Grace for the Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He wanted me to remind you of that truth today.

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

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jeremiah 29:12)

Did you know there is a fail-proof and a foolproof method for curing knocking knees? Kneel on them, and lift your voice to heaven. Regardless of what is causing you anxiety — whether it is personal, professional, or relational — getting on your knees in prayerful communion with God is the way to receive the peace that passes all understanding.

Jesus opened the way for us to come into God’s presence 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. “Ask and it will be given to you,” He assures us; “seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). After all, it’s not like we are coming to God with something He doesn’t already know. God knows your name, He knows the number of hairs on your head, and He knows everything about every circumstance in your life, because it is God who has ordained all things in your life for His glory and your ultimate good. He obviously knows the answer to our every question and the solution to our every problem before we bring any of them to Him. But God delights in us when we come into His presence to share with Him what is going on in our lives.

The Bible commands us to pray; prayer is to be the bedrock of every believer’s life. But just beyond the command is God’s cosmic care for us. Like any good father, God loves it when we come to Him. And we shouldn’t just come to Him when things are hard! God loves to hear from us when things are going well. God wants us to be in constant communion with Him for any reason at any time throughout each day.

“Do not fear, for I am with you,” God has told us; “do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Regardless of what may be causing your knees to knock, get on those knees and bring your fears to God! Come before the throne of grace and tell Him what is on your heart. The more you pray, the more you practice the presence of God, and that is the best practice in the world to keep your knees from knocking.

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

Walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

In today’s world, it is much easier to live by sight rather than by faith. The sights and sounds of the world we live in capture our attention and control our affections. All too often we find ourselves living for the here and now, rather than the there and then. But God wants us to live according to His promises, even though we may not see them being fulfilled in the present moment. Living in this way empowers us to live in the now with a view to the then.

The Bible’s “Faith Hall of Fame” chapter, Hebrews 11, tells us that this is the kind of faith that “the ancients were commended for.” The chapter goes on to describe numerous heroes of the Christian faith, both named and unnamed, who “were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:2, 39-40). These men and women of God did not see God’s promises fulfilled during their time on this earth, but they held firm to their total trust in God’s promises, often enduring great hardship and suffering as they did so.

Martin Luther King Jr. said that “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” We know that God is sovereign and in complete control of everything; not a bird falls to the ground apart from His will (Matthew 10:29). When we live our lives in the light of that truth, we can look to Him and trust where He is leading us. We don’t need to know where the inevitable twists and turns will appear in the path He has set us on. All we need to do is trust the One who is leading us every step of the way. When Paul tells us to walk by faith and not by sight, he is telling us to build our lives on the things that have eternal value and to live in light of eternity, just like the great heroes of the faith who have gone before us.

Every child of God needs an occasional faith-lift. We need to be reminded of God’s plan and purpose for our lives and resist our natural inclination to follow our own plan and purpose. We must recommit to leaning not on our own understanding, but to putting all our weight on our Lord and following wherever He leads us. A faith-lift shifts our trust away from self and puts back where it should be: on our Savior.

We need a faith-lift to elevate us above our feelings, which can be so fickle. Our feelings change like the breeze: we feel one way in this moment and another way in the next. A good faith-lift will lift us past the circumstances of life and reset our focus squarely on Christ.

What exactly is a faith-lift? It is a recommitment to surrender to the Spirit of God and a refusal to live in self-reliance. Cling to Christ! Allow God’s power to renew your mind, recalibrate your heart, and realign your will. This is the kind of faith-lift we all could use; pray and ask God to give it to you!

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

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12}

We know that God knows everything, everywhere, and at all times. That is omniscience. So what in the world does our Lord mean when He says that He will remember our sins no more? Does God really forget our sins? That’s not possible! If God really could forget something, then He would not know everything, everywhere, and at all times. So God doesn’t actually forget our sins; no, He chooses to leave our sins — all our sins — nailed to the cross. He simply refuses to bring up our past sins, no matter what we do.

Listen, the memory of our past mistakes, shortcomings, and sins can cause us to live in the past rather than learn from the past. I’ve said it here many times: God wants us to treat the past like a school. We are to learn the lessons from the past, but not live there. It is Satan who whispers in our ears: Remember what you did back then? How could you possibly do that again? You probably aren’t even a child of God at all! Our remorseless enemy is relentlessly trying to shift our focus away from our Savior and put in on ourselves.

I’ve had so many people tell me during pastoral counseling, “I just can’t forgive myself.” That is one of Satan’s sharpest darts aimed at the heart of the believer. Do you see just how man-centered that statement is? It’s not about forgiving yourself; it’s about appropriating God’s promised forgiveness that has been secured for us by Jesus through His crucifixion and resurrection.

When we sin and repent of our sin, that is the end of it. When we are in a saving relationship with Jesus, all of our sins are forgiven: past, present, and even those sins we haven’t yet committed! What we need to do is develop a good “forgettery.” If God deliberately refuses to bring up our past, so should we . . . and not allow our past sins to keep us in bondage to our sinful past.

How well is your forgettery working? Are you letting your past sins and failures drag you down into the mud pits of life? Look to the cross! Fix your eyes on Jesus, and you will rise above Satan’s strategy to keep you remembering your sins. Remember, God has chosen to forget them, all of them. This is to be the confession of our lives.

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