2025-
2025-April 24 Facebook
“Unless love walks through the door first, truth may never have its say.“
Put another way, in terms of interpersonal relationships, the degree to which I am CONVINCED that you love me is the degree to which I will TRULY LISTEN to what you have to say to me.
Chew on that for a minute and see if it hasn’t been the case for you most–if not all–of the time.
The more closely I look at the way Jesus dealt with people, especially one on one, the more I am convinced that this was His operating principle, not that doing it any other way was even a consideration for Him.
More to the point, I am more and more convinced—no convicted—that genuine heart-change comes through being convinced of the love God has shown. I am not talking about outward behavior. I am talking about a genuine change of heart.
Telling someone how wrong or sinful they are, or how badly they have screwed up, as well-intended or true as that may be, will not make the change. It never has. It never will.
2025-April 19 Facebook
“Holy Saturday”
I am Peter. And today commemorates the worst day I have ever lived, bar none. Why? Because I spent the whole day and the night before it, unable to sleep, unable to eat, defeated, guilty, ashamed. I had screwed up—in the exact way that I had sworn I would not, by the way—publicly, undeniably, with no one to blame but myself.
When I had vehemently denied that I even knew Jesus, our eyes met…and I was crushed. But this is what I am here to tell you.The rooster crowed, Jesus looked over at me, right into my eyes, and I ran away and cried bitterly.
But my crying was not what you might think it was. His eyes did not say, “See? I told you you would deny me.”
Instead, His eyes said, “Peter, don’t forget what I told you tonight. I have been praying for you for this moment, that your faith would not fail. I am going to die but it will not be BECAUSE of you. It will be FOR you. I am dying to take all that you are feeling right now—your justified guilt and shame—I am taking that all on Myself and off of you. I forgive you. Believe Me.”
So, I ran from there and sobbed uncontrollably. He hadn’t looked at me in judgment. He looked at me in forgiveness.
Now, I believed Him but that doesn’t mean I didn’t struggle with it all. I mean, I had spent a few years with Him. I knew what He was like. I knew His personality and His character. I knew that He was exactly Who He said that He was.
But He was dead. And that was the longest waiting period you can possibly imagine. I did struggle with my guilt. I did struggle with my shame. I mean, the other disciples fled, too, but I am the one who shot off my mouth and said I wouldn’t. I struggled all night and all day trying to make sense of it all. Questioning. Crying. Regretting.
But here is what you need to remember that I now know. All that I experienced on Saturday, was totally and completely erased once I saw that empty tomb.
Sunday morning erased Saturday. I had to wait in sorrow over what had happened, over what I had done, waiting for what I now know would be His resurrection.
You do not. Sunday turned that whole weekend into one event. Don’t spend one second like I spent my Saturday. Once you have believed, spend every day like Sunday morning.
Every. Single. Second.
Tetelestai indeed!
2025-April 18 Facebook
Good Friday is a day to celebrate!
Remember, Good Friday is only good because Sunday’s tomb is empty. Good Friday and Easter are a package deal. Without one, there is little point in the other.
Friday alone would not be “good.” Friday alone would mean that the gospel we share and proclaim, over and over again is meaningless.
Friday alone would mean that the faith that you hold in Jesus (if indeed you have trusted Him) is worthless.
Friday alone would mean that we have been spreading lies all these years.
Friday alone would mean that I am still spiritually dead and will die in my sin.
Friday alone would mean that we have held to the most pitiful of hopes.
Friday alone leaves you to wallow in His suffering. What He suffered in His physical body was horrendous, yes, but it points to a much greater reality, that He willingly felt the guilt and shame of all of humanity when He died. If we get stuck on His suffering, though, we miss the point of it. Let your tears recognize what He did for you, but let them be of joy, not sorrow. Easter is coming!
Jesus died, rose and is coming again. That’s why we celebrate!
2025-April 18 Facebook
Good Friday, yes, but we honor His death most by celebrating His victory over it!
2025-April 14 Facebook
This may seem impious of me (at least, I hope it does) but I have had a bee in my bonnet for a couple days that needs to be let out. I think we (typically) go about this Passion Week thing all wrong.
The word “passion” has Latin and Greek roots, meaning “to suffer” and we tend to spend the week leading up to Resurrection Sunday focusing on Jesus’ suffering. But my growing conviction is that we are putting the focus on the wrong thing. The fact is that Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection are a package deal. Each, without the other, would lack most of its significance.
When we force ourselves (or others) to relive what Jesus went through leading up to and on the cross, we are missing at least two important points. First, His physical suffering really was not the most significant aspect of His death. Try being an eternal God, sinless forever and never having deserved or felt guilt or shame, but then willingly feeling the weight and effects of those for every single person ever to exist on this planet. This is what He asked the Father to take from Him in the garden, not His physical pain and suffering. It is the epitome of love for Him to dread having to bear that , but at the same time, willingly doing it for you and for me. That is love.
Second, we ignore the fact that we know the full story. When Jesus was crucified, His disciples were crushed. All of their hopes had just been ripped away from them. They were in mourning because He had died and they were grieving. But they didn’t get it yet.
