Category Archives: General

We have arrived at Thanksgiving week, and I’d like to share a few thoughts as we move towards a day that has been set aside for giving thanks for our many blessings. Today I’d like to discuss expressing our thanks with words, and on Wednesday we’ll look at expressing thanks with our works. Both these ideas are rooted in Ephesians 5:20 —

Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated who He was by both His words and His works. As His disciples, we must do the same.      

Expressions With Words

The first way we are to express our thanks to God is with the words we speak.  We all must take inventory of our language and see if the words we speak let those who hear us know just how thankful we are to God for all we have been given. It is all too easy to be very thankful for the many good gifts we have received from God without ever expressing our thanks to the One who gave them to us.

Here is an important truth to keep in view:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  (James 1:17)

The apostle Paul asked the Christians in Corinth, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). It’s a great question for you and I to consider with Thanksgiving only three days away; the answer, of course is “Nothing!” Everything we have has been given to us, and the Giver is the Lord God Almighty (Romans 11:36). Our families are a gift from God. Our careers are a gift from God. Our health is a gift from God. Our education is a gift from God. Everything is a gift from God, including our next breath and the next beat of our heart. The words we speak should shout to those around us just how thankful we are to God for the countless good gifts we have been given. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  (Colossians 3:16)

Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. (Ephesians 5:18-19)

Did you know that the Bible instructs us to thank our God in song? Yes, that’s right. When you sing praises to God you are being obedient! We are not just invited to sing our praise to God, we are commanded to do so — even those of us who don’t have the “gift” of song! Jonah even sang a song of thanksgiving while he was in the belly of a great fish (Jonah 2:9). 

I am blessed to have musical children; it’s such a joy to hear them singing praises to God, whether with the praise team at the church or around the house. And make no mistake, our God delights in hearing heartfelt praise expressed in words that are both spoken and sung.

On Wednesday, we will take a look at giving expressions of thanks with out works!

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. (Romans 8:28)

The title of today’s word of encouragement, when understood, will transform your life in a way you cannot imagine. It certainly transformed mine.

As a new believer, when I was first exposed to the biblical truth of the sovereignty of God — the fact that He is in complete control of all things, at all times, and in all places — I struggled to see God working for good in all the chaos that was swirling in my life. At the bare minimum, I supposed, God was either too busy to care about my little, insignificant life, or perhaps He simply made a few mistakes along the way. But when a caring Bible teacher took the time to explain today’s verse to me, the scales began to fall from my eyes and I learned to trust God in every aspect of my life, even the chaos and waves of challenge that were washing over me.

The first thing my teacher explained to me was what this verse does not teach; I frequently remind our congregation that Romans 8:28 is not teaching that all things that happen are good. There is a great deal of bad that happens in this life, things that cause suffering and sorrow. The second thing I learned was that Romans 8:28 is teaching that even the bad stuff that happens is under the complete control and care of God, and He has promised to use all of it for the ultimate good of those who love Him . . . even me! God works in all things to accomplish His ultimate plan and purpose — not just in my little life, but in the entire universe.

Finally, I needed to absorb the truth that God is more focused on my holiness than my happiness, a truth that is emphasized in Romans 8:29 — “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.” My teacher explained that if God’s ultimate goal in my life is to conform me to the likeness of His Son — and often that conforming process includes seasons of suffering — then holiness, not happiness, is His primary purpose for my life.

These three truths were foundational to my understanding that God doesn’t make mistakes. What we might think is a “mistake” is actually ministry from the hands of our Maker. God is working all things together to make us more like Jesus. God takes the good, the bad, and the ugly to chisel away what is left of the sinful self in order to reveal more and more of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who dwells within us through His Holy Spirit.

So when you look back on your life and see the chaos, the confusion, and the challenges, remember that God doesn’t make mistakes. His works are perfect, all His ways are just, and He does no wrong (Deuteronomy 32:4). No, in all things, He is working to make you more and more like His Son. And that is a very good thing indeed!

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

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me . . . (John 5:39)

Did you know that Jesus had a favorite book? Scripture makes it clear that our Lord certainly did have a favorite book— the Old Testament—as evidenced by the fact that He quoted it so many times throughout His earthly ministry.

