Category Archives: General

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

What do you think is the greatest goal in an interpersonal relationship? Perhaps it is simply trying to keep that relationship from blowing up! As ominous as that might sound, years of pastoral experience have taught me that so very many relationships do go sour, and the reason for that comes down to one word with three letters: SIN!

None of us has ever experienced a relationship devoid of disappointment, frustration, irritation, sadness, and a myriad of other problems and challenges. I’m sure you see the glaring the problem with the word sin: it is the “I” in the center of it! Sin drives us to make life and our relationships all about us. We want to sit on the throne of our lives, ruling and reigning, rather than submitting to our Lord Jesus. And the result of our sin leaves the landscape of our relationships littered with “land mines.” Sin causes us to want to be right rather than to be loving . . . to be served rather than to serve . . . to blame rather than to forgive . . . to be critical rather than to be understanding . . . to be first rather than to be last. The list of our sins goes on and on. We are all marked by self-absorption, self-rule, and self-centeredness. It’s a wonder any of our relationships survive!

But the good news of the Gospel tells us we have a God who is for us, with us, and in us, and He is committed to helping us work through each relationship. The apostle Paul adds these words to the warning contained in our verse for today, which, when followed, give us all the grace we need for each relationship race and keeps them all from blowing up:

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:30-32)

And if you’re still wondering, “How do I do that?” Paul said it even more simply in his letter to the Corinthians:

Do everything in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)

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

“He got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him  and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

The poet Robert Frost once famously said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Well, as a pastor who has worked with many families, offering counsel on many broken relationships, there are homes where that is not an existential truth. Because of sin, some relationships have been ruined beyond the point of repair, reunion, and restoration. But there is one home where Frost’s statement is always true, and that home is in the heart of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Home is where His heart is.

Like the Prodigal Son, who squandered his inheritance on wild living and was so desperate to go back home that he was perfectly willing to live not as a son, but as a hired servant if his father would take him back, we are always received back into the heart of our heavenly Father, no matter how often we rebel and run away. Home truly is where His heart is . . .

• His heart of forgiveness
• His heart of acceptance
• His heart of grace
• His heart of mercy
• His heart of love

Home is where His heart is because the Father’s door is always open, and we are always welcomed home, no matter what we have done. We are eternally secure in our relationship to our Lord, and there is nothing we can do to ruin it. Will there be consequences for our sin? Oh my, yes! Our God is the perfect Father, and He will discipline His children, just as any good and loving father will discipline a disobedient child. But there is absolutely nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus . . . NOTHING!

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Regardless of where this message finds you today, home is where His heart is, and you will always find Jesus waiting at the front door with open arms and nail-scarred hands ready to receive you back where you belong. You have His Word on that!

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

I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)

We hear the phrase used over and over: “Living the good life.” But what does living the good life really mean to you? Is it a life of abundant possessions and material comfort? Is it a life of extravagance and ease? Is it something that is only available to those who have fame and fortune? Is it an address in Beverly Hills? What is the one thing in your life that you tell yourself would make you feel happy, fulfilled, and satisfied?

Whatever you believe will provide you with “the good life” will ultimately rule your heart and shape your life. Your picture of the good life impacts your daily decisions, both large and small. Ultimately you will tend to judge God’s goodness in your life by whether or not you receive this “good life” from Him.

But this is not for you! God often refuses to give us what we want because there are so many times when what we want is not God’s best for us. We must remember that God always directs our lives in a way that is ultimately good, even when — especially when — it doesn’t feel good to us at that moment. You see, God is freeing us from the constricted confines of our definition of the good life and inviting us into His goodness, which transcends the here and now. Because God is always good and is always working everything together for our good, we must keep our focus on Him if we are going to experience the good life He has planned for us.

The good that God promises to provide all of His children is not something, but Someone, and His name is Jesus Christ. The ultimate good in this life is an intimate, personal, right relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus, nothing is good. With Jesus, you need nothing else to experience the good life.

Got Jesus?

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

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

The so-called wisdom of the world says “Foolishness” to the divine wisdom of the Word. Sin? What is that? Grace? Who needs it? Heaven and Hell? Nobody really believes in that anymore! As long as you’re not hurting anyone, the world says piously, nobody should care what you do.

News flash: Someone does care, and His name is Jesus Christ. The message of the cross is foolishness to the world because their minds have been darkened to their fallen, sinful condition and the grim sentence God has pronounced on humanity: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Those who reject the message of the cross rebel against the revelation of God, preferring to subscribe, surrender, and submit to the vain imaginations of men. The world sees the Bible as an antiquated book that has absolutely no relevance to our lives today. The world rejects the clear teaching of Scripture that we are all dead in trespasses and sins and desperately in need of a Savior because we cannot save ourselves. Sinful pride declares, “I don’t need to bow my knee to a God who is going to tell me how I must live. I am the ‘the master of my fate . . . the captain of my soul’!”

On the other hand, the message of the cross is the wisdom of God to save those who are understand that they are perishing and look with faith to the cross work of Christ. It is the most sublime message to those who recognize their sin and surrender their lives to the One who took their place on a cross to pay the penalty for all their sins.

