Category Archives: General

Sandwiched between ghosts in flight and Silent Night . . . a witch on a broom and an inn with no room . . . is Thanksgiving.  For many, it is a time of fellowship with family and friends, fabulous food, and a little football—OK, in some homes, maybe a lot of football!  The day is marked by hours of preparation, fifteen minutes of eating, and hours of clean-up.  It would be hard for a stranger to our culture to recognize the season of Thanksgiving, because as soon as the Halloween decorations come down, the Christmas decorations go up!  Only grocery stores get excited about Thanksgiving.

Because Thanksgiving is not a major money maker for the department stores, we may not give it the attention we should. If we are not careful, we can confine Thanksgiving to a mere day of feasting, rather than a way of faithful living.  Here are three practical steps to help us move from Thanksgiving to Thanks-living.

LIVE THANKFULLY 

The first key in moving from Thanksgiving to Thanks-living is to live thankfully.  This will only be done when we re-orient our focus from ourselves to our Savior.  With our focus firmly fixed on our Savior, our thoughts will ultimately rest on His cross.  When the crucified Christ is the center of our lives, we can live in no other way than thankfully.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  (1 Corinthians 2:2)

LIVE WORSHIPFULLY

The second key in moving from Thanksgiving to Thanks-living is to live worshipfully.  Once the cross becomes central in our lives, worship becomes our way of living.  To use a theological term, it is living doxologically before the face of God.  We live grace-filled, Gospel-saturated, God-centered lives.  We worship Jesus—not only on Sunday, but every day, everywhere, and in every way.  We sing His praises in the boardroom, living room, family room, bedroom, schoolroom, lunchroom, and locker room. 

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.  By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.  Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!  (2 Corinthians 9:12-15)                                                                                                                                                        

LIVE GENEROUSLY

The third key in moving from Thanksgiving to Thanks-living is to live generously.  What do you have that you have not been given? (1 Corinthians 4:7.)  If everything we have is a gift from the hand of God, how can we live in any other way than generously?  The more we have, the more we are in debt to the One who has given it to us, and the more we should be driven to meet the physical needs of others.  It is a mistake to think the Gospel meets only the spiritual needs of the lost.  To be sure, it does that, but it also meets physical needs as well.  If it did not, how would we explain the two loaves and the five fish that fed thousands instead of Jesus sending them away hungry?  How would we explain the miracles of Jesus in making the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the sick well, the dead alive?  When we get the Gospel deep down into the marrow of our bones, we live lives marked by generosity, remembering that God loves a cheerful giver.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  (2 Corinthians 9:7)

As you enjoy your Thanksgiving Day in whatever way you choose to celebrate it, take a moment to reflect on these three keys that will take a day of Thanksgiving and turn it into a life of Thanks-living. 

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

As we enter into the week of thanksgiving it would serve us well to take a moment to reflect on the countless blessings our Lord has given to us throughout this year.  At the Boland home we write down our individual blessings and share them with each other every Thanksgiving season.  Our four children really look forward to doing this, and we are building a wonderful treasure for them, as we file each list away every year so they can be reviewed.

We have a tendency to clearly remember “the bad stuff” that happens throughout the year; it is all too easy to forget about the all the good that God has done for us.  A blessing list helps to bring God’s goodness into focus and provides a great record to look back on in years to come. 

We have a great time reviewing our lists together as a family; when we are done, we always return to what the psalmist said in Psalm 119:57—“The Lord is my portion.” This anchors the key to thanksgiving.  If we are not careful, we can consider God’s blessings to be rooted in possessions rather than a Person . . .

• Family
• Home
• Health
• Job
• Friends

Yet no matter how full our wallets or how large our homestead, when the Lord is our portion, we have everything!  You can have all the gold in the world, but without God you are the poorest person who ever lived. 

Sadly, many Christians seek to find their portion in the things of this world.  They crave the applause of men.  They work for the approval of others.  They long for the affection of another.  And when they get it, they have received their reward in full.  At the end of the day, unless the Lord is your ultimate portion, your life will leave you empty and aching.

May these words from the great Charles Spurgeon inspire you this Thanksgiving season:

But when thou hast God for thy portion, thou hast more than all else put together.  In Him every want is met, whether in life or in death.  With God for thy portion thou are rich indeed, for He will supply thy need, comfort they heart, assuage thy grief, guide thy steps, be with thee in the dark valley, and then take thee home, to enjoy Him as thy portion forever.

I encourage you to take a few moments to prayerfully consider all that God has blessed you with this year.  Write it down and share it with your family.  Make sure that at the very top of your list you have the Master as your portion, because when you have Him, you do indeed have everything.

