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Lifeopoly, Part 1

Mar 12, 2021

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. – Philippians 4:19-20

Do you ever feel like the game of Lifeopoly is rigged, and you’re always a roll away from landing on another bad space?  As you survey the board, there are unexpected burdens, unreasonable people, unpleasant circumstances, uncertain details, unknown outcomes, unmet expectations, unrealized dreams, unkind words, and unmanageable schedules.  All of this can leave you feeling undone!  On some days and in some seasons, it’s like every roll of every turn plops you down on a hotel-laden property whose owner demands you pay up.  You look at your resources and find that you have a measly $12 and one of the utilities, forcing you to mortgage off your peace, hope and joy. Overdrawn.  Overextended. Overwhelmed.  There is no way this game is going to end well.  Unless… You follow these instructions:  Go to Jesus.  Go directly to Jesus.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.   In other words, don’t try to play the game on your own with your own resources.   You.  Will.  Never.  Win.  The only way to handle all of the tough landing spaces in this broken, sin-stained world is to go to Jesus.  Go directly to Jesus.  There is unbelievable grace available for every unsettling thing you face.  Let us go to Him over and over to give Him our worries in time of need.  Let us go to Him over and over to give Him our worship in time of needs met.  How relieving and reassuring and renewing it is to talk to Him about our cares and trust Him to do something about them.   Whatever space you find yourself landing on today, go to Jesus for peace, joy, hope, guidance and provision.  He will give you gracious help in whatever way He knows is best.  Relying on Him is the only way to play the game of Lifeopoly.  You.  Will.  Never.  Lose.

Are You Confident? Jesus Offers Assurance.

Mar 11, 2021

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.  – 1 John 15:11-13

There are some things you need to understand about good news.  It’s only good news if it overcomes or obliterates bad news, if it applies to you personally, if it’s true and if you believe it.    When one of those things is missing, it’s not really good news for you at all.  The gospel checks those first three boxes; the fourth one is checked off when you put your faith in Jesus.  The question is:  how do you know if you really believe and are headed for eternal life in heaven when this life has ended?  The Bible makes it clear that you can know. It’s called assurance, and it’s one of the many things that Jesus offers to us.  You can know that you believe when you look back to see that your faith in Jesus has changed your life, and look around to see that your faith in Jesus is still changing your life.  That is, assurance comes when you see evidences of the power of God at work in shaping who you are and what you do.  It has caused to you hate your sin and fight against it, and love your Savior and fight for joy in Him.   You’ll not always do this, but an evidence that you belong to Jesus is you want to do this, and you strive to do this.  There is progress in your faith journey where your beliefs and motives and views and desires and attitudes and words and deeds become less like the world and more like Jesus.  Not because you are trying harder to be better, but because the love that God has for you in Jesus has gripped your heart and is making you into someone who desires to know, trust, obey, enjoy and please Him.  You’re not going to get this right all the time, so don’t let your assurance rise and fall on your fluctuating faith, desire and effort.   There will be ups and downs, steadfastness and stumbles, progress and detours, but true believers will persevere because God finishes what He starts in our lives.   That’s what genuine belief and assurance is all about: knowing that you’ll make it to heaven not because of what you are able to do, but because you are trusting in what Jesus graciously does on your behalf.

