Grace for the Race

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

It has been well said that “A believer is one who does not have to consult a bank book to see how wealthy he or she is.” Is that true of you? Read on, and I promise that you will be greatly encouraged today.

Before Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us, as the second person of the Trinity, the Son of the living God, He had it all. He was rich in glory. He was complete in majesty. He was awesome in power. He was perfect in dignity. He was breathtaking in beauty. Moment by moment, the angels in heaven surrounded Him in worship, crying out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:3). Jesus was rich beyond description. But then He became poor—not just poor, but extremely poor—for you and for me.

Clearly, when the apostle Paul says in today’s verse that for our sake Jesus became poor, Paul surely had in mind the fact that Jesus took on flesh and became a man—and not a man who would be admired and loved. Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would have “no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Instead of angels calling out to Him in perpetual worship, Jesus “was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:2-3). Instead of crying “Holy is He,” the people ultimately screamed, “Crucify Him!”

In the Incarnation, the God of the universe condescended to become a man, uniting divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus did not stop being God. He did not set aside His deity; rather, Jesus laid aside the manifestation of His deity while He walked upon this earth. And he laid aside His throne and all the splendor of heaven for an existence in which he frequently had no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20).

But there is more! When Paul said that our Lord “became poor,” was also thinking about the cross, for that was the place where Jesus gave up everything and shed His very life’s blood on Calvary’s hill, so that through His poverty we, by trusting in that blood, would become rich beyond imagination . . . rich beyond what any bank book might say. Because our Lord became poor, we now have the opportunity, by grace through faith, to know “the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:7-8).

So what does your Believer’s Bank Book say about just how rich you are today? Here are just a few thoughts:

• You are rich in mercy and ministry.
• You are rich in grace and glory.
• You are rich in strength and security.
• You are rich in life and love.

Christian, it doesn’t matter how rich you are in dollars and cents. Whatever level of earthly riches you have (or don’t have, for that matter), praise God for that! What truly does matter is how rich you are in Christ. You have a spiritual inheritance that goes beyond anything this world can conceive of, riches that eye has not seen and ear has not heard. Because you are in Christ, and Christ has everything, you too have everything. The fullness of Christ is your fullness, and you can take that truth to the believer’s bank and withdraw on it every moment of your life.

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

The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord. (Leviticus 4:7)

Oh, what a word of comfort is placed before us of the altar of incense, the place where God’s people presented their prayers and praise. Their prayers were ever before the Lord, and upon the horns of that altar the priest would smear some of the blood of the sacrifice. It’s important to note that this ritual represented only a dim shadow of the blood of the Substance that was to come. Atonement has been made and our sin debt has been paid because the blood of the True Lamb of God has been shed for both our salvation and our sanctification.

Because the blood of the Lamb is before the Lord, having figuratively been sprinkled on the horns of the altar, it should also be before us. We are to live life in the shadow of the cross. The blood of the Lamb is what has brought us into God’s presence and will keep us in God’s presence forevermore. It is the blood of the Lamb that makes us acceptable in the presence of God. It is His blood that gives power to our prayers and purpose to our petitions (Hebrews 10:19). It is His blood that reminds us of whose we are and what we are here to do.

From Genesis to Revelation, we are continually confronted by the phrase “the blood,” which is designed to both encourage and empower us to be all God is calling us to be. It was the blood of every Old Testament sacrifice that pointed to the blood of the True Sacrifice that would finally and fully give us victory over sin, Satan, and death. The blood of Jesus protects us from the schemes of the devil and strengthens us for every temptation that comes our way.

Those holy horns were sprinkled with the blood of bulls, blood that could not truly atone for sin, only point the way to the blood—the eternal, once-for-all sacrifice made by Jesus Christ—that has the power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood on the horns of the altar is the ongoing testimony to every child of God that we have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. And don’t forget this: you did not deserve the blood . . . you did not earn the blood . . . and you cannot pay for the blood. It is only available to you by God’s grace, through faith in the One who shed His precious blood for you.

Let me close today’s word of comfort with these words from the 19^th-century South African writer, teacher, and pastor, Andrew Murray:

Of all the glorious things that the blood means, this is one of the most glorious: His blood is the sign, the measure, yes, the impartation of His love.

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

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  (2 Corinthians 12:8)

Most of us are immediately familiar with the words, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16 KJV). So it’s likely that you are not familiar with the title of today’s message of encouragement. Did you know that there is such a thing as ineffectual fervent prayer that availeth little? The apostle Paul prayed such a prayer. Let’s take a look.

