Grace for the Race

When your mind is not focused on anything in particular, where does it go?  What do you find yourself thinking?  Because God is renewing our minds, which in turn enlarges our hearts and ultimately bends our will to align with His, we should be able to say that our minds turn (more often than not) to God.  To be sure, from time to time our minds drift on to the mudflats of life and we think what we ought not to be thinking.  But as the Gospel becomes more real in our lives, our minds begin to migrate more and more frequently into Gospel gardens.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.  (Philippians 4:8-9 NIV)

The great musician Franz Joseph Haydn of the classical period understood this exhortation and lived it out because of his faith in Christ.  When asked why his church music was so cheerful, Haydn replied, “When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen, and since God has given me a cheerful heart I will serve Him with a cheerful spirit.”  Haydn’s joy was rooted in God; the more he thought about God, the more joyful was his experience in life.  Haydn knew what to think about . . . and His name is Jesus Christ.

How often we should be able to say to others, “When I think upon God, my heart overflows with thanksgiving for all He has done for me.”  The challenge for all of us is we let ourselves get caught up in what I call “stinking thinking”—we do just the opposite of what Paul instructs us to do.  We think about whatever is wrong, what is defiled and unlovely.  We reflect on what we don’t have rather than what we do have.  We focus on what we have done wrong rather than what He has done right.  This is precisely where the devil wants to direct our thoughts—toward that which is false and fleshly, rather than toward Him who is true and triune.

But this is not for you!  And Paul confirms it with another inspired instruction:

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  (Colossians 3:2)

When we set our minds on things above, we won’t be pulled down by things below.  Regardless of how strong the storm winds blow, we remain upright and on course.  Regardless of how hot the fiery furnace of affliction flares, we are unharmed.  Regardless of how deep the current of corruption surges, we are unmoved. When we think about the things of God, we are strengthening our minds to rise above the challenges of daily living.  Sure, the fight is fierce and the battle rages.  But we already have the strength we need to become more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) . . .  we have that strength in Jesus.  We need only to focus our attention more and more on Him, and we will be less and less affected by whatever is going on around us.

The next time you catch yourself engaging in “stinking thinking,” pause and reflect on the finished work of Christ.  He has already won the victory over whatever trial or temptation you are facing.  Paul said, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).  The more time we spend thinking about the victory Jesus has already won for us on the cross, the more we will live like victors rather than victims.  Think about these things . . . won’t you?

Oh, Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and he bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to Victory, beneath the cleansing flood.

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

That statement is hard to imagine in the culture we live in today, isn’t it?  The wisdom of the world tells us that there is nothing better than the life we are currently living.  How did the old commercial say it?  “Fellas, it just doesn’t get any better than this.”  With the belief that this life is all there is, we are told to eat, drink, be merry, and “grab for all the gusto” on this side of the grave, because there is nothing on the other side.

Well, the wisdom of the Word declares that the world’s wisdom is folly, because there is something on the other side of the grave.  There is a judgment . . . there is a heaven . . . there is a hell . . . and there is something infinitely better than this life and what it has to offer!

Your lovingkindness is better than life.  (Psalm 63:3 NKJV)

What would it take for you to be able to say what King David said in this psalm . . . and mean it?  Is there anything you are holding on to more tightly than Jesus?  Is there anything you have right now that if you lost it, your life would be turned upside down?  Only the truths of the Gospel can ravish us to such an extent that we are ready, willing, and able to forsake everything this life has to offer for the One who has given to us everything we have.  Only the truths of the Gospel can convince us that only God can satisfy us—fully, finally, and forever.  The author of The Pilgrims Progress knew this truth and lived it out at great cost.

