Grace for the Race

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. (Lamentations 3:40)

On Monday we basked in the blessing of knowing that our God is in the business of forgetting our sins . . . all of our sins. Today I want to take a brief look at what we are supposed to do with our past sins. Should we forget them? Or should we remember?

Should We Forget Past Sins?

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

For Paul, looking back at his past would undoubtedly have been very painful. As Saul of Tarsus, he persecuted the early Christian church, arresting those who were followers of Jesus Christ, putting them into prison, and even killing Christians. He had held the coats of those who were murdering Stephen and looked on with approval. Then Jesus Christ confronted Saul on the Damascus Road, asking him, “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus raised Saul from death to life, and Paul knew what he had done to the Christians.

It would have been easy for Paul to be paralyzed by his painful past. If Paul had been unable or unwilling to forget what was behind him, he would never have been able to press on toward the goal that lay ahead: the new calling that God had placed in his life as the preacher and pastor of the church.

Should We Remember Past Sins?

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12).

Here Paul tells us to never forget when we were separated from our Savior. This is not intended to paralyze us, but rather to propel us into our promised future. When we remember what we were before Jesus showed up, we are to be both humbled and encouraged because of the grace God has freely and lavishly poured into our lives. I’m reminded here of the lovely old prayer: “Lord, I ain’t what I ought to be; I ain’t what I want to be; and I ain’t what I’m gonna be. But, oh, thank God! I ain’t what I used to be.” We remember our past sins and rejoice in the amazing grace of God.

I’ve said it here before; the best way I know to frame out the truth about forgetting and remembering is to treat our past as a school. We are to learn from our past — which requires us to remember — but we are never to live in our past — and that requires us to forget. By remembering the past, we take the lesson and the move on, leaning into our promised future, leaving behind the sin that has been nailed to the cross of Christ. Because God remembers for our good and forgets for our good, we too must remember for our good and forget for out good, in order that we can live lives that manifest the love of God to others.

So how are you doing at both forgetting and remembering? The apostle Paul tells us that getting good at both will ultimately be for our good and for God’s glory.

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

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)

One of the most important aspects of growing in the Christian faith is remembering His forgetting. Now, we should not think about this as if God is forgetful in the Way that you and I forget where we left our car keys or sunglasses. God’s forgetting is nothing like that at all. God “forgets” our sins because He chooses to regard us as if those sins had never been committed. When God says, “I will remember your sins no more,” He is telling us that His forgetting is a deliberate, intentional act of permanently putting our sinful acts away from His sight, because they have all been covered by the blood of His precious Son.

Hebrews 10:17 is by no means at isolated verse of Scripture. Consider:

I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)

I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)

I will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)

Over and over again, God reminds us that all our sins — past, present, and future — have been paid for through the cross work of Christ. When we “remember His forgetting,” we are to be gripped by the following Gospel truths:

• God will not rehearse our sins
• God will not relive our sins
• God will not revive our sins
• God will not recreate our sins

The good news of the Gospel is that we have been fully and freely forgiven, and God will never speak of our sins again. Remember, Paul tells us that “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Don’t miss that word “now.” Because we are in Christ, by grace through faith, right now and forevermore, there is no condemnation because Jesus took all our condemnation away and nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). Jesus was judged in our place. He took our scourging. He took our crown of thorns. He took our nails. He took our cross. He took our death. And on that third day, God vindicated His beloved Son by raising Him from the dead. When Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” He meant exactly what He said! Our sin debt to God the Father has been paid in full by God the Son. Christian, never forget His faithfulness to forgetfulness.

Once we have fully absorbed the truth that our God chooses to forget our sins, we should spend some time considering a very important question: Should we, as disciples of our Savior, forget our sins (Philippians 3:13-14) . . . or remember them (Ephesians 2:11-12)? I’d like to share some insights on these ideas on Wednesday. Until then, as you continue walking by faith and not by sight, remember His forgetting!  

