cross

Love Standing in the Very Teeth of Suffering

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“Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. The cross was the proof of His love – that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary’s cross, though “legions of angels” might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us – not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process” (Elisabeth Elliott).

Pain isn’t always bad. Sometimes pain means that healing is taking place. Those with broken bones can attest that while the breaking of the bone is painful, so is the healing of the break. But while neither is pleasant, the pain of healing must take place for there to be mending, or else the bone stays broken.

We are the same way. We’re broken. God is healing us. There’s pain involved in that process, but it’s better than the pain of remaining broken. And sometimes for a bone to set and heal properly, it has to be re-broken so it will mend properly.

If you want the ultimate picture of suffering in love, look at Jesus. God did not spare Jesus one moment of suffering, but He instead spared us from the worst of it. While we still undergo pain, God made sure that the worst of it fell on Jesus. He went through hell so we won’t have to. That’s love.

On a side note, parents that never allow their children to suffer or even be inconvenienced aren’t necessarily doing them any favors. Just as the butterfly’s struggle to emerge from the cocoon strengthens its wings to fly, so children struggle to become adults who are strong enough to think and live apart from their parents and on their own.

And for the record, I don’t believe the idea that God never gives us more than we can handle. He never gives us more than He can handle. Sometimes, it’s more than we can bear on our own, so we’re forced to rely on the God who made us to sustain us. That’s when we become more like Jesus.

Worry vs. Prayer

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Ann Voskamp said to be a prayer warrior and not a panicked worrier. I think about that a bit lately. One does absolutely no good but only keeps you up at night and keeps you from focusing on what matters. One is the way to the throne of grace where we find help in time of need.

Worry changes nothing. Prayer changes everything.

Worry makes you sick. Literally. Over time, your body will start to manifest symptoms of sickness if you let worry consume you constantly. Prayer on the other hand transforms you. It changes the way you see everything, including your problems.

Worry is a way of looking at the world without God in it. It’s funny how all your anxiety-laden possible outcomes end up with it being completely up to you to fix everything. Prayer shows that not only is God in the picture, but He has already made a way through. He has already overcome. The victory is not only possible but certain.

Worry comes natural. It’s a default setting for every single person born after the Fall. We’re hard-wired to worry and fret and to be anxious over every little thing. But prayer is a discipline that requires work. To get better at praying, you have to pray. You have to learn from others who are older and wiser and who have spent a lifetime learning how to pray. You have to be immersed in the Word of God to know the will of God to pray in the name of Jesus.

But the good news is that you don’t have to be good at praying to pray. You can choose today to pray instead of worrying. Today can be the day that you say to Jesus, “Teach me to pray as you taught the disciples.” And He will do it.

In the words of the great theologian M. C, Hammer, “You got to pray just to make it today.”

Good words.

Nearer Home

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O’er the hill the sun is setting,
And the eve is drawing on,
Slowly drops the gentle twilight,
For another day is gone,
Gone for aye, its race is over,
Soon the dark’ning shades will come,
Still ’tis sweet to know at evening,
We are one day nearer home.
Still ’tis sweet to know at evening,
We are one day nearer home.

Nearer home, nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know
We are one day nearer home,
Nearer home; nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know at even,
We are one day nearer home.

Something else I read about Elisabeth Elliott recently said that one of her favorite camp songs growing up was called Nearer Home. It was something she evidently thought about quite a bit as she grew older and started losing her memory due to dementia. This speaks to anyone who is facing their own mortality or the mortality of a loved one. We as believers in Christ are truly getting nearer home each and ever day:

“One day nearer, sings the sailor,
As he glides the waters o’er,
While the light is softly dying,
On his distant native shore,
Thus the Christian, on life’s ocean,
As his lightboat cuts the foam,
In the evening cries with rapture,
I am one day nearer home.
In the evening cries with rapture,
I am one day nearer home.

Nearer home, nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know
We are one day nearer home,
|Nearer home; nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know at even,
We are one day nearer home.

Nearer home, yes, one day nearer,
To our home beyond the sky,
To the green fields and the fountains,
In our Father’s home on high,
For the heav’ns are growing brighter,
And the lamps hang in the dome,
And our hearts are growing lighter,
For we’re one day nearer home.

Nearer home, nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know
We are one day nearer home,
Nearer home; nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know at even,
We are one day nearer home.

Father, be near when my feet
Are slipping o’er the brink,
For it may be I am nearer home,
Nearer now than I think” (Alice Carey).

A Personal Shepherd

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I’ve been going through a short devotional plan on my Bible app. It’s a 7 day walk through Psalm 23. So far, I haven’t learned anything earth-shattering. There haven’t been any mind blowing revelations.

But one thing that’s been living in my head rent-free is from Psalm 23:1. The Lord is MY shepherd. That’s probably something I’ve overlooked for most of my life. In fact, I’ve heard this chapter so many times over the years that sometimes I zone out when someone starts reading it.

But the Lord is MY shepherd. He’s not a generic, one size fits all shepherd. He ministers and guides each of His own sheep individually with the utmost care. He knows that sheep on their own have no ability whatsoever to take care of themselves or to defend themselves against any kind of attack.

