Grace for the Race

Our Father . . . (Matthew 6:9)

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He made it clear that the adoration of our adoption must be the fountainhead of all our advances toward the throne of grace. Charles Spurgeon, always a fountain of wisdom and eloquence, explained it this way in his Morning and Evening devotional:

This prayer begins where all true prayer must commence, with the spirit of adoption, “Our Father.” There is no acceptable prayer until we can say, “I will arise, and go unto my Father.” This childlike spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father “in heaven,” and ascends to devout adoration, “Hallowed be Thy name.”

To know that we have been adopted into the family of faith is to know enough to keep us adoring our Father throughout eternity. We know what we were before God came calling. We were at enmity with God. We had no interest in the things of God. We, the creature, were living for the gratification of the self rather than glory of our Creator. And yet, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) and God the Father adopted us into His family of faith.

Only when that truth seizes us will we begin to live like the children of God. Why? Because we will recognize that we are no longer “foreigners and aliens” to the people of God, but we have been made “members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:19). And the most striking part of that truth is the fact that there was absolutely nothing within us to cause God to want to adopt us in the first place. But God, in His amazing grace, chose us from before the foundation of the world to be His sons and daughters (Ephesians 1:4).

So before you head off to start yet another week, take a moment to consider the comfort in the words, “Our Father.” He had a choice in the matter of your adoption, and He chose you in Christ. He set His affection upon you and brought you into His family for the praise and glory of His name.

There is, however, a challenge that comes with this comfort. We have been adopted to bear the family likeness, which means that we are to put the Gospel on display before a watching world. We are to live, as God gives us strength, holy and blameless lives (Ephesians 1:4).

I am always deeply touched when someone tells me that one of my children reminds them of me (in a good way). But that sweet compliment is a reminder that, as adopted children of the Most High God, those who know us should be reminded of Our Father when they see the way we live. May the adoration of adoption be the confession of our lives!

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

Who do you belong to? (1 Samuel 30:13)

While in pursuit of the Amalekites, David and his six hundred men came upon an Egyptian and asked him, “Who do you belong to?” That question is applicable for all of us today because our God will tolerate no rival. There will be no neutralities when it comes to our holy religion, and so the question is put before us: “Who do you belong to?” The Bible knows nothing of the fence-sitting saint.

There are only two answers to this question. By natural birth, we belong to the god of this age, who has blinded the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4). As children of Adam, we are sons of Satan. Adam, who was the federal head of humanity, rebelled against God and brought the curse of judgment down on all of his offspring. We are all born “dead in our transgressions and sins,” following “the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:1-2).

But those who have, by grace through faith, placed their trust in the atoning death of Jesus Christ belong to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by supernatural birth. As children of the Most High God, we have been made alive in Christ and we now belong to the family of faith.

So . . . what is your response to this all-important question? Who do you belong to? Consider the following:

What does your heart beat for?

I know the heart beats for a thousand different things, but what does your heart primarily beat for? Does it beat for the self or for your Savior? Does it beat for the expansion of your kingdom or for the kingdom of God? Does it beat for success at the expense of others or for their service? Jesus said, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart” (Luke 6:45). What good things are you storing up in your heart?

What company do you keep?

We live in this world, and we keep company with many who belong to this world. But the deepest understanding of this question is this: Whom do we associate with or take delight in the company of? Is it those who are living for the Word or those who live for the world? Paul reminded us, “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Who in your life is shaping your character?

How do you spend your discretionary time and money?

It might surprise you, but what we do with our discretionary time and money goes a long way toward demonstrating whom we belong to. When we see all that we have as a gift from God, we will begin to invest more and more of it in ways that glorify our God. How we spend our time and money expresses our gratitude (or lack of gratitude) to God for our past, our priorities in the present, and our faith in God for our promised future.

Who do you belong to? Have you been straddling the fence lately? What would those closest to you say? Remember, your life is the only Bible many people around you will ever read. As they read your life, who would they say you belong to?