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

You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

It’s likely you’ve heard the phrase, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” Inasmuch as history seems to suggest that Benjamin Franklin is not the originator of this saying, I submit these words in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789. Many consider this to be the last great quote that came from the highly quotable Franklin:

Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.

No matter who coined the phrase, the fatalistic “death and taxes” adage acknowledges the inevitability of death in this life, which is the only way to avoid the burden of paying taxes. For the Christian, however, there is much more that we can be certain about in this life, and we need look no further than today’s passage of Scripture to find certainty. Paul was telling the Christians at Ephesus that the Holy Spirit is God’s “seal of approval,” and that we, by grace through faith, are members of His family of faith.

Believing in Christ means we belong to Christ. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to all believers, is like a down payment — a deposit if you will — guaranteeing the inheritance that God has given us. Nothing in either life or death can take that away from us.

I like to say it this way God has sealed the deal by way of His gift of the Holy Spirit. We have the firstfruits of a promised future beyond this life that no circumstance can disrupt or dislodge us from. And we must understand that God’s assurance contains no obscure, fine-print warning that He will suddenly spring on us when we come to the end of this life. We can rest assured that God will bring the good work He began in us to completion.

“The Lord will fulfill [his purpose] for me,” David wrote; “your love, O Lord, endures forever” (Psalm 138:8). No weapon formed against us, including our own sinful rebellion, can ever or will ever cause our God to “revoke the warranty” on His promises to us. Peter used language very much like Paul’s to underscore this truth:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Christian, your eternal future is shielded and kept by God’s power. As you think about your life, right now, right where this finds you, is it not a great encouragement to know that God has set you apart for all eternity? Jesus has sealed the amazing, gracious deal of our divine destiny by the shedding of His precious blood on your behalf. May our hearts be gripped by God’s amazing grace, and may the lives we live thus be always and only to the praise of His glory!

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

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . He went around doing good . . . (Acts 10:38)

To be a disciple of Christ is to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and to submit and surrender to Him personally. But let me quickly add that all of this — all of our relationship with Jesus Christ — is to be lived out publicly, not privately. We are never to say, “It’s Jesus and me, not Jesus and we!”

I often remind our congregation that inasmuch as we are saved individually, we are saved to community. Not only that, the community that we have been saved to is a community that has been called to carry out a cosmic mission to go into all the world and make disciples of every nation. Yes, our salvation and being a disciple of Christ is indeed personal — Jesus has numbered every hair on our heads and knows our prayers even before we utter them (Matthew 10:30, 6:8) — but our gracious, saving God does not intend for our faith to be a private affair.

Do you remember when Jesus appeared on the beach after His resurrection and reinstated Peter for ministry? Notice the language Jesus used:

“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” [Peter] said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” (John 21:15)

Jesus asked Peter the same question a total of three times: “Do you love me?” After Peter responded in the affirmative each time, effectively erasing his three craven denials of Jesus the night before His crucifixion, Jesus them commanded Peter to make his love for Him known. The love that Peter had for Jesus, a love which had started out personally by the Sea of Galilee some three years earlier, was never to be lived out privately. “Feed my lambs,” Jesus told him. “Feed my sheep.”

The same command has been given to every disciple of Christ. As the Reformers would say, “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, He made it clear that loving God is at the top of the list. But He did not stop there; He went on to share the second commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31). Beloved, we simply cannot live out what Jesus commands by keeping our faith private!

So, in looking at how you are living out your faith today, would it best be described as, “Jesus and me” or “Jesus and we”? The unbelieving world insists that our religion should be a “private matter,” and it wants Christians to keep their faith hidden away within the walls of the church building. But this is not what Jesus had in mind when He said, “Follow me.” Jesus had an intensely personal and private connection with His Father in heaven, which we see in the many instances of His time spent alone in prayer. But He lived that loving connection out publicly for the glory of God and the good of the people.

Jesus went around doing good. May this be the confession of our lives.  