For more than 12 years English Christian writer and preacher, John Bunyan, was imprisoned while his second wife Elizabeth cared for their six children.  His crime for which he was put in chains: preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ without state sanction.  On a number of occasions the magistrate would have let him go if he had promised to stop preaching.  But he would not.  John said he would remain in prison until the moss grew on his eyelids rather than fail to do what the Almighty had commanded him to do.  He said that parting from his dear wife and children, “has often been to me in this place as the pulling of the flesh from my bones.”  This was especially true with regard to his eldest daughter who was blind and was given to him through his first wife who had died.

For John Bunyan, there was something indeed better than life: the loving-kindness of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He chose the loving-kindness of his God over his freedom.  He chose the loving-kindness of his God over being with his family.  He chose the loving-kindness of his God in spite of intense persecution and prison.  He refused to deny his God, though to do so would have brought him great worldly benefit.  It’s hard for us, living in this day and age, to imagine living with that kind of personal peace and security in the midst of such persecution, but here was a man so sold-out for Christ that the confession of his life proclaimed that it was better to live in the love of God than to live with his wife and children!

Only the love of God can satisfy your deepest longings.  Only the loving-kindness of God can answer your prayers, solve your problems, and overcome your obstacles.  It is only when we want the presence of God more than anything else in life that we will be able to hold loosely everything we have at present . . . because we are looking forward to all that has been promised us in the future.

Because the best is yet to come, what we have now is only a shadow of what is to come.  Our greatest joy, our deepest affection, and our highest love in this life pales in comparison to what awaits us when we get home and stand in the presence of the One whose loving-kindness truly is better than life.

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

I’m going to try to capture the meaning of the psalmist, who describes the greatness of God as something no one can fathom.

I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name forever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
and extol your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.  (Psalm 145:1-3)

A fathom is a unit of length equal to 6 feet, used principally in the measurement and specification of marine depths.  To be fathomless is to be too deep to be measured; to be bottomless.  Think about that for a moment.  The depth of the greatness of our God is beyond measurement.  It is, in a word, fathomless!

• His holiness . . . fathomless
• His glory . . . fathomless
• His love . . . fathomless
• His mercy . . . fathomless
• His grace . . . fathomless
• His goodness . . . fathomless
• His kindness . . . fathomless
• His forgiveness . . . fathomless
• His forbearance . . . fathomless

Of course, we could go on forever.  The fathomless Father who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9) has given us a fathomless faith.  Faith in Christ is a bottomless sea of unimaginable joy, one that we need only to dip our toes into each day to be swallowed up by it.  Imagine diving in with wholehearted abandon and the fathomless joy that should be the confession of our lives.  If we would dare to do such a thing: everyone who knew us would know we know Jesus; everyone who lived with us would know we live with Jesus; everyone who worked with us would know we work for Jesus.

Faith in Christ has called us into a fathomless future where our blood is oxygenated by His story and our sweat is poured out for His glory.  It’s been said that the future is so bright, you gotta wear shades!  The care of our Lord for every aspect of our lives is so immeasurable that nothing we do is insignificant to Him.  No labor is menial when it is done for Jesus.  No act of kindness goes unnoticed.  No ministry of mercy is ignored.  If the number of hairs on your head matters to God so much that he actually counts them (Matthew 10:30), then surely there is nothing you can do for Him that doesn’t matter, regardless of how inconsequential it might seem to you.

The fathomless greatness of our God should get us out of bed each day, rejoicing over the privilege we have in serving so great a God.  Who can measure the depth of the love that has been showered upon us by the One who took our place on that cross?  Shall we return it lukewarm, served up with half our heart?  God forbid!

Whether we find ourselves journeying through sun-filled days or storm-filled nights, may our lament be that we have not loved Him enough, no matter how hard we have tried to convince ourselves that we have done so with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Thank God for the fathomless faithfulness of our Lord . . . even when our faithfulness is only six inches deep!

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

In 1864, Jules Verne penned the extremely popular science fiction novel, A Journey to the Center of the Earth. The story involves a professor who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the center of the Earth and sets out to find them.  Along the way, he and his companions encounter prehistoric animals, natural hazards, and other dangers.  In 2008, Journey to the Center of the Earth came to life in 3D in the movies—the third time this story was dramatized in the cinema.

