Category Archives: The Gospel

May 29 – I Did It My Way

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I Kings 1-2, Psalms 37, 71, 94

Several years ago I attended the funeral of a co-worker, a man who died of a heart attack two weeks before school started in August. He was only in his 40’s and left a wife, two daughters, and an entire school community devastated by his loss.

He and I had had a good working relationship, but I never really talked to him about where he stood with the Lord. As I sat at the funeral home before the service, my heart ached. I was struck by the choice of music playing in the background. He had been a country music fan, and all the songs were country. None of them had anything to do with God.

Then, when Frank Sinatra began singing “My Way” I could hardly hold back the tears. I am not judging this dear man on the basis of the songs played at his funeral. I don’t know what he said to God before he died. His heart’s condition is between him and the Lord. But I find it sad that, at the end of any life, the idea of living that life “my way” is even mentioned, much less sung about.

I read about Shimei this morning. He had taken sides against Solomon, and although Solomon spared his life, he put Shimei on house arrest for the rest of his life. Shimei agreed to the terms: stay within the walls of Jerusalem. Don’t leave for any reason. If you do, you will die.

Shimei was good with that, and obeyed the conditions of the agreement for three years. I don’t know, maybe he got too comfortable. But eventually Shimei took a quick trip to a neighboring town to retrieve some runaway slaves, most likely thinking his was a legitimate reason for breaking the agreement. And he was only gone for a short time. He went right back to Jerusalem with his slaves.

What’s the harm?

The harm was that he’d stepped outside the boundary. He did things his way, and it cost him his life. Solomon kept his end of the bargain.

God has given us boundaries, too. He has set out his demands, he even provided forgiveness for when we break the rules. But if we want that forgiveness, we must do it His way. We must repent, accept Jesus as our Savior, and allow Him to live in and through us. There is no other way, no other Name by which we must be saved. That’s not a popular concept for many. But God isn’t asking our approval of His plan.

We might pride ourselves on living this life our way, we might even fashion another way to the Father. But in the end, we will find that doing it our way leads to death. Solomon kept his end of the bargain.

So will God.

May 13 – Accepting Forgiveness

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2 Samuel 11&12, I Chronicles 20

King David had sex with another man’s wife. Then, when he found out he had gotten her pregnant, and that her husband had been away fighting David’s own war, he had the man killed. Then he married the woman.

By all accounts, this woman’s husband had been an honorable man. He certainly didn’t deserve the treatment he had received by his king.

When David was confronted with his sin, he repented. And God forgave him.

You might be tempted to think that David didn’t deserve to be forgiven. He was king. He took advantage of this woman and murdered her husband. Didn’t he deserve to rot in hell?

The answer is yes.

But so do we. Your sins, my sins, are as loathsome to God as David’s sins. I may not have murdered anyone, but that doesn’t make me less a sinner than David. I have fallen short of God’s holiness, and holiness is what he demands.

Enter grace.

When Jesus died on the cross, his blood bought our forgiveness. All of it. We are forgiven for stealing that paper clip, or for robbing that bank. We are forgiven for lying to our moms about eating that cookie before dinner, or for having an affair with our co-worker.

Do we deserve to be forgiven? Not in and of ourselves. But no sin is too small or too great to be covered by the precious blood of Jesus.

David repented and accepted God’s forgiveness. He didn’t try to justify his actions or convince himself he deserved to be happy. He recognized sin as sin, and asked God to forgive him. And God was faithful to forgive.

You are forgiven. David still had to make sacrifices, shed more blood, to fulfill the requirements for forgiveness. We don’t. Jesus died once and for all. His blood fulfilled all the requirements perfectly. All we have to do is accept it.

No excuses. No rationalizations. No denial. No thinking your sins are too great or too many for God to forgive. You might think you deserve to rot in hell. And you do.

But you don’t have to. Oh, God will condemn you to eternity without Him, to hell, if you refuse to accept His forgiveness. He doesn’t want to. He died so He wouldn’t have to. But He won’t force you to accept what is already yours.

If you have never asked God to forgive you, to allow Jesus’ blood to cover your sins, then do it now. What’s stopping you? You are forgiven.

Accept it.

May 5 – God. Period.

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Psalms 1-2, 15, 22-24, 47, 68

These psalms remind me that God is God. There is no one like Him. He is the One who blesses His people with everything we need for this life – He blesses us with Himself!

He protects. He strengthens. He clothes us with His righteousness because we have none of our own. He died for us, paying what we cannot pay.

Yes, He is to be feared because of His holiness. But He also deserves our worship and our praise, our obedience and our love. We are blessed because GOD IS WHO HE IS!

Loving my Lord today!

April 21 – After God’s Own Heart

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2 Samuel 1-4

I think I see what Scripture means when it says David was a man after God’s own heart. In these chapters we see that David mourned the death of Saul. Yes, Saul. Saul who had spent years trying to kill David. That Saul. Yet David never thought, “Well good. It’s about time he got what he deserved. Karma, baby.”