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

All things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:15)

Let me encourage you to read these words from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul again; I am sure you will be eternally comforted, regardless of where this message finds you.

Let us first take notice what Paul did not say. Paul did not say, “Some things are for your sakes.” Paul did not say, “Many things are for your sakes.” He did not even say, “Most things are for your sakes.” Paul, writing under divine inspiration, said that “ALL things are for your sakes.”

Take a moment to meditate on and marinate in this verse and see if you don’t hear an echo of another of Paul’s most comforting messages —

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Here again, notice what Paul did not say. Paul did not say, “In some things God works for the good of those who love him” or “In many things God works for the good of those who love him.” He did not even say, “In most things God works for the good of those who love him.” Rather, Paul’s message, which was divinely inspired by God the Holy Spirit, is that “In ALL things God works for the good of those who love him.”

Here is the way I like to put it, and it might serve you well to write this down and hang it up somewhere in your home or office where you can see it each day –

ALL THINGS are for your sake and ALL THINGS work for your good!

The comfort in this truth is as supernatural as it is satisfying. When God says something, it is absolutely settled because God is sovereign and in control of all things at all times and in all places. Nothing happens by chance. Life is not a random roll of the dice, as the world would have us believe. Nothing happens to you that doesn’t first pass through His nail-scarred hands, all of it having been sent for your good and for His glory.

Now, there is no place in Scripture where you’ll read that all things are good and pleasant and pleasing to the self. Sickness is not good. Storm winds are not pleasant. Suffering is not pleasing. But all things are for your sake and all things work for your good.

To know this truth is to know the secret to living a life marked by the joy of the Lord. To be sure, facing the waves of challenge in this life can be very hard. But a day is coming when we shall cross the Jordan and find ourselves with Jesus, and in that moment we will know the truth of another inspired passage from Paul: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

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

I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. (Psalm 116:17-18)

The psalmist has given a word of both instruction and inspiration for those who have ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts that beat for nothing smaller than Jesus.

In God’s economy, vows are serious things. Better to not vow at all than to make a vow and break it. The psalmist gives us insight as to how he will fulfill his vows to the Lord out of a heart of thanksgiving. The psalmist is thankful—not only for what God has given to him, but for God’s claim on his life.

That is what is meant by calling on the name of the Lord: To call on the name of the Lord is to give yourself completely to Him. To call on the name of the Lord is to hold absolutely nothing back from Him. To call on the name of the Lord is to surrender control of every aspect of your existence to Him. And make no mistake, to call on the name of the Lord is to respond to His claim instantly, not after repeated requests.

• How many times has your Lord requested your time?
• How many times has your Lord requested your talent?
• How many times has your Lord requested your treasure?

Instantly yielding to His claim on any aspect of our lives is the way of the true disciple of Christ. We should neither question Him nor hesitate in our response. Does not the One who laid down His life for us have the right to make a claim on our time . . . our talent . . . our treasure? And how should we pay our vows to our God? With a heart overflowing with thanksgiving. God loves cheerful givers who give freely, unhesitatingly, and gratefully of their time, talent, and treasure.

Where does this message find you today? Are you one who calls on the name of the Lord? Have you surrendered control of your life to Christ . . . or just a portion of it? Or perhaps you have surrendered control of your life to your Lord out of a sense of duty rather than devotion? To be sure, we have a duty to give everything we are and everything we have in service to our Lord. But it is far better to give out of a sense of devotion; when we do, we can be sure we are giving with a heart of thanksgiving.

Remember, it really is no sacrifice to give what we have in return for what we have been given. We give our Lord the stuff of this life while He has given us the stuff of the next. God forbid that we might ever compare or confuse the two!

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

Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.

(Hebrews 12:3 KJV)

There is much that we can learn from the daily experience of our Lord, who endured such contradiction of sinners throughout His entire earthly existence. More often than not, it is those closest to us who present the greatest challenge of contradiction, yet God has ordained the correction of contradiction as part of the process of conforming us into the image and likeness of His beloved Son, Jesus.

