A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path. (Matthew 13:3-4)
The soil of the sanctified life can get a bit hard from time to time. That hardening can happen when we face unexpected challenges. It can happen when we face unmet expectations. It can happen when we encounter unforeseen loss. Let’s face it: Life is hard, and it can harden us from time to time. So we must always be on the lookout for any signs of “hard soil” in our hearts and allow God to soften our hearts with the truths of the Gospel.
Here are two simple, practical steps that will help in the process of softening hard soil in the heart.
Examination:
The first step is to make time for self-reflection. This is a time to let the Scriptures search our hearts to uncover any areas within us that may be growing hard, distant, or cold. We must first identify where the hard soil is before we can go to work on softening it.
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
In this passage, David was asking God to make sure his hatred for his enemies was not man-centered, but God-centered. David was zealous for the justice of God, and he wanted God to direct him to any wrong motives in his heart so that God could change them.
Excavation:
The second step is to let the Lord do His work in softening the hard soil in our heart by digging down into the depths of the heart through the truths of Scripture.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
Here David was asking God to excavate his heart, which had been hardened through his grievous sins of adultery and murder. He knew it would take a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to till the hard soil in his heart so that God could begin to plant new and better seeds of both thoughts and desires.
When we read our verse for today, we are to understand that, unlike our paved roads today, most of the roads in Jesus’ day were simply hardened, dirt-packed paths. The more they were traveled upon, the more the dirt was tamped down and the harder those paths would become. The consequences were clear: When the “seed” of the Word of God was sown along the road, “The birds came and ate it up” (Matthew 13:5). Perhaps you have been trampled upon by the difficulties of life and your heart has been tamped down into hardness. Don’t let the birds steal the seed of the Word in your heart! Look to Jesus, and He will soften your soil and His seed will take root and produce new fruit in your heart.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
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)
It has been well said that there are no “coincidences” in this world, only “God-incidents.” Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of Almighty God. If a sparrow does not fall to the ground apart from His will, and even the outcome of a roll of the dice is determined by the Lord (Proverbs 16:33), then we can be assured that everything is happening according to His perfect plan and purpose.
God has left absolutely nothing to “chance.” Rather, He has left it all to Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Author and the Perfecter of our faith. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
Our finite minds simply cannot fully plumb the depths of how God, in His perfect providence, is controlling all things for His glory and our eternal good. Yet we must affirm the divine truth that “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever” (Romans 11:36 NASB). This truth empowers us to move through life with a confidence that is rooted in the One who accomplishes everything according to the counsel of His will, through His perfect wisdom, perfect power, perfect holiness, perfect goodness, perfect mercy, perfect grace, and perfect love, to name just a few of His perfections.
Let us hold fast to the promise of our Scripture verse for today. Regardless of what we encounter throughout this day and every day on our way into glory, we can rest assured that God is in control of it all and is using it all for His glory and our good. Remember, we need not fear what the future holds, because we know the One who holds it. As we receive, rest in, and thank God for His providence in our lives, let us leave the false notion of “coincidence” to the unbelieving world. There are only God-incidents, and He is working all of them for the good of those who love Him.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
When Jesus said we would not get through this life without experiencing pain in a variety of different forms, He was not speaking metaphorically; He was making a declaration of fact. Yet inasmuch as we experience pain on our way into glory, we will not be marked by stain. C. S. Lewis expressed this biblical truth in this most profound way:
“God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.”
Lewis was confident that God has armed us to go through our trials and tribulations, but he did not say that God would steer us over, under, or around them. Rather, God takes us through difficulties in order to grow and mature us in our faith; in so doing, He is conforming us to the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus. As soon as we realize we are headed into one of life’s storms, our first prayer should not be, “Lord, please take this trial away,” but rather, “Lord, as You take me through this trial, thank You for making me more like Jesus!”