QUESTION: If a movie titled A Journey to the Center of Your Life was made about your life, what would the viewers find when they got to your center?

At the center of every life there are only two possible destinations: one is the self and the other is the Savior.  By nature, we all live SELF-CENTERED lives.  Our Number One goal is self-fulfillment.  With self firmly established in the center of our existence, we live for our dreams, our goals, our preferences, our agendas, our success, our pleasure, our happiness . . . and we don’t much care what effect it has on those around us.  We are convinced that it is far more blessed to receive than it is to give.

Because self is at the center of our universe, we find it incredibly difficult to love others and impossible to find contentment.  We are blind to opportunities for serving others but see opportunities for getting ahead with 20/20 vision.  And in the end, even if we get everything we think we wanted, it never delivers on its promises.  By embracing our sinful selfishness we have denied our humanity . . . and are left poor, blind, and naked.

But this is not for you!

For in him we live and move and have our being.  (Acts 17:28)

A CHRIST-CENTERED life is living for the One who is life.  We live in Him.  We move in Him.  We have our being in Him.  We find our identity, meaning, and purpose in Him.  Living a Christ-centered life means we care about the things He cares about, even when those things don’t immediately involve us or touch us personally.  With Christ at the center, we live a life that truly matters: a life lived in service to others, not at their expense.

When we journey to the center of our lives and find Christ in His rightful place, we live cross-shaped lives.  We lay our lives down for others and forgiveness flows freely, even to our enemies, because Jesus is the One who is writing our story.  When Jesus is at the center of our lives, He is the source of everything we need in order to do everything He has called us to do.  Our potential is not measured by what we can do, but by what He can do through us.  What we desire to be doing is what He has called us to do; and what He calls us to do is to incarnate His character in all that we think, do, say, and desire.

With Christ at our center we live in the light of eternity.  We live to expand His kingdom, rather than our own kingdom, by surrendering to His authority and rule in our lives.  We love what He loves and hate what He hates.  We no longer live and move and have our being in the pursuit of our own glory, but rather in the pursuit of His glory.  We live as ambassadors for the Almighty and make decisions based on what pleases Him, rather than what pleasures us.  Keeping Jesus at the center of our lives keeps our lives centered . . . and when we are living centered lives we are living lives that truly matter.

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

The wisdom of the world says we are most free when we do whatever we feel like doing.  “Just follow your heart,” the world whispers seductively, “and you won’t go wrong.” That was the promise Satan made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: essentially, “If it feels good, do it!”  You remember how that turned out!

The Word of God warns us that this kind of license does not lead to freedom, but to slavery.  It is a counterfeit freedom that erodes your mind, empties your heart, and enslaves your will.  Real freedom is a life that has been liberated from the love of the self—idolatry—and redirected to the love of our Savior—glorious, unimaginable freedom!

You were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh . . .   (Galatians 5:13)

Counterfeit freedom promises a life of purpose and peace . . . control and comfort . . . affirmation and accomplishment; but it simply will not deliver the goods!  Sure, for a while you might feel good about yourself; you may believe you are truly free.  But before too long, you inevitably realize that you are locked inside a prison of idolatry, addiction, and degrees of dependence upon the very things that had glibly promised you independence.  The life these idols promised is sucked right out of you, leaving you empty, anxious, and wanting.