I must confess that Jesus’ favorite book was my least favorite book early in my Christian life. When my wife, Kim, and I first came to faith in Christ, the church we were attending gave the Daily Walk One Year Bible to anyone who would commit to reading through it each day for the upcoming year. Kim and I accepted the challenge and began our year-long commitment on January 1. We cruised through Genesis. We read through Exodus. When we got into Leviticus, our eyes began to glaze over. I am not sure how we got through Numbers, but I can tell you that we both began to long for the day when we would finally get to “the good stuff” — that is, the New Testament — and that day would not come until October 1^st.

Beyond the prophecies about Jesus as the promised Messiah, all we could see in the Old Testament was what seemed like a series of disconnected stories and moralistic messages telling us how to live a life that pleases God, coupled with ominous warnings about what happens to those who fail to do so. Today, by God’s grace, we don’t see it that way anymore. Now Jesus’ favorite book is also our favorite book, and here’s why: The Old Testament is all about Jesus, a fact that Jesus made perfectly clear over and over again. He told the Jewish religious leaders:

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39-40)

When the truth of these words from Jesus began to sink in, we started slowing down in our reading of the Old Testament to search the Scriptures, looking to find Him there. And if that statement from Jesus was not enough, a few verses later He added the following thunderclap:

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. (John 5:45-46)

Kim and I knew that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), but we did not understand just how profound these words were from Jesus. Then one day we encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, just like the two downcast disciples who met Him three days after the crucifixion. There the thunderclap turned into a lightning bolt!

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27)

These two men were disciples of Jesus, and they had expected Him to redeem Israel from Roman rule. But after Jesus was arrested, sentenced to death, and crucified, all hope was lost. They remembered that Jesus had spoken of a third-day resurrection, but this was the third day, and they had not seen Jesus alive and well. They did hear reports about the empty tomb from some of the female disciples and even from some of the men, but an empty tomb without a resurrected Jesus did not offer much hope. At the end of their walk to Emmaus, they stopped in the village and had a meal together; it was there that the Lord opened their eyes to recognize Him, and what they said next has been our continuing life experience every time we read the Old Testament:

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

Today, Kim and I experience this “holy heartburn” whenever we read the Old Testament, seeing Jesus not just in prophecy, but in promise (beginning with God’s first Gospel proclamation in Genesis 3:15), in pattern, in people, in places . . . in short, on every page of Scripture. Jesus’ favorite book is now our favorite book, and it is my prayer that it will be yours also.

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)

We live in a fast-paced, burnout inducing culture — always going, going, going, but seemingly never arriving. We are often deprived of both sleep and satisfaction, and we yearn for stillness. So how do we arrive at the intersection of our reach and His rest that has been promised to us, even on this side of the grave?

First, we must keep in mind that we are image-bearers of God (Genesis 1:26); we are to reflect Him through both our reach and our rest. God reached down from the heavens and created everything in the universe, but He did not keep creating non-stop. After six days of creative reaching, God rested on the seventh day. Please note that His rest was rooted in relationship; He walked with Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). But when sin entered the world through their rebellion, our reach was disconnected from His rest. And herein lies the key to rest: It is not simply a cessation of our labor; it is a connection with our Lord.

When we are not in right relationship with God, we reach and we reach but we cannot find His rest. We toil and we labor, but we find no rest or relief from all of our reaching. Even when we are in a right relationship with God, rest often feels as far away from us as the east is from the west. And that brings us to God’s promise given us in our passage today: When we come before the Lord and we are still in His presence, we will experience His promised rest. You have His Word on that.

It is important to keep the context of today’s verse in mind: Psalm 46 was written during a time of great difficulties and challenges for God’s people, including war. Rather than offering a gentle reminder for “stillness,” God’s word is commanding us to stop struggling and shift our focus from ourselves to our God.

Jesus invites all those who are weary and heavy-laden to receive the rest that He alone offers (Matthew 11:28-30). At the deepest level, this is rest for the soul apart from the yoke of the Law. But Psalm 46 is also reminding us of the rest we need every week to be refreshed in our reaching. There is a special silence and stillness that will only be experienced when we are deeply connected to our Savior. Remember, God is in control of everything, even when it looks like everything is in chaos. When we are reaching within the context of our relationship with God, looking to Him for our guidance and direction and strength, we will experience the promised rest we need for everyday life as we make our way toward our promised rest for eternal life.