On the third day, He rose from being dead and the story was completed! His words, “It is finished!” now made sense. The time for grieving, for mourning was over once and for all.
Suppose you were in a house fire and about to die until I went in and pulled you out, saving you from imminent death. In so doing, I was critically injured to the point of death myself and hovering for days on the brink of death. Understandably, you would (I hope) be grieving, even mourning at the prospect of my death, especially in light of the fact that I was in that place on your behalf.
Then, suppose I make a full and sudden recovery. Would you still grieve? Would you mourn? I hope not! Might you weep once in a while as you think about the fact that someone would do such a thing for you at such great personal cost? Of course, but you would not mourn. You would celebrate the reality that you and I BOTH were alive!
It is the same with what Jesus did on the cross AND the empty tomb. It is a package deal and we should be thoughtfully celebrating. I believe that is what He wants us to do. He wants us to believe Him and celebrate!
Don’t keep Him on the cross. Don’t force yourself or others to mourn. Be glad! Rejoice as one who has hope!
2025-April 10 Facebook
10 days before Easter, when Jesus drags His feet
If the Resurrection were actually 10 days away, we would find Jesus just like we did yesterday, about 30 miles away from Jerusalem (where the Jews were plotting to kill Him) except that today is the day that He gets word from His very close friends, Mary and Martha, telling Him that their brother Lazarus (also Jesus’ close friend) is sick.
Not only is he sick, but the word they use indicates that he is basically incapacitated by this illness. The situation is grave indeed.
So, Jesus, the guy who has made blind guys see, has fed thousands of people using one sack lunch, who actually walked on water and turned water to wine, who even healed someone from a distance without even being there…does nothing.
When Jesus gets the text from the sisters, He deliberately waits two more days!
In fact, by the time He will get there after Lazarus ends up dying, the sisters will be convinced that He could have prevented Lazarus’ death and others around will even marvel at His inability to have prevented the death. Everyone will wonder why He…did nothing.
Of course, the story will have a happy ending but in the midst of the pain and sorrow, when Jesus finally arrives, Lazarus is dead and Jesus…has done nothing.
Sometimes God does that. Sometimes, for reasons only He understands, God…does nothing. But it isn’t that He doesn’t care about those He loves. It’s quite the opposite.
He isn’t now nor has He ever been haphazard. His waiting has purpose. Like a skilled surgeon with a scalpel, He does what He does—or doesn’t do what He doesn’t do—with great purpose.
In this case, He is foreshadowing what would take place in one week’s time when Jesus would hang on the cross, and God the Father… would do nothing.
Don’t get it wrong. Just like in the story of Lazarus, it won’t be merely a tragic and senseless death. While the Father appears to be doing nothing, Jesus, the sinless God of the universe, will be busy bearing the weight of every sin you will ever commit, because He loves you.
Weep, yes, but not for Him. Weep for joy because Easter is coming!
2025-April 9 Facebook
11 days before Easter
If the Resurrection were actually 11 days away, we would probably find Jesus with His disciples, hanging out in a place east of the Jordan River. He’s there because the religious elite of the day, the Pharisees, are trying to get their hands on Him to kill Him. They are actually plotting a way as we speak.
Look at Him. There He is, knowing full-well that in just over a week they will be successful. They will put the King of kings to death.
Yet, there He is, healing people, talking with people, loving people. He wants them to be well but far more than that, He wants to make their relationship with His Father right again, the relationship that was severed because of their sin. And that is exactly what He is doing. People are coming from everywhere, believing that He is exactly who He has been saying He is.
He is not hiding. He is waiting until the time is right. And while He waits, He loves.
In nine days time, He is going to be hung on a cross as if He were a common criminal and while there, He is going to die for YOUR sins in YOUR place to make YOUR relationship right.
But terrible as that death is, do not despair. He is going to rise again, back to life and will show all who believe that He is exactly who He says He is and that He very much does have the power to forgive YOUR sin. All you have to do is believe Him!
Easter is coming!
2025-April 8 Facebook
Any “gospel” that tells you that you need to do something—anything—to be saved other than simply call on Jesus, believing that He died in your place to make you right with God, IS. NOT. THE. GOSPEL.
And any theology that teaches you that you need to do something—anything—to maintain that relationship with God once you’ve believed, is aberrant theology and IS. NOT. THE. GOSPEL.
Prominent pastors and well-educated teachers may seem compelling and try to teach you otherwise. Don’t listen to them. Run away from them. That theology is only trying to imprison you and keep you from the freedom that Jesus won for you.
That may seem like a bit of a rant, but some things are worth overturning some tables for…
2025-April 5 Facebook
Church Marquee Fails
If you’re the guy in charge of what goes on your church’s marquee, please choose wisely. I drove by one this week that snatched a verse out of its context and essentially announced to all who drove by, “You are a miserable sinner and on your way to hell! Come join us this Sunday, won’t you?”
Talk about burying the lead!
