Grace for the Race

I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.  (Romans 12:1)

Have you ever wondered why the Bible instructs us to examine ourselves? I think it is because, in our natural, sinful nature, we are self-absorbed, which means we put ourselves first in our thoughts and actions, rather than our Lord. This is the sad reality of most of our lives, but read on; I hope to inspire and encourage you today!

In the Old Testament, God commanded His people to give the first and best of their crops—the firstfruits—as an act of worship. In other words, God’s people are not to give “leftovers” to the Lord. And yet we all have a tendency to do this, which is why we must regularly examine ourselves. Our Lord does not want our leftover time, our leftover talent, or our leftover treasure. He wants and deserves our first and our best of everything we have received from Him . . . which is everything! For “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Think about it this way: Imagine that Jesus was coming to your home for dinner tonight. Would you serve Him what you have left over in your fridge, or would you spend the day preparing the best possible meal you could serve? The answer is obvious. No one would go to the fridge, pull out some Tupperware, nuke it for two minutes, and plop it down in front of our Lord. So the question really comes down to this: Who is Number One in our lives? We can answer that question directly and honestly, simply by identifying who or what gets our firstfruits.

Is this giving of the firstfruits the confession of our lives? When it comes to our time, do we give God a few spare minutes at the end of the day? Or do we set aside some dedicated time to be with Him? When it comes to our talent, do we give God the best of the abilities He has given us to expand the cause of His kingdom? When it comes to our treasure, do we pay God first? Or does He get whatever is left over after everyone else has been paid?

Never forget that God gave us His very best by giving His only Son to die in our place so that we might have eternal life. And on that first Easter morning, Jesus rose from the dead as the firstfruits of our salvation (1 Corinthians 15:23), which means that we too shall rise from the dead when He returns. Let that truth remind all of us that there is no place for offering leftovers to our Lord! May we be obedient to the command of Scripture and offer our hearts and our lives as living sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise.

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

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.(Colossians 3:12)

We have reached the conclusion of this series of articles on what I call “the divine dress code,” as we read it from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the church at Colossae. We began by taking an extended look at the compassion our Lord commands us to wear, we moved through examinations of kindness, humility, and gentleness, and today we will look at the final wardrobe item in our divine dress code: patience.

You’ll often hear someone say, “You saved the best for last!” Well, I can only say that I believe Paul saved the most difficult command for last, and I’m sure most readers will agree! Patience is rarely a problem for us when the sky is blue, the clouds fleecy, and the sun brightly shining. But when the storm winds begin to blow, we often find ourselves running out of patience very quickly. And for many of us, that “storm” need not be particularly strong to knock us completely off our precarious perch of patience. It might be nothing more than a traffic jam, a long checkout line, or a whiny child, but many of us are all too quickly transformed into impatient, irritable people by even the smallest thing that runs counter to our preferences.

The cure for our sinful impatience is to remember that biblical patience is not exhibiting some kind of passive tolerance in the face of difficulties. When the Bible tells us to “run with patience the race set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 KJV), we can clearly see that sacred Scripture is not suggesting that we merely “grin and bear it.” Rather, patience is persevering and progressing toward the desired outcome God has set before us: to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.

James tells us that our trials are one of God’s ordained ways to perfect our patience (James 1:3 NKJV, KJV). We see this truth embodied in the lives of all the great biblical characters, and the reason these men and women had such great patience is because they continued trusting in and depending on God. They understood that God is in complete control of all things, even those things they did not understand, and so they continued looking to God, who would ultimately work all things for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). Remember that “all things” includes those things that try our patience . . . even long checkout lines!

When someone is bearing up under great difficulty, you’ll often hear it said of that person that he or she is exhibiting “the patience of Job.” You’ll recall that Job endured the unimaginable storm losing his health, his wealth, and all ten of his children; on top of all that, his wife ridiculed him and his three friends falsely accused him of wrongdoing. Yet we read that Job never sinned against God. Job did not understand what was happening to him, but he was absolutely sure his God could be trusted. You and I are all called to exhibit the faith of Job, knowing that God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. We are to echo Job’s confident assurance that “My Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth: (Job 19:25). And when that glorious day comes, you and I will be finally and fully patient, for when we see Him, we shall be like Him. As John said, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).

