Category Archives: General

When Nehemiah heard the call of God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he stayed focused on the task at hand and did not let any distractions derail him. The opposition, led by Sanbellat and Geshem, did not want the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt and did everything in their power to distract Nehemiah from the work God had set before him.

Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” (Nehemiah 6:2)

A distraction is anything that pulls your attention away from something you are focused on.  In today’s message, I am using “the plain of Ono” as a metaphor for anything that the devil uses to distract God’s people from doing God’s work. The devil uses everything at his disposal to disrupt and derail our devotion to God. We must never forget that our enemy “seeks to kill, to steal, and to destroy” (John 10:10); “he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), and he will use any and all means at his disposal to destroy our desire and our ability to serve the Lord our God.

So what should be our response?

They were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. (Nehemiah 6:2-4)

When the devil sends his distractions our way, we should respond in the same way that Nehemiah did: “Oh no! I will not go down that path!” Perhaps a tweet or a text disrupts your focus; maybe it’s an email or an Instagram post that distracts your attention. Whenever anything comes up that will steal our focus from what God has called us to do, we must respond, “Oh no! I will not go!” What rules the heart shapes the life. We need to keep our focus on Jesus and establish clear guardrails that keep us from being derailed from what are called to do.

Think about the areas in your life that are most distracting right now and resolve to minimize them or remove them altogether. This practice will automatically increase your devotion to Jesus and advance your progress in the work He has called you to do.

Here is a question that has helped me greatly over the years, and it may well help to sharpen your focus also: “Is what I am choosing to do right now the absolute best use of my time?” Remember, there is a season for every activity under heaven — a time for devotion and a time for a bit of distraction. The key that unlocks the door leading to living the life God has called you to live is to know when there is too much distraction that is driving you toward “the plain of Ono.”

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

Today is the 4^th of July, a time for food, fellowship, and fireworks. But for the American Christian, it is a time for so much more. It is a day to remember and reflect on the fact that we are a nation that was founded on and rooted in Christian principles. Do you doubt it? Let’s ask our founding fathers. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. George Washington

To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism. Jedidiah Morse

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. John Quincy Adams

These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation. United States Supreme Court, “Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States”

Regardless of what we hear politicians, members of the liberal media, or history revisionists saying today, our great nation was founded on Christian principles and the freedom to worship the God who is — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of revelation — not a god of our own imagination. 

Our founding fathers not only pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, they also pledged allegiance to their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. They echoed the inspired and infallible words of the apostle Paul:

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 loves me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Their ultimate allegiance was to the Almighty. They were devoted to Him. They were dedicated to Him.  They were dyed-in-the-wool for Him. Their entire existence was rooted in their right relationship with their Redeemer. And that, beloved, is to be the confession of the lives of all those Christians who pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and every other Christian around the world, regardless of what flag they pledge allegiance to. 

On this day when we in the United States of America commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring our independence from the kingdom of Great Britain, let us meditate on our own declaration of dependence upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His sovereign rule in our lives. Jesus is to be our first priority in both life and death. He is to be our safety in the storm. He is to be our peace in times of trouble. He is to be our portion in times of need. He is to be our all in all.     

There is no greater declaration for the Christian to make and honor than the one made to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. When we declare that we are His, we declare that we are no longer our own. We have been bought at a price no man can measure. The very Son of God was crucified and nailed to a dirty tree, hung between two thieves to pay the penalty for every one of our sins — past, present, and still to come. We are His and no other’s, and He will tolerate no rival. 

So as you prepare to enjoy your Fourth of July celebration today, please remember to pause and give thanks to the One who purchased your independence from the kingdom of the prince of this world. Jesus Christ has brought you out of darkness into His wonderful light to remain with Him forever and ever, world without end.

By God’s grace, may we live lives that confess both our pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to our triune God in heaven — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   

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

Every good and perfect gift is from above. (James 1:17)

A profound sense of entitlement has enslaved our contemporary culture and crippled its ability to rise above the waves of challenge in life. Entitlement is metastasizing like stage four cancer, and it has infected the church, much to the detriment of our spiritual lives. It never ceases to amaze me how many younger adults I speak with who feel entitled to immediately enjoy the same standard of living that their parents took decades to develop and achieve. And the worst thing about this mindset is that when we don’t receive what we believe we have a right to expect, we tend to glare at God, believing He is the One who has withheld it from us.