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

God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” {Genesis 1:28}

If you found out today that a long-lost relative had passed away and left you ten million dollars, would you go to work tomorrow? Most people, including most Christians, would answer that question with an emphatic, “No way!” Why? Because a great many people see work as no more than a means to an end, and that “end” is the end of each week when they can say “Thank God it’s Friday!” As the 1980’s song goes, “Everybody’s working for the weekend” . . . including most Christians.

This was not always the case. The early Christians saw their work as an act of worship to God. No matter what the work was, they knew if they were doing it to the best of their God-given ability for the glory of God and the good of others, their work was worship. They understood that work work was a gift from God to Adam and Eve in the beginning. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15) before Adam’s terrible act of treachery in Eden. Work was not a result of man’s fall into sin in the Garden of Eden; work is in no way part of the curse. Work was the primary way that mankind, as image-bearers of God, were to reflect His image in this world.

Nancy Pearcey explained it this way in her book Total Truth:

In Genesis, God gives what we might call the first job description: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” The first phrase, “Be fruitful and multiply” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “Subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations – nothing less.

Our God is a working God who created everything and continues His work by sustaining everything (Hebrews 1:3). As His image-bearers, we are called to live out the Cultural Mandate in every possible sphere of life. Every kind of job matters to God when we are doing it to expand the cause of His kingdom. Cleaning a house, cultivating a garden, practicing law, digging a ditch, driving an Uber, building a home, baking bread, waiting on tables, stocking store shelves, and on and on — all work is worship when it is performed for the glory of God.

The problem today is that the church has lost sight of this biblical truth and has instead bought in to the notion of the so-called “sacred/secular split.” Those who labor under this misconception believe that all the jobs I mentioned in the previous paragraph belong in the category of “secular,” while only those jobs inside the church or parachurch organizations are “sacred” and truly doing the work of God. This is simply not true!

Your work matters to God — no matter what that work is — when you perform it to the best of your ability for His glory. If we understand the Cultural Mandate rightly, we will see that the fundamental hallmark of authentic Christianity is to perform any and every job for the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom. That is when our work is worship.

Jesus came into this world and spent much of His life as a carpenter; Paul was a tentmaker. Only when we understand our work — all work — as worship will we begin to influence and impact our culture for the glory of God and the expansion of His Kingdom as we bear His image to everyone who sees our witness in our work.

So let me ask you . . . How do you see your work? Work is a wonderful way to worship!

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

This Sunday is the Fourth of July, a time for food, fellowship, and fireworks. But it is a time for so much more for the Christian. July Fourth is a day for us to reflect on and remember that the United States is a nation that was founded, rooted, and established on Christian principles. Regardless of what you hear politicians, the liberal media, or history revisionists saying today, our great nation was founded on Christian principles and the freedom to worship the God who is: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Don’t take my word for it; read the words of our founding fathers. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The Declaration of Independence.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. George Washington

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Patrick Henry

To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, . . . in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism. Jedidiah Morse

Our founding fathers not only pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, they pledged allegiance to their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this they echoed the inspired and infallible words of the apostle Paul:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

The founders’ ultimate allegiance was to the Almighty. They were devoted to Him. They were dedicated to Him.  They were committed to Him. Their entire existence was rooted in their right relationship with their Redeemer. And that, beloved, is to be the confession of the lives of all those Christians who pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and every other Christian around the world, regardless of what nation they pledge allegiance to. 

On the day that we in the United States of America commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed our independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain on July 4, 1776, let us reaffirm our own declaration of dependence upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His sovereign rule in our lives. Jesus is to be our first priority in both life and death.  He is to be our safety in the storm. He is to be our peace in times of trouble. He is to be our portion in times of need. He is to be our All in all.     

There is no greater declaration for the Christian to make and honor than the one made to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. When we declare ourselves to be His, we acknowledge that we are no longer our own. We have been bought at a price no man can measure. The very Son of God was nailed to a dirty tree, crucified between two criminals, and took on the wrath and judgment of God the Father to pay the penalty for every one of our sins — past, present, and still to come. We are His and no other’s, and He will tolerate no rival for our affections. 