Far too often, the evangelical church has painted a picture of God, and thus the gospel, just like the Pharisees of old did. To them, God has become an arms-crossed, brow-furrowed, nostril-flared God Who stands disapprovingly as we screw up, especially when we do it consistently, but welcomes and praises those who behave themselves.
As a result, the guy who drives by the church sees God just that way, and wants nothing to do with Him.
One main reason for all of this is that we have come to misunderstand a bedrock gospel issue: Jesus did not come to make us sinless. He came to restore relationship.
The Jesus Who said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” is eclipsed by a Jesus who wants to condemn them all to hell unless they agree to shape up.
Church is not supposed to be where good people go to get better. It should be where broken people gather to be reminded of who God is and what He’s done for them. The gospel is not about doing good things for God in order to make Him happy. It’s about what God did for us.
I don’t mean to sound condemning of my fellow, recovering Pharisees, but we have got to get this right!
2025-March 20 Facebook
I heard a song this morning talking about how beautiful heaven was going to be. But longing for a place, and all its beauty, seems almost like longing for a pleasant afterlife and is missing the point. Probably all religions do that.
The whole point of heaven, it seems to me, is eternity with Jesus. It’s about enjoying forever the relationship with God that we were created for. That’s what I am trusting Him for.
2025-March 1 Facebook
Death Row
As one who was once on death row, I know this to be 100% true.
“Death once ruled the day, now grace does and because of that, life is radically different.” (My loose paraphrase of Romans 5:21)
For everyone of us, there is this cloud of death that hangs over us because of the sin that causes it–it’s like a man on death row. Even when he might experience some happy moments, he might enjoy a game of cards with someone, or a TV show or a letter, there is still the impending doom of death hanging over him. It is just a matter of time before he must succumb to it. In that way, sin reigns because it controls his final destiny.
Regardless of all the good a death row inmate may have ever done, his life is ruled by the one criminal act that put him there on death row. Everything in life pales in significance to it. Therefore he is reigned over by his crime. It owns him.
However, for the man who is pardoned for that crime, the crime no longer reigns, because it has been excused and the penalty has been removed. It no longer hangs over his head. It no longer overshadows his every thought and every move. He can now go on to greater things without the cloud hanging over him.
Now what reigns in his life is the great gift of grace that gave him his pardon. Now what overshadows his every thought is that grace. Everything he does is overshadowed by grace.
Embrace and celebrate that grace! Let it rule your day today like it wants to!
“So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21 (NLT)
2025-February 5 Facebook
The gospel you believe determines the freedom you experience in life.
The most basic of all questions in life is some version of “How do I get back to God? How do I regain what Adam and Eve lost?”
Probably the second most basic is, “How do I maintain that relationship once gained?”
If you believe that you need to be a certain level of good in order to “be saved” then you likely believe that you need to maintain a certain level of goodness in order to maintain a relationship with God. That is not the gospel and not where freedom is found.
If you believe that you need to confess your sin in order to “be saved” then you likely believe that you need to confess your sin along the way in order to maintain relationship with God. That really is not the gospel and not where freedom is enjoyed.
If you believe that it is the completely finished work of Jesus on the cross that saves you, then you likely rely on the completely finished work of Jesus on the cross to maintain that relationship with God.
It is His finished work alone that saves you. It is His finished work alone that keeps you. And it is His finished work alone that maintains your relationship with Him.
That is the gospel. That is where freedom is found and that is where freedom is enjoyed.
Preach it to yourself all day every day.
2025-January 20 Facebook
Just imagine it!
Today is a day of great pomp, tradition and certainly celebration. This is not a political post (let’s not make it that) but, if you are not among the many, many Americans who celebrate today, you have had your day in the past and, probably will again.
Pendulum swings are part of the nature of our republic just as it was in the days of Josiah when God used him to accomplish an incredible turnaround in Judah to turn the nation back to following God.
Especially in terms of following God as a people, it has always been a struggle with varying degrees of success.
Today, we are cautiously excited to look to the future, where wrongs will be made right, where we can prosper in freedom and peace, where “the golden age” begins and takes hold.
But, this is nothing.
Just imagine it. One day, hopefully soon, the day will come when the King of Kings will take His rightful place and finally sin, sickness and death will, once and for all, be done away with.
At that moment, we will genuinely see the “glory of the coming of the Lord” and the one and only golden age will be ushered in, never to leave again. “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and…every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
We may be celebrating today but, in that day, the celebration will go on…for eternity!
Just imagine it!
2025-January 16 Facebook
Five simple words.
Jesus spoke them to His disciples as they strained at the oars in the middle of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. They saw Him out walking on the water and assumed He was a ghost, believe it or not, intending to do them harm.
Knowing their fear, He walked up to them and said, literally, “Courage. I am. Fear not.”
Courage: an imperative; have confidence of heart; keep forging on with purpose; do not give up
I am: the Greek version of what Yahweh said to Moses at the burning bush. The point being that it was Jesus out there in the storm with them. That thing that they perceived as an evil thing meant to harm them, was actually Yahweh, the Master of the sea.
Fear not: you have nothing to be afraid of because He is not only in the storm with you but He is its master. There hasn’t been a storm (or trial) yet that He does not have absolute control over.