Paul wrote that “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:23-25). I believe if Paul was here with us today, he might simply tell us, “Be patient, brothers and sisters; God is not done with you yet!”

And so, dear believer in Christ, regardless of what you may be dealing with today, let me encourage you to put on the divine dress code of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. The more we look to Jesus, the more fully we will be clothed in His divine qualities, however imperfectly we may wear them, and the better we will show Christ to a world that desperately needs to know Him.

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

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

We are moving through a series of articles on what I call “the divine dress code,” as we read it from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the church at Colossae. One week ago, we took an extended look at the compassion our Lord commands us to wear; this week we have examined kindness and humility. Today we will move on to the fourth article in our divine dress code: gentleness.

Gentleness is the exact opposite of harshness and belligerence, something that, sadly, many are losing sight of in our world today. Too many people are living by the maxim, “Might makes right,” no matter who gets hurt along the way. Yet the Old Testament prophets told us that gentleness would be one of the marks of the coming Messiah:

• He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. (Isaiah 42:2-3)
• See your king comes to you . . . gentle and riding on a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9).

To be sure, there were times when dealing with the self-righteous Pharisees that we do not see a “gentle” Jesus. But with those who were hurting, broken, and desperate for deliverance, we do see the gentle Jesus who “took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).

The world we live in is filled with bruised people who need us to reflect that same gentleness to them. Indeed, we are commanded to “Let your gentleness be evident to all” (Philippians 4:5). And that includes being gentle with those we might think don’t deserve our gentleness. Those who wrong us or disagree with us are included in that “all” of Philippians 4:5, and we simply do not get a vote. We are to let our gentleness be evident to all, especially when we would rather not. Does this not reflect the gentleness of our Lord, who was “pierced for our transgressions,” who was “crushed for our iniquities,” and who took “the punishment that brought us peace” (Isaiah 53:5)—He who died on a cross for us even when we were alienated from God and enemies of His in our minds (Colossians 1:21)?

One of the best ways to manifest this gentleness is to consider all the ways in which God is gentle with us, especially when we know we do not deserve it. So important is gentleness to God that church leaders are admonished to continually reflect it, being “not violent but gentle” (1 Timothy 3:3) to those God has placed in their care. If we are speaking the truth in love, we will speak with gentleness, and our message will be far better received than browbeating others into accepting it.

Here is what we must remember: If anything about us is offensive, let it be the message of the Gospel itself, not the way in which we share it with others. This attitude was beautifully exemplified by John the Baptist, who said, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). When Jesus is increasing in our lives, we will be decreasing, and our divine dress code of gentleness will become more and more evident to all those we come in contact with in the words we speak and the actions we perform. We will “the aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15) to people who desperately need to know that sweet Savior!This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

We are in the midst of a series of articles on what I call “the divine dress code,” as we read it from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the church at Colossae. In the first two articles in this series, we took an extended look at the compassion and kindness our Lord commands us to wear; today we will unpack the third article of our divine dress code: humility.

Let me begin by making it clear what humility is not: it is not “weakness,” as the world would have us believe; humility is actually one of the greatest of all biblical strengths. Humility was the mark of our Lord –

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death —

even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)

Humility was also the mark of arguably the greatest man who lived prior to the time of Christ: Moses, whom God chose to lead His people Israel out of their centuries-long bondage in Egypt. Scripture describes Moses as “a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3).

I think we can all agree that “weakness” is not a word we would use to describe either Moses or Jesus. True humility is reflected in a courage that allows you to occupy a lower place in the eyes of others because you are content to remain totally dependent upon God. Humility is the opposite of pride. It forsakes self-confidence and looks to the source of true, unshakeable confidence: Jesus Christ our Savior. Humble people find their identity in Christ; their meaning in life is derived through expanding the cause of His kingdom; and their greatest joy comes from serving others. They are modeling Christ to the world, He who told us that “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for others” (Mark 10:45).

Humility acknowledges that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Every person, having been made in the image of God, has dignity, value, and worth. When we see life through this biblical lens, we never look down on anyone . . . and when we are not looking down, we rightly are looking up to the One who was humility personified—He who, in one of the greatest acts of humility imaginable, washed the feet of His disciples on the night He was betrayed, a task normally performed by the most lowly slave.  

