servant?

To be sure, none of us would want to be described in someone’s book the way John, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, described Diotrephes in sacred Scripture.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.  (3 John 9-10)

So Diotrephes . . .

• Loves to be first
• Will have nothing to do with church authority
• Gossips maliciously
• Refuses to welcome the brothers
• Hinders others from welcoming the brothers
• Puts them out of the church

WOW!  Being chronicled by name in sacred Scripture with this kind of life confession leaves a lot to be desired.  A whole lot!  Now, you and I don’t know what was going on in the heart of Diotrephes that made him dislike, distrust, and disrupt the apostle’s ministry.  But it would serve us well to pause and see where our story intersects with his story.  Why?  Because, like Diotrephes, we are all sinners—both by nature and habit.  Given the right (or wrong) environment and circumstances, we all might do some of the very same things.  After all, which one of us does not love to be first?

The only cure for such a carnal chronicle is the Gospel.  The Gospel truths enlarge our view of Jesus. As He increases in our lives, we begin to decrease.  We no longer are driven by our need of being first. We rest in the Gospel truth that many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first (Matthew 19:30).  We no longer feel the need of wagging our gossiping tongues in the direction of others, putting others down to lift ourselves up.  We learn what Paul learned about being content because he knew he had everything he needed because he had Jesus (Philippians 4:11-13).

So . . . if someone were chronicling your life, what would you hope would be said about you? What if a researcher interviewed those closest to you . . . what do you think they might say about you? Well, if there is a difference between your answer to the first question and your answer to the second, you still have time to do something about it!

Check out the chronicle of a woman who is identified only as “Peter’s mother-in-law.”

When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. (Matthew 8:14-15)

What a wonderful thing to have written about Peter’s mother-in-law, especially in light of the plethora of mother-in-law jokes circulating today! Peter’s mother-in-law moved from sickness to service—from fever to faithfulness.  Clearly, Jesus was on the throne of her life and her heart beat to bless Him.  May this be the confession of our lives . . . and the chronicle that appears if our name is ever recorded in someone’s book.

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

What has you restless lately? Are you facing uncertainty at the office? Are you dealing with difficulty in your marriage? Are you struggling with your season of singleness? Do you find too much month left at the end of the money?

If you stroll into a bookstore, you’ll find a plethora of books in a section labeled “Self-Help”—books that promise to give you the cure to what is ailing your restless heart. But make no mistake; the self-help field is no help at all! That is why the message today is a word of holy help from on high and contains a prescription for going from restless to resting.

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth!  (Psalm 46:10)

The command to “be still” seems counterintuitive in the world we live in today, doesn’t it? It seems as though God did not know just how much would be going on in our lives when He gave us this divine imperative to simply be still and know Him. But infinite Wisdom knew everything about us and the lives we would be living . . . and He knew just how critical it would be for our restless hearts to rest in Him and be still if we are ever going to live the life we have been called to live.

In the words of St. Augustine, “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” Often we remember the first half of the prescription—“Be still”—but forget about the last half: “and know that I am God.” The only answer to the vacuum in our restless hearts is in knowing God and growing in our personal relationship with Him. Knowing the Father through the cross-work of His Son, as applied to our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the cure for every ailment that causes our restlessness. As we both rest in and rehearse the Gospel truths in our lives, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, the enlarging of our hearts, and the bending of our wills.

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11)

Think about looking at life through a camera lens. The more you move around, the blurrier the picture. We have all taken pictures like that and thought how nice the picture would have been if there was less movement. That is why some of the best photography in the world is done with the camera mounted on a tripod so as to keep it still. When we “be still” in God’s presence, our vision becomes clearer . . . which empowers us to keep moving in the direction God is calling us to go.

Our hearts were redeemed to beat for the things of God. We are to be pursuing God, serving God, and loving God. When God is at the center of our lives, we will know Him better and better with each passing day. The command to “be still” will be part of our daily living. And at this level of living, we will consistently move from restlessness to resting.