I still love that in Jesus’ parable, the Shepherd left the 99 to go and look for one lost sheep. In my book, a 99% retention rate is good. Actually, it’s better than good. It’s incredible. But for God, that one mattered more at that moment than the 99 who were safe and secure.

I don’t have to worry if God will meet my needs. I just have to read the rest of verse 1. I shall not want. I shall not be in need. My God will supply all my needs through Christ Jesus. He who did not spare His only Son, how will He not along with Jesus freely give me everything I need for life and godliness?

I have a Shepherd who is MY shepherd. I have nothing to fear.

Thank You, Lord, that You are MY Shepherd. You will lead me beside still waters, and You will give me rest. You will provide for my every need and lead me in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Letting Love Grow

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“‘Do you remember, Grace and Glory, when you looked into your heart beside the pool, and found that my kind of love was not there at all– only the plant of Longing-to-be-loved?’

She nodded wonderingly.

‘That was the natural human love which I tore out from your heart when the time was ripe and it was loose enough to be uprooted so that the real Love could grow there alone and fill your whole heart'” (Hinds Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard).

“You see, true love germinates in the soil of sacrifice, sprouts in the garden of surrender and matures in a matrimony of servanthood.  Love isn’t love until it has cost you something to give it away” (Josh Hopwood).

Sometimes, it takes a long time for true love to germinate and grow in someone’s heart. We call a lot of things love that are closer to lust or to selfish longing, but God’s kind of love always involves sacrifice. That is, the love God wants for us isn’t known for taking but for giving. And forgiving, as well.

God in Jesus doesn’t love us for what we can do for us. He knows we bring nothing to the table and have no gifts or talents apart from Him that we can give. Everything we give to God is something God gave us in the first place. When we love others in that way, it’s not about expecting something in return but giving sacrificially because that’s the way God has loved us.

Lord, give us the love for others that never seeks to profit but only seeks to be like David who said that He would not offer to the Lord that which cost him nothing. May we always seek to give and not expect anything in return because we know that our reward is ultimately and only from You in the end. Amen.

Every Time

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“In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents” (Luke 15:10, NLT).

The Message says that there’s a party in heaven every time even one sinner gets saved. I get that.

I know lately I find myself overjoyed when I read about any celebrity who comes to faith or someone who is coming out of a Muslim or LGBTQ or pagan background. I love that the gospel is for anyone and everyone, and there is no one who is beyond the reach of God’s grace.

I love hearing testimonies of being delivered by the power of Jesus. That never gets old for me (and I hope it never will). It always brings me ecstatic joy and reminds me of my own early days when I first experience the joy of my own salvation. It reminds me that God is still able to seek and to save the lost.

I do a lot more praying for people’s salvation than I used to. I think maybe it’s because I appreciate the gift of salvation way more than I did when I was younger. I also realize more and more that there are no political answers to what are ultimately spiritual problems.

At the root of every war and of every act of violence and every racial epithet is sin. We are all born into sin and we all need a Savior. We are not good people who need to be better or even bad people who need to be made good but dead people who need to be made alive.

That’s why I do what I do. If even one single person is in heave because of me posting these blogs every day for almost 16 years, then I can say it was worth it.

I hope you will join me in praying for lost people. If you want, you can comment on the people you are praying for or you can always text me at 615-556-5850. I’d love to pray for your loved ones as well. God is still good all the time, and all the time God is still good.

The Christ We Preach

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“The One we preach is not Christ-in-a-vacuum, nor a mystical Christ unrelated to the real world, nor even only the Jesus of ancient history, but rather the contemporary Christ who once lived and died, and now lives to meet human need in all its variety today. To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because he assures us of God’s love for us. He sets us free from guilt because he died for us, from the prison of our own self-centredness by the power of his resurrection, and from paralysing fear because he reigns, all the principalities and powers of evil having been put under his feet. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship. He introduces us into his new community, the new humanity he is creating. He challenges us to go out into some segment of the world which does not acknowledge him, there to give ourselves in witness and service for him. He promises us that history is neither meaningless nor endless, for one day he will return to terminate it, to destroy death and to usher in the new universe of righteousness and peace” (John Stott).

That is the Christ we preach. This is the Jesus from the Bible, specifically from the Gospels. You can summarize it all up very neatly in John 3:16: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NLT).

If you go to a church that teaches you anything else, don’t walk out. Run. If your church preaches any kind of gospel other than the one from John 3:16 that Jesus and Paul preached, leave. Paul said that if anyone preached another gospel, even an angel from heaven, let that one be accursed.

The beauty of the true gospel is that it’s for everyone. It’s for anyone who will receive it. Anyone can be born again. Anyone can become a new creation. Anyone can be forgiven and set free from sin. Anyone can become a son or daughter of God through the adoption made possible through the cross.

That’s the Christ we preach and teach and worship and serve and love.

Easter Sunday 2026

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The empty tomb means everything. It means that Jesus is not dead and buried but alive and reigning. It means that Jesus defeated death, the grave, and hell forever. It means that there’s nothing you and I will ever face that hasn’t already been overcome by the cross and the empty tomb.