So, today remember those five simple yet powerful words: “Courage. I am. Fear not.”
2025-January 9 Facebook
Believe it or not, this actually happened:
Some years ago, we responded to a dispatch for a guy who was having a problem with his eye. We arrived at his home to find him standing outside under the pale glow of his porch light only for him to tell me that he had been trying to remove his contact lens from his eye for close to an hour and was unable to do so.
Leaving aside the question as to the validity of such a 911 call, there we were. Whether his concept of time had been exaggerated or not, his eye was as red as a tomato but, try as I might, I looked all over his eyeball and was unable to see his contact. Being familiar with the wearing and removal of said devices myself, I suggested that we go inside to have a look in his bathroom. It seemed clear to me that the possibility of his having unwittingly dropped the contact was quite high.
The short version is that I eventually found the contact…in its case! He had been digging around his eye ball trying to remove something that was no longer there!
After politely drawing his attention to the fact that he had been causing himself misery needlessly for however long he had been doing it, we left the scene. He, I can only assume, did not resume his mining efforts.
Sadly, we are not unlike Contact Guy. We constantly busy ourselves trying to remove what Jesus has already removed. In other words, we believe that Jesus has made us right with God by His behavior (dying on the cross), but then we go ahead and live our lives trying to be right with God by OUR behavior.
We are trying to do what God has already done.
The fact is, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are right with God and nothing you can ever do will ever change that fact. Jesus has made you right with Him and He will keep you right with Him.
Your behavior no longer has any bearing whatsoever on your rightness with God.
Don’t be like Contact Guy. Stop making yourself miserable by trying to redo what Jesus has already done and go about your day living in that truth.
“THIS is the day that the Lord has made; let’s rejoice and be glad in it!”
2025-January 4 Facebook
It was one of those gray, dreary, steady rain kind of winter days where everyone would just as soon stay inside, if at all possible, when the dispatch came over the speakers of Station 16, sending us to go to a bird in a tree.
Seriously.
In the interest of brevity, we dutifully responded to find a seagull, believe it or not, hanging upside down by one foot, his wings open and just sort of dangling there about 20 feet above the sidewalk along a busy street.
He had somehow gotten a twig wrapped around his ankle, shackling him to that leafless tree for who knows how long, until some passerby noticed him.
We were able to release him from his restraints but he seemed sort of listless, not flapping his wings or willing to do any seagull-like things except to try and beak to death any one who came too near.
We sat him down on the ground and watched him just sit there. All he would do is try to beak us if we were to get near him. He seemed pretty ticked at life, if you ask me.
After a bit of time, he tried to stand, then he would walk a few steps. Later, he would move his wings and walk a bit. So, we just stood around him and watched, following him if he made any progress.
Eventually, it occurred to us that, for however long it was that he had been hanging upside down in that steady downpour, he was soaking up rain, which had made him so water logged that he was simply too drenched and heavy to fly.
In time, he began to shed that water and could fly a few feet before he had to rest again. We even had to stop traffic so that he could make his way across the street to the golf course on the other side. There is no way we were going to let him get hit by a car after having spent all that time together.
Eventually, he made it across the street and, I assume, went about his seagull life.
I have since come to realize the incredible life lesson that I learned that day. We are built to shed water that comes from the right direction. But we have all spent our share of time caught downside up in the tree of life, helplessly soaking up rain from the relentless downpour. And some of us take on a whole lot more water than others.
You never know when you are going to run across someone who is angry, irritable or otherwise lifeless because he or she has taken on more water than you can ever know.
Instead of getting angry or impatient that he isn’t acting like a bird ought to act, love him enough to wait with him. Give him time to shed the storm water that weights him down. Be ready to get beaked when you get too close, perhaps. Be prepared to stop traffic, if needed.
Someday that seagull will go on his way, right side up, ready to take on the wind and rain of life…and even poop on your car, maybe.
But he will be doing seagull things again because you took the time to wait it out with him.
2024-December 24 Facebook
Thoughts on Christmas Eve
Isn’t it fascinating that a mundane thing like a feeding trough, when called a manger can take on a nostalgic feel to it? Or that such a grotesque and barbaric thing as a cross has become a beautiful item of jewelry? We might as well be wearing little electric chairs on chains around our necks.
I imagine that God could have saved us from our sin in any number of ways, yet He chose to send a Savior to us as an infant who would lie helplessly in that crude manger only to live and die on that hideous cross. Why?
Because God is a servant. He is a manger-born, foot-washing, sinner-seeking, self-emptying, grace-lavishing, eternity-sharing, earth-walking, others first God.
I hope, as you go about your Christmas activities and traditions and inevitably reflect on the well-worn Christmas story, that you will be able to bask in the beauty of that truth, that it is in the heart and nature of this almighty, self-sufficient God to put you before Himself.
I hope you can wade through the cliches and familiarity of the season and, like the shepherds, you can simply go to that stable and see God…as a baby…for you.
2024-December 22 Facebook
Here we are, just a few days before Christmas. Celebrated or not, it has come around well over two thousand times before. We have been at this for a while, celebrating the greatest rescue of all time.