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

For the believer, the answer to the question “Who’s the boss?” is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet every moment of every day countless other “bosses” try to gain the attention of our minds, the affection of our hearts, and the application of our wills. Our minds, our hearts, and our wills will be ruled by something; there is no disputing that fact. The question before us is: “Who—or what—will rule?”

For some, their work is their boss. They live for career advancement and climbing the proverbial ladder of success. For others, achieving financial security is their boss. They live for building “bigger barns” and storing as much as they possibly can. For some, their boss is their painful past. They simply cannot get past the past; instead of learning from it, they live in it. Still others are ruled by a fantasized future. They live in a world of “waiting for their ship to come in,” always looking for the big score rather than daily progress. I could go on, but you get the point. When anything smaller than Jesus is our boss, we shrink the borders of our lives down to painfully narrow borders of survival and self-protection. And this is no place for a believer to be living!

When Jesus is our boss, we live for something greater than the life we are living. When Jesus is our boss, we live a life that truly matters, a life filled with significance, meaning, and purpose. There are no mundane moments when we are living for the Master. Small things become big things. Unimportant things become important things. Common things become uncommon things. The Creator constructed us to live at this level of transcendence—a level of living that is greater than our level of living. Because the One we serve is larger than life, we are to be living for something larger than life!

You’ll remember that back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were not created to live a life of self-indulgence, self-satisfaction, and self-rule. They were commissioned by God to live a life of transcendence, above and beyond themselves, and they were given the ability to do what nothing else in creation was equipped and empowered to do.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”  (Genesis 1:26-28)

God was their boss and the life they were living truly mattered. They were to have dominion over all things. They were to be fruitful and multiply. They were to be the stewards of God’s creation and slaves to nothing. But when they replaced God on the throne of their lives and made themselves the boss, they denied their own humanity and disconnected themselves from the only One who could meet them in their place of deepest need.

So . . . who is the boss in your life today? What have you been living for lately? What does the confession of your life say? Remember, when God is the boss our lives, we are being shaped—not by the creation—but by the One who created us: our Creator God.

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

We have all heard the expression, “Fake it ‘til you make it!” The idea is also expressed as “Act as if . . .” Both phrases mean to act as if you have confidence in a process, and as the process produces success, it will generate genuine confidence. The purpose is to avoid getting stuck in a self-fulfilling prophecy: lack of confidence in a positive result leading to a negative result. The phrase, which was popularized by various 12-step recovery groups in the late twentieth century, is a simplification of Aristotle’s notion that acting virtuously will make one virtuous.

Well, I have both good news and bad news for you today. The bad news is that acting as if you are virtuous will never make you virtuous. Only God, in His grace, makes a vile sinner virtuous. The good news is that after God has made a vile sinner virtuous by His grace, we no longer have to “Fake it ‘til we make it,” because we already have made it . . . thanks to what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Those who fake it ‘til they make it are working entirely in their own strength. They are walking by sight and not by faith, and rarely do they “make it” as they had intended. We can understand the reason why an unbeliever would use this approach, but this should be as far as the east is from the west for the Christian believer!

Sadly, there are a great many men and women in the church today who put on a good show and fake their faith on Sunday, but Monday through Saturday you can’t tell them apart from the unbelieving world. Their language is not seasoned with salt, but rather peppered with profanity. Their behavior is not a light for a dark world, but rather mirrors the moral morass of the world’s system.

But this is not for you!

“I will strengthen them in the LORD and in his name they will walk,” declares the LORD.  (Zechariah 10:12)

God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

(2 Corinthians 9:8-9 ESV)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  (Philippians 4:13 NKJV)

With promises like these, the notion that we should fake it ‘til we make it seems silly, doesn’t it? The Lord God omnipotent promises to strengthen us in our faith so that we will walk in His name rather than follow the ways of the world. He will make all His grace abound to us, so that we may abound in good works—in all good works that are done through Christ who gives us strength.

These glorious promises of putting the Gospel on display in a way that makes God attractive are grounded in God’s sufficiency, not our own. Walking by faith and not by sight lifts us far above any need to “fake it” for anyone, at any time, and for any conceivable reason.