Many of you are familiar with the Genesis account of Jacob and his twelve sons; Joseph was favored by his father and hated by his brothers. Joseph’s brothers attacked him, thinking to kill him, but instead decided to sell Joseph into slavery. Joseph was taken down to Egypt, where he lived as a slave and a prisoner for 13 years. But God ordained a series of events so that Joseph would interpret Pharaoh’s dreams of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, and Joseph was taken out of prison and elevated to the second position of authority in Egypt.
During the ensuing famine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain, where they encountered their brother Joseph without realizing who he was. Eventually Joseph revealed himself to his flabbergasted brothers and uttered these life-changing words: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).
Joseph undoubtedly experienced a great deal of pain throughout those first thirteen years in Egypt, but his statement makes it clear that his pain was without stain. He saw God’s sovereign hand in everything that had happened, he knew that God is in complete control of all things, but Joseph also knew that there was purpose in his pain, and God’s purpose would not leave a stain of sorrow, anger, or bitterness.
May that truth set us all free to echo the apostle Paul and declare, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). God has promised us pain in this life; but He has also promised that, if we hold fast to His divine promises, He will bring us through that pain without the stain of sin. He will lead us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him (2 Corinthians 2:14). How glorious!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
“We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33)
God could not have been any bigger in the eyes of the Israelites. He had freed them from bondage in Egypt after 450 years. He decimated the land with ten plagues, turned the Red Sea into a holy highway for His people, and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army. He gave the people water from a rock and manna from heaven. Now they were ready to go into the Promised Land and receive God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in that moment of decision, they shrank the size of their God.
God directed twelve men to spy out the land He had promised to the people of Israel. Ten of the spies returned with a discouraging report; they had shrunk the size of God. Two spies–Joshua and Caleb–came came back with a positive report; they magnified the size of God. It was true that the people in the land were big and the city walls were fortified, but God had promised to give it all to them. Ten spies saw powerful people; two spies saw God’s powerful promise. Where ten spies saw insurmountable obstacles, two spies saw inspired opportunities. Where ten spies saw “giant” problems, two spies saw glorious possibilities. Ten spies said, “We can’t!” Two spies said, “We can!” All twelve spies saw the exact same things in the Promised Land. The difference in the two reports was rooted in the fact that ten spies looked through the eyes of the flesh, while two spies looked through the eyes of faith.
What lens have you been viewing your life through lately? When was the last time you shrank the size of your God because you were looking through the eyes of the flesh? Remember, with man many things appear impossible; but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). Christian, when God makes a promise to you, you can be certain He will keep it. Nothing can keep God from fulfilling His promises to you (2 Corinthians 1:20). No weapon formed against you shall prevail (Isaiah 54:17), because your God is bigger than any obstacle that appears to be blocking entry into your Promised Land.
So . . . how big is God in your eyes?
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:16)
In the game of checkers, the statement “King me” refers to the point when a player moves a piece to the last row on the opponent’s side of the board and is able to elevate the rank of his piece to “King” by stacking another piece on top of it. In the game of life, the statement “King me” refers to the times when we remove Jesus from the throne of our lives so that we can presume to perch there ourselves.
When we evict Jesus from the throne of our lives and arrogate ourselves to His rightful place, we make everything in our lives all about us. Rather than love for Jesus ruling our hearts and shaping our lives, love for self takes over. We become a demanding king who expects to be served and satisfied by everyone and everything. We are essentially declaring to the world, “King me!” At this level of living, we are looking to get from others only what God can give us. This inevitably leads to frustration and disappointment in our relationships, because no one will ever measure up to these absurd expectations.
But when, by God’s grace, we acknowledge the rightful reign of “King He,” we shift our focus away from the self and put it on our Savior, allowing Jesus to rule our lives. His rule and reign is not always what we expect or want, to be sure, but He always provides what we need exactly when we need it. When we look back over the years, we can see that when Jesus did not meet our expectations, it was because He exceeded them. Jesus is always working all things in our lives together for our ultimate, eternal good (Romans 8:28) . . . and that even includes all those things we don’t like.