Only the Gospel can reorient the direction of our hearts away from self and toward our Savior.  Only the Gospel can free us from the tyranny of living for something smaller than Jesus and empower us to rise above the false promises of freedom the world dangles before us.  Only a clear view of the truths of the Gospel can make the attraction of our idols less attractive!  You see, the Gospel has already given to us everything these idols promised to give but cannot deliver:

• Approval
• Acceptance
• Meaning
• Significance
• Purpose
• Peace
• Forgiveness
• Fulfillment
• Success
• Contentment
• Comfort
• Happiness
• Joy

The list of blessings, of course, is endless because the love we have been given by God in Christ is endless.   “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .  has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3-4 NIV).  Everything we desire we already have in Jesus.  And because Jesus has secured for us everything we need, we can forsake every false god and fix our eyes upon the One who loved us more than we could ever love ourselves.  That God-sized void that yawns inside of each one of us was never designed to be filled by anything smaller than God.  God simply loves us too much to let us find soul-satisfaction in some worthless baubles that exist outside of our relationship to Him.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

(Ephesians 3:14-19)

The only real freedom is found in Jesus.  When Christ is dwelling in our hearts through faith, our lives are rightly centered.  A centered life is grounded on the Rock and will not be shaken by the winds and the waves of worldly wisdom.  Because of the love we have in Christ, we are no longer condemned for our sin . . . and when that truth sinks in, we live a freedom that truly makes us free.

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

If God posted an ad on one of those career builder/jobs.com web sites, do you know what it would look like?  Do you know the kind of person He would be looking for to do the job He has for them to do?  Well, God already posted His want ad, long before these sites became popular, and He posted it in His Scriptures.

The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.  (2 Chronicles 16:9)

In God’s want ad, we see that He identifies only one qualification for employment in His work: a heart that is blameless.  In the Old Testament, the concept of blamelessness brought with it two different but not dissimilar ideas:

1^st – Sacrificial animals without defect: “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish” (Leviticus 1:3).  Only unblemished animals were worthy of being sacrificed to the Lord.

2^nd – Blameless people who cannot be accused of wrongdoing: “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.”  (Psalm 15:2)

In the New Testament, the concept of blamelessness is rooted in the character of Christ and His followers:

1^st – Christ Himself: “It was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”  (Hebrews 7:26)

2^nd – Disciples of Christ: “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”  (Ephesians 1:4)

Those who are disciples of Christ are blameless in the sight of God because they are clothed in His righteousness.  The blamelessness of Christ has been imputed to all who have trusted in His atoning work on their behalf.  Christian, when God looks at you He sees Jesus, so He sees perfection!  Yet in everyday experience, disciples of Christ do everything imperfectly, and we still do many things that are blameworthy.  So while we are already blameless in the sight of God because of what Jesus has done on our behalf, we are being made blameless through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.  And, of course, that transformation will not be completed until we pass into glory.

So for the purposes of today’s message, a blameless heart is a heart that is sold out for God.  It is a heart that beats for the things that God’s heart beats for and is broken by the things that break God’s heart.  Notice what God’s “cosmic classified” does not identify as qualifications for employment in His work in this world:

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  (Luke 14:28)

To be sure, counting the cost when you are preparing to undertake a project is both wise and profitable.  The “tower” in this verse could be a watchtower, a farm building, or some other building project, such as a business enterprise.  Sitting down to count the cost implies a serious approach, one marked by diligence and patience.  If you have ever been involved in a building project of any kind, you undoubtedly took the time to count the cost on the front end—or you found yourself wishing you had!

But when it comes to counting the cost of building your life upon the Rock of Jesus Christ, what cost is really worth counting?  Jesus counted the cost of bringing us into His family of faith . . . and the cost was unimaginable.  He paid for us with His precious blood and did not withhold a single drop!  But that’s not all.   There was the cost of His relationship to His Father; Christ hung forsaken on the cross, while His Father poured out His wrath on Him for all our sins.  Yet God was pleased to make His precious Son the foundation-stone in Zion upon which we would build our lives.