Once we trust God’s promise of progress in this life (note that I said progress, not perfection), we are liberated to lean into the plan and purpose God has for our lives without any fear of falling or failure. Remember, falling isn’t failing unless you fail to get up. Proverbs assures us that “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again” (Proverbs 24:16). We must hold firm to God’s promise to complete what He started, including includes what He started in you! Yes, you are a work in progress, and it’s true that progress won’t be complete until you are received into glory, but it will be completed! You can take that to the spiritual bank.

Until that day, let us do all we can with all God has given us to do it with, knowing that the power of heaven stands behind us, so there is never any need to fake it.

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

How often we speak of the heart. “I love you with all my heart,” we’ll say, or “He really put his heart into it,” or “Her heart must be breaking.” Shakespeare wrote, “I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart.” But who really knows the heart?

Lord, you know everyone’s heart.  (Acts 1:24)

It is one thing to speak about the heart; it is another thing altogether to actually know the heart. The Author of Scripture also formed the heart of man (Job 31:15), and the Bible tells us that the human heart is so ensnared by sin, so wicked and deceitful that it is beyond our understanding (Jeremiah 17:9). Make no mistake; the Cosmic Cardiologist really knows the human heart, which is why the prayer of the psalmist must be the confession of our lives.

Search me, O God, and know my heart. (Psalm 139:23)

It is the wise person who cries out to our Cosmic Cardiologist to search the heart; the fool thinks his heart needs no searching. By nature we all think we are better than we really are; we think more highly of ourselves than we should! We compare ourselves with others, find those who are a little worse off than we are, and tell ourselves we are doing well. We believe we reflect much more of the character of Christ than the confession of our lives affirms. And how often are we convinced that we know with absolute certainty what is beating inside the heart of another? We practically put ourselves in the roles of judge, jury, and executioner.

But this is not for you!

Only God knows the heart—every heart (John 2:25). He is the One who removed our heart of stone and gave us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Only God knows exactly what is going on inside our hearts moment by moment. We need to acknowledge this truth and live in the light of this truth. We need not fear God searching our hearts, because He is the only One who can cause it to beat after the things of God.

You see, God will tolerate no rival. He is to be on the throne of our lives and He will dismantle and deconstruct every idol of the heart. He began this work when He raised us from death to life and He continues this work until it is done (Philippians 1:6) and that will only happen when we reach the other side of the Jordan. Until that day what we need to remember God is at work in the lives of you and me and all of His children.

In light of this truth, we need to keep preaching the Gospel to ourselves daily. We must keep both past grace and future grace before the eyes of our heart. We live under the banner of the finished work of Jesus Christ (our justification, which is past grace), but we also live under the banner of the future work of Jesus Christ (our continued sanctification and ultimate glorification, which is future grace). What God started He will finish, and nothing will get in His way—and that includes you!

Regardless of where this finds you today, whether your heart that is beating strongly for the things of God, broken on the anvil of affliction, or buried under the weight of weakness and despair, God will finish what He started in you and in this world. There is a day, not so far off, when your heart will beat only for the things of God and you will be in a place where there are no more tears, sorrow, pain, or death. Let that truth from our Cosmic Cardiologist be a comfort to your heart today and all the days of your life.

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

Last Memorial Day I wrote a meditation titled “Freedom Isn’t Free.” I looked at the price that was paid by the members of our Armed Forces for the physical freedom we enjoy in this nation and the spiritual freedom purchased for us by the blood of the Lamb. Today, in honor of our Independence Day celebration, I’d like to offer a word of encouragement—this time about our choice of freedom.

If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)

The Bible makes it crystal clear that the freedom we experience every day in this life is a choice . . . and the choice is ours! Every choice we make brings consequences with it. Some matter little; some matter more; and some matter most. Joshua outlined the choice that matters most.

When was the last time serving the Lord seemed undesirable to you? You might say, “I don’t remember such a time.” OK, let me ask the question this way: when was the last time you went through a bout of man-centered anger? Impatience? Anxiety? Selfish ambition? How about serving the god of worldly success? Do remember any times like that?

