Category Archives: General

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Between yesterday’s deliverance and tomorrow’s dreams we will be confronted by the storms of life, which are as inevitable as they are unpredictable. Jesus is the Lord of the storm (Matthew 8:27), and in today’s verse He promises that there will definitely be storms. These storms come to us in many different forms: disappointment and defeat, poverty and pain, sickness and sorrow, alienation and accusation. And more often than not, these storms come when we least expect them. But they do not come to cause us to doubt God’s love; rather, they are sent to drive us into His presence so that we will come to a deeper understanding of the depth of His love.

Storms are God’s servants (Psalm 148:8) that teach us how to surrender more and more of our lives to His control. Many people have a hard time seeing God as loving if He is the One sending the storms. But it is because God is Love that He sends storms to shape the lifelong process of our sanctification – that is, our growth in Christ-likeness.

God sent a storm to retrieve His rebellious, runaway prophet Jonah so that he could come to a deeper understanding of God’s mercy. God sent a storm on the Sea of Galilee when all of Jesus’ disciples were in a boat so that they could personally witness the awesome, omnipotent power of Jesus Christ to calm that storm with a word. God sent a storm of persecution against the early church so that His people would leave their familiar surroundings in Jerusalem and move out into the world to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission. The storms God sends are not designed to disrupt your life; rather, they are designed to deliver you from the disruptions in your life that are distracting you from God’s call on your life.

What storm has God sent into your life today? When you look back over your past, you’ll see that it is marked by one deliverance after another; your future is filled with dreams and desires. During the “in-between,” you will face many storms. You may be tempted to think they have been sent to break you, but when God brings you through to the other side, you will know they were sent to make you . . . to make you more like Jesus.

Here is something I once read that has stuck with me:

I asked God, “Why are you taking me through troubled waters?”

God replied, “Because the enemies chasing you can’t swim.”

May those words inspire us all to find the Lord of the storm in every storm we face, knowing that God has promised to bring us safely to our divine destination. There is a lovely supplication expressed in the magnificent book of Puritan prayers, The Valley of Vision, which beautifully sums up today’s word of encouragement:

“May the gales of thy mercy blow me safely into harbour.”

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

Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? (Job 1:10)

When Satan came to God, asking permission to tempt His servant Job, Satan complained about “a hedge” that God had placed around Job. Satan knew God had placed a special hedge of protection around His servant Job; in order for Satan to be able to do anything to Job, God would have to grant Satan permission to move inside that “holy hedge.”

Make no mistake, we serve a God of hedges. God is in the business of protecting His children. He installs hedges of protection – that is, spiritual walls, fences, or partitions – around us to protect us. But there is another biblical truth to be gleaned from the story of Job: Sometimes God will allow Satan to gain access inside the hedge He has placed around us in order to grow us and mature us in our faith.

In His infinite wisdom, God allows Satan to tempt us; and just like Job, we often do not know the exact reason why. But we can be sure of this: God is working all things together for our ultimate good and His glory. When God allowed Satan to pass through the hedge around Job, He gave Satan permission to take everything from Job except his life. Job stood up under the test; he never lost his integrity or abandoned his commitment to God.

You see, as children of God, we are eternally protected. Satan can do nothing to keep us out of heaven, but God will allow him to tempt and test us. During those times of testing, we must remember that we have a holy hedge in Jesus. He is our refuge and our fortress, and He has promised to keep us from eternal harm. Whatever storm wind God allows to blow into our lives is there to strengthen our faith and conform us more to the image of Jesus.

Remember, whenever you face trials of any kind, if God does not remove you from the trial, you can be sure that He is refining you through that trial. Look to Jesus! Trust Him, no matter what it is you are facing, and know that you are never facing it alone. Jesus is your holy hedge of protection, and He has promised never to leave you nor forsake you. You are not alone!  

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

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Today’s passage comes from the divine appointment Jesus had at Jacob’s well with a Samaritan woman. This woman had absolutely no idea who Jesus was. The furthest thing from her mind was that Jesus was the promised “gift of God.” Yet there Jesus was, in a place no respectable Jewish man would never be. This was Samaria, the land of the despised, mixed-race Samaritans, and Jesus was speaking to a woman, no less! This simply was not done in that patriarchal culture.