The apostle Paul went on to say that the message of the cross is the “power of God for those who are being saved.” The cross is not foolishness; it is foundational! It is the key that unlocks the door leading from death to life . . . hell to heaven . . . darkness to light . . . unrighteousness to righteousness.

May that truth set us free to be all that God is calling us to be.  

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

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

For those who are — by grace through faith — in Christ, everything we truly want . . . everything our hearts beat for . . . everything we are so desperately seeking . . . we already have because of Jesus.

We are all born needy. The human heart deeply needs and longs for so many things, and the things that matter most in life are given to us by the One who took our stripes and bore our guilt and shame on the cross.  

• The attention we long for . . . we already have in Christ
• The affection we long for . . . we already have in Christ
• The acceptance we long for . . . we already have in Christ
• The attachment we long for . . . we already have in Christ
• The acknowledgment we long for . . . we already have in Christ
• The approval we long for . . . we already have in Christ

Jesus lost all of that and so much more when He suffered the Father’s cosmic abandonment and experienced righteous rejection while He hung on the cross on behalf of sinners like you and me. But three days later, God the Father placed His sovereign stamp of approval on God the Son by raising Him from the grave. And now, seated at the right hand of the Father in glory, Jesus has all the affection, acceptance, and approval of His Father . . . and so much more; “Power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise” are His forever and ever (Revelation 5:12-13).

And because of our relationship to Him, we have it too — all the attention, affection, acceptance, attachment, acknowledgment, and approval we could ever possibly want! God has “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). He wants us to know “His incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19) and for us to be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).

What amazing grace and indescribable gifts have been bestowed on all those who have trusted in Jesus! Remember, every heartbreak of longing that comes from feeling unaccepted, unwelcome, unwanted, unincluded, uninvited, and unloved is fulfilled — completely and eternally — in Jesus Christ, and nothing can ever change that.

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

He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:15)

There is a war raging all around us. We fight against two powerful enemies: the world and the devil, both of which are working tirelessly to lure us away from Jesus, and the battle is fierce. But we also contend against an even more ferocious and relentless opponent — not just daily, but moment by moment. We fight with ourselves. Every day we wage the war within against the desires of our sinful nature. Once we are in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, our new nature in Christ is in constant combat with the old nature in our flesh (Galatians 5:17).

The new nature and the old are bitter enemies; they are diametrically opposed to each other. They battle to win control of our hearts, and the prize is to sit upon the throne of our lives. No one understood this battle better than the apostle Paul, who readily admitted, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:18-20).

Let me be clear about what Paul was not saying; he was not saying, “The devil made me do it!” He was not making an excuse for his sinful behavior. Paul knew that Satan is a defeated enemy who was forever vanquished by the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to Jesus, Satan no longer reigns, but he still remains.

What Paul was saying is that the battle for control that rages deep inside every human heart will never be won in our strength. The enemy is too powerful and remorselessly focused on winning, which is why we must rely totally on the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to give us victory. Our new nature in Christ and our old sinful nature are unequally yoked and cannot agree on anything; therefore we must choose, moment by moment, which nature we will satisfy.

Remember, each day you will look to something to give your life meaning, significance, and purpose. Each day you will attach your identity to something in order to find joy and happiness. If that “something” is anything smaller than Jesus, it will inevitably leave you empty and wanting. Only when you are looking to Jesus and leaning totally on Him will you be able to win the war within and experience the abundant life Jesus has offered.

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

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . . (Philippians 3:8)

The very first thing the devil got Adam and Eve to question in the Garden of Eden was the goodness of God. Satan’s sly suggestions caused them to focus on the one prohibition — “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17) — rather than their abundant provision. The devil did not try to convince our first parents to question God’s existence, just His goodness. And each and every day Satan is busily engaged in trying to get us to do the very same thing.

When the storm winds are blowing and the waves of challenge are crashing over us, we all have a tendency to question the goodness of our God. When God does not fix our problems, follow our agenda, and fulfill our dreams, we begin to question His goodness.

But we shouldn’t be surprised when life in this world is difficult. God never promised us a problem-free life; in fact, He promised us just the opposite! Jesus made it clear that, because of sin, we will have trouble in this life. And because God is more concerned about our character than our comfort, He sends us into storms that are designed to grow and mature us in our faith.

Scripture commands us to “Consider it pure joy . . . whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2). Paul said we are to “Rejoice in our sufferings” (Romans 5:3) — and Paul knew quite a bit about suffering! Because God is far more concerned about our holiness than our happiness, He will put us in challenging circumstances that cause us to deepen our dependence on Him. No matter how daunting or even dreadful your circumstances may be, hold fast to the truth that you are only passing through this life on your way to the new heavens and new earth, where there will be no more sorrow, storms, or suffering. Let this promise strengthen you to see the goodness of God, even in the badness of life.

