No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame. (Psalm 25:3)
The Prodigal Son lived in a palace. It was the place where he was met with the unconditional love and forgiveness of his father — not only daily, but moment by moment. But when this young man told his father he wanted to collect his inheritance, he essentially exchanged the palace for a pigsty.
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating.” (Luke 15:11-16)
We do the very same thing every time we exchange our will for God’s will in our lives. In demanding his inheritance “now,” the Prodigal Son was refusing to be patient and follow the father’s timing. To be sure, he had a time of carefree celebration in the far country, but it didn’t last. It never does. He squandered all he had been given and found himself utterly bankrupt, eating husks with the swine, and longing to be back in his father’s loving presence.
Does that resonate with you as much as it does with me? Look at it this way: The Prodigal Son already had his inheritance. It was his by birth, but it was not the right time for him to receive it. God not only knows exactly what we need, He also knows exactly the right time to give it to us. But the sin of impatience got the best of the young son. Impatience starts as an infection and winds up as an insidious disease, and it will eventually lead us away from the palace into the pigsty.
Remember, it’s not enough to want what God wants for our lives. We must wait to receive it in His timing. Often “now” is not God’s perfect timing for our imperfect lives. The shepherd boy David had to wait seven years to receive what God wanted for his life, which was the king’s throne in Israel, and that wait occurred after he had been anointed three times to become king!
So let me ask you this question: Where in your life right now are you dealing with a bit of impatience?
If this message finds you on the other side of impatience that has pushed you into a pigsty, fear not! The younger son eventually made his way back from the pigsty to the palace, where he was met with the unconditional love and forgiveness of his father. Amazing grace, wouldn’t you agree? Even when we mess it up, God turns our mess into His masterpiece. As the psalmist said, those whose hope is in the Lord will never be put to shame. Turn to Him. Experience His forgiveness. Feel His love. Rejoice in His grace!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
You know the difference between sedatives and stimulants, yes? A sedative is designed to “take the edge off” and help you fall asleep, while a stimulant is designed to “take you to the edge” and keep you going and going and going. I want to share a story about a time in the life of God’s people when past blessings acted like a sedative rather than a stimulant; they sedated God’s people into a sense of sinful, self-centered security, rather than stimulating them into a season of sold-out, Savior-centered service.
After Israel spent 400-plus years in bondage in Egypt, God sent His servant Moses to deliver His people from slavery. The Sovereign Lord performed a series of incredible miracles: the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water from a rock (twice!), and a pillar of cloud guiding the people by day and a pillar of fire by night. Tragically, these many blessings acted like sedatives on God people. They slumbered into the sinful thinking that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Their past blessings sedated them into a season of self-absorption, because they focused on the blessings they had received rather than the One who had graciously given them. And here is the warning from Paul: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” (1 Corinthians 10:11). When we shift our focus away from the Giver of our blessings to the blessings themselves, they become like sedatives, and sin begins to envelop us.
The warning is clear: When we allow past blessings to sedate us, we are lulled into a false sense of security. We begin to see past blessings as a present promise. We start to expect only good from the hand of our good God, as if we are somehow deserving of it. We lose our sense of appreciation for the many good gifts we have received from the hand of Almighty God.
However, when past blessings serve as stimulants, we shift our focus from the gift to the One who is the Giver of the gifts. When we do that, we never lose our sense of dependence on Him. We understand that past blessings can be replaced by present burdens in an instant, so we keep our spiritual eyes on our Savior, which keeps our hands and feet from slackening into sinful self-reliance.
How is it with you today? Have past blessings sedated you or stimulated you in your walk with Jesus? Is your focus on what you have been given, or on the One who has given it to you? Remember, our greatest gift is God, not what He so graciously gives to us. Keep looking up and let your past blessings stimulate you to a life of sold-out service to your Savior.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. (Hebrews 12:5-6)
I once heard someone say, “I am a spoiled saint of the Most High God!” Now, depending on your definition of the word “spoiled,” I submit to you that there is no such thing in God’s family of faith!
The best possible definition of the term “spoiled child” that I can come up with describes children who consistently exhibit behavioral problems caused by being overindulged and under-disciplined by their doting parents. In a word, these parents have raised a brat! Are there any kids you know who come to mind when you read that definition?
How should we understand the term “spoiled” as it relates to the child of God? That would be rooted in our definition of overindulged. To be sure, we are overindulged with . . .
Love
Mercy
Grace
Goodness
Forgiveness
Kindness
The list could fill this entire blog! Is there anyone reading this who can fully describe the “overindulgence” we receive from our omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God? But when we read this list of “overindulgences,” we are never to think it includes words such as pampered, babied, coddled, or spoiled. Loved by God? Most definitely! We are infinitely loved by Him! Spoiled by God? Not a chance! Make no mistake about this truth: God would have none of us as His children rather than coddle a bunch of self-centered, self-absorbed, self-seeking, and self-interested ones.