This woman was an outcast. She had come to draw water at noon, the hottest time of the day, when no one else would be at the well. Jesus identified her as having had five husbands and currently living with a sixth man who was not her husband. On hearing this, the woman believed that Jesus was a prophet; by the end of the conversation, she understood that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah. We know this because she ran back into town, to the very people she had been trying to avoid, exclaiming, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did” (John 4:29).

The Samaritan woman was completely transformed by the love of Jesus. Her encounter with Jesus gives us a powerful example of one of the deepest Gospel truths: We are fully known and completely loved. Think about it! Jesus knows everything you ever did and He is still for you, with you, and in you. This can be hard for us to comprehend, because love so often comes with conditions in this life. But that’s not the case with Jesus! His love is unwavering even when we are wavering. That is the beauty and the blessing of understanding Jesus as the gift of God.

Are you experiencing the love of God in Christ Jesus today? Do you believe Jesus loves you with no strings attached? Remember, Jesus is the gift of God, and a gift is something that is freely given. By definition, a gift is something you do not earn or pay for. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ, you have been rescued from your rebellion — not because of anything you have ever done or ever will do, but simply because Jesus loves you.

Now that’s the gift that keeps on giving!

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

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” (John 15:16)

All throughout the Scriptures we see that salvation is of the Lord. The apostle John was given a vision of a great multitude in heaven crying out, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10). We are saved by grace, through faith, not because of anything we are or anything we have done or will do. Yet after we are saved, we are responsible to report for duty, and that duty is to bear fruit, not behave like nuts!

When Jesus raises us from death to life, He renews the mind, recalibrates the heart, and realigns the will. In other words, the grace that saves us is the same grace that sanctifies us and empowers us to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable to the One who has so graciously saved us.

Now, if we see our salvation more as a religion than a relationship, we are likely to become a little nutty. When I say “religion,” I am speaking about empty rituals and ceremonies that come from the imagination of man, not the revelation of God. It is the kind of life many religious leaders were living at the time of Jesus, and their sanctimonious behavior deeply angered and disappointed Him. They kept God at a distance because their religion had replaced their relationship with God. And that, beloved, is nuts!

We bear fruit when we live in a surrendered, submitted relationship with Jesus Christ, living for His glory and for the good of others. As we engage in expanding the cause of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, we are bearing the lasting, eternal fruit we were saved for.

In our verse for today, Jesus used the the metaphor of a vine and its branches to give us a vivid picture of a real and right relationship with our Lord. When we are abiding in Jesus, we are connected to Jesus. We are committed to Jesus. We are controlled by Jesus. As we remain in Him, we soak up His life-giving, supernatural Spirit that causes us to bear fruit that will last.

How would you describe your current walk with Christ? Is it more fruity? Or nutty? Inasmuch as we all have a combination of both in our lives, we will be far more fruitful when we fix our focus on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, regardless of the circumstances we face in life.

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

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery. John’s account explicitly states that they had caught her in the act. So where was the man? Why did they not bring him too? The Law of Moses commanded that the penalty for adultery was death by stoning for both parties in the illicit union (Leviticus 20:10). This gives us a clear indication as to the intent of the religious leaders. They were not looking for justice to be done; the text tells us they were trying to trap Jesus, “in order to have a basis for accusing him” (John 8:6).

So what did Jesus do? He stooped to write something on the ground — not once, but twice during this encounter. The text does not reveal what Jesus wrote, and this is the only place in Scripture where we see Jesus writing anything. But it just might be that Jesus was writing out the names of those holding the stones and their hidden sins, sins known only to our all-seeing, all-knowing God.

After Jesus invited “any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” and wrote on the ground with His finger, “Those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there” (John 8:9). The older ones dropping their stones and leaving first seems to suggest that the wisdom of their age helped them understand the Lord’s message. They recognized that Jesus could have exposed the depths of the depravity lurking in each of their hearts.

