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The Reason For The Season And Everything Else

Dec 16, 2020

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  – 1 Peter 3:15

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Every belief, action, fact, event, spoken word, attitude, and outcome has one. There is a reason for all things.  Some are known.  Some are unknown.  But there is a basis, cause, explanation or motive for why things are what they are.  Christmastime and Christianity are based on this one:  Jesus is the reason for the season and the reason for our hope.  Not favorable conditions.  Not an optimistic outlook.  Not our resources or connections.  Simply Jesus.  And it’s not just hope that Jesus has caused for us who revere Him in our hearts as Lord.  He’s the reason we celebrate all of the amazing gifts we’ve already been given and the reason we anticipate that the future promises of God will be fulfilled for us, and we will be given even more.  He’s the source of our unending hope, joy, peace, purpose, courage, victory, security, faith, strength, truth, acceptance, approval, guidance, access, help, rest, forgiveness, blessings, provision, freedom, life, eternal life, everything.   Remember this today:  Jesus didn’t come to earth only to rescue us from sin, condemnation and hell; He also came to invite us into the most complete, most lasting, most satisfying life that begins right now and will extend into the never-ending reaches of eternity.  The greatest testimony we can give for Jesus is to submit our lives to Him because of this hope that we have in Him.  Onlookers in our lives need to see and hear us really living like our hearts are full … because of Jesus … because they really are.  Here’s the question:  Why do you have hope and happiness? Here’s the answer:  Jesus.

What Are We Waiting For?

Dec 3, 2020

And coming up at that very hour she (Anna) began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. – Luke 2:38

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Advent is a time of hopeful waiting.  The question is:  what are we waiting for?  Life will frequently leave us disappointed and dissatisfied if we are waiting for the right time and the right things to make us feel the right way.  Many of us can’t be happy until we land that dream job, achieve that life goal, meet that perfect mate, unclutter that schedule, overcome that health challenge, get out of that hard situation, fix that nagging problem, or discover that magic pill to satisfy us once and for all.  It usually doesn’t come; if it does come, it doesn’t live up to our expectations; if it does live up to our expectation, it doesn’t last.  And so, we wait.  And we wait.  And we wait our lives away. The reason we can’t find our satisfaction in the people, places and things of earth is because we were never meant to.  Perhaps this frustration and futility is God’s gracious and loving way of showing us that our longings are not being fulfilled because we are not looking to Jesus to give to us what this world never can.  As you and I wait for His second coming, because of His first coming, we can be set free from the bondage of sin and its enslaving desires and be fully happy with all that we have in Jesus. So, when you feel dissatisfied, let it be a gift from God to reorient your heart and redirect your gaze to the one place where real contentedness is found … the gift of His Son.  Give Him your heart and He will give you His heart satisfaction.  What are you waiting for?

What Matters Most If What You Forward Ahead

Nov 24, 2020

One of the greatest dangers and deceptions that you will face in your life is that of disobedience by delay.  That is, you will be tempted to wait to do what God has called you to do as an ambassador for Christ.   Wait until a more convenient time, thinking you have plenty of time, but more often than not, you will run out of time.  Missed opportunities are the result of thinking we’ll get another chance though one is not guaranteed, and thinking that another day would be better though God’s timetable cannot be improved upon.   The biggest shift in thinking that you and I need to make is this:  our time is to be invested more than it is to be spent.  Spending time is using it in such a way that it does not benefit God’s kingdom.  Investing time is using it in such a way that it brings eternal dividends in the lives of other people and eternal rewards for ourselves to the eternal praise of Jesus.   We all need to remember that every bit of time we are given can be an investment that has a beautiful and bountiful return which appreciates in value throughout all eternity if we will be intentional about how we use it.  For most of us, God doesn’t mean for us to wait until some future day to serve Him by going out in a million-dollar blaze of glory, but rather He wants us to give ourselves to Him in daily nickels and dimes of service to those around us.  Lay up treasures in heaven with how you use your time today, because it’s not what you leave behind that matters most.  It’s what you forward ahead.

