1 Corinthians 13 is the Mount Everest of love writings. And no words get to the heart of loving people like verses 4-8:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

Someone challenged me to replace the word love in this passage with my name. I did and became a liar. The passage set a standard I could not meet. No one can meet it…except Jesus. So rather than let this scripture remind us of a love we cannot produce, let it remind us of a love we cannot resist—God’s love!

From A Love Worth Giving

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“Love each other!” we pastors tell our churches. “Be patient, kind, and forgiving,” we urge. But instructing people to love without telling them they are loved is like telling them to write a check without our making a deposit in their accounts. No wonder so many relationships are overdrawn. Hearts have insufficient love.

The key to loving is living loved. Remember Paul’s prayer? “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” (Ephesians 3:17 NLT). Does bumping into certain people leave you brittle, breakable, and fruitless? Do you easily fall apart? If so, your love may be grounded in the wrong soil. It may be rooted in their love (which is fickle) or in your resolve to love (which is frail). John urges us to rely on the love God has for us (1 John 4:16 NIV).

Many people tell us to love. Only God gives us the power to do so!

From A Love Worth Giving

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I’m supposed to love my neighbor? Okay, by golly, I will. So we try. We’re going to love if it kills us! And it may do just that. Could it be that the secret to giving love is to first receive it? The Bible says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32 NIV).

Finding it hard to put others first? Think of the way Christ put you first. Scripture says, “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God” (Phil. 2:6 NLT). Can’t we love like this? Not without God’s help we can’t. But if we haven’t received these things ourselves, how can we give them to others? Would we love as God loves? Then, start by receiving God’s love!

From A Love Worth Giving

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Jericho’s shady lady found God—or better worded…God found Rahab the harlot. He spotted a tender heart in the hard city of Jericho and reached out to save her. He would have saved the entire city, but no one else made the request. Then again, Rahab, the harlot, had an advantage. She had nothing to lose. She was at the bottom of the rung. She had already lost her reputation. She was at the bottom of the pit.

Perhaps that’s where you are as well. You may or may not sell your body, but you’ve sold your allegiance, affection, attention, and talents. You’ve sold out. Glory days? Perhaps for him or for her. But not for me. I’m too soiled, dirty. I’ve sinned too much. No Glory Days for me! God’s one-word reply for such doubt? Rahab! God has a place for the Rahabs of the world! And He has a place for you!

From Glory Days

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Many Christians view their conversion something like a car wash. You go in a filthy clunker, and you come out with your sins washed away—a cleansed clunker. But conversion is more than a removal of sin. It is a deposit of power! It is as if a brand-new Ferrari engine was mounted in your frame. God removed the old motor that was caked, cracked, and broken with rebellion and evil; and he replaced it with a humming, roaring version of himself.

The Apostle Paul described it as being “a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are fully equipped. Do you need more energy? You have it. More kindness? It’s yours. Hebrews 13:21 promises that God will equip you with all you need for doing His will. Just press the gas pedal. God has given you everything you need for living a godly life!

From Glory Days

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Most babies cry, “Mama!” I cried, “Mustang!” I had asked my dad for a car every day of my life! My father’s stock reply was, “You’ll have a car once you earn it, save for it, & pay for it.” But then came that glorious night when dad handed me keys. Not payment vouchers or requirements, but keys! He said, “Take the car I’m giving you.” I had a new car because he declared it.

In Joshua’s day, the Hebrews had a new land because their Father did the same. “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you.” So Joshua let the people depart, each to their own inheritance.

You have an inheritance! If you’ve given your heart to Christ, the Bible says “God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Promised Land property—placed in your name!

From Glory Days

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“It’s time to declare war on the pestilence that goes by the name, I can’t. It attacks our self-control with…I can’t keep a job and it attacks our marriages… I can’t forgive. It even attacks our faith…I can’t believe God cares for me.