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

Ask and it will be given to you. (Matthew 7:7)

It is an undeniable fact that we all want our prayers to be answered in the high court of heaven, yet we all know from personal experience that the answer to those prayers is often “No.” So the question is, What prayers are guaranteed to produce? I believe the Scriptures give us a clear answer. Let’s take a brief look.

When Jesus was teaching His disciples about the True Vine and the branches, He said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). “Ask whatever you wish” seems to be an amazing, open-ended promise to the believer that should keep us on our knees before God. But we cannot separate it from what Jesus said just before that: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you.” Clearly, prayers that produce are those prayers that align our desires with His desires; when they do, we can rest assured that when we ask, it will be given. Here is how James explained it:

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

The Bible makes it clear that the prayers that produce are the prayers that bring our lives into conformity with Christ and His will for our lives. Now, do not misunderstand what James was saying. He was not saying that our prayers should never be connected to our pleasures. Rather, our pleasures are to be connected to the will of God. We should take great pleasure in the expansion of the Kingdom of God, for the glory of God and the good of others. On the other hand, if we let the natural desires of the heart dominate our lives, we will miss God’s greatest blessings, because we are praying with “me-centered” motives, not God-centered ones.

The prayers that produce are the ones that keep us connected to Christ through His Word. The more we get into the Word of God, the more the Word gets into us; the more the Word gets into us, the more our desires are aligned with God’s desires for us. Remember, to want a pleasurable life is to want a good thing. God gives us good gifts for our enjoyment and our pleasure. God is not a cosmic kill-joy; He simply wants us to align our pleasures with His plan and purpose for our lives. When we do that, we will be pleasing our God by offering up prayers that produce.

What have you been asking for lately? Have you been seeking God’s will for your life? Or your own will? Let this reminder from John fill your prayer life with great expectation –

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. (John 3:21-22)

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

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

This is one of the most misunderstood promises in all of sacred Scripture; when taken out of context, it can lead to frustration and disappointment in the life of the believer. So let’s take just a moment to drill down a little bit and discover what are the desires that God will deliver.

Look again at the opening phrase of today’s verse: “Delight yourself in the Lord.” You can see that Psalm 37:4 is a conditional promise, can you not? Simply stated, the desires God will deliver to us are those that are rooted in our delight in Him. God is promising that He will fulfill the desires of the heart for those who keep Him in the center of their lives as the object of their desires.

Many theologically barren pulpits have preached this passage as if it gives Christians some sort of “cosmic carte blanche” that binds the heart of God to prove His love for us by granting us any and all of our desires, from health to wealth to everything in between. But this notion is nothing more than the gospel according to man, not the Gospel of God.

The truth is that when our hearts are beating for nothing smaller than Jesus, we are delighting in the Lord. This delight becomes the deepest desire of the heart, and that is the desire that God will deliver to us every time. Because we were made by God to live for the glory of God, we will never find true happiness or satisfaction apart from God. We will not find it in in our professions, our prosperity, or our possessions. These are all good gifts from God, but only when we are delighting in the Giver of these gifts. As Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). We will only find true, lasting happiness when we seek it in Jesus.

How is it with you? Has God been delivering the desires of your heart lately? It may help to keep these words of the psalmist in view:

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25-26).

Remember, the desires that God will always deliver will always be in direct proportion to the delight you are experiencing in the Lord at any given time in your life. Every pleasure in life will have its proper place only when it is rooted in your personal relationship with Jesus. C. S. Lewis summarized this truth beautifully and powerfully:

“God cannot give us a happiness apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

So delight yourself in the Lord! Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. When you do that sincerely and consistently, God will give you the desires of your heart. You have His Word on that.

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

“I was blind but now I see!” (John 9:25)

If you are not familiar with this passage of Scripture within the context of the gospel according to John, perhaps you recall hearing the words sung in John Newton’s famous 1779 hymn “Amazing Grace.”

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

In John’s gospel, we read of Jesus healing a man who had born blind. This took place on the Sabbath, the day of rest for the Jewish people. Throughout the ancient world in general, and within the Jewish culture in particular, it was believed that suffering was the result of sin; the greater the suffering, the greater the sin. This man had been born blind, so people believed that either his parents had committed some great sin, or perhaps the man himself sinned within the womb. Jesus dismissed this notion, saying, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:3).