What We Believe Changes Us

Mar 10, 2021

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.  – 1 Timothy 6:3-4a

What we believe – negatively or positively, rightly or wrongly, godly or worldly – will always shape what we value and how we live.   When we believe the message of the gospel more fully in more areas of our lives, we are transformed into people who:  Embrace God’s plans because they are superior to anything else. Slow down to enjoy Jesus because He is our joy-producing treasure. Rely on the Holy Spirit because in our weakness He makes us strong. Join God in His redemption mission because it is the most important work in the universe. Love and serve the people of God because we are all one body in Christ. Fight against our sinfulness because we want to be holy like our Savior. Long for heaven because it, not this world, is our home.  Above all else, we will rest in God’s grace to help us do all of these things, and forgive us when we don’t.  Listen: Embracing the truths of Scripture, God’s promises to us, and the good news of Who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for sinners like you and me, is what counteracts the message of the world.  Its message is full of empty promises, half-truths and lies.   Its message is all about convincing us to prioritize, pursue and prize things ahead of, and instead of, God and life with Him.  Its message is all about robbing us of our happiness and destroying us in the end.  Its message is all about glorifying sin and self and stuff.  God is all about removing those things that rob us of our happiness!  God is all about destroying that which will destroy us!  God is all about glorifying Himself and His Name and His Son!  Therefore, we should believe and build our lives upon the truth of Scripture.  It is the way to life for sinners.  It is the way of life for sinners who have been saved by grace.

When Trials Come

Mar 9, 2021

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4

Three quick observations about trials…

  1. It’s not “if” but “when” trials come into our lives. It’s a certainty that we will face them.  It should not surprise us.  We know they are coming in various formats, durations, intensities and frequencies no matter how hard we try to insulate our lives from them. Hardships are a normal part of the Christian life in this broken world.  So, how are we to respond to their arrival and presence?
  2. Christians should count the various trials in our lives as joy. Not as defeat. Not as pleasant.  Not as punishment.  Not as meaningless.  Not as insignificant.  Not as a reason to complain.  Not as a lack of God’s care.   Trials can be many things, but they cannot be joy-stealers unless we let them. We are to consider it all joy when they come, and we do this by considering how God is at work for good in and through our hardships…
  3. Trials produce an unshakeable faith in Jesus. They are a means to an end.  God uses trials in our lives to grow, enrich, solidify, purify and mature our faith as we trust in, and rely on, the steadfast presence of Jesus to preserve us until the end.  In order for us to count our present hardships as joy, we must think about our future.  Our faith muscle becoming stronger.  Our deliverance becoming sooner.  Our witness becoming louder.  Our homecoming becoming sweeter.   Yes, you have hardships; but you also have hope.

Take heart! While it may feel like trials are breaking you today, you can be sure that God is building you up through them in ways that are going to be amazingly good in the days to come.

Expect God To Work, But Maybe Not That Way

Mar 8, 2021

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.   – Philippians 4:19-20

God will provide for you in time of need.  God will transform you into who you were made to be.  God will deliver you from evil.  God will use you to make a difference.  God will bring you incredible joy and peace.  God will forgive you for your sin.  God will work in you and for you and through you in countless ways. But He likely won’t do many of those things in the way you think He will. Instead, He will astonish you with a “didn’t see that coming” choice of the 81st way you might have thought He’d come through for you. Think about it… He delivered the Israelites from the Philistine giant through a shepherd boy. He tore down the walls of the fortified city Jericho with marching trumpeters. He allowed an innocent man to spend years in prison to provide during a famine. He strengthened the faith of the disciples by sending them into a terrifying storm. He restored the sight of a blind man by taking spit and rubbing it in his eyes. He converted Saul from a church persecutor into a church planter. And the single most wondrous unlikelihood of them all… He sent Jesus to be born in a lowly manger and crushed on the cross to save sinners like you and me. No one would have scripted these events.   No one except God. He does the unexpected.  He does the unexplainable.  He does the unparalleled.   Our God weaves a story so incredible that it takes faith to believe it could be true.  That’s what He does for you and me.   He takes care of us in ways that can only be Him at work.  Why?  So He gets the glory forever and ever, amen!  We get the help and God gets the honor.  What.  A.  Deal.  Today, expect God to work in your life for good.  Just don’t expect Him to do it like you think He will.

Are You Finished? Jesus Offers Endurance.