We talk it up, speaking of peace on earth and the like but, to quote Clark Griswold, “Take a look around you…We’re at the threshold of hell!”
If Christmas was a rescue, it can sometimes leave you wondering.
I noticed a while back that other famous rescues like that of Jonah and Noah (to name only two) have something significant in common: there is an initial rescue action, followed by a waiting period before the full rescue is accomplished.
Jonah was rescued from the sea but waited it out in the belly of a fish. Noah, with his family, was rescued from the flood but waited it out for over a year in the ark.
In the same way, here we are as believers in Jesus, celebrating Christmas, the day on which the “dawn of redeeming grace” occurred in the birth of Jesus. We have been saved pursuant to our faith in Jesus, but, in a sense, we are floating around in the ark, waiting for dry land.
We who have trusted Jesus to rescue us, are longing for that day when Jesus returns and redeems us, making good on His promise to do so.
In the meantime, there is still rot and decay and corruption all around us. I do not need to rehearse for you the filth that we live among.
Though the angels sang of or announced this peace, I agree with Longfellow who said:
“And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said; ‘For hate is strong, And mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!’”
The world around us stinks and it’s getting worse. We may not be in a civil war as in Longfellow’s day but we might as well be. It is hard to sing of peace on earth because there is none.
The fact is that, in the end, God wins. In the end, you and I win with Him, because of Jesus. In the end, we will be saved once and for all.
And it is all simply because of grace, lying in a manger some 2000 years ago that started this rescue. We didn’t deserve the peace that it would bring. It was a gift. It is a gift. And, while we may not feel that peace moment by moment, the peace is hoped for with a confident expectation that God will make good on the promise.
So, as you wait in the ark, know that “God is not dead nor doth He sleep.” He is in the process of doing what He is doing out there as the flood waters do their thing.
Live your life in these often miserable conditions but know and rejoice in the fact that you are in the ark. You are not a corpse floating around out there, lifeless and bloating without hope in the world.
If you have trusted Jesus to save you, then you are saved.
2025-November 10 Facebook
Think this one through for a minute:
You cannot meet God’s standard. That is true before you were saved and it is just as true since you were saved. It simply isn’t going to happen.
That’s exactly why you need Jesus.
Don’t go into this week as if you need to meet it. Just rest in the truth that Jesus has already met the standard for you.
Preach it to yourself everyday!
2025-November 7 Facebook
Forgiveness is not a debit card!
It isn’t a card backed by an account from which we can draw when we need it. Total and complete forgiveness is granted to us at salvation. Period.
Jesus’ blood is the payment that frees me, that affects my forgiveness from my trespasses to which I was enslaved. And all of this was according to the incredible bounty of His grace which He “lavished” on me.
That word means “to give more than enough.” For Him to lavish grace upon me means that I have more grace available to me than I know what to do with. It means that I experience it in great supply. It means that I am overwhelmed by it.
When Jesus lavished His grace on me, my sin was no match for the overwhelming supply that flooded in and redeemed me, forgiving me from my sin. Nor will it ever be.
Once the wave began, there was nothing that could ever stop its flow. I can’t stop it with one sin. I can’t stop it with 100 sins. I can’t stop it with a million sins.
Once you trust Jesus to save you, you have all the forgiveness you will ever need.
That you can take to the bank!
2025-November 3 Facebook
Here’s the thing: behavior matters.
Before the cross, your behavior matters very much because it is what keeps you from relationship with God.
At the cross of Jesus, behavior matters very much and you have a decision to make: will you rely on your behavior to save you or will you rely on His?
After the cross, your behavior doesn’t matter at all because Jesus’ behavior on your behalf is ALL that matters.
2025-November 2 Facebook
Free Indeed
Imagine three cells on death row, each with a prisoner inside trying to dig their own tunnel out to freedom with a plastic spoon. In comes the warden who tells each of them that the penalty for their crimes has been paid and, should they choose to believe him, he will let them go free.
The first guy does not believe him and opts to stay and dig his way out to freedom, so the warden leaves his cell door closed. He remains a prisoner in prison.
The second guy believes him so the warden opens his cell door and the prisoner, once doomed to death, gets up and walks out, now a free man, no longer in prison.
The third guy believes the warden so the warden opens his cell door but the guy stays right where he is and chooses to continue digging his tunnel, hoping to find freedom at the other end of the tunnel. He is a free man, still in prison.
There are a fourth and a fifth inmate that I will tell you about in a soon coming blog but for now, let me remind you—no, let me emphatically proclaim to you—what Jesus told some Jews who were beginning to believe in Him. In John 8, He said that once they saw and accepted the truth about Him, they would be free. In fact, He told them that once they were free, they would be free indeed!
If you have believed Him then your cell door is WIDE OPEN. Despite what you read or are told by well-meaning believers or have come to believe on your own, it is time to stop relying on the externals to give you freedom. They can never do that.
Put down your spoon. Stop working for God’s pleasure, love or acceptance.
You are free indeed!
2024-October 28 Facebook
Context. Context. Context.