After the blind man’s miraculous healing, both he and his parents were questioned by the religious leaders, not because there was insufficient evidence of this supernatural healing, but because they were jealous of both the power and popularity of Jesus and how it was diminishing their influence over the lives of the people. After the religious leaders had condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, they intimidated the man’s parents, and finally kicked the man out of the synagogue.

With that backdrop in mind, let’s take a brief look at what I call “Personal Testimony Power” as it relates to two things: audience and argument.

AUDIENCE – The audience that was questioning this blind man was comprised of the religious elite, the most educated and influential people in Israel. Because the Jewish religion and the synagogue were the center of life for the people of Israel, the religious leaders sat in the seat of power that could profoundly affect people’s lives. “Give glory to God,” they said sternly to the man Jesus had healed. “We know this man [Jesus] is a sinner” (John 9:24). In effect they were saying, “You’d better agree with us that Jesus is a blasphemer, or you will be excommunicated — evicted from the community of Israel.” Yet even in the face of the most powerful audience in Israel, this uneducated man, who had been blind since birth, stood boldly against the seat of power in his culture, without any fear of the consequences.

ARGUMENT – The man’s argument could not have been more straightforward. He was not intimidated by the religious leaders’ power, position, or prestige. He was not fearful of their education or intellect. He knew what he was before Jesus showed up — blind — and he knew what he was after his encounter with Jesus — able to see. This was his personal testimony, and it contained the power of the universe: “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see.”

Every Christian has this powerful personal testimony. Often we hear some of the dramatic stories of salvation in the lives of others, and we begin to believe that our own stories are nothing special, certainly not noteworthy enough to share with an audience. But this is simply not true! When Jesus entered your life, the greatest, most miraculous power in the universe appeared with Him: the power to give sight to the blind . . . the power to raise the dead to life . . . the power that saved you. You need no complex apologetic argument, no special story, no divine discourse to share with others. There is no more powerful story to share about the saving power of Jesus than this: “I was blind, but now I see.”

When was the last time you shared this glorious Good News with someone?

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

Do not imitate what is evil but what is good. (3 John 1:11)

We always invite “seekers” who visit our church to stop and say hello before leaving the campus. Some of them actually do, and it doesn’t take long to discern that most of them believe that Christianity is little more than a list of rules to follow. They have the notion that being a Christian means rejecting one way of living and adopting another way that is “better.” So the first thing we do in explaining Christianity is to make it clear that being a Christian it is all about a right relationship with Jesus, rather than following the rules and observing the regulations. It is only when we are right with God first that can we do what is right before God. Doing what is right is the fruit that flows from already being, by grace through faith, in that right relationship with Christ.

So once we have entered into that relationship, how then are we to live? Let’s take a brief look at the bookends of the believer’s behavior.

Abstain – When we read, “Do not imitate what is evil” in our verse for today, we must see it in context. John was writing about Diotrephes, who was doing all sorts of evil. Diotrephes loved to be first, and he drew attention to himself by speaking maliciously about other church leaders. He not only refused to welcome others in the faith, he kicked those who did out of the church. John was telling the church not to imitate such wicked practices. In addition to pointing out the evil of Diotrephes, John was telling the church to abstain from even giving the appearance of all kinds of evil, for the good of the church and the glory of God.

But John wasn’t done there; the Holy Spirit had given him more to teach us.

Advance – It is never enough to simply abstain from doing what is contrary to the Word of God. We must also advance toward becoming “people of the Book” — people who do what is good and pleasing in the sight of God and do it for His glory. If we are true disciples of Jesus, we will follow in the footsteps of the One who “went around doing good” (Acts 10:38). Everywhere Jesus went, He left that place better than how He found it. He ministered to the marginal; He served the social outcasts; He brought hope to the hopeless; He loved the unloved and the unloving. Through acts of compassion and kindness, He served others, and taught us all that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  

How are you doing at abstaining and advancing? In which area are you strongest? Remember, if Christianity is all about a right relationship with Jesus — and it is — we must not simply abstain from evil. We must advance in the direction of doing all the good we can. These two actions are the believer’s bookends that will cause the world to see what a right relationship with Jesus actually looks like. When they do see that, they will echo the Roman centurion at Calvary and say: “Surely He was the son of God!”