Never forget, the most terrible thing that ever happened in the history of the world was the crucifixion of our sinless Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sinful man looked into the eyes of the sinless Savior and proceeded to spit in His face and beat Him with whips and nail Him to a cross. They mocked Him as he hung there in agony. Yet out of that unspeakably evil event, God brought forth our greatest good: the way of salvation and eternal life through faith in His atoning death and supernatural resurrection.

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

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)

Because we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and God is Love (1 John 4:8), it follows that we have been hardwired for love. It is impossible for us to not love; we are lovers by nature. Our minds were designed to think about love. Our hearts were designed to long for love. And all of this was designed to keep us living in an intimate, personal, loving relationship with our God.

God hardwired us to love Him supremely because He knew that is the only way we will satisfy the deepest need of our hearts. We were made by God and we were made for God, and only when God is on the throne of our lives do we experience the soul-satisfying, worship-stimulating, heart-sustaining love we are hardwired for.

But there is a problem, and you probably know what that problem is. Adam and Eve turned away from God and chose to love themselves more than God. You and I inherited their treacherous sin nature, and we do the very same thing. Instead of loving God, we give our love to things smaller than God. We love people more than we love God. We love our stuff more than we love God. We love ourselves more than we love God. In essence, we exchange the love of our Creator for the love of His creation. And when we come to the end of all that loving, there is little — if any –love left for God. This is spiritual adultery. It is also called disordered love: we have allowed someone or something to sit on the throne of our lives that is vastly and infinitely inferior to the One who sits on His throne in heaven.

If we are to reestablish the holy hardwiring needed to love God according to our divine design, we must be in a right relationship with Jesus. When we acknowledge that we are sinners in need of a Savior and surrender control of our lives to Christ, we will be brought back into the right relationship with God that we were created to enjoy.

Remember, we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). With Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have, once again, the capacity to love God above everything else. May this be the confession of our lives!

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

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

On the day we said “I believe” to Jesus as the One who paid the penalty for our sins — all our sins — and God the Father credited Christ’s righteousness to our account (theologians would say that Christ’s perfect righteousness was imputed to us), in that instant we became perfectly righteous and sinless in the sight of God. Yet we all know by way of painful, personal experience that we still sin and constantly battle with the remaining sin in our lives . . . not just daily, but moment by moment.

You see, sinlessness is not an event, but an eventuality for those who are in Christ Jesus. Inasmuch as we are clothed in the righteous robes of Christ, we still do many things that are utterly unrighteous. The promise for the believer is not sinless perfection on this side of the grave; the promise is sinless perfection when we are received into glory. Until then, we must deal with the disheartening reality that we will sin, because we are still sinners who are very much in need of being saved from ourselves every moment of every day.

The word for this process is sanctification. The power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us makes us more and more like Jesus as we journey though this life. We are not asked or expected to make ourselves perfect and righteous and holy. However, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, who is guiding us into God’s perfect plan for our imperfect lives. God is with us every step of the way, and that includes every sinful misstep along the way. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). The key to sanctification, therefore, is to keep walking by faith and not by sight, knowing that the good work God began in us on that day when we said “I believe,” He will one day bring to completion when we are welcomed into our glorious home in the new heavens and the new earth.

To know that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin enables us to understand that as we walk with Him throughout our lives, He is freeing us from both the power of sin and the pleasure of sin as we grow and mature in our faith. Let that truth set us free to be all God is calling us to be –albeit imperfectly — until we arrive at the eventual day of perfection on the other side of the grave.

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

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of you faith, the salvation of you souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9)

You’ve heard it said that “Seeing is believing.” Well, when it comes to the truths of the Gospel, which are divinely designed to satisfy the deepest needs of every human heart, make no mistake: Believing is seeing! The truths of God’s Gospel sweep away our spiritual blindness and allow us to see Jesus, the glorious One, with eyes of faith.

Thomas was one of those who said, “Seeing is believing.” He was not with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them after His resurrection, and he simply would not believe what they told him about a risen Savior. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands,” Thomas insisted, “and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

But when he was face-to-face with Jesus a week later, Thomas believed. “My Lord and my God!” he proclaimed. And then Jesus uttered some of the most glorious words in the Bible: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and still believe.” (John 20:25, 28-29). Believing is indeed seeing when it comes to being a Christian!

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). The grace of the Gospel gives us the faith to be assured of what we cannot see in the natural, because it opens us up to seeing in the supernatural. The grace of the Gospel connects us by faith to the One who fills us with an expressible and glorious joy, as Peter put it in our passage for today, because we are receiving the goal of our faith – and His name is Jesus Christ.

One day we will look upon our Lord Jesus and know Him as He is (1 John 3:2); until that day, we love Him even though we have not yet seen Him. The grace of the Gospel allows us to stake our hopes, dreams, goals — our very existence — on the One whom we have not seen, yet we believe in Him and love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

What do you think? Is “Seeing believing” or is “Believing seeing”? The difference makes all the difference in the world when it comes to experiencing that inexpressible and glorious joy that is available to all those who place their trust in the One whom we only see with eyes of faith today, but we will one day soon stand in His glorious presence forever and ever.

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