Mar 5, 2021

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. – John 6:39-40

There are days when our faith falters, but Jesus does not abandon us.  There are days when we feel like giving up, but Jesus does not let us. There are days when we are too overwhelmed to carry on, but Jesus does not move on without us.   Jesus came from heaven to earth to make a way for sinners like you and me to go from earth to heaven.  And every step we take together is assured because of His willingness and faithfulness to do the Father’s will:  namely, to keep us until the end of this life and raise us up at the beginning of the next.  Ours will be a journey full of mountains and valleys, victories and failures, eases and hardships, prosperities and poverties.  Yet through it all, we will be empowered by His presence and encouraged by His promises as we rely on Him in faith to keep moving on to our eternal home. He will not lose us on the way.  He will not let us lose our way.  Through every sinful setback, every stagnant season and every stormy squall, Jesus remains faithful to get to heaven all those who believe in Him.  We will keep going.  We will endure.  We will make it. Not because of anything we can do apart from Jesus, but because Jesus is a part of us, enabling us by God’s grace to persevere to the end.  Until then, even when our days include struggles and our walk include stumbles, let us press on in joyful confidence that getting to our heavenly home does not depend upon us but on Jesus.  He will stay right with us.  He will do whatever it takes.  He will provide all that is needed.  He will take as long as required.  Yes, we work hard by His grace to follow Him closely in loving obedience, but He alone will ensure that we are able to do so.  Rejoice as you hold on until the end-before-the-beginning, knowing that Jesus is holding on to you.  On this our eternal security firmly rests:  We will remain faithful to Him because He remains faithful to us.

The End Of Your Story Is Written

Mar 4, 2021

…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… – Hebrews 12:1c-2a

Our stories don’t always make sense to us.  They don’t unfold the way we would have written them if it was up to us. They are full of unpredictable plot twists that catch us by surprise.  They can be joyful one page and painful the next.  God simply doesn’t do things our way.  And that’s a good thing.  For His ways are always good, right, wise, and loving. Yet as unforeseeable as how God works in our lives often is to us, there is also something wonderfully reassuring in the knowledge that He is indeed always at work.  It’s like we’ve seen this all a thousand times before.  Our hero rushes in at just the right moment to save the day.  As unpredictable as it is, it is also anticipated.  God has proven Himself faithful over and over again. As with any good narrative, questions unfold as the story does.  How will God provide?  What kind of people will we become?  How will God work through us to help others? Where are we going in life? What good will come from this suffering? When will this trial end? Why is this so hard?  Do we win in the end? How will this serve God’s purpose? How will my story tell the greatest story ever told? Who’s the real hero?  Spoiler alert: That’s Jesus! We may not know how this chapter ends, and the next one begins, but we trust that God knows exactly what He is doing in every scene of our lives.  By faith, we travel the course marked out on its pages, knowing that the end of our story has been written, and it’s wonderful. We don’t know what comes next with each turn of the page, and it won’t always make sense to us, but it doesn’t have to.  Because our faith is in the One who does know the happily-ever-after ending to our story.  After all, He’s the One who wrote it.

Are You Grumbling? Jesus Offers Thankfulness.

Mar 3, 2021

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Aware of it or not, we are constantly analyzing and evaluating how we think our lives are going and where they are heading.  Thanklessness usually happens when we don’t like what we see about our lives, or we fail to see God’s grace at work in our lives. If we are grumbling about what we don’t have, what we don’t like, or what we don’t understand, then we will overlook all that He is doing for us and all that He is to us.  Jesus offers us reason after reason after reason to be joyful and thankful because He offers us Himself, and He offers us His salvation.  Not perishing is a gift that is so spectacular and stunning it is impossible to comprehend its full magnitude.  Having eternal life is a gift that is of such pricelessness and preciousness it is impossible to estimate its full worth.  From these two mind-blowing, breath-taking kindnesses of God in Christ are an innumerable and inexhaustible inventory of gospel benefits and blessings for those who believe.   And we don’t deserve any of it.  It’s all because of Jesus.  It’s all because of grace.   Rejoice!  Give thanks!  Don’t you see?  If you know Jesus, your life is going unbelievably well (even if there is suffering present).  If you know Jesus, you’re heading home to everlasting good (even if things are bad on the way).  In every circumstance, you have reason to be joyful and thankful because you have Him.  You don’t have to look very far or very hard to see the reason, but you do have to look.  I’m not talking about looking on the bright side of things, looking for the silver lining, or looking at the glass as half full instead of half empty.  I’m talking about looking at reason after reason after reason for rejoicing in Jesus:  He puts good things in your life right now, He works out the bad things for good in time, and He has promised that the best possible things you could ever imagine are yet to come.