So . . . before you get busy building God’s kingdom, is there any cost worth counting in light of the cost Jesus paid for us?  Is there any cost worth counting in light of the fact that whatever we are building for His glory we are building for eternity?  Keeping in view past grace given and future grace promised, is there any cost are we not willing to pay to keep this pearl of great price?  Let’s take a look at what we’ve received and what we’ve been promised:

Past Grace:

• Accepted in the Beloved
• Forgiveness of sins
• Adoption into the family of faith
• From slaves to sons and daughters

Future Grace:

• Perfection in the Beloved
• Promised rest
• Completed consolation
• Eternal joy

Having earned nothing and having been given everything, we are strengthened and sustained to withhold no service, fear no storm, and neglect no season—

 “He holds no parley with unmanly fears,

Where duty bids he confidently steers.

Faces a thousand dangers at her call,

And, hoping in his God, surmounts them all.”

Jesus counted the cost to redeem us and unhesitatingly paid it in full.  He was rejected by those who knew Him well.  Will the world’s disapproval keep us from paying the price?  He was betrayed by one of His disciples.  Will losing friends keep us from paying the price?  He was denied by one of His closest friends.  Will rejection keep us from paying the price?  He was scourged and nailed to a cross and died for our sins.  Will the fear of suffering or death keep us from paying the price?

Remember, our salvation is a free gift, but it cost Jesus everything!  There really is no cost worth counting when we keep the Gospel in our sights.  As Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he had great opposition from the likes of Tobias and Sanballat, but he kept on building.  And it did it with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other.  May we be so committed to the cause of Christ that we too continue to build, no matter what disapproval or opposition or threats we face.

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

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a federal holiday observed annually in the United States on the last Monday of May.  There are many stories as to its actual beginnings; there is strong evidence pointing to organized Southern women’s groups and schoolchildren who decorated Confederate graves in various cities to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the War Between the States.  These observances quickly spread across the country, and in 1868 fallen soldiers of both the Confederate and Union armies were honored at Arlington National Cemetery.

By the 20^th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces in all wars.  Since the late 50’s, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery on the Thursday before Memorial Day.  They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.

Sadly, the traditional observance of Memorial Day has diminished over the years.  There are still many people who visit cemeteries and memorials to honor those who have died in military service, but far too many of our countrymen have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day.  At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are ignored and neglected; many towns that once held Memorial Day parades and remembrances now only celebrate a three-day weekend that marks the beginning of summer.

Last Saturday evening at Cross Community Church, we paid special tribute to all those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  Because of that price these men and women paid with their blood, we have the freedom to gather . . . to praise . . . and to worship in God’s house weekly without fear of persecution.  As Americans, each Memorial Day we should remember those who gave everything that we might live free.

But those of us who are also Christians should observe a memorial day each week when we gather to worship the One who gave everything that we might live eternally free.  Jesus died to set the captives free from sin and death.  He paid an unimaginable price that we might be redeemed from the tyranny of sin’s stranglehold on our lives.

After having been betrayed by one of His closest friends and denied by another, our Lord was beaten, spit upon, scourged, and given a crown of thorns for His head.  Then the Roman soldiers hurled Him down on His maimed back to nail Him to that dirty tree.  When they lifted Him up on the cross to set it into the ground, His bones were dislocated out of joint.  A crowd of onlookers stood round the cross as He hung there, naked and bleeding; many of whom had come gloat at His terrible death—to mock His ministry, ridicule His thirst, and insult His prayers.  Yet that was not the worst of it.

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)  (Mark 15:33-34)

Jesus had suffered terribly up to that point; Isaiah 52:14 records that He was beaten so badly that He was no longer recognizable as a man.  But as awful as it was, the scourging and even the tearing agony of crucifixion was little more than a pinprick compared to what Jesus endured for three interminable hours . . . the time when His Father in heaven turned His back on His beloved Son.  They had been together from all eternity in perfect community; now, for the very first time Jesus experienced something no Christian believer will ever have to endure: being forsaken by the Father!  Jesus’ anguished cry expressed a horror that those who have trusted in His atoning death will never experience: facing the righteous fury of a holy God.

What an incredible freedom Jesus won for us on that cross!  He not only conquered sin and death, but He secured for us the promise that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NIV).

