Grace for the Race

“It is finished!” (John 19:30)

Two little letters at the end of a word make all the difference in the world. Please read on and be greatly encouraged today.

I remember back before I was saved and visiting a local church and the pastor would say often, “It’s not about a religion, it’s about a relationship.” It took a while for me to understand that biblical truth, but when I got it, I understood the difference between the words “DO” and “DONE!”

The religion I grew up in was about doing, doing, and doing some more. The list of things to do was endless. What was being taught was heaven was available for all those who could do enough to get in. The great challenge with this was how would you know when you actually did enough to have God unlock the gates of heaven and let you in? Sadly, you would never know, and because you would never know, you would never experience the freedom, joy, and peace that is promised in the gospel.

But Christianity is about what God in Christ has done for us. What Jesus did for us we could never do for ourselves. Why? Because we are way too sinful to save ourselves. The Bible tells us, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Sinners need a Savior and His name is Jesus. Our verse today is perhaps one of the most well-known in all of sacred Scripture, and it can be said in one word – DONE!

Our debt was paid in full. Our salvation was accomplished and secured in Christ. Every religion in the world is built upon the foundation of DO. Only Christianity is built upon the foundation of DONE. Perhaps there is no more difficult truth for us to grasp than the truth that God saves us by His grace and not our good works. To be sure, there is much to do after we are saved, but our good works are the fruit of our salvation, not the root. So, does your life reflect the truth of DO or DONE? The last two letters make all the difference in the world.

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

Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

In a discussion with His disciples, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They gave him a variety of answers: John the Baptist; Elijah; Jeremiah; or a prophet. But Jesus was not concerned with what “people” say. He wanted to know His disciples say then and now. This is the most important question in the world.

In our contemporary culture today, the answer to this question will cover a range of categories:

• A good man
• A great prophet
• A first-century wise man
• A misguided guru
• A misunderstood teacher
• A mythical character of the early church

What the wisdom of the world will not say is what Peter said on behalf of all of the disciples, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). What we need to remember is what Jesus actually said about Himself. He said He was the promised Messiah. He said He came to save sinners. He said He and the Father are one. If what He said about Himself was not true, then Jesus could not be a good anything. He would be crazy. In the words of C. S. Lewis, Jesus would be a liar, or a lunatic, or the Devil of hell, or something worse. But if what He said was true, and it was, then our answer must be the same as Peter’s. There is no other option.

Both His message and His miracles backed up His claim to be God’s Son who came into this world to save us from our sins. He lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and was raised from the dead supernaturally . . . FOR YOU! So, what is your answer to this most important question in the world? Now I am not only asking for your verbal confession. What is even more important is the confession of your life. James was right when he said, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17).

To be sure, we are saved by faith alone, as the Reformers reminded us, but not a faith that is alone. True faith is always accompanied by good works because the grace that saves also sanctifies as we make our way into glory.

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

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men.” (Judges 7:2)

Perhaps you are familiar with the phrase, “There is safety in numbers,” which is the hypothesis that states being part of a large number of people, the particular individual is safer and has the best possible chance to avoid something bad happening. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the safety you have in the One who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Oh, what a word of comfort we have before us today.

In God’s economy, there is safety not in numbers, but in One. If you remember the story, the Lord God called Gideon to lead Israel in battle against the Midianite Army. Gideon started with 32,000 warriors but God told him he had too many. The Lord took away 22,000 men followed by another 9,700, leaving Gideon with only 300 men to battle against the entire Midianite Army. Safety and success for Gideon would not be found in numbers, but in the One who would give him victory.

Here is a biblical truth that will bring you cosmic comfort: with God on your side, you are always on the winning team. Every great hero of the faith we read about in the Bible understood this truth by way of personal experience. Under King Hezekiah’s reign, the Assyrian army was set to sack Jerusalem if they did not surrender to him. But the prophet Isaiah told King Hezekiah to trust in the One who could save him. He did and the rest is history – for that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.

Remember, when you are “against all odds” your safety will not be found in numbers, but rather, in One. God has been faithful to deliver you in the past and He will deliver you once again. When the apostle Paul said he would boast in his weakness it was because God made it clear, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). No matter what you are facing today in your personal or professional life, face it in the strength of the One and you can rest assured God’s grace will be sufficient for you every step of the way.

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

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

Did you know there are two types of confidence? One is self-confidence. The other is Savior-confidence. Which one is the confession of your life? Read on and be greatly encouraged today.