God May Not Be Changing The Situation

Mar 2, 2021

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. – Romans 8:29

Dear Younger Me,

You’re going to get stronger, tougher and wiser than you are right now.  You will become more forgiving, trusting and loving in the days ahead.  You have heights and depths and widths of potential in using the abilities and opportunities God has gifted you with that you don’t even see yet, but you will.  God loves you just as you are, but He loves you enough to not leave you as you are.  He has an end in mind, to make you into the person He created you to be:  a faith-walking, difference-making, joy-experiencing image-bearer.  He has committed Himself to your long-term transformation as He molds and shapes you to become more like Jesus, and, surprisingly, one of the ways He’s going to refine you is through the fire of hardships.  You’ll struggle to find answers on your own, but in time, you’ll learn to ask God for His wisdom which will never fail you.  You’ll worry and doubt and fear often, but the day will come when you’ll begin to trust in God and experience peace and courage.  You’ll fall short over and over again, but you’ll discover that His grace is sufficient for you as He forgives and frees you from sin.  You’ll feel like many tasks in front of you are impossible, but it’ll become clear that they are no match for you when you rely on Jesus Who gives you strength.  Here is what I want you to understand about difficulties: sometimes God will change the situation; sometimes God will use the situation to change you.  Through every heartache and hardship, God is at work teaching you to look to Jesus, and transforming you to look like Him. When you face troubles and trials, don’t give up hope, because God hasn’t given up on you.  You may feel like everything is falling apart, but He’s actually putting you back together again so you can feel, think, speak and act like the person you were born to be.  When you look back, you’ll find this to be true:  your circumstances may not be different, but you are.

Sincerely,
Older You

It Would All Make Sense If We Knew All He Knows

Mar 1, 2021

For we walk by faith, not by sight.  – 2 Corinthians 5:7

First glances can be deceiving.  Initial observations can be short-sighted.  The opening paragraph doesn’t tell the whole story.  A focal point garnering attention will blur the background.  While it is easy to see the obvious things happening in, around and through our lives, without a careful look through a gospel lens, there is a lot that we can miss.  God is doing a thousand things for us today, and we may not have our spiritual eyes locked in on any of them. That’s why we walk by faith and not by sight: in order to trust that He is at work, even when we don’t know what it is that He is doing.  This brings joy and hope for the difficult times when it seems to us that God isn’t doing much at all.   So, let us… Look back on the day when we first believed.  Look around at the daily mercies poured out on us ever since. Look forward to all that is promised for all who await the return of Jesus.  Remembrance.  Thankfulness.  Confidence.   He has saved us, is saving us and will save us.  For those who are trusting in Jesus, God is always doing much more in us, for us, around us, and through us than we are aware of.  All we see is the show, but He is working behind the scenes.  All we see is the ship, but He is working beneath the surface.  He is precise.  He is punctual.  He is providential.  There is nothing that happens unless it serves His purposes.  We don’t have to make sense out of everything that is going on or that we are going through; but we do need to trust that God is tirelessly at work in ways that would make sense if we knew all that He knows.  And when we can’t see it with our eyes, let us believe it in our hearts.  That’s what faith is for.

Are You Timid? Jesus Offers Courage.