In fact, David went so far as to say, in the song he wrote for Saul, “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life…” Beloved? Pleasant? Saul? That’s what David sang.

David’s example as a man after God’s own heart, helps me understand that God does not take joy in the death of any of the people who reject Him. Jesus died for them. He took their sins upon Himself on the cross. The vilest offender, the most depraved, the most hateful terrorist is a soul whose salvation is bought and paid for by the precious blood of Jesus. It’s their’s for the taking up to the last breath they breathe. And somehow, I believe God mourns the death of anyone who dies without accepting Him, even more than David mourned Saul’s death.

So, dear one. If you have a secret desire that someone who’s wronged you will get what you think they deserve, stop it! That attitude cannot please God.

If we who are His children want to be people after God’s own heart (and I hope that is the desire of us all) we need to confess that desire for bad things to happen to someone, as sin. We need to pray for the person we hold a grudge against.

And we must never rejoice in the suffering of anyone, including our “enemy.”

If David can do it, so can I with the help of my Savior who loves that person to death.

April 17 – Forgiven and Blessed

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I Samuel 25-27

Abigail asked David for forgiveness. Yes, it was her husband Nabal who had refused to help David. But 25:28 tells us Abigail, after falling on her face at David’s feet said, “Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant.”

In verse 35 we see David granted her request. And later, after Nabal’s death, David brought Abigail into his home and made her his wife. She became the king’s bride.

As I read this today I saw a picture of my relationship with God. When I fell on my face before Him and asked Him to forgive me – he did! Then He lifted me up and took me for Himself. I am His. He is mine.

The Bible calls believers the Bride of Christ. That’s me. And all because I humbled myself and asked Jesus to forgive me. How blessed I am.

I pray you can say the same.

April 14 – God Uses Sinners

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I Samuel 21-24

David was described as “a man after God’s own heart.” But David sinned. And some of his sins were doozies. Here in these chapters of I Samuel we see David lie to a priest of the Lord. Ahimelech the priest gave David food and Goliath’s sword because David told him the king had sent him. In fact, King Saul had not sent David.

David got what he had come for. But it cost Ahimelech his life, and the lives of his family. David would have to live with the fact that his lie brought about those deaths.

Yet this liar is described as a man after God’s own heart.

My pastor talked to us last night at prayer meeting about Zaccheus (Luke 19). Zaccheus was a hated tax collector, getting rich by extorting money from the people. His neighbors described him as a sinner. But Zaccheus was radically changed when he met Jesus.

Think of the cruel and murderous Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus. And think about how he was used by God after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus.

What I notice about these three men is that they didn’t let their past sins stop them from serving God. Read David’s psalms and hear him repent of his sins, and put his trust in the Lord. The Bible is full of examples of how God used David to bless the nation of Israel, and yes, even examples of what a man after God’s own heart looks like. See how, when God called Zaccheus and Saul by name, their encounter with the Savior effected the rest of their lives.

God didn’t say, “Clean up your act, then come back to me.” Instead God says, “Come as you are.”

Hear God call you by name, then respond to Him with a repentant heart. No sin is too great for Him to forgive. No life too shattered for Him to transform. And no sinner is too far gone to be used by God, once that sinner has met the Savior.

I prayed for you today.

April 13 – BooYa!

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I Samuel 18-20; Psalm 11&59

I don’t know what it is like in other parts of the world, but here in the States we have always prided ourselves in working hard and building this country by the sweat of our brows. (present history excluded) We’re the home of the brave, after all!

I’m pretty sure that attitude is not exclusive to the USA. It’s more of a mankind thing. People like to see the fruit of their efforts, and take great satisfaction in their accomplishments.

When King Saul offered his daughter to David to be his wife, David politely refused. Twice.

I Samuel 18:18 says, “Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?”

Then in verse 23: “Is it trivial in your eyes to become the king’s son-in-law since I am a poor man and lightly esteemed?”

David was a simple shepherd. He had no means of paying a dowery to the king! He was the youngest son from a simple tribe of Israel. All kinds of legitimate reasons why he didn’t deserve to marry the king’s daughter.

Now hear what happened when Saul told David how he could “earn” the right to marry his daughter by bringing him 100 Philistine foreskins:

“…it pleased David to become the king’s son-in-law.”

David would have to kill a bunch of men, cut off their foreskins, and present them to Saul. Do this, this, and this, then you earn the right to be a member of the king’s family. That made David happy.

THEN David when out, struck down 200 Philistines and presented 200 foreskins to Saul. BooYa!

This story helps me understand why grace is such a hard thing for some people to accept. They think their sin’s are too many, or too severe. They think they don’t deserve God’s love because of the awful things they’ve done. And they are right to think that.

But here’s God with outstretched arms saying, “‘Come unto Me’ anyway. Just come to Me and accept this free gift I am offering you. Ask me to forgive you and see what happens next!”

Somehow I think if God told us to bring him one hundred foreskins, or climb a mountain, or build a tower, or tap our heels three times, our churches would fill their pews.

BooYa!

But salvation has nothing to do with what we do. It has everything to do with what Jesus has already done.