In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

I’m sure we all agree that when Paul prayed it was fervent prayer. Yet in this case, his prayers did not avail the results he was praying for. Why? Because God had sent this “thorn” to Paul for a powerful purpose: to advance Paul’s humility and keep him from getting a big head because of all the good he was doing for the expansion of God’s kingdom.

But God’s “No” to Paul’s prayer had an even deeper purpose. Not only was God growing Paul’s humility, He was also growing Paul’s understanding of the sufficiency of His grace. God ordained Paul’s thorn for His glory and for Paul’s good; through this experience, Paul would grow ever more dependent upon God’s grace, which is something all of us need to do.

Have you been praying fervently for God to do something in your life that He has not yet done for you? Perhaps, like Paul, God is wanting to grow your reliance on His grace because His power is made perfect in your weakness. We saw in today’s passage that no amount of prayer would remove Paul’s thorn, regardless of how fervently and frequently he prayed.

Here is something to remember when we pray: Regardless of our petitions, let us end with the words of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Yet not my will but thy will be done.” When we pray with that desire in our heart, we can be fully assured that our fervent prayer will availeth much, regardless of what God’s answer is.

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

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

In reading through the life of the apostle Paul, we see a great many circumstances marked by the crushing conflict he faced, both within the walls of the church and out in the world. Yet through it all, he makes it crystal clear that God is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in every challenging circumstance we face. Why? Our Lord does not do it to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters for others who are encountering challenging times of their own.

We can and should expect challenging circumstances to arise outside the church. But as we see in the life of Paul, we should not be surprised when conflict confronts us inside the church also. There was a rebellious minority in the church at Corinth that made life difficult for everyone, Paul in particular. They accused Paul of everything from personal pride to mental instability. They even denigrated his looks and his manner of speaking, saying “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing” (2 Corinthians 10:10). But through it all, Paul looked up instead of out, and he trusted God to carry him through every wave of challenge that washed over him.

And Paul understood the primary reason why God sustained him: so that through the comfort God provided to him, he could draw strength to comfort others.

Can the same be said about you? Looking back over your life, can you see how often God has comforted you in challenging times? To be sure, the compassion of Christ has brought you through some very uncomfortable circumstances; you may even have emerged from them feeling quite comfortable! But being comfortable is not God’s ultimate goal for bringing us through difficult circumstances; being a comforter to others is.

Who in your life right now needs to experience the compassion of God through the comfort you can provide? Perhaps a word of encouragement is needed? Maybe a personal visit to deliver a hug or a holy kiss? How about an unexpected call from you to share the love of Christ? Remember, God has faithfully brought you cosmic comfort over the years, time and time again—not to make you comfortable, but to make you a comforter for His glory and the good of others. Why not bring some of the comfort of Christ to someone in need today? I promise, you will be glad you did . . . and they will be too!

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

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. (James 2:23)

Have you ever considered the difference between being a follower of Jesus and being a friend of Jesus? I assure you that difference is as profound as it is personal. Let’s take a look and see if you are not greatly encouraged this day.

First, we must understand the order of things from a biblical perspective. You cannot be a friend of Jesus until you are first a follower of Jesus.

He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)

Jesus makes the first move in our relationship with Him. He comes to us, gives us the gift of faith, and calls us to follow Him. In order to follow Jesus, we must be willing to put down our nets and pick up His. Jesus wants us to leave our old life behind and begin walking in the newness of our reborn life in Christ. This means that as we begin to walk by faith in following Jesus, we begin to live for something bigger than the life we are currently living in the flesh. And I can tell you that living with a greater concern for expanding the cause of His kingdom than our own little kingdom is a wonderful place to live.

But there is so much more for the Christian! Jesus tells us, “I no longer call you servants . . . Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15). The disciples were still followers of Jesus, but now they followed Him as friends, which carries the understanding of deep intimacy.

Friendship with God is the place of highest honor. The prophet Isaiah tells us that Israel was God’s “servant” and Jacob was God’s “chosen one,” but Abraham was God’s “friend” (Isaiah 41:8). Please understand that the difference is not found at the level of relationship; they were all in relationship with God. They all followed their God wherever He led them. The difference lies in the level of intimacy. There was something deeper going on at a heart level between Abraham and God, a level of love and trust that is the key to understanding the difference between being a follower and being a friend of God.

Are God’s desires your desires? Are God’s goals your goals in life? Are you able to say along with Jesus, “Not my will, but thy will be done”? If the answer is yes, then be greatly encouraged today, for you have entered into the intimate circle of friendship with God. And that indeed is a special place to be!