Had Joshua mumbled those words, who would’ve blamed him? Joshua 1:1 begins with bad news, “Moses, my servant, is dead.” To lose Moses was to lose the cause. Imagine the dismay, the grief, the fear! And yet, God told Joshua, “Moses is dead. Now therefore, arise.” Moses may be dead, but God is alive! Even so, Joshua had reason to say, I can’t. Moses was dead. And the Canaanites ate folks like the Israelites for breakfast! But Joshua never declared defeat. God gave him reason for faith. Victory was certain because the victory was God’s!  The same is true for you.

From Glory Days

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Think about the Christian you want to be. What qualities do you want to have? More compassion? More conviction? More courage? What attitudes do you want to discontinue? Greed? Guilt? Endless negativity? Here’s the good news. You can. With God’s help you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be—indeed, the person God made you to be. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we can live “from glory to glory.”

The walls of Jericho—they are already condemned. The giants are already on the run. The deed to your new life is already signed. It just falls to you to possess the land. Joshua 21:43 says, “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to their fathers—and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.” Your promised-land life— It is yours for the taking.

From Glory Days

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Perhaps you can relate to the deflated little fellow I saw in an airport terminal. Everything about the dad’s expression said, “Hurry up! We have to run if we’re going to make the connection.” Can the little fellow keep up? Mom could. The big brothers could. But the little guy? He tried to match his parents’ pace, but he just couldn’t. Can you relate? Sometimes the challenge is just too much. It’s not that you don’t try. You just run out of fight.

The story of Joshua in the Bible dares us to believe our best days are ahead of us. A life in which the Bible says we are anxious for nothing, we are praying always; a life in which Paul says, we are giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Philippians 4:6). We may stumble but we don’t collapse. God has a promised land for us to take!

From Glory Days

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Joshua 21:45 says, “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.”  Joshua and his men went from dry land to the Promised Land, from manna to feasts, from arid deserts to fertile fields. They inherited their inheritance: the glory days of Israel. This is God’s vision for your life. You, at full throttle. You, as victor over the Jerichos and giants.

Paul describes it as a life in which “Christ’s love has the first and last word in everything we do” (2 Corinthians 5:14).  A life in which Paul says, “we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:16). A life defined by grace, refined by challenge, and aligned with a heavenly call. In God’s plan, in God’s land…God’s promises outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes a way of life! Your glory days await you!

From Glory Days

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Nearly 9 out of 10 believers say they are saved, yes. But empowered? No. Like the children of Israel, they are out of Egypt but not yet possessing the Promised Land. That’s about 2 billion people who call themselves Christians chugging along on a fraction of their horsepower.

What would happen if they got a tune-up? How would the world be different if 2 billion people came out of the wilderness? How many marriages would be saved? How many wars would be prevented? If every Christian began to live the Promised Land life, how would the world be different? With God’s help you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be; indeed, the person God made you to be. The Bible says you can live from glory to glory. You just need to possess the land!

From Glory Days

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God spoke. Joshua listened and Israel’s Glory Days began. The Jordan River opened up and Jericho’s walls fell down. Evil was booted, and hope was rebooted. Joshua 21:43 says, “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it. The Lord gave them rest all around…not a man of all their enemies stood against them!”

Perhaps you need a new season. You don’t need to cross the Jordan River, but you need to get through the week. You aren’t facing Jericho, but you are facing rejection or heartache. The story of Joshua dares us to believe God has a Promised Land for us to take! It’s not real estate, but a real state of the heart and mind! A Promised Land…a promised land life!

From Glory Days

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God has a promised land for you to take!

I sat across the table from a man in midlife misery. He described his life with words like stuck, rut, and stalled. He’s a Christian, but he can’t tell you the last time he defeated a temptation or experienced an answered prayer. Twenty years into his faith and he fights the same battles he was fighting the day he came to Christ. It’s as if the door to spiritual growth has a lock and everyone has the key but him.

Joshua 21:43 says, “So the Lord gave Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give. . .and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.”

The promised land! God’s vision for your life. Yours for the taking. Expect to be challenged. The enemy won’t go down without a fight. But your glory days await you!

From Glory Days

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The most notorious road in the world is the Via Dolorosa, “the Way of Sorrows.” According to tradition, it’s the route Jesus took from Pilate’s hall to Calvary. The path is marked by stations frequently used by Christians for their devotions—each one a reminder of the events of Christ’s final journey. No one actually knows the exact route Jesus followed that Friday. But we do know where the path began. In heaven. Jesus began his journey when he left his home in search of us.