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

If a brother or sister in the Lord asked you what they could do to live a life that is pleasing to God, what would you tell them?  For most, the answer would likely be related to behavior: read the Bible more; spend more time in your prayer closet; show up to church every Sunday; increase your service to the church; expand the reach of your fellowship with other believers.  Yet the key in drawing near to the Lord is found not in behavior, but in belief!  So what are you believing about Jesus today?

In a remarkable passage in Scripture, the crowds asked our Lord, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus’ answer just might surprise you!  It certainly did me when I first studied this passage years ago.  As a coach for many years, my default mode is to increase my discipline in order to improve my results, whether physical or spiritual.  A runner needs to run more.  A cyclist needs to cycle more.  A swimmer needs to swim more.  When my spiritual gas tank starts running low, the first thing I think of doing is doing . . . not believing. But what do the Scriptures say?

They said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.”  (John 6:28-36)

Notice how Jesus tells the people that living a life that is pleasing to God is not about their behavior but their belief!  It would serve us all well if we understood the Christian life is more about what we believe than what we do.  To be sure, we must actively engage in performing the spiritual disciplines.  The desire to do these things is one of God’s great gifts to His people.  But the key to living a life that is pleasing to God is rooted in what we believe about God.

This is the point of preaching the gospel to ourselves every day.  What we believe about the person and work of Jesus Christ is the key to heart transformation, which ultimately works itself out into living a transformed life that is pleasing to God.  Here are just a few things the gospel promises to those who believe:

• You are loved
• You are forgiven
• You are adopted
• You are set apart

The gospel promises a life of unimaginable joy to those who believe, because everything your heart desires—affection, approval, acceptance—has been given you in Jesus.  You were sought, caught, and bought by the blood of the Lamb, and have been freely welcomed into the family of faith.  Every sin has been nailed to that dirty tree, having been paid for in full by the life and death of Jesus Christ.  Believe it and live a better life.  Believe it and be blessed by God.  Believe it and your behavior will follow. 

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

Physical blindness is a condition that is known to all those who are afflicted by it.  My younger brother Bobby is blind in his right eye from an accident years ago . . . and he knows it.  He has learned to compensate for his blindness.

Spiritual blindness, however, is a condition that is known only to those who are given the grace of supernatural sight to see their own sin.  David was given this great grace: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3).

Isaiah was given this great grace: “Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

Peter was given this great grace, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8).

Do you know this great grace of seeing your own sin?  Or are you blind to your blindness?  How would those closest to you answer this question?

We are blind to our blindness when we cannot or will not see our own sin.  Even worse, we are blind to our blindness and think we see well when we find it much easier to notice the speck in the eye of someone else without ever noticing the plank in our own eye.

King David was blind to his blindness until God graciously sent the prophet Nathan to rebuke David with a word from God.  The story of David really bothered me, especially when I read he was a “man after God’s own heart.”  I mean, come on!  David stayed home when he should have been off to war, slept with another man’s wife, and then sentenced that man to death while he was on the battlefield, honorably defending his nation.

Not until God gave me the grace to see the overarching theme of David’s story as my story did I begin to see just how blind I was to my blindness.  It is only by the grace of God that today I am a gratefully recovering Pharisee, having been given the vision to clearly see my own sin . . . as painful as that is at times! 

So how well do you see your own sin?  Before you answer that question, read and meditate on the following verse.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

   (Jeremiah 17:9)

It never ceases to amaze me just how blind we are to our own sin—and that includes me!  It’s in our DNA to think we are better than we actually are.  This is the deceitfulness and sickness of the heart, even after Jesus raises us from death to life.  To be sure, sin no longer reigns in the life of the believer, but it still remains.  “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want” (Galatians 5:17-18).  And our sinful nature is quick to deflect, defend, and diminish our sin.

 We have become experts at shaping our sin into acceptable shapes. 

• The sin of impatience is shaped into “getting others up to our speed.”
• The sin of immorality is shaped into “personal self expression.”
• The sin of materialism is shaped into “getting my fair share.”
• The sin of legalism is shaped into “a sold-out love of the Law.”
• The sin of a critical spirit is shaped into “discernment.”
• The sin of workaholism is shaped into “providing for my family.”
• The sin of fits of rage is shaped into “righteousness anger.”

Does any of this resonate with you?  Can you think of some others “acceptable” shapes of sin that might be befouling your life right now?  God in Christ has given sight to blind eyes and flesh to hard hearts.  As He reveals more and more of our sin, we are able to receive what we see and cry out to Jesus for healing.