So today, as you pause to remember all those soldiers who died for our liberty in this great nation, pause also to remember the One who died to set you free, nailed to wooden beams on Golgotha’s hill with your name in His heart.  His conqueror’s cry, “It is finished,” signifies the most glorious victory ever won on any battlefield—an eternal victory won for you and for me.

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

Those of you who have lived for a few decades—or perhaps you like to watch the “T.V. Land” channel—may be familiar with the 1950s hit sitcom that sprang out of a popular radio show, Father Knows Best, which portrayed a middle-class family living in the Midwest.  The father was played by Robert Young (you may remember him from Marcus Welby, M.D.), who was the picture of wisdom as the head of his family.  His three children would always come to their father when they needed advice on anything.

Today’s message is not about a fictional father on a television show, but it is about our true Father, who stars in the cosmic show that is unfolding before our very eyes, a show that He is writing one chapter at a time.  God our Father really does know best, and He delights when we come to Him seeking wisdom, understanding, and advice on any subject.  He also delights when we trust in Him, even when His counsel is contrary to our plans.  His understanding is limitless; His wisdom knows no bounds; His plans and purposes are perfect.

Think back over your life and consider a time when you were disappointed your plans did not come together.  At the time, perhaps you could not understand why.  But God knew why, and He kept your plans from coming together because He had something far better for you.  I simply cannot count how many times in my life has God showed up and delivered me from my agenda, only to deposit me in the middle of His.

When we planted Cross Community Church back in February of this year, our plan was not to launch a service until sometime in the fall.  God had a different plan!  In His perfect providence, God shut down a ministry we had founded and led for a decade, a ministry that had gathered every spring on Saturday evenings.  We had been hoping that this ministry would help create awareness for our new church in the Deerfield Beach community . . . but God had a different plan.

Not sure what to do with our Saturday evenings now, Kim and I began earnestly praying and seeking His face.  In only a few days, God directed our steps to begin looking for Saturday evening times in existing church buildings where we could gather for fellowship, worship, and ministry planning.  We had never considered this possibility until God closed one door and opened another.  On March 1, 2012, we launched.  Once again, God was making it crystal clear who was in charge and who was going to be growing His church.

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord established his steps.  (Proverbs 16:9)

Looking back now over the past three months, it is both astonishing and humbling to see what God has done.  It never ceases to amaze me what God can and will do when I get out of the way!

So . . . where in your life today is God establishing your steps in a direction you had not planned?  No doubt it makes you uncomfortable.  It can even be a little scary!  But your heavenly Father knows best and He will not stop short of giving you His best.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.  (Proverbs 16:3)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  (Proverbs 19:25)

Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you figure out why.”  Only in following God’s plan for our lives will we ever figure out the why.  And that means we will be living surrendered lives.  We surrender to the One who created us and what He created us for, following obediently wherever that leads, regardless of the cost or circumstance . . . even when it leads us in a direction we could never have imagined.

God led the Israelites to the Red Sea after freeing them from bondage.  With the Egyptian chariots thundering up behind them, the situation looked absolutely hopeless.  But God the Father knew best, and He displayed His power for all the world to see.  The Israelites walked across the Red Sea on dry ground, but the pursuing Egyptians were swallowed up by it.

When God is leading the way, the way is good when it seems bad . . . right when it seems wrong . . . best when it seems the absolute worst.  Sometimes the long road is the best way; at other times the rocky road is the best way.  Our Father in heaven is calling us into the adventure of a lifetime in following His plans for our lives.

Are you willing to let go of the reigns and allow God to direct your steps?  Only the power of the Gospel frees you to live for something bigger than yourself . . . or more accurately, Someone . . . and that Someone is Jesus.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  (Isaiah 43:2)

Father knows best, and He has your best interest in mind, regardless of what you are going through.  And you will actually get through what you are going through and come out the other side!  Your heavenly Father will not forget you . . . He will not forsake you . . . and He will always be faithful to you.

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