You Have Been Blessed; Now Go Be A Blessing

Nov 14, 2020

God has not blessed us with time just so we can use it binge-watching Netflix.  He has not blessed us with money just so we can spend it on more comforts.  He has not blessed us with abilities and skills just so we can serve our own interests and passions.  The generosity of God has been extended to us with blessings of time, talent and treasure that we might both enjoy them ourselves and extend them to bless others.

We are to serve God’s kingdom with God’s gifts as long as there is a baby who is hungry, a single mom who is exhausted, a pastor who is about to call it quits, a teen who needs mentoring, a senior citizen who is lonely, a homeless man who needs a coat, a friend with an unpaid utility bill, a co-worker who feels excluded, a person who is unjustly imprisoned, a divorcee who is hurting, a family member who is depressed, a child who needs foster care, a new Christian who needs discipling, a neighbor who can’t mow her lawn, a believer who is suffering, a fellow human being with a need or a lost soul who has never heard of Jesus.  Those of us who are trusting in Jesus have been entrusted with showing the world His heart for them by being His hands and feet to them.  You have been blessed; now go be a blessing.

We Will Finish The Race

Nov 13, 2020

In a world of seemingly endless uncertainties, there is something that we can be absolutely sure of:  God will finish what He started in us.  There is zero chance He will fail.  God has begun a good work in us, and He will work all things together for good to ensure its completion (Philippians 1:6).  We will keep going.  We will endure.  We will make it. Not because of anything we can do apart from God, but because Jesus is a part of us, enabling us by His grace to persevere to the end when we can echo Paul’s words, “I have finished the race.  I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7) 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 God at work in us and for us.  God does not start this work and leave us alone to finish it.  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 every step of the way.  Rejoice as you hold on until the end-before-the-beginning, knowing that God is holding on to you.  On this our eternal security firmly rests:  We will finish the race because He will finish what He started.

Confess Your Sin (There Is Grace For You)

Nov 12, 2020

Do you know how often you and I need to confess our sin to God?  Every.  Single.  Day.   As Christians, we are in an ongoing war against our sin, and there are daily occasions in which we lose the battle.  It is sin when we do what we are told not to do and when we don’t do what we are told to do.  It is sin when we do anything without faith or anything without glorifying God. It is sin when we fail to love God above everything else and fail to love people as ourselves.   It is sin when we don’t do what we know we should and when we fail to ask God what to do when we don’t know what we should.  This spiritual journey we are on is one in which we have not yet been fully delivered from the presence of sin, so we must fight against it and confess our failings when we lose a skirmish.  Every step of the way.  Every time we pray.  Every single day.  Ours is a humble and simple cry out for grace: “I did it.  I regret doing it.  Help me not do it again.”  Because Jesus has already secured the final victory over our sin, there is grace for us.  Grace that gives us pardon when we lose the fight, and grace that give us power to fight on. #confessyoursintoday

It Counts When You Point People To Jesus

Nov 10, 2020

You may not realize the influence and impact of your life, but if you are God’s child, He works through you in the normal rhythms at your home, workplace, neighborhood, shopping mall, recreation center and hangouts. Every moment holds the possibility of a conversation to share the good news of how Jesus can change someone’s life.  Every moment is a chance to demonstrate the beauty of God’s design for how to do things in all of life.  Every moment is an occasion in life to bear the fruit of the Spirit … love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do you know how God works through your life to change someone else’s life?  The everyday moments of life.   Don’t think there is no value in the chaos of your life.  Don’t believe that your normal life isn’t anything special.  Don’t accept the lie that what you do and how you do it doesn’t matter.  Don’t give up when your efforts seem fruitless and unappreciated.  Don’t be silent about communicating the love of God in both your words and actions.  Every moment counts when you live it to point people to Jesus.