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

I spent nearly ten years of my early adult life responding to medical emergencies as a firefighter in the Hollywood, FL Fire Rescue Department.  Over that time I encountered many heart attack victims.  Also known as a myocardial infarction or (MI), an attack on the heart muscle is due to the loss of blood supply generally caused by a blockage of a coronary artery.  The death of heart muscle causes shortness of breath, chest pain and electrical instability of the heart muscle tissue.  On scene treatment includes CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), administration of medication, and at times electrical shock.  Over 90% of heart attack victims who reach the hospital survive so a quick response, proper treatment, and transportation are critical.

Did you know that there is another kind of heart attack that we all face every day?  It is an attack on the affections of our heart, also known as heart idolatry.  When Jesus entered into your life and redeemed you through faith, He claimed your heart as His own.  He has claimed the throne of your life and will tolerate no rival.  The problem is we tolerate rivals to our Redeemer and fill our hearts with idols. To name just a few:

• The idols of affection, approval, achievement
• The idols of power, position, prestige
• The idols of security, success, sensuality
• The idols of recognition, respect, reputation
• The idols of comfort, control, calling

How does this list resonate with you?  Is there something we have not mentioned that is attacking your heart right now?  If you are not sure, ask yourself, “What do I love, hope, trust, or fear?”  If you love a structured life without any uncomfortable interruptions, control will be your idol.  If you hope for a pain free providence, living inside zones of comfort will be your idol.  If you trust in financial security, earning as much as you can will be your idol.  If you fear being alone and single, being in a relationship (any relationship) will be your idol.  When you get right down to it, idols of the heart are false saviors, promoting false gospels, promising false hope.  We go to them expecting them to do for us what only Jesus can.

Just as a lack of blood supply causes physical death to your heart, a lack of Jesus causes spiritual death to your life.  It is only by keeping the gospel before us and preaching it to ourselves every day that we are able to forsake all of our idols and turn to Jesus because we realize these idols cannot deliver on their promises.  Jesus not only delivered on His every promise, He continues to deliver daily.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him”

Lamentations 3:22-24

Let me encourage you in closing.  You are not alone in the battle of dismantling your heart idols.  Every Christian is fighting the same battles on different fronts.  Consider it not a strange thing to be in this battle and to be wearied by it.  But remember, Jesus has won your victory on the cross.  The King came for you and purchased you with His precious blood.  And once you are His, nothing can separate you from Him (Rom. 8:39).  Call on Him.  Seek Him.  There is help from the Great Physician for every heart attack.

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

When was the last time you wondered, “Do I matter?”  Notice I did not ask, “Have you ever wondered, ‘Do I matter?’”  We have all wondered if we matter, and for many of us it was on more than one occasion . . . and recently!

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Mind over matter; I don’t mind and you don’t matter”?  The world says you matter only to the extent that you have power, position, prestige, prosperity, or pedigree.  We live in a world that judges a man by the size of his bankroll and a woman by her external beauty.  But in God’s economy, the world has been turned upside down. 

The Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

(1 Samuel 16:7)

You matter to the only One who truly matters.  You matter to God, not because of what you have or what you have done, but because of who you are.  You are a child of the Most High God.

Let me ask you a question.  What do birds, hairs, and flowers have in common?  They all matter to God and are continually under His divine care.  Because God doesn’t make any junk, everything He has made matters to Him. 

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  And not one of them is forgotten before God.  (Luke 12:6)

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.  (Luke 12:7)

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.  Of how much more value are you than the birds!  (Luke 12:24)

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  (Luke 12:27)

Perhaps you are going through a difficult season right now and feel like you don’t matter much to anyone, including God.  Maybe you feel unimportant, uninvolved, unwanted, under-appreciated, or unloved.  Is it possible you feel like you are only a number at work, a nobody at church, and a knucklehead at home?  Cheer up! 

Birds matter to God.  Flowers matter to God.  If the Creator of the universe takes special care of birds and flowers, how much more will He take care of you, oh you of little faith!  The fact that He knows the number of hairs on your head should be a source of great comfort to you today.  You matter to God more than you could ever imagine!  He knows the nights we toss and turn on our beds; he knows the number of ever tears we’ve shed! (See Psalm 56:8.)

Unlike birds and flowers, you were made in the image of God.  To be sure, since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, that image has been marred, twisted, and stained with sin, but still it is the image of God.  As His image bearers, God is infinitely more concerned for you than anything else in the entire cosmos.  So much so, He sent His only Son to the cross to pay the penalty for your sin.  You matter to God, and that should matter to you! 