We must keep in view the fact that the grace that saves us is the same grace that sanctifies us, and the business of sanctification is often a painful process. God’s greatest goal for every one of His children is to conform them into the image and likeness of His beloved and precious Son. And that takes discipline . . . discipline that is designed to deflate the ego that is continually edging God out. The self does not die in a day, but daily, and God will not stop short of conforming us perfectly into the image of His Son.
It will never be said of our Father in heaven what was said about King David concerning his parenting of his son Adonijah: “His father [David] had never corrected him by saying, “Why do you do such things?'” (1 Kings 1:6 NET). No, Scripture tells us that we should expect the rod of discipline from our loving, heavenly Father:
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. (Hebrews 12:7-8)
Nobody wants a spoiled child. So we discipline our children in love, with the goal of course correction and heart transformation. God will not settle for a spoiled saint. So He disciplines us by every means necessary, which is a kind of love that will never spoil!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Peter said, “Never, Lord!” [Peter] said. “This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22)
When Jesus told His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of evil men and crucified, Peter objected sharply, “Never Lord!” You remember the stinging rebuke from our Lord don’t you? Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23).
Well, what was true of Peter’s sinful failure to understand the cross as an almighty instrument of death leading to eternal life is also true of the sinful failure of far too many in the church today to recognize the cross as a way of life for the disciple of Jesus. Let’s take a look at our Lord’s teaching on this matter:
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
Make no mistake, every time we refuse to take up our cross, we demonstrate to our Lord that we do not have in mind the kingdom of our God, but the kingdom of self. The Christian is called by God to live in a culture marked by the cross. We are to deny ourselves — to die to self — and follow Lord wherever He leads, regardless of the cost or circumstance. The apostle Paul living in the culture of the cross this way:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Yet all too often we are marked by the words of Peter more than we are by the cross we are to carry.
Service over status . . . “Never, Lord!”
Loving the unlovable . . . “Never, Lord!”
Giving until it hurts . . . “Never, Lord!”
Denying the self . . . “Never, Lord!”
Forgiving someone who has hurt us deeply . . . “Never, Lord!”
Over and over again, we tend to cry out like Peter rather than setting our shoulder under the cross we have been given and following in the footsteps of our Lord. And Satan cheers us on every time we allow ourselves to get caught up in human concerns. Our enemy has been doing that ever since the Garden of Eden, when he convinced Adam and Eve to neglect the concerns of God and focus on their own desires.
Where in your life have you been crying out like Peter? At the office? In your family? At your church? In your community? Where have human concerns held you captive to yourself? Remember, you have been set free, but that freedom is to be understood as a life that is lived for the glory of God and the good of others. And that is a life that can only be lived under the weight of the cross that has been given to you by the One who hung on His to pay the penalty for your sins.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2-3)
The Israelites remained true to God’s Word to be “fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), even while they were in bondage for more than 400 years in Egypt. In those harsh conditions, giving birth to children demanded the services of midwives. The midwives assisted the mother in the process of birthing the child – often cutting the infant’s umbilical cord, washing the baby, and presenting the newborn to the parents and family. However, as vitally necessary as the midwives were in the physical realm of the people of God, the Master has no need of them in the spiritual realm.
Here is why the Master has no need for His disciples to play the role of midwives: Because we play no role in the birth of the new believer! That new birth is all the work of God and His grace. God gives the gifts of repentance and faith. God raises the dead to life. God in Christ does it all, with no help from midwives. There is no need for any of us to cut the cord, wash the baby Christian, and present the infant to the family of faith. There is, however, a need to step into the life of the baby Christian — from the moment after new birth until his or her last day on this earth.
The role of the Christian is to disciple the new believer, not deliver him. We are to make ourselves available to God to be used as instruments of sanctification in His mighty right hand. The first and most important aspect of sanctification is the renewing of the mind, and that comes through the reading of Scripture. We are to bring the Word of God to all those with whom we come in contact. And the good news is we don’t need to interpret the Word for them, because the Bible is its own interpreter.
“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).
In other words, you don’t need to be a Bible scholar to disciple a new believer; you only need to be a model of Bible study and a living encouragement to search the Scriptures daily.
How are you doing at helping others grow up in their faith? Remember, the Master has no need for midwives, but He does need willing workers who will lead others through the pages of sacred Scripture. After the new birth, which is solely the work of God, it is our calling to help the new believer understand what it means to believe, belong, and become a fully-functioning member of the family of faith.