There may be no greater example of this in the life of our Lord than impulsive Peter. When Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter spoke on behalf of the twelve: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Peter was spot-on in his confession of Jesus as the promised Messiah, and Jesus confirmed this truth, saying warmly, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.”

Just a few verses later, however, after Jesus predicted His death at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, Peter took Jesus aside, thinking to rebuke the Christ: “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” Peter clearly did not grasp what his Christological confession truly meant; Jesus endured the contradiction of Peter against Himself and then delivered this stinging rebuke of His own: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:23).

We have all experienced the challenge of contradiction . . . but how well do we endure it and what do we learn from the experience? There is no doubt that our God is ready, willing, and perfectly able to use contradiction as a way of correction in our lives, if we will but receive it for this purpose. But far too often, when we are opposed by a friend, family member, or colleague, we lash out, either to defend ourselves or to defeat our perceived “opponent.”

We must keep in view that God sends the correction of contradiction in order to sanctify us and grow us into Christlikeness. The Potter is molding His clay, removing all the flaws, such as pride, impatience, and selfish ambition, to name just a few. He will do that by any means necessary.

So . . . how have you been dealing with those closest to you who become a contradiction? Remember, it’s not what happens to you that makes the greatest difference in how your life works out; what matters is what you do with what happens. Let me encourage you to receive the correction of contradiction, knowing that you have the “Cosmic Contradicted One” going before you, beside you, and within you every step of the way.

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

Hedge of Protection

Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. (Psalm 32:10)

The world has its sentinels—soldiers whose job it is to stand guard, keep watch, and provide protection. The Savior has His sentinels too, and it is almost too profound to ponder that unfailing love surrounds the saints of God who trust in Him alone. Let this be a word of eternal encouragement to you who have placed your trust in Jesus Christ.

You are encompassed by the everlasting love of your God. His love not only goes before you and behind you and beside you, but His love goes inside of you too. The Savior’s sentinels of unfailing love supernaturally surround the saints of God wherever they go. And let me remind you of this almost unimaginable truth from the pen of the apostle Paul:

Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39)

What soldiers of supernatural strength God has given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord! What guards of grace that stand watch over us night and day! We are protected from the slings and arrows of the devil himself because our God has put a hedge of protection around us that never slumbers nor sleeps. We are eternally loved in Christ, and that unfailing love will never diminish, nor will the clouds of darkness shroud it in any way. From everlasting to everlasting, what began in unfailing love will continue in unfailing love all the way into the Celestial City.

But it doesn’t end there! It will continue on throughout eternity, because there will be no more pain or sorrow or tears or death for the saints of God. We, in unbroken fellowship and joy, will experience God’s unfailing love in all its glory.

One final point: Those who trust in Jesus Christ are those who know themselves to be sinners in need of a Savior. They know they cannot save themselves and that they are utterly undeserving of the affections of the Almighty. Yet those who trust in Christ are the “apple of His eye” (Psalm 17:8) and find themselves undergirded by His unfailing love.

Is this truth yours today? Have you accepted the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ alone? Do you desire to walk in obedience to your Savior and your Lord? May this be the confession of your life and may the sentinel of the Savior, His unfailing love, be shared with all those you come in contact with.

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

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. (Revelation 4:11)

Many in the church today have fallen prey to a massive misconception when it comes to the message of the Gospel. Modernity has manipulated the Good News, changing the focus from upward to inward—from serving the Savior to serving the self. Far too many people imagine that somehow God’s warning to Pharaoh has been changed from “Let my people go so they can serve me” to “Let my people go so I can serve them.” The church today—and particularly the church in the Western world—is full of the misguided, who have absorbed “gospel-lite” messages designed to meet felt needs and who believe that God exists to serve their ends, satisfy their needs, and slake their thirst for all things material.