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

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)

When you look back over your life, consider just how many people taught you in a variety of different ways to cause you to arrive at your current station in life. From parents and pastors, teachers and trusted friends, coaches and colleagues, it’s likely that many people have played a role in growing you into the person you are today. But when was the last time you considered how your pleasures have been preaching to you and teaching you?

Here is a profound statement I came across in John Piper’s book, The Pleasures of God:

The soul is measured by its flights,

Some low and others high,

The heart is known by its delights,

And pleasures never lie.

Piper was quoting Henry Scougal, a professor of divinity in 17th-century Scotland, who penned that sentence in a letter to a friend. Scougal’s statement was so profound that it began to be passed around and was finally published in 1677 as part of The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Scougal died of tuberculosis before he could celebrate his 28th birthday.

So if it is true that pleasures never lie (and it most certainly is), what have your pleasures been teaching you lately? Remember, treasure is pleasure, and where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Let me clarify what the phrase “Pleasures never lie” is not saying; it is not implying that pleasures cannot be deceitful or sinful. We read that Moses “chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25 ESV); Hebrews 3:13 warns not to become “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Clearly, our pleasures can be both deceitful and sinful if we allow them to be!

To say that pleasures never lie is to say our pleasures will always shine the searchlight of truth on what we treasure; and our treasures unfailingly reveal what our heart beats for. Does this mean that pleasure is something that the Christian should avoid? Are we to be stern, joyless law-keepers? Heaven forbid it! Scripture commands us to “Be joyful always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). One of God’s great gifts to us is the gift of pleasure. As image-bearers of God, we are to be like Him, filled with unimaginable joy and unspeakable pleasure, all of it rooted in our right relationship with Him.

When God is our ultimate pleasure, we have fixed our hearts on the true Treasure that we were created for. This, of course, is not the gift of pleasure, but rather, the Giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17), the One True Treasure, who loves us unconditionally, and who, when we fail Him, forgives us completely.

So . . . what have your pleasures been preaching to you lately?

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

“To you, Lord, I call; You are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.” (Psalm 28:1)

When was the last time you wondered if God even hears your prayers? When was the last time you sensed the sound of silence as you were pleading at the gates of heaven? Notice I said “when,” not “if.” Like David in today’s verse, we all find ourselves in seasons where heaven seems to be unresponsive and unyielding, and we just want to know that God has not turned a deaf ear to our pleas.

Psalm 28 provides lovely insight into David’s prayer life as he cried out to God from the depths of his heavy heart, saying, “If you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.” We don’t know exactly what David was going through at the time the Spirit of God moved him to pen this psalm. Perhaps David was in a season of sickness or a time of deep and desperate despair. Regardless of the nature of the difficulty David was facing, he looked to his God, his Rock, for help.

Here is the question that you and I must consider: “Do we do the same thing in the same way – in utter dependence upon God?” David knew where to take his weakness and despair – to the only One who could help him rise above the waves of challenge that were battering him. David not only knew Who to go to, he also knew that the One he went to was able to act on his behalf, because he was crying out to the Rock of ages.

The 19^th century preacher Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

The immutable Jehovah is our rock, the immovable foundation of all our hopes and our refuge in time of trouble; we are fixed in our determination to flee to him as our stronghold in every hour of danger.

What picture comes to mind when you read David calling God his Rock? God as our Rock is a picture of a foundation that simply cannot be moved. Many scholars have stated that God as Rock pictures His permanence and power, something David knew by way of personal experience. God the Rock was not only David’s source of strength, He was also his source of stability and security.

But that’s not all! There is one more very important picture of God as Rock given us in Paul’s writing about the wilderness wandering of Israel:

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:3-4).

You see, David was looking forward to the Rock that was to come and this Rock was the “smitten rock” of Exodus 17:6, the Lord Jesus Christ, who provides water for the thirsty even in the most barren wilderness that we may be currently experiencing.

Are you experiencing “the sound of silence”? Are you worried that God is not listening to your heartfelt cries? Take your cue from David. Regardless of what you are facing, cry out to your Rock, knowing that He will never turn a deaf ear. He will always answer . . . but in His way and in His perfect timing. May that truth set us all free.

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