Our sin often causes us to question the goodness of God, because we can only see a tiny portion of our lives. But God sees it all from beginning to end–all the days ordained for us were written in His book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16)–and we we can always trust that He is guiding us through all our imperfections into His perfect plan and purpose for our lives.
How is it with you today? Is it “King me” or “King He”? How you answer that question makes all the difference in the world in whether you will experience the abundant, victorious life Jesus has promised to all those who keep Him on the throne of their lives.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36)
When you look at the kingdom of God through worldly lenses, everything looks absolutely upside-down:
The poor in spirit are blessed.
Those who mourn shall be comforted.
Those who hunger for righteousness will be filled.
The pure in heart will see God.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
The first shall be last and the last shall be first.
To live you must die to self.
The exalted are humbled and the humble exalted.
To receive you must give.
Evil will be repaid with blessing.
Jesus honored what the world despises as He invested His time in the hurting, the oppressed, the marginalized, the downcast, and the social outcasts — people to whom the self-respecting “religious people” would not even give the time of day. Jesus hung out with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes; the religious leaders despised Him for it. It was shocking to hear Jesus say, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).
From the world’s perspective, Jesus truly brought an upside-down kingdom into this world; but in all actuality, it was right-side up. Jesus was restoring the original order of things to a world that had been disfigured and distorted by sin. Where every kingdom of the world was established and build upon the bloodshed of others, the Kingdom of Christ was established and built upon only His blood. How “upside-down” is that?
When Jesus stood before Pilate and said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” He meant what He said, and He invites us all to live out the values of His Kingdom each and every day, rather than sinking into the values of this broken, fallen, decaying world.
“Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)
This verse is part of Jesus’ lovely invitation to all those who are weary and heavy laden to come to Him for rest. Our Lord made it very clear that He was not speaking of physical burdens, but the heavy burden of the Pharisaical system of works righteousness – trying to get saved through rule-keeping rather than a right relationship with Jesus. The bottom line is this: No amount of law-keeping can bridge the gap between a perfectly holy God and sinful men and women like you and me. But once we understand this biblical truth, we can also apply it to our physical burdens as well.
Jesus knows we are all carrying burdens, and He invites us to come to Him for the rest we yearn for and desperately need. The “yoke” of our Lord Jesus is a symbol of submission and surrender to His rule and reign in our lives, which comes through our consistent commitment to discipleship.
We must be clear on what this actually means. It does not mean that we simply come to Jesus when we are burdened and dump it all on Him. Rather, we come to Him and He shoulders the burden with us because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Sometimes Jesus removes the entire weight of the burden from us; but when He doesn’t do that, He lifts the weight of that burden and us too, puts it all on His shoulders, and carries us with it.
Whatever you are going through right now, remember that you are not going through it alone. Jesus is right there with you, and He wants you to lean on Him and let Him shoulder your burden. This won’t take all your pain away, but it will give you the peace that passes all human understanding. Knowing that will empower you to rest in Him.
Are you experiencing the blessing of His yoke in your life today? His yoke truly is easy and His burden truly is light. Peter put it this way: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). To cast is to throw in a forceful way whatever is burdening you to the only One who can carry it — and you — every step of the way into glory.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
You hear people talk about “maturing in the faith.” What exactly does that mean? One of the best ways to understand that concept is by embracing the following truism: Maturity Is For Ministry. In other words, as we grow in our faith (that is, as we mature) we go out into all the world and use our God-given time, talent, and treasure to expand the cause of the Kingdom of Christ. So . . . does your faith have feet?
God’s greatest goal for the Christian is Christlikeness; we are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:29). As God patiently shapes and molds us to be more and more like Jesus, we will act more and more like Jesus. His faith had feet, and our faith will have feet.
There is one significant difference that we must never forget: Our Lord’s faith walked perfectly everywhere He went — in thought, word, deed, and desire. Ours will not. We will walk imperfectly; we will stumble; we may even fall. Yet the fact that we will inevitably sin in thought, word, deed, and desire should not keep us from putting feet to our faith every day and prayerfully striving to make a difference in this world by being different from this world. “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again” (Proverbs 24:16).