Let’s take a moment to unpack a few things Paul tells us in our verse today. First, Paul makes it perfectly clear that the “good work” of our salvation and eternal life with Christ is all of God. It is God who began it and Paul is quite confident of this truth. But secondly, Paul goes on to encourage us with the truth that what God began in us, He will one day bring to completion. Now, this completion will not happen on this side of the grave. Here we are a “work-in-progress.” But when we cross the Jordan, and stand before our God face to face, we will be perfectly conformed into the image and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now, I know the challenge is we sometimes feel like we are not making much progress. One step forward and two steps backward. Listen, if this was true for Peter and Paul, it is true for you and me. We don’t always do what God wants us to do because we are still in the perfection process. But we are to be confident Christians because of the promise we have been given that He who began this good work is the One who will carry it on to completion. It is all of God’s grace that we grow and mature in our faith.

Savior confidence is knowing that there is no weapon formed that comes up against us that can ultimately keep us from being all God is calling us to be. When God said what He began in us He will bring to completion, He meant it. God never gives up and God never gives in. He has given us His Holy Spirit which means we have the same power in us that was in Jesus when He was raised from death to life. What began in the Spirit, is sustained in the Spirit, and will be completed in the Spirit. You have His Word on it.

Now, as it has been said, if that doesn’t light the fire of your faith, your woods wet!

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

God is love. (1 John 4:8)

If you completed the title of today’s word of encouragement with the word ‘LOVE’ then you probably remember the song of the same name made famous by the British rock band Queen back in the late 70’s.

To be sure, there are more songs sung about love than any other topic. Why? Because we were made for love, by the God of love. But what is love? Ask five people and you will get six different answers. So, we must look to the only One who can give us the right understanding of love, God Himself. The Greek language supplies us with four different words to capture the meaning of this all-important word: Storge (emotional bond between family members); Eros (romantic love rooted in physical attraction between men and woman); Phileo (attraction and affection through friendship); Agape (willful self-sacrifice even when the object of love is undeserving or unappreciative). The one most often used in the New Testament is agape, the highest form of love.

When the Bible speaks of agape love, it is pointing to God in Christ who “came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This love is sacrificial. This love is willful. This love is intentional. This love is a choice. Perhaps the best way to describe this kind of love is it is totally other-oriented, seeking not the greatest good of the self, but for the other. Agape is built upon the foundation of faithfulness, dedication, and self-sacrifice with no thought of “what’s in it for me!”

When we read “God is love,” we are to understand God’s love as simply part of His character. God’s love is not emotional or sentimental. It is simply who He is and what He does and He does it to those who deserve it not. And because we are loved in this self-sacrificial way, we are to reflect this kind of love to others . . . all others . . . even the unlovable. We don’t get a vote. We are to love because God first loved us. This is not something we can do by nature. We are way too sinful. But when God in Christ raises us from death to life, we now have the capacity to love as God commands. As disciples of Christ, we can now love others as we have been loved by God.

So, how are you doing with this crazy little thing called love? Would those who know you best say it is agape? Do you love others in a self-sacrificial way or self-serving? Remember, when you draw nearer to God, you will experience more of His agape love toward you, which will empower you to return it back to Him, through all those you come in contact with.

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

“I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” (Acts 13:22)

When I was a new believer, I remember struggling with today’s verse after reading through the story of David and Bathsheba. King David not only committed adultery with her to cover up his sin, he had her husband Uriah killed in battle. How in the world could God be speaking about David in this verse? Then my first mentor said to me, “Your problem is you think you are better than David” to which I replied, “Well, of course I do. I have not committed adultery or murder!”

Now, as you can imagine, that was the beginning of my mentoring in the all-important area of understanding the truth about the human heart. Here are two of the most foundational verses that mince no words in describing the human heart after the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 6:5

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Before we are saved, our hearts beat continually for the sinful self. We want what we want and when we want it, regardless of the cost or circumstance. That truth was easy to learn. What was much harder to learn was the condition of the human heart after we are saved. Once saved by grace through faith, the heart begins to beat for the Savior, but not continually. Sometimes it beats for the Savior and other times it beats for the self. This truth helped me understand what God was saying about David and in essence, what God was saying about all of us.

Now hear this clearly and be encouraged. When God said David was a man after his own heart, He was not saying David’s heart beat perfectly for Him. No heart beats perfectly for God on this side of the grave. But David had given his heart to God and yet at times, it still beat for the sinful self. And the same is true for me and you.

Like David, we all commit spiritual adultery when our hearts beat for something smaller than Jesus and we all commit murder when we hate others. Yet, like David whose heart beat imperfectly for God, we are totally loved and completely forgiven.

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

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep. (Hebrews 13:20)

From the original hymn up to the most modern contemporary version, most church goers have sung Jesus Paid It All. It is as powerful “sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow” as it is personal “I stand in Him complete.” This is why we are to understand there is no Plan B. God’s Plan A is the atonement that was made through “the blood of the eternal covenant” demonstrated through the sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus did indeed pay it all and when He cried out on the cross, “It is finished!” He meant what He said. Atonement Made . . . Debt Paid . . . Sinner Saved!