The Apostle Paul says that if Jesus isn’t alive and raised from the dead, it’s all meaningless. Our faith is futile and our hope is in vain. We’re the most pitiful people on the planet. He doesn’t make any allowances for a symbolic resurrection. If Jesus is only alive in our hearts and in our memories, then our faith is worthless and we might as well go and do what we like and believe in nothing at all.

But because Jesus is alive, our hope is alive. Our pain and suffering now have a purpose as well as an expiration date. Those we lost in the Lord are not gone forever. All the wrong and evil in the world will one day be made right and good. We can survive anything because we look to Jesus who endured the cross and despised the shame because He was looking at the joy just over the horizon beyond the tomb.

Easter gives meaning to Christmas (and everything else). Jesus is not a good teacher who gave us good morals and examples to follow. He is Messiah who fulfilled all the prophecies ever made about Him. He is Lord of all who demands our ultimate allegiance. He is God incarnate, 100% man and 100% God. He is the only one who can take our place on the cross and our punishment for the sins we’ve committed.

If Jesus is dead, then Easter is nothing but a hollow holiday with no meaning. But if He is alive — and He is — then Easter is the day we celebrate the best good news ever. That means that we who were dead can be made alive again. We who were guilty and deserving of death can be forgiven and pardoned and set free. We who were condemned and estranged from God can now become sons and daughters of God and heirs to the promise. Thank You, Lord, for Easter Sunday!

Easter Saturday 2026

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“This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!” (Maltbie D. Babcock)

This is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I don’t know of any faith tradition that observes this day. I imagine that everyone needs a break after Maundy Thursday and Good Friday before Easter Sunday. Besides, what would you celebrate or honor?

As far as we know, nothing happened. I know the Bible talks about how Jesus preached to the spirits in prison between the crucifixion and the resurrection, but I’m honestly not sure what that means. Did Jesus actually descend into hell to proclaim His victory? Was He preaching through Noah to those before the flood? Better minds than mine have had differing opinions for decades.

I do know that most likely the disciples were locked away in a secret room, grieving and terrified of being discovered. Their Lord had just died. They thought the dream was over. Any thought of a future kingdom was as dead as the Rabbi they had followed for three years.

But we have the blessing of hindsight. We can look back, knowing what the next day would bring. We know that those same disciples who had abandoned Jesus in the garden and watched from afar as He was brutally executed would be the same ones to proclaim the gospel with supernatural boldness, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer as Jesus had suffered.

It does seem sometimes that the wrong seems so strong. From every headline, it seems like evil is winning. But we know that this is still the Father’s world. Jesus is still ruler. We know, and one day the whole world will know. So we can look forward with hope and not despair like so many in the world do.

Easter Sunday is a reminder that evil and wrong have already been defeated. Death is not the end. Those who we love and lose who are in the Lord are not lost forever, but are in the very presence of Jesus, and we will see them again.

“And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles’ wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise” (Chris Tomlin / Jesse Reeves / Louie Giglio / Matt Maher)

Invited (Good Friday 2026)

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I got a last minute invite from a friend to see Chris Tomlin’s Good Friday worship concert at Bridgestone Arena. He knew someone who had a suite and couldn’t use the tickets, so he got one and invited me to tag along. We got to sit in comfortable chairs and eat free food. Plus there was a concert.

The concert itself was amazing. Chris sang all of his familiar songs that churches have been worshipping with for years. He had a few special guests, including one Michael W. Smith, to help lead us in worship. The highlight of the evening was hearing David Nassar speak. He mentioned hearing a young Iranian girl named Goinosh singing the song Holy Forever in Farsi at 4 am. Lo and behold, they brought her out on stage to sing it in Farsi while the crowd sang it in English.

The best part was that I didn’t have to pay. I knew someone who knew someone, so when I arrived, all I had to do was walk into the suite and enjoy the show. My ticket had already been paid for.

It struck me how that’s a picture of heaven. One day, I’ll show up at those proverbial pearly gates. I won’t have to fork over a large sum of cash or prove a lifetime of good deeds to get in. When I arrive, I can honestly tell them that my purchase price to get in has already been paid in full.

I love the illustration that Allistair Begg uses about the thief on the cross on his first day in heaven. There’s all these angels asking him all sorts of questions about theological concepts that he doesn’t know the answers to. When they ask how he got in, he said, “The Man on the middle cross said I could come.”

That will be my answer if anyone asks. It won’t be because of my sinless life. It won’t be because my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. It won’t be because God ignored my sin. It will be because once I asked Jesus to save me from my sin and to be my Lord and Savior. I invited Him to live in my heart.

This invitation isn’t just for a future residence in heaven. It gets me into the throne of grace anytime I’m in need. It gets the Holy Spirit inside of me, enabling me to live a life worthy of God. Right now, I have everything I need for life and godliness. Right now, I have 100% of God in me and with me and for me.

My invitation, bought and paid for, is the same that’s offered to anyone who says yes to Jesus. Anyone who repents and believes in Jesus Christ for salvation. It’s not just a ticket to get into heaven, but an invitation into an abundant life in Jesus that starts right now.