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

The white flag is an internationally recognized sign used to signify a truce, ceasefire, desire for negotiation, or intention to surrender.  The first mention of the usage of white flags to surrender is made during the Eastern Han dynasty (A.D 25-220).  The white flag was widely used during the Middle Ages in Western Europe to indicate the desire to surrender. 

Can you guess what “white flag faithfulness” is?  It, too, is a sign of the desire to surrender . . . but to whom?  It is surrendering yourself—all of yourself—to your Savior.  “‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble,’” James instructed.  “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (James 4:6-7).

There are numerous examples of white flag faithfulness in sacred Scripture.  Abraham waved the white flag and left everything he knew to faithfully follow God.  Noah waved the white flag and worked for more than 100 years to build a boat, working miles from any body of water.  Gideon waved the white flag and won the day against the Midianite army with only 300 warriors.  Mary waved the white flag when the angel Gabriel announced she was God’s choice to be the mother of the Messiah, knowing full well the scorn and shame she would attract as an unmarried pregnant woman.  John the Baptist waved the white flag and preached the coming Savior, a surrender which ultimately cost him his life.  Paul waved the white flag on the road to Damascus and transformed from persecutor to pastor. 

Prayerfully consider the extent of your sold-out surrender to your Savior in the following areas; are you submitted and waving the white flag in your . . .

• Dating life?
• Married life?
• Finances?
• Professional plans?
• Thought life?
• Prayer life?
• Church service?
• Sharing your faith?
• Forgiving others?
• Rejoicing for the success of others?
• Hurting when others are hurting?
• Removing the plank from your own eye?

In what areas have you totally abandoned yourself to the will of God?  In what areas are you holding back?  What is keeping you from totally surrendering and trusting God in any of these areas?  Whatever rules your heart shapes your life.  Whatever you refuse to surrender to Jesus is serving as your functional savior.

When you wave the white flag and surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you live for something bigger than your own life.  When you live for the transcendent purposes of God you live a life that truly matters—not just on Sunday, but every day of the week. 

A surrendered life is the fulfillment of the call of Christ, “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”  This kind of white flag faithfulness is a call to death that leads to life.  It is only by dying to yourself that you can live for your Savior.  Go ahead!  Wave the white flag of faithfulness and live the life you were designed by God to live. 

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

Since the beginning of time, mankind has been wrapped up in a hope that disappoints.  Do you know what it is?  It is hope in finding fulfillment, meaning, and significance apart from God.  It started with Adam and Eve when they decided they wanted to live autonomous lives, apart from the grace, goodness, and glory of God.  And men and women have been doing the same thing ever since.  When your hope is in anything smaller than God is will always disappoint.  Self-sufficiency makes a poor savior.  So what is the hope that does not disappoint?  The Apostle Paul tells us.

 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

(Romans 5:1-5)

Make no mistake; if what you have been hoping in is disappointing you, it is the wrong hope.  Nothing in this world can do for you what only Jesus can do.  If your hope is in your career, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in your education, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in your network, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in your next business deal, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in your gifting, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in the applause of man, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in your marriage, you have the wrong hope.  If your hope is in your children, you have the wrong hope.  Hope that created things will do for you what only the Creator can provide is utterly hopeless!

Paul made it crystal clear that when we hope in God we are never disappointed.  You see, when you place your hope in something you are connecting your identity to it.  What you place your hope in provides you with your meaning, significance, purpose, and ultimate identity in life.  Your hope is your savior, regardless of what you are hoping in.  That is why hope in anything smaller than God will always disappoint you.  Only God is big enough to satisfy your deepest needs, meet you in the middle of your darkest night, and deliver you from a meaningless existence from the cradle to the grave. 

To hope is to be human.  We all need hope and we all place our hope in something.  Therefore, we all need to make sure we are hoping in the right thing!

So what have you been hoping in lately?  Has your hope been unable to deliver?  Has your hope been unable to meet you in your place of deepest need? 

Scripture tells us that when our hope is in God, something counterintuitive happens.  Our hope does not disappoint us, even in the middle of a season of suffering.  Most people think hope is connected to painless providences.  Not Paul.  He knew firsthand that his hope would not disappoint, even in the middle of suffering.  Why?  Because His Savior was his hope and his Savior was in the middle of his suffering.  Paul did not need blue skies and sunshiny days to have hope, because his hope was in the only One who is worth hoping in: Jesus Christ.   

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

What “prize” have you been looking for lately?  How are you spending your discretionary time and money?  It has been rightly observed that our checkbooks and our free time reveals a great deal about what we value most in life. 

From the pen of the apostle Paul we are given the formula for keeping our eyes on the only prize that matters in life. 