Feb 26, 2021

 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.  – John 16:33

In this world, we will have tribulation.  It’s inevitable.  It’s imminent.  Trouble has either already made its way into your life, or it is on its way.  But.  Take.  Heart.  Jesus has overcome the world.  That means, though He doesn’t always remove the threats from our lives, He does render them powerless to do anything that would prevent us from joyfully enduring and prevailing in the end.  This is possible because Jesus has defeated the biggest threats of all:  sin, Satan and death.  This is possible as we trust in and depend on Him when we face the pain of this world’s brokenness and the persecution of this world’s system of hostility toward God and His people.  Because of Jesus we can have courage; the kind of courage that does not shrink back from saying and doing the right things no matter what people might think of us, what might happen to us and what it might cost us if we remain faithful to Jesus.  Our courage and encouragement are based on this truth:  Jesus has overcome all the tribulations and troubles and trials and tests and temptations of this world!  And He is in our corner.  His power is greater than our enemies, His sovereignty rules over our battles, His promises reside in our hearts, His forgiveness ensures our futures, His presence empowers our lives, and His grace provides for our needs.  Confident in this, we press on!  We press on, faithful in temptation and hopeful in tribulation, for we know that He will graciously keep us and empower us and provide for us and go with us and deliver us and save us because He has promised to do so.  Therefore… Be bold to speak the truth in His love.  Be courageous to face enemies with His love.  Be encouraged in tribulation by His love.  If you are a Christian, take heart today…  He has gotten you this far.  He has always provided for you.  He will do it again. Your tribulation will not last forever; but your joy in Jesus will.

Are You Confined? Jesus Offers Freedom.

Feb 25, 2021

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  – John 8:36

Before we put our faith in Jesus, we were slaves to sin and unable to escape its powerful hold on us.  Too many of us still live as if we are imprisoned by our sin, sorrow and struggles with no way out of the cell that controls and limits us.  Too often we let our regrets from the past, imperfections in the present and fears of the future enslave us as if we are helpless and hopeless to do anything about them.  Too soon we give up, give in and give out when spiritual victory has already been secured and is almost ready to be seen.  Nothing in our story can nullify the Greatest Story Ever Told about the finished work of Jesus Who has won the ultimate triumph over all enemies for us!  He. Has. Set. Us. Free.  Free to say “no” to sin and “yes” to greater delight in Him.  With sin’s power broken, we now have the desire and ability to serve God rather than sin.  This does not deny the existence of or seriousness of what we are facing and fighting against both inside and outside of us.  Yes, our past may include terrible things we have done.  Yes, our present may be filled with setbacks.  Yes, our future may find our lives not going the way we hope they will.   But Jesus has made amends for our past, makes provision for our present and will make a way for our future until we have been fully delivered from the very presence of sin.  We have been released… from shame, from regret, from joylessness, from emptiness, from addictions, from vanity, from futility, from fear, from pride, from lusts, from idolatry, from sin, from death.  We are free to be happy in Jesus, and to the degree that we abide in His words and depend upon His Spirit and feel His presence, we will be.  No more shackles.  No more cages.  No more prisons.  Walk out of that cell and in faith follow Jesus.  Don’t live as if you are still in chains.  You have been set free.