God has promised to give to us everything we need in order to live the life He has called us to live. We have received every spiritual blessing in Jesus (Ephesians 1:3) and God has promised to meet our every need along the way (Philippians 4:19). The problem arises when we believe we are entitled to more than God has promised.

Here’s the thing: God never promised to meet our every want. Often what we want is the exact opposite of what God wants for us, and for good reason, because what we want is not His best for us. But when we feel entitled to something we want, we become bitter and begin to shrink back from all God is calling us to be in our ministry of service to Him. We must remember that God owes us nothing — absolutely nothing — but He has promised us everything in Jesus.

The Christian life is to be marked by contribution, not consumerism. Only when we remember this truth will we break the chains of enslavement to entitlement. We are to trust in God’s provision for us and receive with thanksgiving whatever He chooses to give to us. Remember, entitlement places self on the throne of life, not the Savior. But by keeping an attitude of gratitude in all circumstances, we will keep Jesus enthroned on our lives, and that will set us free from every sense of entitlement.

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

Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

It never ceases to amaze me how many people put Jesus into the category of a “colleague,” someone they work alongside of as they go through life. Now, inasmuch as we do indeed work and serve alongside our Lord Jesus, He is in no way our colleague. Jesus is not our equal. He is not a peer. Jesus is not someone we can criticize or ignore of offer suggestions to. Jesus is Lord, and He sits on the throne of our lives to rule and to reign, to guide and to govern, to direct and to discipline us. We are never in a position to pass judgment on our Lord, because His ways are perfect and He is in control of everything in the universe, including every detail of our little lives.

What are the “red flags” that will help you recognize that you have relegated Jesus to the category of colleague? Take a look at how you receive His Word as it speaks into every area of your life. Do you take Jesus at His Word? Or do you only receive the parts that you like and that make sense to you? If you see Christ as your colleague, there will be times when you will question His wisdom and refuse to follow where He is leading you. If Jesus is truly Lord in our lives, we will follow everything He has said, no questions asked, and that includes those times when we do not understand what He is doing in our lives.

When Christ is on the throne of your life, you hold nothing back. You give Him your time. You give Him your talent. You give Him your treasure. You surrender your plans to Jesus. Your surrender your goals to Jesus. You surrender your desires to Jesus. Remember, “surrender” is a battle term. It implies giving up all the rights you think you have to the One who conquered you . . . and His name is Jesus the Christ.

Because Jesus is good all the time, He sought you, caught you, and bought you for one reason only: to bless you in relationship with Him. Let that truth set you free to follow wherever He is leading you . . . not as your “colleague,” but as your conquering King and kindly Commander.

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

The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus. (Luke 15:1)

If we had been there when the tax collectors and sinners were all coming to Jesus, this is what we might very well have heard from the devout religious leaders of that day: “EWWWWW!” You know the sound; you often hear it when children are at play. When they encounter something they don’t like, they loudly express their disgust by saying, “EWWWWW!” And that is exactly what the self-righteous religious leaders were doing when they saw tax collectors and other people they regarded as “sinners” continually coming into the presence of Jesus.

• Jesus receives sinners. . . .  EWWWWW!
• Jesus eats with tax collectors. . . . EWWWWW!
• Doesn’t Jesus know how bad these people are? . . .  EWWWWW!
• Jesus is treating this scum like friends! . . .  EWWWWW!

What leaves the self-righteous then and now utterly flabbergasted is this: Jesus never said “EWWWWW!” to anybody! Jesus knows what is in the hearts of all people (John 2:25); He knew that the men and women drawing near to Him were sinners. He also knew what kind of people the religious leaders were: sinners. Jesus knew full well that there is no one righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10).