God Took Our Sin Seriously; We Should Too

Oct 29, 2020

Since God took your sin seriously enough to send Jesus to be crushed on the cross in your place, you should take it seriously enough to make war against it instead of making excuses for it.  Start your day confessing your sin to God and confessing your need for God to help you fight against your sin.  Pieces of God’s armor.  Promises of God.   Places of escape.  Preventative steps.  People to hold you accountable.  These are your weapons of war to be put on, put into place and put into action before the battle even begins. Then, when temptation comes, stand firm in your faith, steady on your feet, strong in the Lord and do not give in or give up.  Make war! And if you go down, go down swinging, knowing that there is grace for every lost fight because you are trusting in Jesus and Jesus has dealt a knockout punch to sin, Satan and death for you.  You will rise again to fight again and win in the end.  Because His pardon is given to you and His power is with you and His presence is in you, you can be honest about your sin, and you can be victorious over it.

Time Well Spent

Oct 28, 2020

Every single grain of sand that falls in the hourglass of your life is a gift from God to be used for good.  You can’t regain or recycle what has been used.  You can’t get more than what remains.   You can’t be sure when the last grain will fall.   The days are long, but the years are short; the days drag on, but the years fly by.  While there is still time, spend it on the things that matter most, the things that matter for eternity, the things that matter to God.  You will never regret the unwasted life of prioritizing, pursuing and proclaiming Jesus to a darkened world that desperately needs the light you can hold out to it.  What immeasurable bliss awaits when the last grain drops, and you hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.”  Until that day arrives, don’t put off until another day what God has given you to do with this day.  Live every day as if it were your last one on earth; someday if will be.

There Is An Order To Love

Oct 25, 2020

Love both sums up all of God’s commandments and gives us the motivation to obey those commandments.   But only when we love rightly.  All the sins of all the people in all the world are the result of loving wrongly.  Augustine described sin as “disordered love”.  Or said another way, we sin, we break God’s commandments, when our loves are out of order.  He noted that for our loves to be in proper order we should not… Love what it is wrong to love. Fail to love what should be loved. Love too much what should be loved less. Love too little what should be loved more. You see, there is an order to love.  We are to love God above people.  Love people above things.  And love things in such a way that they help us to better love God and love people.

Jesus Forgives Our Sin And Frees Us From It

Oct 21, 2020

Jesus died not just to forgive our sin, but also to free us from it.  The amazing grace He lavishes upon is both pardon from sin and power not to sin.  We can let go of the old life and latch hold of the new.  New identity, new purpose, new beliefs, new hopes, new dreams, new motives, new joy, new freedom, new eternity, new life and new power to live it is ours because of Jesus.  When we settle in our hearts and minds that everything is better with Him, because of Him, for Him, and in Him, we will no longer settle for the things that are not from Him. How do you resist the pull of the old life?  Remember all that is yours in the new life.

What I Pray About When I Pray

Oct 18, 2020

What do you typically pray about?  Be honest: Is your prayer life more about getting God to do your will or you to do His?   I’ll be the first to admit that it’s much easier for me to pray “let this cup of suffering pass from me” than it is to say to my Heavenly Father, “nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”   Yet, there is nothing so freeing and fulfilling than to be right where God means for me to be doing right what God means for me to do.   He’s the God of both the hills and valleys, and I have His promise that Jesus will be with me to guide, strengthen and encourage in the ups and downs of life.  So, I talk to Him.  Not in order to secure what I need to build my own kingdom, but to request what I need to live for His.  Prayer involves seeking what we need to do what God wants.  Pray for God’s grace to do God’s will.  There will be a thousand times more joy for you in doing things His way instead of demanding your own.

Making War Instead Of Making Excuses

Oct 16, 2020

Every person alive disobeys God, but the ways in which we respond to our sin is often in stark contrast with each other.  Some people rationalize.  Some people repent.   As Christians, we have a faith in Jesus that is demonstrated by loving obedience, though imperfectly executed. That means we too will disobey God at times, but because of the love we receive from Him and have for Him, we will admit our sin by seeking His pardon for it and His power to be free from it.  People who love Jesus repent by making war against their sin instead of making excuses for it.  Therefore, let us strive for holy living while resting in the grace of God, remembering and rejoicing over this truth:   what Jesus has done for us on the cross is sufficient to both cleanse and correct our transgressions.

