An Unwilling God

The things that God will not do are just as important as the things He will do. In all likelihood this is a profile of God that you have heard far too little about, but until I know what God will not do I will find it difficult to believe what He will do.

In reality, I don’t place a great deal of value in the promises of God until I am absolutely certain that God will not lie (Hebrews 6:18). That establishes the fact that if God said it He will do it.

Hearing the stories of God’s past performances is thrilling but of little worth to me beyond historical significance except when considered in the light that God will not change (Malachi 3:6). That means that if God has ever done something He can do it again if He chooses to do so. The Miracle Worker is still mighty. The Sovereign is still sufficient. The Lord is still living. He is the Ageless, Changeless and Peerless Jehovah God, and He will not change.

I Corinthians 15:25 declares, “He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet.” All enemies must be subdued. All deceivers must be revealed. All demons must be corralled and rendered helpless against the children of God. All illnesses must be canceled and the sufferers set free. ALL enemies seen and unseen, known and unknown must be crushed under His feet.

Repeat those words verbally, “MUST BE put under his feet.” This is a non-negotiable and non-breakable promise of God.
• His will is Sovereign….nothing can stop it.
• His attention is focused….nothing can divert it.
• His triumph is certain….nothing can defeat it!

He is an All Comprehending God who has hindsight, oversight, insight and foresight! He knows when to back up, step up, act up, slow up and hurry up.

Isaiah reminded us that our Heavenly Father knows all things from beginning to end and all that is in between. (Isaiah 46:9-10) He knows what to do, when to do it and how it needs to be done, but He also knows the things that He will absolutely not do.

I am so thankful that we have a God who is NOT WILLING to do certain thing. Examine them closely and rejoice with me.

Number 1, He is not willing to promote or practice partiality as we know it today.

Peter tore holes in the practice of partiality in Acts 10:34. To those who had a tendency to lean toward showing partiality, he said, “It’s God’s own truth; nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from----if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.”

God doesn’t slam the door in your face because of ethnic background, educational degrees, and wealth holdings or mean labels. We make differences between people, but God doesn’t. In heaven there will be no put downs, none thrown out or culled from the rest. There will be no first class, second and no class sections up there. Everyone will be treated as favorites and with perfect fairness.

Number 2. He is not willing to repudiate righteousness.

Repudiate means to disavow, refuse to acknowledge or disown. Yes, God hates sin, but He loves the sinner. He forgives and forgets what you did wrong but remembers what you do right. The Prodigal make a ton of mistakes that broke his father’s heart, but when the wayward boy made a turn and started home that one sane decision made the record book….not all the bad he had done. He’s not looking for reasons to disown you. He’s just looking for you to make a move in the right direction, and He will meet you more than half way. Love covers a multitude of sins and calls for party time. God will not allow all your bad decisions to negate one good one. One penitent prayer causes angels to break out in singing. One look toward a waiting father puts wings on the father’s feet as he races to the rescue. One knock on the doors of heaven and all heaven will stand in attention to welcome a prodigal home.

God is not willing to lock you out of His will without first offering you His unlimited grace.

Number 3. God is not willing to foreclose without long forbearance.

He will not give up on you easily. His pity for you is genuine. His patience with you is staggering. His presence with you is undeniable, and His power to work for you is unfailing!

Isaiah 42:1-4 heralds the message of forbearance with exciting truths. It says, “He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but he will steadily and firmly set things right. He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until he’s finished his work…” (The Message)

He is unwilling to give up until he has displaced deceit with a revelation of what is right….until he deposes darkness with the eternal light of the Son….until he defeats devilry with the power of his endless love….and until he destroys death, the devil, demons and hell.

Punishing you is not in His plan…keeping His promises to you is!!! There are 3 things that you can be absolutely sure of:
• God is not willing to lie
• God is not willing to leave you helpless and alone
• And God is not willing to give up on you regardless of how bad things may be looking. That’s why you can trust Him. Do it today.