So as you enjoy your Fourth of July celebration with family and friends on Sunday, I hope you’ll take time out to give thanks to the One who purchased your independence from sin, Satan, and death. Jesus Christ has brought you out of darkness into His marvelous light to remain with Him forever and ever, world without end.     

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

Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.  (1 Peter 5:7)

You might read today’s verse and think, “That’s a whole lot easier said than done!” I couldn’t agree with you more; I have a tendency to clutch my cares rather than cast them onto my Lord. If you are anything like me, let me share what I have learned through my study of the Scriptures and painful, personal experience — lessons that have helped me grow as a “casting Christian.”

It’s important to note that Peter was not suggesting that we pretend our cares don’t exist. Peter was writing to brothers and sisters in the Lord who had every reason to be clutching their cares. They were Jewish Christians who had been driven out of Jerusalem and scattered throughout Asia Minor during the great persecution of Christians that had been launched by the tyrannical Roman emperor Nero. Christians were being beaten, arrested, tortured, and executed for their faith in Jesus. There was no pretending that cares did not exist.

Peter opened his epistle by acknowledging that his readers “have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials,” and then explained that “These [trials and suffering] have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7). Peter then urged his family of faith to refuse to carry their burdens alone. His inspired instruction was clear: Take your cares – all of your cares – and cast them onto Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ cares deeply for His bride and His cross makes that abundantly clear.

Peter didn’t simply say, “Just throw away your cares,” because that is impossible to do. That would be like saying, “Just forget about it.” Who can do that? No, the instruction is clear; we are to intentionally give our cares over to the care of the One who can and will not only carry them, but comfort us at the same time.

So let me ask you directly: Are you like me? Have you been clutching any cares lately? What is making you anxious, worried, or fearful right now? The inspired psalmist also instructed you and me to be casting Christians: “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous to be shaken” (Psalm 55:22 NASB). To know that Jesus can carry your cares is one thing, but to know that Jesus wants to carry your cares because He cares for you is another thing altogether!

What one change do you need to make in your life right now in order to begin living as a casting Christian? Do you remember when the disciples were in a boat with Jesus on the Sea of Galilee and an intense storm suddenly blew in while Jesus was asleep on a cushion? The terrified disciples woke the Lord, crying, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:39). Did Jesus care? He not only cared enough to still the storm on the water, but He went on to still the storm of sin in their hearts when He took their place on the cross . . . and He cared enough to take your place and mine too. Let that truth set you free to be a casting Christian, one who knows and trusts that Jesus cares for you.

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

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7)

There are two important aspects to any military conquest: the battle itself and “mopping up” after the battle. Once the battle has been fought and won, the victorious force must mop up — that is, methodically root out any lingering pockets of resistance.

What is true in battle is also true in the life of the believer. I call it the ministry of the mop. You see, Jesus has won the battle through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection. He has defeated sin, Satan, and our final enemy: death. Someone was once asked how to explain the book of the Revelation, and his response was, “We won!”

That’s true! But as Steve Brown of Key Life Network is fond of saying, “The dragon has been slain, but his tail still swishes.” Until we are received into glory, we all must “mop up” and deal with lingering pockets of resistance that come against us. Sin no longer reigns in the life of the believer, but it undoubtedly still remains, which is why we all must be committed to the ministry of the mop. If we do not pay close attention to those areas of lingering resistance to the rule and reign of our Lord in our lives, we will never be all God has called us to be and we will never fully experience the joy of our salvation.

Here are just a few examples of lingering pockets of potential resistance:

• Money and possessions
• Family and relationships
• Pride and self-centeredness
• Gossip and slander

The list, of course, could fill a thick book. Even after we are saved, we are still very much sinners in need of a Savior. Paul made that clear in the seventh chapter of Romans. “What I do is not the good I want to do,” the apostle frankly admitted; “no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). If a man as godly as Paul admitted to fighting such an uphill battle against sin, you and I must be totally committed to mopping up any areas of lingering resistance in our own lives.