Now think about this: Jesus would have been more than justified to send all of them away — tax collectors and teachers of the law alike — because all of them were sinners! But that’s not what our Lord did. He welcomed those who knew they were sinners and were not hiding behind the flimsy fig leaves of proud, self-righteous, unholy religiosity. And Jesus still welcomes sinners today — people like you and me. As He said so sweetly, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matthew 9:12).

Here is one more thing for us to consider: Not only did Jesus refuse to say, “EWWWWW!” the day He welcomed you into His presence, but He continues to refuse to say, “EWWWWW!” to anything you do. He is not embarrassed by your behavior. He is not shamed by your sin. Jesus died to have you in relationship with Him, and He has promised never to leave nor forsake you. He may very well discipline you for willful sins, but He will never desert you. You have His Word on that.

“EWWWWW!” is simply not in the vocabulary of our Lord when it comes to those who turn to Him, by grace through faith. Once you are His, you are His forevermore. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful to us (2 Timothy 2:13).  

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

I am the bread of life. (John 6:35)

When Jesus fed the 5,000 men, plus women and children, He made the remarkable statement that “I am the bread of life.” Jesus had just given the people what they needed to sustain physical life — bread — and then He went on to tell them that He is the bread that came down from heaven and that whoever comes to him will never go hungry. Just as bread satisfies our physical hunger, Jesus, the true bread that came down from heaven, is the only One who can satisfy our spiritual hunger.

Now, don’t miss this! If you fast from food and refuse to eat your daily bread, over time you will grow weak and faint, and eventually you will die. It is no different when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. Just as we need our daily bread to sustain physical life, we must feast daily on Jesus to sustain physical life. We must come into His presence each day through prayer and the study of His Word; as we do that, the life of our Lord Jesus will flow into us and through us into the lives of others.

Feasting on Jesus will strengthen our faithfulness to Him and empower us to live the life God has called us to life. And when we have completed our ministry of service to Him and breathe our last, we will live on in eternity with Jesus and all the saints of God in the new heavens and the new earth.

How are things with you? Have you been feasting on the believer’s bread lately? The more you eat of Jesus, the more you will experience eternal life right here and right now. When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we must never confine that request to the physical. We must always and in every way rise to the level of our Lord and seek Him each day, all day, early and late and at all times in between; when we do that, we will experience the abundant life that we have been promised in Jesus.

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

You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (John 16:20)

When we understand what our Lord was telling His disciples then and His disciples today, we recognize that we have been given a promise of unimaginable blessing! Jesus had told His disciples that He was going the way of death, but He promised that they would see Him again after a little while. His death would lead to His resurrection, demonstrating His ultimate power over the entire universe, including the last enemy, death. The searing grief the disciples would experience on Good Friday when Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, would turn into unimaginable gladness on that first Easter morning when Jesus walked out of the grave alive and well.

We always have a choice in how we will deal with what is going in our lives. We can live frustrated and defeated lives or we can live faithful and victorious lives, which we will do by keeping our focus on our Lord Jesus. Grief is real, and it is right and normal to grieve when we are facing the inevitable storms that are part of life in this fallen, broken world. But we do not grieve as those who have no hope. We hope in the One who conquered sin, Satan, and death. We trust that He is in control of every detail of our lives. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we will rise above the circumstances we are facing in life, because we are trusting in our Lord’s promise to turn our grief into gladness.

Remember, the power that is at work within you is greater than any power this world can bring against you. By trusting in Jesus and depending upon Him through every set of circumstances we face in life, we can rest in the promise He gave to His disciples 2,000 years ago: No one will take away our joy.

Give every grief to God; in His time and in His way, He will turn it all to gladness.

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

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Our Lord gave the apostle Paul a “thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan” (2 Corinthians 12:7); no doubt the enemy delighted in messing with Paul’s ministry. Scripture does not reveal what that “thorn” really was, but we are told a few other things about the significance of it. First, the thorn, whatever it really was, was given to Paul to keep him from becoming conceited over the “surpassingly great revelations” he had received from God. Second, we know that Paul pleaded with the Lord to take it away — not once, but three times. God’s answer to this prayer was “No.” Finally, we read God’s reply to Paul’s prayer, which is our verse for today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

This is what I call the “Witness of Weakness.” Instead of delivering Paul from his painful affliction, God chose to demonstrate His omnipotent power in and through Paul. Think about it this way: God delights in displaying His power through weak people like you and me. Paul was forced to depend wholly on God in order to fulfill his calling in ministry. And the same is true for you and me! Weakness drives us into the presence of God, and we must trust in Him to give us all we need to do all He is calling us to do.