Serving An Unwilling God,
Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Tight Squeezes

I have been in some spots that were so tight that I thought I would have to remove a coat of paint to squeeze through.

Jonah was in a squeeze that he couldn’t wriggle out of when his sins caught up with him in the middle of a violent storm. Peter was in a squeeze that forced him to cuss or confess the relationship that he had with Jesus Christ. The horrified widow in the Old Testament was in a squirm when the bill collector came knocking and she could not pay her bills.

Getting out of jams is a part of our job description as a human being. Eleanor Roosevelt had a unique insight concerning solving or facing these tight spots and suggested, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

This was Paul’s philosophy. In Philippians 4:13 (The Message) he declared, “What ever I have, where ever I am, I can make it though anything in the One who makes me who I am.”

Andrae Crouch understood this and put it into the words of a beautiful song which never ceases to inspire and bless me. When you are in a squeeze remember this.

“I’ve had many tears and sorrows, I’ve had questions
For tomorrow, There’ve been times I didn’t know right
From wrong: but in every situation God gave blessed
Consolation, that my trials come to only make me strong.

I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for
The valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought
Me through; for if I’d never had a problem I wouldn’t
Know that He could solve them, I’d never know
What faith in God could do.

Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in
Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God; through it all,
Through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His word.”

The Psalmist proclaimed it enthusiastically. “Yea, thought I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” (Psalms 23:4) Death is a tight squeeze. It is so tight that there is only room for 2…you and God. Just two and no more, but God will be there to see that you make it through safely.

The key word is “through”. It means to go in one side and come out the other. You will make it through. God will prove it. He may need to push me through or pull me through my tight squeezes in life but He will see to it that I get through.

Jesus is given a rather odd name in Hebrews 6:20 but having great significance. He is hailed as our FORERUNNER. The Greek word for FORERUNNER is prodromoi which is used to designate scouts, the advance guard, the reconnaissance corps of the army. The essence of a FORERUNNER is one who goes first in order to make it safe and possible for others to follow.

He has already gone through the tight squeezes and gives us the assurance that we can and will make it if we but trust Him. No pit is so deep, no debt so big, no burden so heavy, no bondage so strong, no pain so intolerable but what He can pull us out. I don’t know what it was but the Psalmist discovered that God is a God of tight squeezes when he wrote, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay…” (Psalms 40:1-2) I obviously don’t know what pit you are in or how tight things are for you as you are reading this or how you got there, but I do know God has a way out.

I will be the first to confess that I don’t always understand God’s ways and the way he works, but I do know:

• God’s ways are good and brings us satisfaction…
• His ways are right and brings us direction…
• His ways are perfect and bring us freedom…
• His ways are pure and brings us forgiveness…
• His ways are sure and brings us confidence…
• His ways are best and brings us victory.

It’s not too late to seek His way in squeezing through your tight spot, but it will require some specific exercise. Try this exercise plan.

Exercise patience

Patience is not doing nothing. It is doing what you can, the best you can, in everyway you can and expecting the favor and blessings of God to overtake you. Patience is counting on God to come through when you know you can’t. Take heed from Edmund Burke who said, “Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

Exercise self control

Self control is managing my time and efforts in such a way as to prevent me from adding insult to injury. I invariably create jams for myself when I am not acting to some degree in self control. Some of the best advice that we could ever take is to practice James 1:19 (The Message). “Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with you ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the read.” Self control will keep you out of many jams.

Exercise discretion

Discretion is making good decisions. When I am in a tight squeeze, my judgment can go into a mental deep freeze. Edmund Hillary suggested that it is not mountains that we need to conquer but ourselves. Exercising good discretion will monitor our morals, corral our conceit, curtail our temptations, crush our greed, curb our craving for power and control the spirit of criticism that that causes damages that are difficult to repair.

Exercise determination

When you are in a squeeze, get tough. David McNally declared: “We can learn to soar only in direct proportion to our determination to rise above the doubt and transcend the limitations.” God gives us wings to soar above and beyond our jams, but Satan gives us leg irons to hold us down and keep us from making it through. Let the squeeze produce wings to fly. Determination will make it happen.