But this is not for you! Scripture warns us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). Here are three questions for you to ponder in order to discern if you have manipulated the Gospel message in any way:

1. Why do you attend church?
2. Why do you pray?
3. Why do you tithe (assuming that you do tithe) your income?

If these Christian disciplines are part of your life simply because you desire to please your God and praise His mighty name, then the message has not been manipulated in your mind. But if you attend church, pray, and tithe in order that you might get something in return, you can be sure that the message has indeed been manipulated.

It comes down to two words: duty and devotion. If you do these and other things for God out of a sense of duty (inasmuch as the Christian disciplines are our duty), the message has been manipulated. But if you do these and other things out of a sense of devotion, because your heart beats for nothing smaller than the Lord Jesus Christ and you are overwhelmed with love and thanksgiving because of what God has already done for you—NOT what you hope He will do in the future—then you can be sure that the message you are responding to is the one the Master delivered 2,000 years ago.

Here is another way to put this: Ask yourself, “Do I do what I do for my own gain? Or for the Savior’s glory?” To be sure, God has promised to meet all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19), but there are two things we must remember. First, we must never define “wants” as “needs”—and we all have a natural tendency to do just that. Second, we must always remember that God will meet our needs in His time, in His way, and for His glory. And often the outcome won’t look anything like what we expected it to!

In closing, and I pray for a deep and abiding encouragement for your soul, regardless of where this message found you today. God is God, and is worthy of all our praise, glory, honor, and obedience. When what we do for God is done simply because we could not do otherwise, we can know for sure that we have not manipulated the Gospel message and that our heart is beating for nothing smaller than our Master.

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

When I see the blood, I will pass over you. (Exodus 12:13)

If we were to fully understand this truth set before us today, it would forever change everything about the way we live our lives. Why? Because when our God looks at us with His steady, supernatural gaze, He sees the blood of His Son, the Lamb of God, which has purchased us and secured our place at His table.

So what does our God see when He sees the blood of Christ? First, He sees His sinless Son who gave His life for us, a life without spot or blemish. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive the blessings of heaven. In the death of His Son, God sees His justice fully satisfied; the penalty for sin has been paid in full. He also sees that the cup of His righteous wrath is empty, having been poured out on His precious Son as He hung on that cross. Because of all that God sees in the blood of His Son, He must and He will forevermore pass over us. No judgement will come to us because Jesus Christ was judged in our place.

There is something God does not see. He does not see us as we truly are: sinners in moment-by-moment need of a Savior. He does not see our sin. He does not see our unfaithfulness. He does not see our doubt and fear.

Now, that’s not because God is unaware of what we do! God is omniscient (all-knowing); before a word is on our tongue He knows it completely (Psalm 139:4). But God chooses not to see all that we are not, because He sees all that His Son is. When the Father said He was well pleased with the Son, He was saying that about you and me too because of the blood of the sinless Savior, shed on our behalf. Even when our faith yields so little return that we waver between two opinions, we can rest assured that the Almighty sees only the blood and will pass over us.

Let this truth seize you today, and you will know a supernatural security that brings with it a peace that passes all understanding. God could have paid no greater price for you than the precious blood of His Son, yet it pleased Him to send His Son to a cross for you to die in your place. He who did not spare His only Son spares us because He sees that we are blood-bought. Because Jesus fully and finally paid the penalty for our sin, God will not demand payment again. Jesus made a once-for-all payment in full that continues to return divine dividends for eternity.

So regardless of what you see when you look at yourself—and we all see things we would rather not—remember what your Father in heaven sees: the blood of His beloved Son. And because He sees the atoning blood He will pass over you. Mercy and justice met at the cross, providing a permanent place in the new heavens and the new earth for all those who are, by grace through faith, blood-bought sons and daughters of God.

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

Avoid foolish controversies. (Titus 3:9)

Oh, what wise and wonderful counsel we have before us today! “Avoid foolish controversies.” Why? The passage goes on to explain that “these are unprofitable and useless.” I call this “majoring in the minors,” and sadly, the church is full of those who do exactly that.