Biblical truth received and responded to does more than change behavior. It renews the mind, realigns the will, and recalibrates the heart. And this is the business of making disciples, which is the call on every believer . . . not in birthing new Christians, but in helping them grow to maturity.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66)
Today I have a word of both comfort and caution to offer you. It is a message designed to help us understand the teachings of Jesus without taking offense. In today’s verse, the apostle John recorded that many did indeed take offense at Jesus’ words and walked no more with the Lord. What caused them to turn away? Jesus was teaching deep Gospel truths about being the Bread of Life, saying things like . . .
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
At the very least, this was difficult for many listeners to understand. For those who took Jesus’ statements at a surface level, these words were offensive. But Jesus was teaching deep spiritual truths, and His audience was unable to understand . . . so they took offense and walked away. Here’s the point: Jesus intentionally made Himself an offense to His audience. Why? Because it separated the goats from the sheep — the false followers from the true disciples.
Many of the teachings of Jesus are offensive to the natural man. How about, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23)? Who reading this is excited about living a life of self-denial and cross-bearing? Or how about “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44)? Do really want to pray for your enemies rather than punish them?
Someone once said, “The Christian life is not hard to live; it’s impossible!” And that is wholly true apart from the grace of God. Remember, our promise from Jesus is safe passage into glory . . . but not without storms and struggles along the way. The test for everyone who professes faith in Christ is this: At what point do I believe the teachings of Jesus are offensive and refuse to walk with Him? The world insists that we should satisfy our every desire; Jesus says deny yourself. The world says get all you can; Jesus says give all you have. The world says look out for number one; Jesus says look out for everyone else. The world says seek happiness; Jesus says seek holiness.
Listen, having been bought at the price of His precious blood, you are now a slave to your Savior. And make no mistake, in this life you will never find a more demanding Taskmaster who will demand everything from you. Jesus did not raise you from death to life so you could give Him half your heart; He demands all of it . . . and rightfully so! He gave you all of Himself while hanging on a cross, and it is only right for His disciples to give Him back the same.
How are things with you? Have you taken offense at any of the teaching of your Taskmaster? You are faced with a choice every moment of every day: Take offense and satisfy yourself . . . or take no offense and live out your slavery to the Savior. The first action leads to death . . . The second leads to life. The choice is yours.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)
The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and He is our opposite. He is infinite and we are finite. He is omnipotent and we are weak. He is Omniscient and we know very little. He is omnipresent and we are bound by space and time. And that is the way God intended it to be all the way back in creation. Our limitations are not a result of the fall; rather, they are simply part of God’s perfect plan for humanity.
God never intended for us to be His equal. The terrible arrogance of the fallen angels who rebelled against God in heaven drove them to want to be equal to God. Adam and Eve succumbed to the same desire when they rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. Satan, the fallen angel who appeared as a shrewd serpent, hissed to our first parents, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Tragically, they believed Satan’s lie.
Equality was not what God had in mind when He created angelic beings in heaven and humanity on earth. There is no more grotesque demonstration of rebellion than when we rise up and try to “be like God.” Make no mistake, the greatest sin of the human race is the sin of trying to overcome the oppositeness between the Creator and the creature. And we all do this every time we try to remove God from the throne of our lives so that we can sit there ourselves.
Listen, there was only one Person in the history of the world who could and did truthfully and rightfully claim equality with God, because there was no oppositeness in Him.
I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? (John 14:9-10)
Only the God-Man could make such a claim. Because Jesus was fully God and fully man, He was equal with the Father in every way. Only when we let God be God can we get on board with the perfect plan He has for our imperfect lives. And in that perfect plan, we learn this overwhelming truth: Opposites Attract! When God in Christ draws us to Himself, the pathway is now open for us to bring our oppositeness to Him that He might apply His ointment –
When we bring our fears, He applies the ointment of His faith.
When we bring our doubts, He applies the ointment of His belief.
When we bring our hopelessness, He applies the ointment of His hope.
When we bring our weakness, He applies the ointment of His strength.
When we bring our discouragements, He applies the ointment of His joy.
Jesus Christ is wholly Opposite, wholly Other . . . and I hope you find that truth wholly Attractive!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. (Psalm 139:2-4)
There are many ways to describe the Bible, but perhaps the best way is to say that the Bible is God’s love letter to His people. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible recounts God’s relentless pursuit of rebels on the run away from Him. When we understand that we are fully known and truly loved, we can come before the throne of grace with no fear . . . no doubt . . . no hesitation. There is nothing that God does not know about us — including the number of hairs on our heads and the myriad number of times we have turned away from Him — yet we still have an open invitation to come to Him because He loves us and will never turn His back on us.