I write all these things, but I will also readily admit that this Christlike humility is extremely difficult for us to develop and even harder to maintain. Our sinful, human flesh clamors to exalt self. We are very much like the enemy who desires to destroy us, who once crowed, “I will raise my throne above the stars of God . . . I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). Our flesh is weak, and it is very much a part of our old nature to magnify self and minimize God.

Jonathan Edwards once said, “We must view humility as one of the most essential things that characterizes true Christianity.” One of the best ways to put on the godly garment of humility is to remember that humility is not thinking less of yourself—for you too are made in the image of God—but it is thinking of yourself less. As you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and ask Him to give you eyes that look on others with His compassion and kindness, you will develop true biblical humility, and you will model, however imperfectly, the character of Christ.

So . . . on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the greatest demonstration of humility, how would you rate your current level of humility? How would those closest to you rate you? What one change do you need to make in order to enhance your “divine dress code” of humility? This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Last week I began a series of articles on what I call “the divine dress code,” as we read it from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the church at Colossae. We took an extended look at the compassion our Lord commands us to wear; today we will examine kindness.

Jesus was as kind as He was compassionate, and His Spirit is working to create the same heart of love in those of us who claim His name. I think the best way I can describe how to practice biblical kindness is to be patient with those who try our patience over and over again. It is easy to lash out with a harsh word or to form a negative opinion about those who try our patience, but kindness refuses to surrender to that kind of fleshly response. Instead, we embody the biblical command to “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

It’s easy to see that without the ability to forgive, kindness is impossible. It’s easy to be kind to those who are kind to us, those who don’t rub us the wrong way or put obstacles in our way. But this is not the way of our Lord. Remember, He told us to be kind to our enemies (Luke 6:35), and he has clearly demonstrated His incomparable kindness to us:

When the kindness of and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:4-5)

God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

Think about God’s kindness this way: His cosmic kindness caused the coming of His only Son into this world to save us and to give us our eternal hope. Over and over again, the Bible commands us to be kind. John wrote, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). I don’t believe I am taking any liberty with Scripture when I say that, in the same way, we are commanded to Be kind because He was first kind to us.

Take a moment to prayerfully consider those whom you admire most in your life. Why do you feel this way? No doubt, their kindness toward you shows up at the top of the list. Now consider your interactions with others and ask yourself: In what ways am I reflecting the kindness of Christ? and In what ways am I not? And finally, ask yourself, What must I prayerfully work to change in order to put on kindness?

May the divine dress code of kindness be the confession of our lives, regardless of the cost or circumstance. This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

I am going to devote the next several articles to offering you encouragement and exhortation through what I call “the divine dress code,” as we read it from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the church at Colossae. Today I will focus on the first article of clothing Paul instructs us to wear: compassion.

To understand compassion from a biblical perspective, it is important to combine the Latin terms com (with) and pati (suffering). To be compassionate is to connect at the deepest heart level with those who are suffering and in pain, just as our Lord did time and time again. Do you remember what happened when Jesus saw the blind men who were asking Him for sight? We read, “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him” (Matthew 20:34). The Greek verb splagchnizomai that Matthew used, which our English Bibles render as “had compassion,” is taken directly from the word root that Paul used with the Colossians; it means to feel a yearning “in the bowels”—to say it inelegantly but quite accurately, it is to feel sympathy in your guts.

Who can forget our Lord feeding the 5,000 after a long day of teaching? When Jesus saw a large crowd, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). The verb Mark used is the same splagchnizomai; our Lord was deeply moved with emotions of kindness and mercy, and He promptly acted to help His lost sheep.

Here are two important points we are to glean from the scores of passages in sacred Scripture which describe the compassion of our Christ:

First, Jesus took notice of those around Him. In a word, Jesus was “other-oriented” in every aspect of His life. When we are self-absorbed, we miss what is going on around us. We become more concerned with meeting our own needs rather than the needs of those around us. If we are always looking at ourselves, we simply cannot take notice of others. If we are to be faithful disciples of Christ, we must be willing to shift our focus away from self and look with eyes of compassion on the people around us.