The Battle-Axe Of Discouragement

Feb 24, 2021

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9

There are days when I feel like giving up on trying to make a difference because I wonder if I’m making any difference at all.   Maybe you can relate. These thoughts and feelings aren’t random, they are intentional.  They are the work of the enemy trying to bring us down so he can shut us down.  One of the weapons he wields most frequently is the battle-axe of discouragement.   Satan wants to convince us that our doing good isn’t actually doing much good.  He will skew the facts, point to the wrong metric, and mislabel our actions as failures.  But God doesn’t measure our success by social media likes, comments and shares.  God sees us quietly toiling behind the scenes loving Him by loving others and measures our success not by our fruitfulness or fanfare, but our faithfulness.   It should bring a smile to our faces knowing that what we do brings a smile to His face when we do it for the good of others and the glory of His Name.  When we struggle for the motivation to continue down the sometimes long and lonely road of serving, let us remember that we serve an audience of one.  The enemy wants to discourage us, but be of good cheer … Jesus has wrested the battle axe from his hands and has given us the Armor of God to press on in doing good.  It is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us! By His sustaining grace, His empowering resolve, His enabling strength, His guiding leadership, and His motivating cheer, let us continue to fight the good fight of faith. Nothing we do for His kingdom will ever be in vain.  Therefore… Let us not lose heart or lose hope.  Let us not slow down or shut down.  Let us not give up or give in.  Let us listen for the applause of heaven.  Now we hear from a distance, but someday in His presence.

Are You Wronged? Jesus Offers Justice.

Feb 23, 2021

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:19-21

Actions will be unkind.  Words will be unpleasant.  Treatment will be unfair.  Neglect will be unnoticed.  Results will be unjust. People will be unloving. There will be things said and left unsaid, things done and left undone, which bruise and break our hearts and spirits.  People.  Will.  Sin.  Against.  Us.   It’s never a matter of will it happen, but when it will happen.  It’s never a matter of will it hurt, but how much it will hurt.  The question is:  what will we do about it?  The normal response is to burn with vengeance inside.  The natural reaction is to bring on vengeance outside.  When someone wrongs us, we often desire to make things right by making them pay for their wrongdoing, or at least we wish we could.  But Jesus modeled a different way of handling the wrongs of others.  The way of love.  The way of forgiveness.  The way of kindness.  The way of good.  The way of grace.  Jesus knows what it is like to be beat down, mocked, betrayed, abandoned, lied about, crucified.  He pressed on during the most difficult times anyone has ever faced, and this was His staggering kindness to sinners like you and me, overcoming our evil with His good on the cross.  We.  Have.  Sinned.  Against.  God.   And Jesus paid our debt. As a result, our role is not to mete out justice; our role is to model His grace.  Conquering evil with evil would be to allow evil to conquer us, but we are commanded to release our instinct for revenge to let God judge, punish and make all things right in His timing and in His way.  God will repay, either by accepting the payment made by Jesus on the cross should they repent and receive His grace, or by making them pay in hell if they do not.  Therefore, let us overcome evil with good and leave it to God to do the work He means to do.  We who have received grace should be the quickest to extend it.

We Are All Believers

Feb 22, 2021

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.  – 2 Corinthians 1:19-20a

There is something you and I need to understand about ourselves.   No matter how little or much we are aware of it, how little or much attention we give to it, how little or much we acknowledge it, its steady and sturdy influence upon our lives is unmistakably clear:  We are believers.  And all of life’s desires, decisions, and deeds flow from one of two basic beliefs:  we believe that we need God, or we believe that we do not need Him.  There is also something you and I need to understand about our God:  He can be believed.  This should give sound to what we say, sight to what we see, rationale to what we think, and reason to what we do.  God always keeps His promises, and His promises for His children are always good. The way to overcome every sin and struggle of the heart is to believe His promises.  Why believe God’s promises? Because God’s promises are kept, lasting, joy-producing, full, better, precious, true, timeless, situation-proof, purchased already, all-encompassing, impossible-to-fail, unbreakable, edifying, powerful, freeing, loving, gracious and are all “yes” for us in Jesus. There is such joyful victory, sweet freedom, complete rest and incredible strength when we believe the promises of God in the moments they are needed.   Listen:  You will believe something today.  When that temptation is offered, that relationship blows up, that meeting goes wrong, that diagnosis is grim, that pleasure is available, that problem shows up, that plan falls through, that sin is appealing, and that thing happens … you will believe something to be true.  Instead of believing sin’s promises that you have been abandoned by God, and you should accept a substitute for God, believe the promises of God.  Place your full weight on God’s Word, for this is the only solid ground in a world full of cleverly-disguised sinking sand.  If He says it, you can believe it.  And if you can believe it, you can experience its life-giving assurances.