The devil is relentless in his attempts to deceive us. He wants us to believe we have strayed too far away from God and are beyond the reach of His forgiveness. When those ugly thoughts begin to circulate in our minds, we must immediately look to Calvary’s hill. When Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins — all our sins — He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Here is the best way I know how to explain the full impact our Lord’s triumphant shout:
“Debt paid! Atonement made! Sinner saved!”
Let me be clear; God did NOT say, “Your sins are no big deal.” They are a very big deal; the sin debt we incurred was such a cosmically gargantuan deal that it required a supreme payment . . . and that payment was made and fully executed on the cross.
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Our loving Lord did not wait for us to get cleaned up. He did not wait for us to get our act together. He died in our place so that we can be in relationship with Him.
Try to imagine for a moment having Someone know everything about you — even the very darkest, ugliest thoughts that you don’t share with anyone — and yet that Someone still fully, unconditionally, and truly loves you! Christian, you have that Someone, and His name is Jesus Christ. The next time you are feeling unloved, undervalued, and unseen, remember that God is love . . . and He has poured out His love on you. “Come to me,” He says to you tenderly, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
You are fully known and truly loved — today, tomorrow, and forevermore. Let that truth set you free to rest in His love and to love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2)
We have much to be thankful for when we consider our salvation. We who deserved it not at all received it by grace, through faith, and we received it from the holy, perfect, and undefiled Son of the Most High God. To be sure, that alone is too much to fully comprehend, even if we thought of nothing else for the rest of our lives.
But there is something that strikes an even sweeter cord of Christ’s cosmic condescension: “This man welcomes sinners!” Think about “THIS MAN” for a few moments, and I think you will agree.
THIS MAN who is the eternal God!
THIS MAN who created all things!
THIS MAN who sits at the right hand of the Father!
THIS MAN before whom angels worship with veiled faces!
THIS MAN who was and is and is to come!
THIS MAN who is the Alpha and Omega!
The list could fill volumes. Jesus is beyond human comprehension, yet our verse today takes us higher still: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Let’s take a look at the cosmic condescension of this truth.
#1. He Welcomes Sinners . . .
Jesus’ willingness to mingle with sinners incensed the Pharisees and religious leaders. The driving force in their lives was to remain “clean and undefiled.” According to the Old Testament prescriptions in the Law regarding ritual cleansing; the first step was to stay clear of contact with sinners. The problem was that the Pharisees had perverted the Law by seeing themselves as “clean and undefiled” because of what they did, rather than seeing themselves as “unclean and defiled” because of who they were: sinners in need of a Savior.
#2. And Eats With Them!
In the minds of the Pharisees and religious leaders, it was bad for Jesus to welcome sinners, but it was beyond their comprehension why He would actually break bread with them. Eating was a very symbolic act in the ancient world; it meant fellowship and friendship. It was an obvious sign of relationship. The Pharisees and religious leaders simply could not imagine why Jesus would engage in such an intimate act with people whom they considered to be defiled.
What cosmic condescension from our Lord Jesus Christ! Not only did He welcome sinners, people just like you and me, but He offered table fellowship as well. Jesus allowed His reputation to be ruined in the eyes of the “up and in” simply to save the “down and out.” That’s you and me. And that’s also a call for you and me to refuse to stay clear of those who are in desperate need of Christ. We are to love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
I have a word of encouragement for you today that can be found in two simple yet profound words: So loved! Think about this for a moment; writing his gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle John could find no better word than “so” to describe the depth of God’s love for you. So regardless of where this finds you today, remember that you are “so loved” by your God.
“So” truly seems to be the best of all words, because who among us could come close to defining just how loved we are by God? Words cannot describe the kind of love our God has for us in Christ Jesus. When we lived in sin and cared not for the things of God . . . we were so loved. When we were rebels on the run away from God instead of toward Him . . . we were so loved. When God sent His only beloved Son to take our place on a cross so that our sins could be forgiven . . . we were so loved. When God turned away from His beloved Son as He cried out from that cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” . . . we were so loved. Truly, there is no human definition that adequately describes what it means to be “so loved” by God.
This should be both an encouragement and a comfort for you today. Perhaps you are in a season of struggle. Maybe Satan has been sowing seeds of discouragement in the garden of your mind. Could it be that you have been doubting the security of your place in God’s family of faith? Regardless of your difficulty or distress, let me exhort you to meditate on and marinate in the truth that the apostle John penned for you 2000 years ago: you are so loved by God — deeply and eternally — right now, right where this finds you.
I pray that you will live this day and all the days God gives you in light of this truth. Whether the road ahead is filled with jagged potholes of painful providences or is running straight and smooth because of the tender mercies of God, remember that you are “so loved!” Now, that’s a truth that is designed to set you free to be all God is calling you to be.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 