Here is another way to look at this important biblical truth. All of the instruction we receive through God’s ordained means of grace — Bible study, prayer, church attendance, fasting, tithing, etc. — must be followed by involvement. Simply listening to the truth of God’s Word is never the ultimate goal. Head knowledge must always move down into the heart and then flow out of our hands and our feet for the glory of God and the good of others. Being in Christ will take you beyond believing move you into belonging and becoming. To be sure, we must know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but that truth is to flow through us as we belong to Jesus and become more and more like Jesus.
James, the brother of our Lord, said it very directly:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
Remember, to have a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is to have a “serving knowledge” too. We are saved to serve as we put feet to our faith and live out each day in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! (2 Samuel 22:47)
“That rocks!” We hear the phrase often; you may be one who uses it. “That movie rocks! These hamburgers rock!” Really? A hamburger can rock? Well, there is Someone who really does rock: His name is Jesus Christ.
When you are reading the Bible, a rock is used as a symbol of stability and strength, permanence and power, dependability and durability. And that is exactly what Jesus is. The psalmist put it this way:
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2)
If you grew up in church, you may recall hearing or singing these words in Sunday school: “I am under the Rock, The Rock is higher than I, Jehovah hides me, I am under the Rock.”
Jesus rocks because He can be trusted. We can trust Jesus with everything: our dreams, our goals, our doubts, our fears, our hopes, our disappointments, our anxieties . . . anything and everything! Jesus also rocks because He can be depended on. We can depend on Jesus for everything: our safety and security, our protection and preservation, our righteousness and rest. We can depend on Jesus for everything that we need in both life and death. The very foundation of our lives is to be built upon Jesus, the Rock of Ages, giving us the stability and strength we need to get through every disappointment and trial we face.
How is it with you? Does Jesus rock in your life? Do you trust Him for everything? Do you depend on Him for everything? Remember, no matter what is going on in your life, run to Jesus, because He is the Rock who satisfies the deepest needs of your heart: unconditional love and total forgiveness. Peter rocked the Sanhedrin’s minds when he cited Psalm 118:22 and proclaimed:
He is “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the chief cornerstone.” Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:11-12)
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
The idiom “Same ole, same ole” (you may say it, “Same old, same old”) is a statement referring to something that has not changed, with the result that it has become stale or boring. For example, you get tired of eating the same ole thing for lunch every day. “What are you having for lunch today?” someone asks. “Same ole, same ole,” you reply dourly. Another example would be a response you frequently hear when someone asks a friend a question like, “How are things going with your job?” “Same ole, same ole,” the friend sighs.
Have you ever said that? Well, I have good news for you today! There is a Supernatural Same Ole, Same Ole, but this has one incredible difference: There is absolutely nothing boring, monotonous, or disappointing about it! It has been said that the only constant in life is change, and experience would tell us that certainly seems to be true. People change, they get old, their bodies begin to break down, and ultimately they die. Seasons change. Our emotions change.
But there is one thing — one constant — that never changes: Our Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and that is good news of gargantuan proportions! Time does not change God. Seasons do not change God. Nothing changes God. God is immutable.
God was perfect, is perfect, and always will be perfect.
God was good, is good, and always will be good.
God was loving, is loving, and always will be loving.
God was merciful, is merciful, and always will be merciful.
God was gracious, is gracious, and always will be gracious.
You get the picture. God is God; He cannot be improved upon and He never wears down; therefore He never changes. To be sure, our perspective of God changes as we grow and mature in our faith. The closer we draw to God through the study of His Word, prayer, corporate worship, and service, to name just a few of the means of grace, the bigger our God becomes to us. This is one of the reasons the Bible tells us to “Fear not!” What is there to fear when we have a God who was for you, is for you, and always will be for you forever and ever?
That is a supernatural “Same ole, same ole” that is well worth celebrating — not just daily, but moment by moment, don’t you agree? And there is nothing stale or boring about that!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 