Second, Jesus met those around Him in their place of need. Why? Because He cared for them. Those who imagine that the Lord God Omnipotent is some distant, disinterested deity are completely and profoundly wrong in their thinking. I have written articles here about Scripture’s instruction to “Cast all your anxiety on [God] because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, emphasis added). Our Lord cares, and cares deeply, about mankind, who is made in His image. If we are to be faithful disciples of Christ, we must be willing to model His compassion as we go through life.

One of the most important lessons I have learned during my years as a pastor is that our compassion for others is a measure of our commitment to God. In the story of the Good Samaritan, it was not the priest or the Levite, those who were most outwardly “religious,” who demonstrated the compassion of Christ. Both those men actually crossed the street to avoid contact with a beaten man who had been robbed and left for dead. Rather, it was the outsider, the despised Samaritan, who put his life on hold and cared for the wounded man (Luke 10:33). This Samaritan understood the divine dress code and clothed himself with compassion.

Can the same be said about you and me? This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:18)

Growing and maturing in the Christian faith means we are moving more and more in the direction of being a “Yet Christian.” In our passage for today, you need to see what Habakkuk was experiencing before he got to “Yet.”

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

When we understand the cultural context at the time of Habakkuk, we see that he is describing a calamity of cosmic proportions. Crop failure and the death of the livestock would spell utter disaster for the people of Judah. But the inspired prophet wrote that no matter what happened in his life, he would continue to rejoice in the Lord. The waves of challenge would not tip Habakkuk over, no matter how relentlessly they washed over him, because he refused to take his eyes off of His God, He who can be trusted in all circumstances even when He cannot be traced. Think about it this way: In the face of utter hopelessness, Habakkuk still had hope because of the One He hoped in.

To praise God in times of plenty and peace is easy; to praise Him in times of poverty and pain is hard. Yet this is the key to being a Yet Christian. It is easy to be loyal to our Lord when He is leading us through a period when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the sun is shining brightly. But what about those days when thunderclouds roll in, blocking the sun, and storm winds begin to shriek? A Yet Christian not only sees the Savior in the storm, but understands that the Savior has sent the storm for God’s glory and for the Christian’s ultimate good.

That is the mark of a Yet Christian. Is it your mark today?

If your answer is something like, “Uh . . . not yet,” I’d like to offer you one final word of comfort. In an earlier chapter, Habakkuk provided us with the key to becoming a Yet Christian: “The just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). The key to living a victorious Christian life, no matter how difficult your circumstances, is to live by faith. Believe me, I know full well that is easier said than done! But know too that when you fall short of that goal, your God has not departed from you or turned His back on you; He is still at work within you, making you a joyful Yet Christian, and He will not finish His work until you cross the Jordan. You have His Word on that!

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

The mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. (Matthew 20:20-22)

The mother of James and John was right to come and place her petitions at the feet of the Savior. Where she erred was in over-asking—that is, asking for more than what had been promised. Jesus had indeed promised a throne to each of His disciples (Matthew 19:28), but He did not make provision for the placement of those thrones at His right and left hand. This praying mother—and you and I as well–needed to learn about asking aright. I hope you will read on and be encouraged today.

James, the brother of our Lord, admonished the church, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives” (James 4:3). It is easy for you and I to emulate the wife of Zebedee and over-ask in many ways. We believe that if a little is good, much more would surely be better. We remember that our God has invited us to come boldly before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), assuring us, “Ask and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7); but we sometimes forget that He never said that He will give when we ask for more than He has promised.

I have written here on several occasions that God has promised to meet all of our needs, not all of our wants. Yet what do we have a tendency of doing? We re-classify some of our wants into needs. We tell the Lord we “need” a bigger house, a nicer car, a better job, or a bulging bank account. The list is endless. We fall into the wrong thinking that views God as some kind of cosmic genie who is there to make our every wish His command.

We are all a little bit like Lot. When the angels came to deliver Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom, it was not enough for Lot to be saved. On the way out of town he made a request as to where he would like to settle. When told to flee to the mountains and not look back, Lot began to bargain with the angels for a place of his choosing. How often do we ask God for deliverance, promising, “Lord, if you will just get me out of this, I promise I will . . . ,” but when we are delivered, we immediately begin bargaining for a better blessing? Come to think of it, maybe we are all a lot like Lot!