Here’s the all-important question: Do we allow our weakness to bear witness to the awesome power and care of our Lord Jesus in our lives? When we believe that we are strong in our own abilities and resources, we have a tendency to work in our own strength, in our way, and in our time, which can lead to sinful pride. But when we are weak, we have no choice but to ask God to fill us to the overflowing with His Power and His Grace to bear witness to His glory.

Are you feeling weak today? That’s a good thing! Let your weakness bear witness to the perfect power of your Great God and Savior.

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

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

Perhaps you have seen the acronym E.G.O. – “Edging God Out.” This is a problem for all of us, as we all have a tendency to edge God out of our lives . . . or at the very least to confine Him to the circumference of our lives. We do this because we desire to sit upon the throne of our lives. We all, to a certain extent, have believed the lie that Satan used to plunge humanity into sin: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).

In Amadeus, a film about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, we see Antonio Salieri, an ambitious eighteenth-century composer, uttering this prayer:

Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous throughout the world, dear God; make me immortal. After I die, let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote. In return I will give You my chastity, my industry, my deep humility, my life.

Salieri was a very successful composer, but his skill level never rose to the level of Mozart. He was terribly frustrated by Mozart’s success — Mozart, who lived a debauched life before the face of God. Salieri turned away from God, believing God had betrayed him. He edged God out of his life. In a memorable scene in the movie, Salieri takes a crucifix from the wall of his room and places it in the fire. Selfish ambition blinded Salieri to the good gifts God had given him to be used for the good of others and the glory of God.

How are things with you these days? Have you been comparing yourself to someone else lately? Are you frustrated with the level of your accomplishments compared to others? Have you ever prayed a prayer like the one Salieri prayed, bargaining with God for your blessing? By nature, we all have some Salieri in our hearts — we are sinners, after all — which is why we must be on guard against E.G.O. in our lives.

Like Paul, we must learn to be content with our lot in life — even if, when it is compared to others, our lot is not a lot! Never forget, Christian, that when you have Jesus, you have everything you need.

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

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. (Proverbs 2:20)

How is your spiritual appetite lately? Do you have a hunger for God? Do you believe it is possible to maintain a strong spiritual appetite throughout your life? I want to encourage you today with two simple steps to maintain your spiritual appetite, whether the circumstances you are facing in life are difficult or delightful.

#1 Remember God’s Love For You

The first step in maintaining your spiritual appetite throughout life is to remember “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18). Keeping the love of God in Christ Jesus firmly in mind will keep you hungry and thirsty for the living God. Remember, God does not love you because you are lovable; He loves you because you are His. God loves you perfectly and completely in your every imperfection. He always welcomes you into His presence, no matter how badly you have messed things up. “Draw near to God,” He assures us, “and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8 NKJV).

#2 Forsake Eating “Folly Food“

The second step in maintaining your spiritual appetite throughout life is to diligently forsake junk food. The God-sized hole in your heart can only be filled by God. When you try to fill that hole with anything smaller than Jesus, it will always leave you wanting and malnourished. No matter how much success you experience in this life, nothing will satisfy the deepest desire of your heart — the desire for Jesus. We were made to desire Him! He died to make us His and to restore us to right relationship with God, so that we will echo Paul, who exulted that “to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).

Remember, “the discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly” (Proverbs 15:14). What have you been filling up on lately? When you make knowing God your highest priority in life, you will find your spiritual appetite growing throughout life. You will simply be unable to satisfy your hunger for all things holy. Stay in the Word of God. Stay in close communion with Jesus. Stay connected to your family of faith weekly. Remember God’s love for you, forsake eating “folly food,” and God will continue cultivating your appetite for Him until the day you are brought into glory.

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