One final point: God has promised to give you everything you need to fight the good fight of faith until complete victory is achieved, which will not happen until you are called home or Jesus returns. Until then, keep the mop close at hand! It is a ministry we all must be engaged in on a daily basis.

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

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

The title of today’s word of encouragement is taken from Charles Dickens’ classic 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens was comparing and contrasting life in London with life in Paris during the French Revolution. He began his tale by establishing the idea that no matter how good it is in this life, it simply cannot be matched with all the bad that goes with it. Conflict is all around us and within us: good and evil, light and darkness, wisdom and folly, love and hatred.

I think this accurately describes the cultural moment confronting the church today, but also all of our individual lives on this side of glory. Looking back over our lives, we can all recall times we would describe as both best and worst, yet our Lord has used all of it for His glory and our good.

While the number of professing Christians is increasing around the world (although not in United States), the general understanding of biblical Christianity is diminishing. Far too many in the modern church know very little of the Bible and even less of the weight of God’s glory. They sit under teaching from theologically barren pulpits that proclaim a false prosperity gospel that mutes the biblical message of suffering, while at the same time trumpeting the man-centered message that you can have your best life now. So numbers are up in the church, but knowledge is down. It is the best of times and the worst of times.

What is the best way forward? We must remember that there is Truth, and His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is in control of all things at all times and in the lives of all people. He is working everything out according to His perfect plan and purpose for the expansion of His kingdom. When Jesus promised that we will have trouble in this world, He was essentially promising that we will experience both the best of times and the worst of times in this life, but He also promised that we will never experience either alone.

Paul knew this truth by way of personal experience.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Philippians 4:12)

Paul experienced the best of times and the worst of times throughout his ministry of service to Jesus.  And Paul gave us Philippians 4:13, which is the key that unlocks the door to living out our own Tale of Two Cities: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Regardless of the times we are currently experiencing — whether good or bad, high or low, best or worst — when we have the Truth with us, in us, and working through us, we have all we need to do all the things God has called us to do.

There is nothing new under the sun, and therefore those who live in every age can echo Dickens and say “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” This is an apt description of life in a fallen, broken world for every generation. But if you keep Jesus on the throne of your life, it will always be a “spring of hope” for you, even if you find yourself in “the winter of despair.” And that’s because He has the best plan for all things . . . including you!

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

God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Young Timothy was Paul’s spiritual son, and he was facing mounting opposition against his service to our Lord. Much of that opposition had arisen because Timothy was young in the faith. In today’s passage, we see Paul providing Timothy with eternal encouragement that can be summed up in a single statement: Restore your roar!

Notice the three characteristics that Paul set forth in encouraging his protege to lead the church well: power, love, and self-discipline. Let’s take a brief look at each one of these vital characteristics, gifts that are available for every Christian to appropriate because of the presence of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

Power – God is omnipotent, and thus we have unlimited power at our disposal to be used for the expansion of His Kingdom. We must never forget that the same power that raised Jesus from death to life dwells within each child of God (Romans 8:11), and that power within us is infinitely and eternally greater than any power that can come against us.

Love – God is love, and we have been commanded to display His love to everyone, even those who stand in opposition to us (Matthew 5:44). We are to love because He first loved us, and the presence of the Holy Spirit empowers us to love even the unlovable. Love is to flow through us because there is an unconditional love that flows to us from our Fountainhead that can never run dry.

Self-discipline – The inspired writer of Hebrews acknowledged that “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.” He continued, “Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). To be sure, denying oneself and practicing self-discipline can be painful, but it does produce what is necessary for us to fulfill our calling.

As you look at your life right now, how would you rate yourself in these areas of power, love, and self-discipline? In which area are you the strongest? Where are you weakest? Know this: He who began this good work in you has promised to complete it. God is not finished with you yet! Let Him have His way with you, and you will see yourself growing daily in the power, love, and self-discipline that is yours because you are His.

Christian, the Lion from the tribe of Judah has promised to restore your roar!

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