Will It Matter 100 Years From Now?

Oct 10, 2020

Here’s a simple, but significant, lens through which life looks radically different than we often see it… will this matter 100 years from now? How we think, feel, speak, act, and react would be wonderfully different if we saw things in light of eternity.  Our motives and attitudes would change for the better if we remembered that this short life is not all that there is.  And our very lives would create an everlasting ripple if we could look a century into our future to see the impact of our today.  In dependence upon the presence and power of Jesus, let us give less priority to the things that really don’t matter and more priority to the things that do.

God Puts Us On The Right Path

Oct 7, 2020

While delays, detours and dead-ends can bring about disappointment and frustration, they may be God’s way of blocking us from something He doesn’t mean for us to do or have.   What we need to realize is this:  when God says “No” to our plans, He is saying “Yes” to something that is far better for us and others who are involved.   Many costly mistakes are avoided and many wonderful blessings are gained when He steps in to order our steps.  When God graciously reroutes our lives, it is always to put us on the right path.

Jesus Will Always Speak The Truth In Love To Us

Oct 6, 2020

What power and courage and hope and peace is ours because of the voice of truth sounding forth from Jesus! But we will not hear these life-giving, chain-breaking, hope-inspiring, course-correcting, God-honoring, truth-telling, joy-producing words if we neglect the Word of God.  While He does speak through His Spirit, circumstances and other people, He speaks loudest and clearest in the Bible.  We must repent of basing our lives on man’s truth, making up our own unbiblical truths, and neglecting the truth of the Scriptures.  Instead, let us strive to read the Bible more frequently, understand it more fittingly, believe it more fully, and live it out more faithfully.   Those who listen to it will hear the sweet voice of Jesus bring words fit for the occasion, giving grace to those who hear.   We can always count on what He says to be true for us and good for us.

Setting Your Mind On Jesus

Oct 4, 2020

Every waking hour something has captured the attention of our minds.  We never stop thinking.  We are constantly entertaining new thoughts, pausing at times to dwell on some of them.  These thoughts have the power to shape how we believe and behave, for better or for worse, so we must let our minds land most often on Jesus.  The more we think about Him, the more it will rewire how we think about ourselves and others.  It will change our perspective on how we interpret our circumstances.  It will cause us to reprioritize what matters most so we don’t waste our time on lesser things.  It will stir up a healthy fear and trembling before God because of the sin in our lives and thus bring about repentance.  It will produce greater joy, peace, comfort, security, strength, hope, and contentment as we rest in what we have come to know about who God is and what God does.  We think about everything.  Setting our minds on Jesus will change how we think about everything.

Nothing You Do For God Is Ever Wasted

Sep 30, 2020

The enemy wants to convince you that God isn’t using your life to make much of a difference in this world.  He wants to bring you down so he can shut you down.  But remember that nothing good you do for others in the name of Jesus is ever wasted.  So, don’t give in or give up!   Keep doing what you were made to do even when it is hard, unpopular, tiring, inconvenient, thankless, lonely or unnoticed.   God is working through you to make a difference that will ripple into and throughout eternity!

An Ongoing Appeal For Your Heart

Sep 29, 2020

God has a purpose for everything He allows to happen, and one of them is an ongoing appeal for your heart to come back to Jesus so He can satisfy your soul, quench your thirst, and give you a life that is far better than anything you can dream up for yourself.   Let us all look to Him to make us happy, and, in doing so, we will not only be satisfied ourselves, but we will proclaim to a discontent world that nothing in this world will ever satisfy like Him.

Following Jesus

Sep 22, 2020

Following Jesus includes getting out of our comfort zones, heading into the unknown, attempting things beyond our own abilities and resources, traveling hard paths, trying new things and forsaking that which has become too important to us.  It also means being faithful where He has already led us, being content with what He has given us now, witnessing to those He has currently placed in our lives, serving Him in this present season, and stewarding what He has entrusted to us “right here, right now”.  Your next step may be a small one or a big one, into the familiar or into the unknown. Will you follow Him by faith?