One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. (Philippians 3:13-15)

Let’s briefly unpack the Bible’s formula for keeping our eyes fixed on the prize that should be the object of our greatest affection.

1. Forgetting what lies behind . . .

On the surface this seems to contradict what God says in other portions of Scripture when He says, “Remember . . . !”  So what is going on here?  Paul is not telling us to forget the past.  He is telling us not to live in the past.  We are to treat the past like a school and take the lessons God would have us learn into our promised future.

 I am not minimizing a painful past.  At some level, this is the reality for everyone simply because we are broken people living in a broken world with other broken people.  Yet God calls us to move beyond our past, regardless of the pain, and enter into our promised future by living fully in the present.  You will remember that Paul’s painful past was marked by his participation in intense persecution of the church; had Paul focused on his past, he would have become a prisoner to it, rather than the man God called to pen most of the New Testament. 

2. Straining forward . . . press on toward the goal . . .

Forward motion in life is difficult.  God made that clear to Adam and Eve after they sinned in the Garden of Eden.  Life would be difficult, filled with thorns, thistles, trials, and tribulations. 

 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”  And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  (Genesis 3:16-19)

3. The prize . . .

Paul says in spite of our straining, there is a promised prize that is to be our motivation for moving forward and it is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  In other words, Paul is pressing on into the truth of John 10:10—the abundant life in Jesus Christ.  God had already saved Paul and called him to be His own.  Now Paul desires, more than anything else, the deepest experience of his salvation and union with Christ.  So his life is marked by fixing his eyes on the prize . . . Jesus Christ.

Paul closes out this section of Scripture by identifying those who live this kind of life; he calls them mature.  Those who are mature do not prize possessions.  Those who are mature do not prize prosperity.  Those who are mature do not prize prestige.  Those who are mature do not prize pleasure.  Those who are mature prize only one thing: the Prince of Peace.  They organize their lives around the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus rules their hearts and ultimately shapes their lives; they rise early in the morning thinking about Jesus.  They go throughout their day thinking about Jesus.  They retire in the evening thinking about Jesus.  Like Paul, they believe that to live is Christ!  

Is this the confession of your life?  What has God been revealing to you lately?  Are you one of those who Paul identifies as mature?  Fix your eyes on the only prize that matters—in both life and death—and you will be. 

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

What “impossible” thing are you facing today?  What Red Sea are you standing before, with no way out, as the enemy is closing in on you from behind?  What water needs to be turned into wine?  What dead thing in your life needs to be resurrected?  Today’s message, “The Steel Did Swim,” will prove profitable for your comfort and for your courage as you face whatever challenge is before you.  My prayer is that you would read this message with a spirit of great anticipation about what God will do both in and through you.  

2 Kings 6:1-7 recounts a remarkable story of the omnipotence of the Almighty and demonstrates that nothing is impossible with God for those who believe.

The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.

Can you imagine a more hopeless situation regarding the recovery of the axe head?  And to make matters worse, it was a borrowed axe that would now be forever lost.  To be sure, by man’s power, the axe head that fell into the water would have remained submerged and lost.  But with God, the steel did swim!  What sunken “steel” is in your life right now that needs to swim to the surface by the grace and power of the Almighty? 

• Shipwrecked by your singleness
• Pressured by your peers
• Anxiety over your academics
• Adversity in your athletics
• Mystified by your marriage
• Forsaken by your friends
• Perplexed about your parenting
• Worn out by your work
• Confused about your calling
• Snared by your sin
• Discouraged about your direction
• Struggling with your service
• Let down with your life

Notice in this passage three important truths that form the key to unlock the door of possibility when you are facing any problem in this life. 

1. The man who lost the axe head cried out and shared his challenge.

2.  When the Lord intervened, Scripture says the man “reached out his hand.”

3. Finally we read, the man “took it.” 

What obstacle do you need to turn into an opportunity to magnify the name of your God?  What problem has God sent your way to stretch your faith?  What boat is He calling you to step out of and come to Him?  Sure, the wind is howling and the waves are crashing, but Jesus is right there with you in the middle of your storm. 

God will always place the grapes of goodness within your reach . . . but not in your mouth.  You must reach out your hand and take them, by the grace of God.  God has promised to do His part.  Are we willing to do ours?

Remember, God has given us everything we need to live the life he is calling us to live—with freedom, faithfulness, and fruitfulness to Jesus.  Call on Him, regardless of the challenge you are facing.  Approach the throne of grace with confidence and plead the blood of the Lamb.  The same God who made the steel swim for Elisha is standing at the ready to make steel swim for you.  He will never disregard your predicament and He will never dishonor your plea. 

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