Everything has context. Videos have it. Quotes have it. Actions have it. Verses have it.
Beware the bandying about of verses. Most often, that disregards context and obscures their meaning. Usually it is done unintentionally, but beware just the same.
2025-October 27 Facebook
God sure seems to get angry a lot.
It seems like He is getting fed up with His people right and left in the Old Testament. He is happy and wants to bless them when they obey Him but then He threatens to wipe them off the planet when they don’t. There is talk of His mercy and lovingkindness all over the place until, it seems, His people cross the line and then the judgment talk comes out.
That paragraph alone begs for a long discussion which I will save for another time but the problem that has been nagging at me for the last several years is that, while we believe in and preach His grace and mercy, we can’t seem to help dragging that basic view of an angry God into our thinking and preaching.
It is a persistent, pervasive cloud that underpins our most basic understanding of God.
Whatever you hear today, hear this: from the moment you believe Jesus and trust Him to save you, you belong to Him and God never, ever gets angry at you again. He doesn’t even get irritated or miffed. He doesn’t even cringe when you screw up. Why?
Because He got angry at Jesus in your place once for all time.
If you belong to Him, you can’t blow it badly enough to make Him angry at you. You would have to be more powerful than Jesus’ blood to pull that off. You just aren’t that powerful.
2025-October 24 Facebook
Grace and the Stroganoff
Years ago, when I was an early teen, my dad, younger brother and I were on a backpacking trip, along the coast, as I recall. One particular evening, after a long day of trudging along all day, burning calories, we sat to prepare our dinner. The little white gas stove was doing its thing, boiling water to bring our freeze-dried stroganoff to life.
My brother and I salivated as we watched Pop grab the plastic bag of noodles to put in the water. We were famished and in desperate want of food. He held the bag over the water and attempted to open the bag carefully, to no avail. He simply could not get a proper grip on the bag that was controlled enough not to avoid spilling the noodles anywhere but the water.
We watched as the struggle continued. The fight was on and Pop was losing. Each failed attempt resulted in a more aggressive attempt that was further from the water and closer to his chest until, you guessed it, the bag finally ripped open and we all watched in famished horror as every last noodle fell to the forest floor.
Yes, we each dove to our hands and knees and began the frantic task of picking up each and every noodle out of the dirt and pine needles. We were desperate and not about to let one noodle go to waste.
It seems to me that Christians often act as if grace is our stroganoff and we don’t want one strand of it to go to waste. We look at others, expecting them to behave better and to quit screwing up saying, either implicitly or explicitly, that genuine believers do not do those things and to stop wasting the noodles.
We want them to stop abusing grace.
I have news for you. Grace, by its very nature, stands to be abused. Christians will take advantage of it until they see Jesus face to face and so will I and so will you.
Don’t be the grace Nazi. There is no need to dive to the forest floor and save the noodles. Thanks to Jesus’ work on the cross, there is an endless supply.
And if you have spilled your noodles all over the place, don’t panic. You will probably do it again tomorrow, but once you trusted Jesus to save you, His grace came flooding in and you can never exhaust its supply.
You are a trophy of grace, not a project of perfection.
2025-October 18 Facebook
Here’s your PSA for the day: not one single verse in the Bible is intended to stand alone. Every verse has context. And the one you are reading on social media (or hearing from the pulpit…or even quoting from memory), may not prove the point it is being quoted to prove. Yanked from its original context, it could seem to say something very different from its author’s intent.
I am, by no means, knocking the quoting of Scripture, even if only one verse. I am merely advocating that we verify the context to be sure that the intended point is accurate.
A verse can only actually mean what the author intended it to mean to his audience.
So, be like the Bereans and “examin[e} the Scriptures” (Acts 17:11– see what I did there?) to verify that the quoter is accurate.
Unless, I, myself, post something. In that case, you can trust me…😉
2025-October 16 Facebook
What if?
What if you were to wake up today, knowing that your spouse cheated on you yesterday? What if you knew they were going to do so today and then the next day?
Would you greet him or her with a passionate good morning kiss? Would you serve him breakfast and coffee in bed? Would you look forward to spending the day together?
It is popular these days to say that God doesn’t remember our sin or that He sees us as beautiful and flawless.
I know the Bible says He remembers our sins no more but the point there is that He treats us AS IF He does not remember what we’ve done.
He can’t not know what we have done. It’s not like He suddenly can’t know something. He knows everything there is that can be known, including my sin.
The great news is that He has always known what I would do and when I would do it yet He has always planned to redeem me and He has always wanted to be in relationship with me.
The reality and true beauty of the gospel–the astonishing thing that grace does, is that it wakes up with me knowing what I have done, it knows what I will do today and it still greets me with a kiss. It still serves me coffee and breakfast in bed and still looks forward to spending the day with me.
Now that is good news!
2024-October 14 Facebook
Let your praying be about your one on one relationship with the living God, not a transaction where you are trying to get Him to act. I bet you will enjoy the relationship that much more and the pressure to accomplish something will be off you and on Him where it belongs.