Question: Was there anyone without sin in that group? Yes, of course! It was Jesus. Only Jesus had the right to pass ultimate judgment. Every one of us is a sinner in moment-by-moment need of a Savior, and so we are to leave judgment to the One who judges justly. When we judge others, we grieve the Holy Spirit and give the devil a foothold in our lives. We all must stop slinging stones – stones of gossip, slander, judgment, anger, etc. – in our minds, in our words, and in our behavior.

Remember, the greater our devotion to Jesus, the better we become at dropping our stones. So let us draw near to the Lord and love one another, for love comes from God (1 John 4:8).

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

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

Today’s passage of Scripture is one of the hardest for many of us to take hold of and appropriate to our hearts. It’s certainly difficult for me and my heart. I have no doubt that I am not as free as Jesus intends for me to be in the Gospel freedom He died to purchase for His children.

I often allow the devil to accuse me, in spite of the fact that I know there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). I have a tendency to think that the more obedient I am, the more God will love me, forgetting the fact that I am already completely loved in Christ, no matter what I think, do, or say. I’m sure many of you reading this will readily admit that you succumb to that sort of “stinkin’ thinkin'” also. We all wrestle against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and our old sin nature is still very much alive deep within us and is busily engaged in trying to keep us in bondage. One of Satan’s most effective tactics is to dangle before us the deceitful promises of sin, which can deliver on its promises for a moment, but always leave us empty and wanting in the end.

Only when we receive the truth of the Gospel freedom that we have in Jesus will we respond by faith to the emancipation we have received. This emancipation has two facets, thanks to our spiritual union with Jesus: First, we are freed from the penalty, the power, and the pleasures of sin. Second, we have been freed to walk in the newness of life we have received. Because we are new creatures in Christ, we are released from the bondage and burden of sin and freed to the beauty and bounty of a new life in Christ.

May that dual truth set us all free — free indeed — to live the life Jesus has set us free to live, by grace through faith.

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

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

“Sit STILL,Tommy!” I believe I heard that phrase more than any other during my early elementary school days. I had a difficult time staying in my seat, and even when I was sitting down, I was fidgeting much of the time. So when I first encountered today’s verse, I assumed God was telling me to “Sit still,” not “BE still” . . . and there is a world of Gospel difference between the two.

Today I understand how I drove my teachers a bit crazy, because I was in constant motion throughout the school day. I’m sure there were times when I was a distraction to them and to the other students. But when it comes to my relationship with God, I am never a distraction in His cosmic classroom. I never frustrate Him, and He never grows impatient with me, no matter how much my fidgeting interferes with my focus. But because I am His child, and He sees how distracted I can become, He reminds me to “Be still.”

God was instructing the psalmist then–and you and me today–to rest in the redemption He has provided for us, no matter what is going on around us. Psalm 46:10 is a command to trust God even when we cannot trace Him. To know that God is in complete control of everything that is going on in every aspect of our lives is to “know that I am God.” Because our God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, we can surrender to His plan and purpose for our lives, because He knows exactly what He is doing all the time, and He is working all things for our good, even when we cannot understand any of it.

In some ways, I haven’t changed much from my childhood; I still have trouble sitting still. But I am growing in my ability to be still before the Lord, no matter what is going on in life. Knowing that there is indeed a God — and that I am not Him — has been the key to being still . . . even when I am not sitting still.

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

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. (Romans 9:15)

God has given us the incredible privilege of being called into the full-time ministry of expanding the cause of His Kingdom in this world, regardless of our occupation. Our work is clear: We are responsible to sow the seeds of God’s Gospel truth and leave the results up to Him. And, as odd as this may sound, we must learn to become indifferent to the outcomes, so as not to be overwhelmed by them. The parable of the sower tells us that some seed does grow and some doesn’t; some will and some won’t.

You may remember that when Jesus preached to the rich young ruler, whom He loved, our Lord accepted the young man’s rejection as a fact of life. This is an important lesson that we all must learn by way of personal experience. We cannot look at our sowing from the perspective of our success-oriented culture. We are simply responsible to sow the seed, not grow the seed. We are to share the truths of the Gospel and leave the results up to God, fully trusting that His Word will never return to Him empty, but will accomplish exactly what He desires and will succeed in the purpose for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

How are you doing in this ministry to which you have been called? Are you sowing seeds of Gospel truth? Remember, there are always two aspects of sowing: We are to sow seeds of Gospel truth in those who know not the Christ, and we are also to sow seeds of Gospel truth in those who are in Christ. As the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews said, we are to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).