Is it not a source of cosmic comfort to know that Jesus paid it all for you and that there is no plan B for you to contribute to? Salvation is not Jesus plus anything. Salvation is simply Jesus alone. Now if you are trying to pay for your salvation through your good works – giving of your time, your talent, your treasure, you are simply not trusting in the finished work of Christ. To be sure, giving of your time, talent, and treasure are good things and demonstrate a changed life in Christ. But those things are the fruit of your salvation, not the root of it. A changed life simply flows from a saved life. Nothing you do adds any value to what Jesus has already done for you.

God will not love you anymore because you do more, and God will not love you any less because you do less. You are completely loved because you are in Christ. By nature, we have a difficult time believing in this truth because we all have been in relationships where either love did not last or that love was performance based. The reason for this is simply because we are broken people living with and loving other broken people. But when it comes to our relationship with Jesus, His love is both unconditional and unwavering.

Remember, your salvation is either all because of Jesus or not because of Jesus at all. You must choose, either plan A, trusting completely in what Jesus has done for you, or plan B, trusting in what you are able to do for Him. In light of Isaiah 64:6 which tells us that even our best works are like “filthy rags” the choice could not be clearer – NO PLAN BE FOR ME!

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

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a  sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. (Exodus 20:9-10)

Labor Day is a United States Federal Holiday observed on the first Monday in September celebrating the economic and social contributions of workers. Today, I would like to take a moment to celebrate the contributions of all workers who are busily engaged in the labor of building the kingdom of God.

First, we need to ask, “Who are the kingdom builders?” Is it reserved for only those who are in full-time vocational service like pastors and missionaries? If you have been following our blog for any length of time, you know the answer to that question. And the answer is a resounding “NO!” Here are some profound words on this subject from Os Guinness written in his book, The Call:

There is a great distortion which argues that Christ gave two ways of life to his church.  One is the perfect life; the other is permitted. The perfect life is spiritual, dedicated to contemplation and reserved for priests, monks, and nuns; the permitted life is secular, dedicated to action and open to such tasks as soldering, governing, farming, trading, and raising families. Higher vs. lower, sacred vs. secular, perfect vs. permitted, contemplation vs. action. Sadly, this two-tier or double-life view of calling flagrantly perverted biblical teaching by narrowing the sphere of calling and excluding most Christians from its scope. If all that a believer does grows out of faith and is done for the glory of God, then all dualistic distinctions are demolished. There is no higher/lower, sacred/secular, perfect/permitted, contemplative/active, or first class/second class.  Calling is the premise of Christian existence itself. Calling means that everyone, everywhere, and in everything fulfills his or her (secondary) callings in response to God’s (primary) calling. For the Reformers, the peasant and the merchant—for us, the business person, the teacher, the factory worker, and the television anchor—can do god’s work (or fail to do it) just as much as the minister and the missionary. The recovery of the holistic understanding of calling was dramatic. William Tyndale wrote that if our desire is to please God, pouring water, washing dishes, cobbling shoes, and preaching the Word is all one. William Perkins claimed “polishing shoes was s sanctified and holy act and the action of a shepherd in keeping sheep, performed as I have said in his kind, is as good a work before God as in the action of a judge in giving sentence, or of a magistrate in ruling, or a minister in preaching.” The cultural implications of recovering true calling were explosive. Calling gave to everyday work a dignity and spiritual significance under God that dethroned the primacy of leisure and contemplation. Calling gave to humble people and ordinary tasks an investment of equality that shattered hierarchies and was a vital impulse toward democracy. Calling gave to such practical things as work, thrift, and long-term planning a reinforcement that made them powerfully influential in the rise of modern capitalism. Calling gave to the endeavor to make Christ Lord of every part of life a fresh force that transformed churches and cultures. Calling gave to the idea of “talents” a new meaning, so that they were no longer seen purely as spiritual gifts and graces but as natural and a matter of giftedness in the modern sense of the term. Calling demanded and inspired the transforming vision of the lordship of Christ expressed in the famous saying of the great Dutch prime minister, Abraham Kuyper: “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!” 

WOW! Now that should help us all see the vision and value of calling from God’s perspective.  From our first parents in the Garden of Eden, all of life was to be lived before the face of God.  It didn’t matter if one was a butcher, baker, or candle-stick maker…or priest, monk, or nun, every service was sacred when it was lived out in the light of eternity for the glory of God. 