Being a child of God doesn’t cost you a thing, other than a little humility, other than asking for forgiveness, other than trusting the One who loves you more than you can imagine. It’s really not that hard.

But the result is a blessed walk with the Lord! Victory over sin and death! Strength. Love. Protection. Eternal life.

BooYa, Lord!

 

April 9 – I Am Afraid

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I Samuel 9-12

There are some things I am afraid of. I’m afraid of guns. I’m afraid of policemen. I am afraid of dogs. I’m afraid of water. I’m afraid of falling off a cliff.

But I love to shoot. My nephew, whom I love, is a cop. We’ve got several dogs in our family. I swim, and I go boating. And I love exploring nature in all terrains.

My fears effect how I live. But it doesn’t stop me from living. My fear of guns has me treat them carefully, and aim them purposefully at the target, because I know a bullet shot in the wrong direction can kill. My fear of cops has me driving the speed limit, because I know that they have the authority to ticket me. I don’t approach a snarling dog because I know a bite from a dog will hurt, but I pet dogs with wagging tails. I wear a life jacket, and don’t swim in the ocean alone or in a storm, because I don’t want to drown. And I never run up to the brink of a cliff, because a fall could kill me.

My fears make me aware of the danger and cause me to respect those things I fear.

I Samuel 12:24 tells us to fear the Lord “for consider the great things he has done for you.”

Do I fear God? Absolutely! He is Holy. He is a fierce Judge. He is Almighty Creator. I’ve read in Scripture what He thinks about sin. And I believe Him when He says sinners go to hell.

But does my fear of God keep me from loving Him, from spending time with Him every day, from trusting Him. Absolutely NOT!

There are many places in the Bible that tell us not to fear. But I can’t find anywhere where it says not to fear God. Don’t fear the future. Don’t fear Satan. Don’t fear what man can do to us. But I think the Bible clearly warns us that God is someone to be feared.

And loved. And trusted. And respected. God wants us to live life, to enjoy His creation, to walk boldly and share the Gospel. But I think it’s pretty clear that we need to have that healthy fear of Him who is our Judge, who demands holiness of us.

My fear of God effects how I live. It makes me aware of the penalty of disobeying Him, and causes me to respect Him and His Word. But it also gives me the awareness of just how amazing is my walk with Him. This God who is to be feared loves me. He gave Himself for me. He is my constant companion, my strength, my very life.

April 7 – Redeemed!

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Ruth

The book of Ruth is a precious love story. Naomi loved her daughters-in-law, and they loved her. Ruth loved Naomi enough to leave her own family and travel with her mother-in-law to Naomi’s homeland. And Ruth learned to love Naomi’s God.

One of the greatest declarations of love ever recorded is here in these chapters. You probably have even heard it read at a wedding or two.

Boaz demonstrated love toward Ruth in a lot of little ways, from making sure she had grain to pick, to seeing to her mid-day meals, to making sure she was safe.

But the main theme in Ruth’s story is redemption. As a widow, and a foreigner, Ruth had no claim on her husband’s inheritance. But when Boaz paid the price for her redemption, she belonged to him, became his wife, and was guaranteed a position in that family. She received all the blessings being part of that family afforded her.

I’ve been redeemed, too. As a sinner, I had no claim on heaven, or the inheritance promised to a child of God. But when Jesus died on the cross and paid the price for me, I was able to be redeemed through His grace and mercy.

I belong to Jesus! All in Him is mine. And He lavishes me with every good thing.

Redeemed! How I love to proclaim it.

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Redeemed through His infinite mercy.

His child, and forever I am.

(Fannie Crosby, 1882)

April 1 – It’s No Joke

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Judges 6&7

Sometimes obeying God can be scary. God told Gideon to tear down his father Joash’s Asherah pole and the altar of Baal. Gideon obeyed. But he did it at night because he was afraid of his dad. As it turned out, the neighbors were more angry than Gideon’s father. Joash told his neighbors that if Baal was such a great god, let Baal take care of Gideon for destroying the altar. Gideon’s dad had his son’s back after all.

God wanted Gideon to attack Midian, promising him victory with only 300 men. But Gideon got cold feet. He sneaked into the Midian camp during the night to check things out for himself. You know, in case God overlooked a detail or two.

What Gideon heard two Midianite soldiers say to each other there in the middle of the night affirmed to Gideon that God was going to help him win the battle.

God doesn’t always ask us to do the safe or comfortable things in Jesus’ name. Befriending that grouchy neighbor might scare you to death. Teaching the Bible study in your home, or taking a stand at work, or running for political office, or going to Africa to share the Gospel, or quitting smoking, or walking away from an ungodly relationship, or asking someone to forgive you can be scary.

God might be nudging you to do something way out of your comfort zone, and you are tempted to think, “This has to be a joke.”

Hear God say, if He asks you to do it, He will go before you, He will be your strength, He will give you the victory. God is very serious about using you today to win the war against Satan.

If you feel the nudge of God to talk to someone about the Savior, rest assured it’s no joke. Gather your courage and do it. God promises to be right there with you every step of the way.