And we must always remember that the growth of the seeds we sow is completely in the hands of the Almighty. We simply cannot let results affect us in any way. Paul said, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6). We need only to be faithful to the call God has placed on our lives. God will use our efforts for His glory and the good of those who love Him. You have His Word on that!

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

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. (Jonah 2:2)

We have a tendency to see the story of Jonah centering around a rebellious prophet, rather than a redeeming God. We talk about the huge fish, rather than a holy and faithful God. You know the story: God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Jonah wanted no part of it and headed in the opposite direction. He found a ship and tried to sail away from the Lord. Evidently Joseph was so sure that his strategy had worked that he went belowdecks for a good nap.

But God still had plans for Jonah. He pursued His runaway prophet and sent a storm that threatened to sink the vessel. Many see the storm as a sign of God’s wrath — a punishment leveled by God because of Jonah’s disobedience. I submit that, rather than seeing the storm as punishment, we are to see it as God’s gracious pursuit of His disobedient prophet. God interrupted Jonah’s flight from Him with the grace of gale-force winds.

This is God’s pattern. Throughout Scripture we see God’s people on the run away from Him, only to find God in hot pursuit of them them by any means necessary. Make no mistake: God is in the business of pursuing rebels on the run. He started with Adam and Eve, and His pursuit continues to this day — including His pursuit of you and me.

When the sailors on the ship woke Jonah from his sleep and questioned him, Jonah frankly admitted that he was the reason for the storm, explaining that God had sent it in response to His rebellion. He told the sailors to throw him into the sea and the storm would subside. Instead of following Jonah’s instruction, the sailors tried to row back to shore, but to no avail, “for the sea grew even wilder than before” (Jonah 1:13). As strange as the solution Jonah had offered sounded, it was God’s solution to the storm. When the sailors finally acquiesced and threw Jonah overboard, the sea instantly grew calm. The sailors, who just moments before had been crying out to all sorts of pagan gods, now “offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him” (Jonah 1:16). Do you see that? It wasn’t only Jonah whom God was pursuing that day!

Often God’s solution to the storms in our lives seems strange. But when we look back, we can see how often our attempts to row ourselves to safety were nothing more than rebellion, our foolish attempts to say, “Not so, Lord!” to the sovereign Lord of all the universe. Only when we submit and surrender to the storms God sends will we find ourselves rising above the winds and the waves as God works His grace in our lives.

So regardless of the storm you may be facing today, receive it as God’s sent messenger of sanctification in your life. He is conforming you to the image of Jesus. Stop rowing and get going in the direction He is calling you to, so that God will not need to send a big fish to strengthen your faith.

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

He shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor. (Job 34:19)

If you have ever been picked last to be on a team, you know what it is like to be on the short end of the “favorites “stick. My middle school years were difficult; I was just trying to fit in and figure out what it meant to be “in the middle” between elementary school and high school. Then there was the middle school P.E. experience. The top athletes would be chosen as captains and they would pick their teams for whatever sport we were playing at the time. What a dismal experience it is to see the line dwindle down as each name is called, and you are the last one standing there! And then I would hear those soul-crushing words, always uttered in a disgruntled tone: “I guess we’ll have to take Boland.”

Well, I have good news for you today: God does not play favorites! The ground is level at the foot of the cross. God does not prefer the prince over the pauper. He loves equally. In God’s economy, there is no such thing as “the wrong side of the tracks.” Why? Because God is on both side of them! God loves you so much that He sent His Son to die in your place so that He could have relationship with you.

Now, God does not need any of us. But He wants us! How wonderful is that truth?! We are not needed, but we are wanted. Regardless of where this message finds you today, you can be sure that God is quite fond of you! You are the apple of His eye and the object of His Almighty affection. He loves you unconditionally, and He has loved you from eternity past (2 Timothy 1:9). There never was a time when God did not love you . . . AND there will never be a time when He stops loving you. He will not love you less when you mess things up, and He will not love you more when you get it right. He simply loves you.

He wanted me to remind you of that truth today.

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