2024-October 13 Facebook
Regardless of what is or isn’t said to you today, if you have trusted Jesus to save you, hear this and own it: it is finished!
Every vertical consequence of your every sin was washed away in the flood of Jesus’ blood the second you trusted Him.
Every. Single. One.
2024-October 9 Facebook
“Free Grace”
“Free Grace” (a redundant term, really) is astounding. I preach it every opportunity I get. But this grace isn’t God simply saying that my sins don’t matter. He didn’t just say, “Oh, well. No problem. I will let it go.”
No, the point is that justice was still served. His righteousness was not jeopardized or disregarded one bit. The standard for me was God’s righteousness and always will be but Jesus met that standard on my behalf.
Grace is not permissiveness. It doesn’t simply look the other way or choose not to enforce the rules. The righteousness of God is the standard still and always will be, every second of every day.
But Jesus met the standard for me once and for all so, every time I sin, no matter how severely I sin or how often I sin and am in need of mercy and grace because of that sin, I am still forgiven based on Jesus’ work on the cross for me.
Every. Single. Time.
Once forgiven, you are always forgiven. Nothing can or will ever change that.
That means no guilt. No shame. No fear.
2024-October 5 Facebook
Completely and absolutely free!
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
This (with the verse that follows) is the anchor of the entire epistle to the Galatians but is often taken as a call to somehow die to oneself and to live for God instead.
However, if you have trusted Jesus to make you right with God, this verse does not challenge you to do anything at all, really. It is a description of YOU.
Whether you are living your life in such a way that others view you as Christ-like or if you are struggling day after day to overcome some habitual sin that reminds you moment after moment that you are a failure, or if you are anything in between, this verse still describes you.
The fact is that you have been separated from any and every need to perform or behave in order to be accepted by God. Jesus lives in you every second of every day. Before God, you are like His own Son. And as you live this life, you live it joined with Him because of what Jesus did for you. God’s approval of you has nothing to do with your behavior. It has everything to do with Jesus who loves you and gave Himself up for you.
Don’t live your life trying to dig your way out of a prison cell that has already been opened wide for you. Go out and live like the free child of God that you are.
2024-October 3 Facebook
God is not a salt shaker! I know. That may well be the most doctrinally sound thing you’ve ever seen on fb.
I don’t know much about Gary Larson’s backstory. I do know that The Far Side is probably my favorite comic strip. I don’t know what prompted this particular comic (I wish I did) but it blew me away when I saw it.
Far too many Christians view God as a salt shaker, afraid that He is angry at them for disobeying, or for missing an opportunity to serve Him or for reverting back to a sin that they just can’t seem to shake (pun intended, actually).
The fact is, if you have trusted Jesus to save you, GOD WILL NEVER GET ANGRY AT YOU AGAIN! Ever!
That’s because He got angry at Jesus on your behalf. Jesus bore every shred of His wrath for you when He died on that cross.
What about 1 John 1:9? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Contrary to what you have probably grown up believing about that verse, John is not saying that Jesus is faithful and just regarding just that sin that you confess. He is saying that you are free to agree with God about your sin because He is faithful to the promise from way back at your salvation that He would always forgive you and cleanse you!
John is not saying that God is a salt shaker so you better be sure to confess all your sins to Him. He is telling us to be free to admit our sin because God is absolutely NOT a salt shaker.
Worship Him and follow Him because you love Him, not because you have any fraction of fear toward Him.
2024-October 2 Facebook
The Hidden Curriculum
I’ve noticed that the hidden curriculum that is preached from many, if not most, pulpits is, “behave yourself and make God happy with you.”
I say “hidden curriculum” because it isn’t always intentional. I did it for years myself, not realizing that I was enslaving Joe Pewsitter to go out each week and “do better.”
In fact, that is how I approached the Bible personally, looking for lessons on how to better please God, whether I realized it or not.
I contributed to the great evangelical tragedy of performancism. Don’t get me wrong. I should absolutely be looking for ways to do good for the sake of my neighbor and even because it is best for me. The pitfall comes in trying to do good things for God.
True Christianity is not about my doing things for God. That is religion. True Christianity is about what God has done for me, specifically in Jesus.
What should be preached from every pulpit in the land is, “If you have believed Jesus to save you, then you never have to worry about trying to make God happy again. Jesus did that for you. That’s exactly what you are trusting Him to do!”
That’s why He said, “It is finished!”
So, how do we avoid this trend toward performancism? These days, when I read my Bible (and hopefully when I prepare to preach) I am no longer looking for how to improve. I am now looking to see what the Bible is telling me about Jesus, the central figure of the entire Bible.
Everything else follows that. Philippians 4:7-8
2024-October 1 Facebook
For AND In your salvation
What is true about the gospel FOR your salvation is also true about the gospel IN your salvation.
You couldn’t perform well enough to be accepted in order to be saved, and you can’t perform well enough to be accepted once you have been saved.
That’s precisely why Jesus died for you. He met the standard on your behalf and there is no longer any standard for you to meet. And that will never, ever change!
Let yourself be free from the need to perform for Him.