We all must learn what the apostle Paul learned by way of personal experience: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11). Paul had learned contentment, and in contentment he learned to ask aright by asking for nothing more than God has promised. Even in asking for the thorn to be removed, which God did not remove, Paul stopped at three requests. Remember, ask and you shall receive . . . but only when you ask aright. This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

So do not fear, for I am with you. (Isaiah 41:10)

The principle of protection for the natural man is quite different from the principle of protection for the supernatural man, who has been born again to new life in Christ. For the natural man, protection amounts to anything that works to protect him or her from people, places, and things. But for the child of God, protection is a Person . . . and His name is Jesus Christ. Read on and be encouraged today!

There are countless pictures of protection as a Person throughout the pages of sacred Scripture. Perhaps there is none better than what we see in the beautiful biblical account of the first Passover.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)

Another way to understand the words “pass over” in that passage is to read them as “hover.” God was saying to His people Israel that when He saw the blood of the sacrificial lambs smeared on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses, He Himself would hover over those dwellings and cover them, providing divine protection.

We see this truth expressed through the prophet Isaiah: “Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” (Isaiah 31:5).

In the opening words of that same chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, God made it clear what we are not to trust in for our protection: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 31:1). When we walk by sight and not by faith, it is easy to get caught up in looking for protection from the things of this world (that is, to “go down to Egypt”), things that are always smaller than God. That is why we are commanded to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), who has promised never to leave nor forsake us.

When we live in this way, we truly will have no fear. We can echo David and exult –

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.

My heart leaps for joy

and I will give thanks to him in song. (Psalm 28:7)

So . . . what have you been trusting in for your protection lately? Personally? Professionally? Relationally? Make no mistake, your protection will always and in every way be found in the presence of God. He will cover you from your enemy. He will hover over you and come between you and your enemy. And He will do this right up until the moment He calls you home into glory. This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. (Deuteronomy 29:29)

If you remember the plotline of the movie The Stepford Wives, you will remember the husbands of the fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, schemed to have their wives turned into robots who would do what they wanted them to do without any input or argument. It was the husbands’ idea of a perfect world, where their wives would unquestioningly meet their every need. There is only one problem with this fantasy; there is no real relationship with a robot. Relationship, by definition, demands the invitation and the ability to question and to contradict each other in order for it to be real and personal and intimate.

Far too many people would like to have a “Stepford Savior” who does not question, contradict, challenge, or correct. When they read the Bible, they receive the portions they like—those sections that don’t offend them or run counter to their will. When they come across “difficult” passages that require more of them than they are willing to give, they ignore them, picking and choosing what they want to believe and what to reject. Older readers may recall the infamous “Jesus Seminar,” made up of a group of so-called “scholars” who voted with colored beads to arbitrarily choose which words of Christ were “accurate” and which should be rejected.

Make no mistake, if you have a god who cannot contradict you, you don’t have the real God! What you have is a god of your own making, a god of your imagination, not the Sovereign Lord of revealed truth. You have a created Stepford Savior, something which has no more relation to reality than does a robot wife.

This is not for you! Jesus came to this world, lived a sinless life, and died a sacrificial death in order to have a real relationship with you. During that relationship there will be times when you won’t understand what He is doing in your life. Abraham had this kind of relationship with God; he was called to leave his home and follow God wherever He would lead. Moses had this kind of relationship with God; he was called to be the deliverer of the Israelite nation. The apostle Paul had this kind of relationship with God; he had his Damascus-road encounter with the risen Savior and was told to go into the city and wait for instructions. All these men, and many more men and women of whom we read in Scripture had a real relationship with a real God, not a robot. They worshiped the One who would challenge them, confront them, confound them, and correct them along the way to fulfilling the call He had placed on their lives.

What kind of Savior do you have? To answer that question, you need only consider how you view the Bible. Is it authoritative in your life? Does it always get the last word, even when that word is contrary to your will? Remember, in a real relationship with the real Savior, you will not always get what you want, but you will always get what you need exactly when you need it.  

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