The Bible has a word for this quest: reconciliation. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19 NKJV). Reconciliation restiches the unraveled, reverses the rebellion, and rekindles the cold passion. Reconciliation touches the shoulder of the wayward and woos him homeward. The path to the cross tells us exactly how far God will go to call us back.

From He Chose the Nails

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Can a holy God overlook our mistakes? Should a kind God punish our mistakes? From our perspective there are only two equally unappealing solutions. But from God’s perspective there’s a third. It’s called “the Cross of Christ.” The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards.

How could he do this? In a sentence: God put our sin on his Son and punished it there. “God put on him the wrong who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 MSG). Why did he do it? Because “God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16 NLT). Aren’t you glad the verse doesn’t read: “For God so loved the rich”? Or “For God so loved the famous?” No we simply (and happily) read: “For God so loved the world!” And you are included in that love!

From He Chose the Nails

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Garments can symbolize character, and like his garment, Jesus’ character was seamless. Coordinated. Unified. He was like his robe: uninterrupted perfection. A seamless fabric woven from heaven to earth…from God’s thoughts to Jesus’ actions. From God’s tears to Jesus’ compassion.

But when Christ was nailed to the cross, he took off his robe of seamless perfection and assumed a different wardrobe, the wardrobe of indignity. Shamed before his family. The indignity of nakedness. The indignity of failure. Shamed before his accusers. Worst of all he bore the indignity of sin. Scripture says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24 NIV). The clothing of Christ on the cross? Sin—yours and mine. The sins of all humanity.

From He Chose the Nails

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Think about the thief on the cross who repented! We know little about him, but we know this: He made some bad mistakes in his life. But is he spending eternity reaping the fruit of all the bad choices he made? No, just the opposite. He is enjoying the fruit of the one good choice he made.

You may look back over your life and say, “If only. . .if only I could make up for those bad choices.” You can. One good choice for eternity offsets a thousand bad ones on earth.

How could two thieves see the same Jesus and one choose to mock him and the other choose to pray to him? When one prayed, Jesus loved him enough to save him. When the other mocked, Jesus loved him enough to let him. He allowed him the choice. He does the same for you.

From He Chose the Nails

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In so many areas of life we have no choice. “It’s not fair,” we say. But the scales of life were forever tipped on the side of fairness when God planted a tree in the Garden of Eden. All complaints were silenced when Adam and his descendants were given free will, the freedom to make whatever eternal choice we desire.

Any injustice in this life is offset by the honor of choosing our destiny in the next. Wouldn’t you agree? It would have been nice if God had let us order life like we order a meal. It would’ve been nice, but it didn’t happen. When it came to many details of your life on earth, you weren’t given a choice, a voice, or a vote. But when it comes to life after death, you were! In my book that seems like a good deal. Wouldn’t you agree?

From He Chose the Nails

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Much has been said about the prayer of the penitent thief on the cross next to Jesus. But dare we forget the one who didn’t pray? He offered no request. He, too, could have requested mercy. He, too could have asked Jesus to remember him in the new kingdom. But he didn’t. He offered no prayer of repentance. And Jesus didn’t demand one.

Jesus gave both criminals the same choice. One said “remember me.” The other said nothing. There are times when God sends thunder to stir us. There are times when God sends blessings to lure us. But then there are times when God sends nothing but silence as he honors us with the freedom to choose where we spend eternity.

From He Chose the Nails

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God has penned a list of our faults. The list God has made, however, can’t be deciphered. The mistakes are covered. The sins hidden. “He has forgiven you all your sins: he has utterly wiped out the written evidence. . .and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14 Phillips).

He knew the price of those sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was you, and since he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you, he chose the nails. The verdict behind the death was not decided by jealous Jews. With a flex of the biceps, Jesus could have resisted. Jesus himself chose the nails. He knew that the purpose of the nail was to place your sins where they could be hidden by his sacrifice—nailed to the cross; covered by his blood.

From He Chose the Nails

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