Every time serving the Lord seems undesirable, we undermine the freedom Christ purchased for us on the cross; we create chains of bondage that bind us to unbelief. Any choice we make to run after something smaller than Jesus makes it clear that we simply don’t trust Him to deliver on His promise that He is entirely sufficient to meet our every need. We are to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” and trust that “all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 5:33).

We have the choice, moment by moment, to choose the God who is: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob . . . or the god we want. When we choose the god we want we shrink the size of our life down to the size of our life . . . and that is no life at all! To be sure, we may get exactly what we were after, but in doing so we may have missed the one thing we were designed by God to truly need . . . or perhaps I should say the One we were designed by God to need!

So as you enjoy your time with family and friends celebrating Independence Day, prayerfully consider whom you will serve. How easy it is for us to confuse life with death and freedom with slavery when we are sitting on the throne of our lives! Why? Because when we create functional saviors for ourselves, we leave no room for God.

Our sinful nature will always push us to choose something smaller than Jesus. The daily problem with sin is that it always seeks to move us away from our Savior and toward the self. And there is no freedom to be found in serving the self! It is bondage of the worst kind when we place self on the throne of life. It is living a life that promised freedom but in the end delivers only slavery. Solomon gave us this stark warning, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

On this side of the grave, freedom is a choice—a choice we must make moment by moment. But one day the conflict with sin will end and the need for choosing will be over. There is a time coming when there will be only one choice and you will always choose it. And you will experience a freedom—an independence—unlike any freedom you have ever experienced, a freedom that can only be found living in the presence of the everlasting God.

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

When it comes to your Christian witness to the watching world, would you say it should be classified as “light” or “blight?” Light is something that makes things visible and affords illumination. Blight, on the other hand, is something that impairs or destroys the luster of something.

So . . . how would you describe the confession of your life in putting the truths of the Gospel on display for the people God brings into your life? Are you light? Or blight?

After having examined the lives of Christians for many years, one Jewish rabbi said: “Christians claim that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners, but they show no more signs of being saved than anyone else.”

The German atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “If I saw more redeemed people, I might be more inclined to believe in their Redeemer.” As the redeemed of God, we are to put the Gospel on display in a way that makes Christianity attractive to the watching world. Jesus said we are to be light in a dark world . . . that we are to let our light shine before men. Now, I know we are not responsible for saving anyone by the way we live our lives. Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of the world. But we certainly are responsible for making our God attractive by reflecting His grace, mercy, and love.

When we are more concerned with self-protection than self-sacrifice, we distort the picture of the Gospel and become a blight rather than a light. When we love things more than we love others, we distort the picture of the Gospel and become a blight rather than a light. When our greatest goal is being right rather than being loving, we distort the picture of the Gospel and become a blight rather than a light. When our heart beats more for the self than for the Savior, we distort the Gospel and become a blight rather than a light.

God has called us to Himself to bring honor and glory to His name. We are to reveal His glory, His goodness, and His grace in such astonishing ways that those who come in contact with us are simply astonished. Why? Because if we are truly living Spirit-filled lives we become a light that reflects an accurate picture of our Most High God.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16)

An obese person makes a poor personal trainer. A person buried under a mountain of debt makes a poor financial planner. And the redeemed of God who are blights rather than lights make poor Christians. The apostle Paul tells us of “the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4), which is to be the confession of our lives, as imperfect as that confession may be. All those who come in contact with us should see the nature of Christ reflected in the profession of our lips and our lives. The light of Christ shines through us when we love unconditionally, forgive completely, and serve sacrificially. At this level of living, those around us are drawn toward the light as we point toward our Prince.

Only by walking further up and further in to the truths of the Gospel will our light so shine, because our light is His light in us—the indwelling Holy Spirit, who shines forth from every fiber of our being when we are living for our Savior rather than ourselves.

So . . . which is it for you today? When the world around you sees in you one who is redeemed, they will begin to believe that you actually have a Redeemer—a Redeemer who lives . . . and He lives in you!

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

We all understand the term “weather forecasting,” which is a prediction meteorologists make about what the weather will be on the basis of correlated atmospheric observations. They study and analyze all available pertinent data and make an educated guess about what is most likely to occur.