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

Moses said to [the Lord], “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15)

Perhaps there is no more insidious church cliché that holds Christians captive than this one:

“You will know you are in the center of God’s will when you sense a peace about your decision.”

There may be times when you sense a peace about a decision you are about to make, but make no mistake, the Bible is full of examples of those who did not and yet followed God’s leading into His perfect plan for the “peaceless” path they were to travel.

First, let me clear up the matter of “peace” as it is presented in Scripture. Peace is promised to the people of God, but that peace is rooted in an objective fact, not an emotional feeling. When Paul wrote in Romans 5:1 that “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” he was telling us about an objective fact. The first fruit of justification is peace with God, because we have been brought back into a right relationship with our heavenly Father. This peace is a result of the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus performs in the life of every believer, not a result of making right decisions. So to assume that a decision is right simply because you have a peace about it is wrong.

When God called Moses to be the deliverer of His people, a sense of peace was as far from Moses as the east is from the west. Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)—Moses’ first attempt to dismiss God’s call on his life. After God assured Moses that He Himself would go with him, Moses came up with Objection Number Two: “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13). The Sovereign Lord dismissed that excuse with His great declaration that “I Am Who I Am,” but Moses was still troubled. “What if they do not believe me or listen to me?” he asked (Exodus 4:1). God dismissed that excuse with the “staff into a snake” and the “hand as white as snow” illustrations. Moses had no other excuse available to him, so he simply asked God to pardon him from his peaceless calling because he was not an eloquent speaker.

At no time did Moses experience any sense of peace about the decision God was calling him to make. It was just the opposite! And remember this, God not only made it crystal clear what He wanted Moses to do through His spoken Word, He accompanied His command with supernatural miracles. Yet none of that gave peace to Moses. God was calling Him to do what he could not justify with a sense of peace about his decision.

What about you? Are you facing any decisions today where God seems to be calling you to walk a peaceless path? You are in good company! Seek godly counsel and continue praying about it, but know that the key to understanding what is God’s calling will often not be found in peace, but rather in His presence—the place to which God ultimately brought Moses. And when Moses sensed God’s presence, he could then say sincerely, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” (Exodus 33:15).

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

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

There is a comforting challenge contained within our passage of Scripture today. That phrase “comforting challenge” may sound like a contradiction in terms, but when Jesus referred to Himself as the true Vine and to you and me as His branches and then said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” it was the same as saying “Connected to me you can do anything.”

We live in a world that is self-deceived by self-dependence. The truly self-dependent, self-reliant person is a myth who dwells in the world of make-believe. No one ever has and no one ever will live a self-dependent life. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the King of kings and Lord of lords, did not live a self-dependent life when He came into this world. Rather, He lived in complete dependence upon God the Father through the power of God the Holy Spirit.

To pursue a life of self-dependence is to pursue a life our Savior refused to live. On the night He was to be betrayed, arrested, and ultimately face the terrible wrath of God for all the sins of all those who are His, Jesus told Peter, James, and John that “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” yet his simple prayer was, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matthew 26:38, 42).

Think about it this way: Every breath you take and every beat of your heart is dependent upon the will of God, for “He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). Only as God purposes for us do we have life, and that life is totally dependent upon the will of God sustaining it. Every person is God-dependent, whether they acknowledge it or not. When the world speaks of “willpower,” it is speaking in self-deceiving terms because “will” has absolutely no “power” apart from God. Listen, being “god” is not only hard, it is an impossible thing to do. When we attempt it, our hopes that our self-dependence will mask our weaknesses actually accomplishes just the opposite. We end up appearing anxious and afraid (and frequently asinine) to those around us.

Here is the question you and I must ask ourselves today. Am I trying to live a life of self-dependence, as a branch disconnected from the true Vine? If you sense that this is the case in any area of life, simply turn your heart back to God and remember these words from Zechariah 4:6, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” God will grant you the gift of repentance and meet you in your place of need, for all good things come from Him (James 1:17).

Never forget that self-dependence is self-deception. Stay close to Jesus through His Word, your prayers, and consistent connection to His people, and you will live the only kind of life that truly matters: Savior-dependence, which brings glory to God and good to others.

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

“Ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14)

Prayer is a powerful tool in the hands of the people of God. Why? Because there is infinite power in the name of Jesus Christ. Not only have we been invited to come boldly to the throne of grace, we have been assured that anything we ask for in the name of Jesus will be done.