Slow Down

Feb 19, 2021

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10:38-42

Admit it, some days are a blur.  We wake up, and over the coming hours, it’s a nonstop rush to not fall behind.  Our biggest need for dealing with our overcrowded schedules and overwhelmed minds is not a course that teaches us to get more done in less time.  It’s not a couple of painkillers or some motivational music or our favorite drink from Starbucks.  The thing that will best help us cope with whatever God has ordained to make its way into our lives each day is not better planning, better personnel, or better productivity.  The remedy for busy, frantic lives is not to speed up, but to slow down. The thing that will most help us with what we face each day is to simply spend time with Jesus getting recharged so we can be prepared for what lies ahead, and refocused so we can prioritize the things that matter most.  You’re not too busy to spend time with Jesus.  You’re too busy not to spend time with Jesus! That’s why it is essential that we spend unhurried, undistracted time with Him each day in prayer, Bible reading, stillness and silence.  In doing so, His words and presence will transform our hearts, inform our thinking, rewire our motives, encourage our spirits, guide our paths, govern our feelings, reshape our behavior, source our words, and influence our lives in every good way that He intends.  Time.  With.  Jesus.  That’s the most important part of our day, and it should have the most intentional part of our schedule because it’s the most influential part of our lives. You know what the cure is for being overwhelmed, worried and frustrated about the many things on your schedule?  Making the right choice to spend time with Jesus today.

Are You Ambitious? Jesus Offers Riches.

Feb 18, 2021

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.   – Ephesians 2:4-7

When I was a toddler, I could not have imagined what a rich life I had ahead of me.  I don’t mean rich in money or material possessions; I mean rich in experiences of delight, beauty, pleasure, satisfaction, happiness and wonder.  In time, I discovered the delight of playing with a puppy, the beauty of a mountaintop view, the pleasure of sex with my wife, the satisfaction of writing a well-crafted sentence, the happiness of welcoming my son into the world, and the wonder of gazing into a darkened sky dotted with stars.  These and tens of thousands of other similar, but wonderfully different discoveries only further enriched my life.  But, as good as they have been, these are measurable riches.  They are fixed and finite.  They will end for me when my time on this earth ends.  But that end is just the beginning.  Because of God’s mercy, grace and love toward me in Jesus, I have riches of His kindness awaiting me.   These riches are immeasurable.  These riches are eternal.  There is a glorious eternity looming ahead of me and all who trust in Jesus in which bad things will be eliminated, good things will be perfected and the best things will be unveiled.  What God gives to us because of, through and in Jesus is unimaginably delightful, beautiful, pleasurable, satisfying, joyful and wonderful.  We have an eternity with Him that… Never gets stale.  Never gets boring.  Never gets routine.  Never gets unappealing.  Never gets finished.  There will always be more to discover and enjoy from the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.  Don’t live for this day; live for that day.  Don’t be discouraged by this day; be encouraged by that day.  Take hope in this every day:  for those who are trusting in Jesus, the best is always yet to come.

Are You Threatened? Jesus Offers Security.