So who are the kingdom builders for the King of kings and the Lord of lords? Everyone who is putting into faithful service their gifts, talents, and abilities in order to glorify God and expand the cause of His kingdom. This Labor Day, take a moment to do a personal evaluation in the area of your “calling” and see if there is any sacred/spiritual split? How is your work impacting the kingdom of God? How are you allowing God to use you right where you currently are to expand the cause of His kingdom? 

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.                  1 Corinthians 10:31

As I like to say there is indeed one menial job in this world. And that job is the one where Jesus cannot be found. If your labor is a labor of love for the glory of God, the good of others, and the expansion of God’s kingdom, you can rest assured that what you are doing, regardless of what others might think of it, echoes in eternity. Let that truth bless you this Labor Day and all the days of your life as you labor for your Lord. 

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

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites our of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

After forty years tending sheep on the back side of the desert, God was now ready to use Moses to deliver His people out of bondage in Egypt. Moses started well with this response after God called to him, “Here I am.” But after God told Moses His plan to make him the divine deliverer of God’s people, Moses began to exchange God’s use for his excuse. Let’s take a look and I promise you will be as comforted as you are challenged to answer whatever call God has placed in your life today.

When Moses said, “Who am I . . .” he was speaking truth about the fact that he was not qualified for God’s call in his life to do anything, at least from his perspective. Forty years earlier, when Moses was in the court of Pharaoh, he killed an Egyptian slave master who was beating a Hebrew slave. When it was exposed that Moses killed an Egyptian, he fled Egypt and spent the next forty years as a shepherd in Midian. I can only imagine that in the intensity and intimacy of his encounter of God in the burning bush who instructed him to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground, Moses remember just how sinful he truly was.

But here is the comfort that will lead to the challenge. To be sure, God knew who Moses was. God knew how Moses tried, in his own strength, to free his countrymen from slavery in Egypt, but he did it the wrong way – in his own strength rather than the strength of the Almighty. Moses knew just how sinful he was, having killed a man. Yet, here is God calling Moses into His service to deliver His people out of bondage to slavery. Here is one of the greatest comforts we find throughout sacred Scripture: God sees past our past all the way to our current potential as an instrument of usefulness in His mighty right hand. And the same is true for me and you.

Have you ever wondered why God chooses to use such messed up people in His service? It’s because that is all He has to work with. We are all messed up. We are all sinners with a past that would shame us all if those closest to us knew what God knows about us. Yet, in His magnificent mercy God raises us out of the pit of our sinful past and into His promised plan and purpose for our lives. And that is why God refused to accept Moses excuse that he was not good enough to answer God’s call. Yes, it is true, Moses was not good enough in his own strength, but in the strength of the Almighty he was more than good enough, he was God’s ordained instrument of usefulness. By the way, Moses made a few more excuses and God simply took Moses from excuse to use, and that what God wants to do in each of our lives.

So, have you answered God’s call in your life today? Remember, God knows everything about your past and still wants to use you in the present for two simple reasons, His glory and your ultimate good.

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

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name. (Isaiah 25:1)

There are only two reasons to do anything in life. One is for personal gain and the other is for God’s glory. The Scriptures are full of examples of both and it is always a good idea to inventory our hearts from time to time to see just what the motivations are behind the things we are doing. We can sum it all up this way: are we using God as a means to attain an end or is the end God Himself. The first has us pursuing God for personal gain, the second for God’s glory. And often we can be sailing through life without ever noticing the difference until the storm winds begin to blow and when they do, we will know the true motive of the heart by either shrinking back or standing firm.

Let’s take a brief look at these two categories of professing Christians. The person working for personal gain thinks about their relationship with Jesus rooted in the great gifts He can give to them. They come for hope. They come for happiness. They come for health. They come for a better home life. These are just a few of the personal gain reasons which makes it clear that Jesus is not their Messiah, but rather, He is their means to their desired ends. However, the person working for God’s glory looks to Jesus as the end itself. Jesus is not the vehicle to victory He is victory Himself. Jesus is not the way to wealth He is our wealth. He is not the way to happiness He is our joy. So, how would you describe your walk with Jesus right now? Is your relationship with Jesus a means to a desired end or is Jesus the end Himself?

What we need to remember is we were created for relationship with Jesus not for the rewards we get from Him. Perhaps there is no better book in all the Bible where we see this truth lived out than Job. God allows His servant Job to suffer unimaginable loss – health, wealth, and all ten of his children. Even his wife ridicules him for staying committed to God. In essence, Job loses every reason to stay in a right relationship with God expect God Himself. It is clear from this story that Job loved God more than all the good gifts God had given to him. Yes, Job loved his wealth, health, and children. But He loved God more. For Job, God was not a means to a desired end. God was the end Himself, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:21-22).

May this be the confession of our lives that our relationship with God is built solely upon the goal of His glory and not our gain, because ultimately His glory is our greatest gain.

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