I must make something clear before we move on: to ask in Jesus’ name is to ask for Jesus’ sake. Our prayers are to be directed at the expansion of Christ’s kingdom, not our own. Make no mistake, when God opened the way for us to come into His presence, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, He was not giving us a blank check to cash for the advancement of our personal affluence and a life of ease. To ask in Jesus’ name is to ask about the things that matter most to Him.

Our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer, recorded in John 17, gives us valuable insight into what matters most to Jesus. He prayed to His Father, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them [His disciples] into the world” (John 17:18 NKJV). As a sent people, we are to be living lives of other-orientation. Jesus has commissioned us to live lives that bring glory to God and good to others . . . all others. We are to meet people in their place of need with the hands and feet of Christ. To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray for the advancement of the Gospel; when we pray like this, we can be assured our prayers will be answered with a resounding “YES!”

To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray to fulfill His plans and His purposes in this life. To pray in His name is to lay aside our personal goals, agendas, dreams, and desires. It is to abandon self as we advance in the direction of our Savior. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39 NKJV), He provided us with the model for a prayer life that is rooted in His name.

Finally, when you are praying in Jesus’ name, you are being reminded to rely on His wisdom, His power, His strength, and His guidance. You are taking heed of the word of warning that James, the brother of our Lord, provided to the people of God: “You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasure” (James 4:3).

I hope you will be encouraged today to take some time to pray in Jesus’ name, knowing that whatever you ask for in His name, He has promised to do for you.

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

“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” (Ezekiel 34:11)

Notice the amazing truth contained in today’s verse: Our Lord Jesus Christ does not send someone out in His place to search for and look after His sheep. Oh no! The prophet Ezekiel was moved by the Spirit of God to tell us that the Lord Himself is the Sovereign, Seeking, Searching, Shepherd Savior. And He is all that for you. Is that not a word of cosmic comfort to you today, regardless of where this message finds you?

Notice something else contained within this text. Our salvation not only begins because of our Searching Savior, but it continues and is sustained because of our continually Searching Savior. No matter how often or how badly or how foolishly we wander away from our Savior, He chases us down and returns us to His sheepfold. Now, this does not happen when a certain number of His flock wander away. The parable of the Lost Sheep makes it perfectly clear that our Good Shepherd leaves the heard to go off and find one single lost sheep and brings him or her back to the fold. Christian, you matter that much to Jesus!

One final point: To be looked after by our Shepherd is to be locked securely into our salvation. Jesus told the crowd that followed Him, “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39). Jesus will not lose a single sheep . . . and that includes you.

Is this not a powerful promise to plead if you realize that you have strayed from the sheepfold and from your Shepherd? It was for Peter. When Peter denied Jesus three times on the night our Lord was betrayed—when the rooster crowed, just as the Lord had said—Peter’s heart was broken for having wandered away from his Savior. But after the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter by asking a simple question—not once, but three times—“Do you truly love me?”

If your answer is the same as Peter’s—“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”—then you can be assured that nothing can ever separate you from your Searching Savior. Let that truth set you free today and every day until you cross the Jordan and enter into your eternal rest.

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

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. (Revelation 4:4)

There are many ways in which the Christian is to live on earth as it is lived in heaven. Today I want to encourage you by reminding you of your nearness to your Savior. The twenty-four elders described in today’s verse, all seated surrounding our Savior, represent all the saints in heaven, who will see the face of God (Revelation 22:4).

These elders seated in the throne room of God provide us with three biblical truths: their vision is clear, their access is constant, and their fellowship is close. And these qualities have been granted to every saint who has, by grace through faith, trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. While they will not all receive equal rewards for their faithful and fruitful service while on earth, each saint has an equal share of their Savior—resting in His unwavering love, His unending mercy, and His unrelenting grace. All the saints will enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Should we not, as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, imitate on earth what exists in heaven when it comes to the saint’s proximity to the Prince of Peace? Close and constant communion with Him must occupy the center and the circumference of our lives. Let us not allow anything to come between us and our Savior—not temptations to sin nor the trials of Satan nor the business of this life. We are more than conquerors through Jesus, who loved us so much that He took our place on a cross so that we might take our place at His table.

How near have you been to your Savior lately? Have you been spending time in the Word? Have you been in daily communion with Him through prayer? Has anything come between you and Jesus? If your answer is yes, I urge you to take the necessary steps to remove that obstruction as far as the east is from the west. Jesus will tolerate no rivals, nor should He. Keep close communion with Jesus on earth, as it in heaven, and you will experience the truth of John 15:5—“If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”

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