Feb 17, 2021

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  – Romans 8:35-39

People go to great lengths to safeguard their money, their jobs, their computers, their phones, their homes, their health, their families, their minds and their lives against internal and external dangers that threaten their well-being. They look for security in a variety of places ranging from the number in their bank account balance to the number on their keypad of their home alarm system to the number of years of seniority at their workplace.  All of the security measures that people take have one thing in common:  they can fail at any time, which means they don’t really offer security at all.  Real security is having something which guarantees a good future for you that can never be lost by you or taken from you.  That’s the kind of security we have in the love that Jesus has for us, even if we experience terrible things in this world because we are headed for another world.   Out of His love for us… He laid down His life for us on the cross so we can be forgiven and freed from the only thing that can truly threaten us, our sin.  He rose from the dead to defeat the final enemy that we could never safeguard against, our mortality.  He sits in the position of power and authority to rule for good the one thing that we struggle to control, our lives.  He prepares for us a place and an inheritance to be enjoyed forever by ensuring the one thing that we cannot, our eternity.  He promises to provide all that we need for all that we face until He brings us safely to the one thing we long for most, our home with Him.  He atones.  He rules.  He prepares.  He sustains.  He delivers.  And there is nothing that can stop Him from loving us like that.   That.  Is.  Security.   Because Jesus loves you… He gave His life for you in the past, He’s walking with you in the present, and He’s coming back for you in the future.  Christian, take heart today, for though your life is not without threats and troubles, your life is safe and secure in the love of Jesus.

Are You Known? Jesus Offers Love.

Feb 16, 2021

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  – Ephesians 5:1-2

We all keep secrets.  There is not a human being on the face of the earth who fully discloses every thought, feeling, motive, desire, and attitude to others.  We hide many of those things within ourselves, hoping that no one ever finds us out, because we fear that the ugliness we keep tucked away would drive others away.  So, we put on a mask, and we put on a show, make-believing we are something that we are not. But there is Someone who knows the real you and loves you with a costly, undeserved, willing, lasting, transforming, blessing love.   You are fully known by Jesus and fully loved by Jesus, even with all of your sins and shortcomings.  It’s a good thing that He knows every micro-detail about you because you don’t ever have to wonder if He loves the real you or just the sanitized-for-public version of you that others see.  Jesus loves the you behind the mask.  He doesn’t love you more on “good” days when you do all the things He wants you to do, and love you less on the “bad” days when you stray and disobey; He loves you all days and always because you are treasured by Him. To be sure, He doesn’t love your and my sin.  He doesn’t love those sinful things that are tucked away inside of us.  In fact, He hates them.  But that didn’t drive Jesus away from us; that drove Him to the cross for us, so we might be forgiven for and freed from our sins, and welcomed into the family of God.  Then, He stays with us to transform us from the inside out into people who both hide less and less and have less and less to hide.  The One who matters the most, knows us most, and loves us most.  Secure in His love for us, we are moved to love Him back and extend His love to others, knowing that when the all-seeing God of the universe looks upon us in Christ, though He sees everything about us, what He sees most is a beloved son or daughter.

I Only Know The Road Leads Home

Feb 15, 2021

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.   – Psalm 34:18

It is right to mourn over loss.  It is appropriate to grieve over injustice.  It is fitting to hurt over broken relationships.  It is correct to lament over bad test results.  It is proper to feel pain over rebellious children.  It is reasonable to ache over personal mistreatment or persecution. While there is a lot of beauty in this world, it is also plagued with much brokenness.  Sin has touched everything with its destructive contamination, and things do not operate as God originally designed.  We have all experienced the pain of things gone wrong.   Christians aren’t exempt from hurt. No matter what precautions we take to safeguard our lives, no matter how hard we work at being godly people, no matter how diligently we screen who and what we allow to get close to us… something will inevitably come uninvited, unannounced, and unwanted into our lives and cause us pain. Yet… Healing will come. Comfort will come.Justice will come. Restoration will come. Deliverance will come. Joy will come. Salvation will come.  Eternal life will come. This is all true because Jesus has come. He has come to join us in our suffering, indeed suffer in our place on the cross so that one day we can enter into a place where there is no suffering at all.  He made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can someday witness the undoing and remaking of all that sin has tainted.  Until then, He journeys with us, always cheering, always lifting, always strengthening, always guiding, and always providing all we need. We are sometimes left without answers, but we are never left without hope.  Because we are never left without Him.  Take heart and trust Him as you press on down the road that He has marked for you to travel, for the day will come when He will put an end to the hurt you experience along the way.  I cannot say when the road will end.  I do not know what is around the next bend.  I only know that the road leads home.