Today I would like to share a word of encouragement—not about weather forecasting, but rather “faith forecasting” and two different types of faith.

1. FAIR-WEATHER FAITH

This faith is strong when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the sun is brightly shinning. Under these balmy conditions, there is barely any need for faith at all. Everything is going according to plan—your plan. It is smooth sailing out on the calm seas of your self-interest. You are in hot pursuit of your dreams, your goals, your desires and your agenda.

The person possessing fair-weather faith is usually a fair-weather friend, as well. They are friends only when things are going well. They are plugged in to the pleasant. They walk by sight, and as long as they are happy about what they see, they keep walking alongside of you. And, of course, walking by sight removes any need for walking by faith.

But this is not for you!

2. FOUL-WEATHER FAITH

This faith is strong when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the sun is brightly shinning . . . AND it is strong in the middle of the raging storm. This faith can deal with whatever hand is dealt because it trusts the Holy Hand that deals it. Foul-weather faith trusts God even when it cannot trace Him. It is a faith that advances through affliction because this faith knows the truth of God’s Word.

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)

Fair-weather faith cannot see the Holy Hand behind the painful providence, but foul-weather sees it and welcomes it. Walking through the storm is making this person to be more than a conqueror. Foul-weather faith sees adversity as the means for advancing in Divine Grace to higher ground where the vision is clearer and closer to God’s point of view. It is the faith of Abraham when asked to offer his son Isaac on the altar. It is the faith of Zacchaeus when asked by Jesus to come down from the tree. It is the faith of the prostitute who entered the Pharisee’s home in the face of condemnation and anointed Jesus with oil.

So . . . what kind of faith have you been demonstrating lately? How would those closest to you answer this question? When we take our eyes off of our circumstances and fix them on Jesus, He will give us all the faith we need to weather any storm we are facing. Not only that, we can be assured that Jesus is in the middle of the storm with us. Make no mistake, Jesus is no fair-weather friend. He is with us is the storm and in the sunshine. When he said He would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), He meant what He said!

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

The word “apologetics” is derived from the Greek word apologia, which means to give an answer or make a defense. In seminary I took classes in apologetics, which were designed to prepare the student to provide a defense of the Christian faith. The ground we covered was far-reaching, including the person and work of Jesus Christ, the reliability of Scripture, biblical evidence in history and archeology, answering objections, and refuting various cults.

We are called by God to be able to give an apologia for our faith.

In your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you . . .(1 Peter 3:15 ESV)

Since coming to faith in Christ in 1995, God has been gracious to renew my mind through the truths of the Gospel and equip me to make a defense for my faith. But I have learned over the years that beyond everything that can be learned from seminary training in apologetics, there is one thing God in Christ gives to every one of His children to use in defending their faith: LOVE! Love is the final apologetic.

When an unbelieving world sees us loving in radical and unconditional ways, they need no other apologia for proving Christianity. Love is the final apologetic of the reality of the Gospel. It convinces those who are touched by it that the Christian faith is as real as it is remarkable. When fallen, broken, and hurting people are loved in radical and unconditional ways by other fallen, broken, and hurting people who have been saved by grace, they begin to believe that God the Father sent God the Son to die on a cross for their sins, so that they might have eternal life.

By sharing with everyone the love we have been given in Christ, regardless of the cost or circumstance, we display a Gospel that is as attractive as it is attracting. It slays suspicion, destroys doubts, and unravels unbelief. It conquers the heart that beats for the self and the will that is oriented inward. It draws people away from self-protection, which opens the doorway leading to self-sacrifice. Love is the final apologetic because love is the greatest of all gifts.

Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

So . . . how well have you been defending the faith lately? What kind of Gospel have you been putting on display for the watching world? How attractive is your God? How loving? The more deeply we understand the truths of the Gospel, the better apologists we become. Whenever you need another quick “class” or “lesson” on apologetics, marinate for a bit in what has come to be known as “The Love Chapter” in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13.

God’s love for us is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). That means you cannot cast a shadow over His love for you, no matter what you do. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38-39). Blood-bought and eternally His, let us defend our faith daily with a love that lifts others up and leads them to our Savior.

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