2024-September 30 Facebook
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
Imagine being told or being led to believe that your simple faith in Jesus to make you acceptable before God was not enough; that you must behave in a certain way or follow this rule or that one in order to keep Him happy with you.
That is not the gospel. It seeks to enslave you. Run from it. Be free in the truth that Jesus did it all for you. I mean all.
Life before God is not about behavior. Jesus set you free from that. Live in that freedom!
2024-February 27 Facebook
Have you been de-graced?
At Camp Gilead, our favorite Christian camp, there is a small pond about 50 feet across that they often stock with fish (they do a father/son fishing derby every year). Walking across the camp a few years ago, I noticed that all the fish had congregated at the inlet end of the pond. They were gill to gill, above and below each other crammed as close to the incoming water as possible, their mouths wide-open and gills working overtime as if they were gasping for air. I would soon discover that that was not far from the truth.
Come to find out, fish get their oxygen not from the water molecules themselves (H2O) but from the air that has been drawn into the water as it rushes down river, over rocks, over waterfalls, etc. This pond had become so stagnant, that the only air the fish could find was in the water that was slowly trickling in from the stream.
That life-giving oxygen had become hard to come by and they were trying to get it from anywhere they could.
Jack, the camp director, discovered the problem and brilliantly installed a pump that simply shot pond water straight into the air, only to splash back into the pond. That simple act didn’t create any oxygen, it simply introduced it back into the pond and the fish responded immediately. They rushed to the area and before long were swimming about happily as they were meant to.
Simply put, I want to be about the business of introducing air back into this pond we call the church. We fish are looking for grace wherever we can find it. We cannot survive without it. The pews are full of souls with mouths wide open, gills working overtime in order to survive.
Those fish were revived by something so free and abundant. They just needed it introduced back into the pond. I have been revived by grace. I want you to be, too, so I have started writing a blog once in a while to that effect. You can find it here:
2024-Sept 27 Facebook
If Satan can get you to look at a passage of Scripture (whether in church, life group or personal study) and believe that the point is that you should behave better for God, he has scored a small win in that moment.
He has taken your eyes off of Jesus and put them squarely on yourself. He has made you, in that moment, a person trying to achieve something for God as opposed to a person for whom it has already been achieved.
Be better for your neighbor, of course. Be better for yourself, sure. But don’t be fooled into thinking that you can be better for God. Jesus already took care of that for you.
Your day is saturated with grace. Enjoy it!
2024-Septermber 26 Facebook
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” ~ Plato
Don’t be fooled into thinking that this election is merely about politics or personalities. It is much deeper and far-reaching than that. It matters to you, to your family, to your neighbor.
The world needs you to understand a biblical worldview and act accordingly. Live it. Teach it. Vote it.
2023-November 24 Facebook
From my wife’s book, her memoir of discovering the grace of God in her depressive illness.
“While my husband was helping me edit this book, he shared with me that he had a similar experience around the same time I did, only God told him this: Bill, this isn’t about you. It is bigger than you.” Recorded below is what he shared with me:
“Early on, I found myself wallowing in my own self-pity because of the difficulty I was experiencing. I was not getting ministry done. My life was not what I wanted it to be—what it once was. I wanted it all to go away and for life to get back to the way it was supposed to be. Depression had come in and was trying to wreak havoc on our relationship.
“That day I stepped into our walk-in closet, feeling sorry for myself, it was as if I could hear Him tell me, ‘Bill, this is not about you. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. This is bigger than you.’ Depression was not as hard on me as it was on you, but it was definitely hard. It hurt. But He gave me a taste of what it must be like for Him to extend grace and kindness to me when I don’t deserve it, when I am less than what I should be toward Him. I was more of a Pharisee than I knew. I wasn’t near as good as I had thought.
“He was teaching me the same thing that He was teaching you but from the opposite perspective. As it turns out, we were both experiencing, by His grace, a huge paradigm shift regarding the gospel that would arrive us at the same place.
“He was showing you that His kindness toward you had nothing to do with your behavior. He was teaching me the same thing but by showing me that the grace you needed from me was to have nothing to do with your behavior (as I perceived it). I was learning what His grace was all about but from the standpoint of the grace-giver, not the recipient. Even now, I have so much to learn.
“Your depression drove me to my knees, and that was what I needed. This was not about me. It was about seeing Him more clearly and seeing His heart of grace and love toward me. It made me want to be that way toward you. As it turns out, it wasn’t even remotely His will that life get back to normal. He wanted to shift our paradigms and there was still a lot of shifting to go. I can now say, ‘Praise the Lord’ that there would be no escaping it yet.”
2020-November 20 Facebook
This is what I’ve been trying to say for a while now, though not nearly so eloquently as CS Lewis:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
2020-October 27 Facebook
God is not fair. And it’s a good thing, too. Otherwise grace would not be grace. He is not fair but He IS just.
He didn’t just let me off the hook, either at salvation or any given day since then. The price for my sin was still paid. It just wasn’t by me. That’s justice.
Put them together and you have grace. He got what I deserved. I got what He deserved. That isn’t fair but it sure is grace!
Revived By Grace 