To be sure, there are some major things that we should hold on to with all our might—things that matter most concerning our salvation. The Bible alone is the Word of God. Jesus is fully God and fully man. He was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and was raised supernaturally from the grave on the third day. He ascended into heaven, and even now sits at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through trusting in Christ’s atoning work alone for eternal life. This is “keeping the main thing the main thing,” and to these truths we must hold fast.

Yet there are so many minor things that we make major! When we do, we find ourselves sowing in so barren a field. Think about all the controversies that Christians attend to where the Scriptures are silent. Some have spent their lives studying and debating the return of Christ, even making predictions as to the day He will return . . . despite the fact that Jesus said only the Father knows when the Son will return (Matthew 24:36). Rather than focusing on the when, Jesus tells us to focus on how we live our lives: in a posture of being prepared for His return at any moment, so that we may be “unashamed before him at His coming” (1 John 2:28).

Think of all the foolish controversies that have hurt the witness of the church when it comes to human ceremonies and religious traditions. How foolish to sow in so barren a field! But our adversary, the devil, loves to see the saints of God muddling around in the mud-flats of man-made rites and rituals, arguing over matters that matter not, instead of advancing the cause of the kingdom of Christ. In the end, the final result can be summed up as “high heat” and “low light” . . . with no one involved the wiser.

So how do we keep from sowing in so barren a field? We must remember that our time here is brief and that we are to invest what little we have in the work Jesus has set before us. When Jesus said to the man He healed of demon possession, “Go and tell how much God has done for you” (Luke 8:39), He was telling the man to keep the main thing the main thing. His call was clear: that man was to spend his life telling others about Jesus, which would keep him from falling into foolish controversies which are unprofitable and useless. You see, when we are advancing the kingdom of Christ, we are sowing in a field that will return 30, 60, and 100-fold.

May that be the confession of our lives!

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

Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

What a word of encouragement we have before us today! Much is impossible with man, but with God all things are possible. In other words, the believer is to look at life through the lens of our Lord and live a life that rises above impossible to Him-possible.

Throughout my years in the personal development field, I was a student of all things positive. I was a big fan of the 1952 book, The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale, a book which stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 186 consecutive weeks. The thrust of the book was rooted in maintaining a positive mental attitude. Believe and succeed, readers were told; the power of positive thinking will overcome any obstacle that stands in your way. More than 60 years later, that’s still not bad advice; we should all strive to live out each day with a positive mental attitude.

However, in today’s passage of Scripture, we have something infinitely more powerful than a positive mental attitude; we have the very power of God at our disposal! Scripture tells us that we are “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might” (Colossians 1:11), which enables us to go from impossible to Him-possible. We are all facing some situation or trial that seems impossible to overcome . . .

• Troubles at the office
• Difficulties in your marriage
• Prodigal child
• Broken friendship
• Financial shortfall
• Mounting debt
• Sickness and disease

Perhaps you have something to add to this list? Regardless of what it is that you are currently facing that seems absolutely irreparable, it only seems that way because you are trying to overcome in your strength rather than His. To go from impossible to Him-possible is to go from living in the natural to trusting in the supernatural. It is walking by faith and not by sight. It is trusting God even when we cannot trace Him. It is looking at something that seems utterly hopeless and yet still having hope. Why? Because with God nothing is impossible; all things are Him-possible!

God did not bring you this far just to leave you here. He has promised to take you to the other side, but He did not promise to get you there trouble free. In fact, He promised that you would experience trials and tribulations on your way to the Celestial City. During those times, we must remember this: trials and tribulations are simply tests to reveal in whom we will trust. Will we trust in the self or will we trust in our Savior?

At a time when many disciples turned their backs on Jesus, He asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” To which Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68). And that is how we go from impossible to Him-possible: by trusting in the Word of life and truth that has been given to us by our Lord.

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