Exercise dependence upon God

Allow me to sum it all up in the words of St. Augustine. “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” You may not see a way out…know a way out or expect to get out of the tight spot you are in, but depend upon God to pull you out anyway. He has a plan to do it and the power to bring it to pass.

Working Out Together,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

You Can Find God in the Strangest Places

Exodus 20:21 “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”

The words – darkness and God – don’t seem to go together but you can be absolutely sure that God will show up in the strangest places.

Darkness represents uncertainty, the unknown, mysteries and poor visibility.

In Ephesians 6:12 Paul reminds us that we are in a war with the kingdom of darkness.

Unbelievers walk in darkness. The mind can be blanketed by darkness.

But there is no night so black and no darkness so thick in you life but what God can show up in all of His power and glory just as He did for Moses.

You must never forget that God was real to Jesus as he was impaled on a cross and shrouded in darkness.

The hand of the Father reached out into the wretched darkness of the crucifixion to touch the frail, dehydrating body of His dying Son.

He showed up in darkness to protect His Son until the dawn of the resurrection. Darkness could not keep God away.

There are 4 encounters with darkness that most of us face in life to one degree of another, but the good news is that you, like Moses, can find God in the darkest moment of your life.

The 4 encounters with darkness are:

1. Doubt is like a total eclipse at noonday that dims the light of responsible reasoning and intellectual integrity.

o It comes out of nowhere and suddenly and uncontrollably clouds reason and manipulates the mental process negatively.
o deducts that God can not or will not intervene on your behalf.
o questions the validity of God and His Word and finds if very difficult to believe that all things are possible with God.

Then in the darkness God shows up when we simply confess as did the Father of the
afflicted child in Mark 9:24:”Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief.”

The darkness of doubt dissipated in the Light of the Son!

2. Depression on the other hand is like the proverbial, nocturnal bat out of hell roosting on the emotions.

Anyone who has been there will understand that depression is like falling into a deep, dark hole and the deeper you go the darker it becomes. It is like quicksand. The more you struggle the deeper you get.

The Psalmist describes it in these graphic words. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my fee upon a rock…” (Psalms 40:2)

Depression is horrible, but in that dark hole God showed up and lifted him up out of the pit.

You can’t get out by yourself you have tried, but God is there to pull you out today.

3. Then there is the dark tunnel of disease or failing health through which we travel at one time or another.

It’s a tough tunnel to walk through because it effects everything from our pocketbook, to job performance, outlook on the future and security in the present.

Paul wrestled with this health or physical malady issue that did not allow him to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Shockingly, prayer didn’t alter his condition. Hear it from his own pen in II Corinthians 12:7-8. “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh…for this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.”

But he goes on to confess that God spoke to him saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee…”

In the darkness of failing health, God shows up with an abundance of grace.

Grace
for dialysis
for rehabilitation
for open heart surgery
for chemotherapy
for reconstructive surgery after an accident.

God in His grace can totally heal without the intervention of human assistance, but it does not always happen that way…in that moment be sure of this… His grace never fails.

4. Finally, there is the dark continent called despair.

The Philippian jailer saw no way out. His career came to an abrupt end, and he was embarrassed to face his wife and children. In his despair, he turned to suicide as his last resort. (Acts 16:27)

With sword in hand and victim of despair, God showed up just in time.

Finding guiding light is like driving an automobile at night; the headlights cast only enough light for us to see the next small bit of road immediately in front of us.

But that light is enough to take us home.

Psalms 119:105 assures that. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It will always be enough light to help us find the way home because the lamp of His Word will never go out.

If you feel like your life is darkness then perhaps the following prayer will bring some assistance to your life.

“Dear God, I have been under a cloud of darkness, but I know that darkness must flee away and dawn will come. Nothing can stop it. I have been promised that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. (Psalms 30:5) Thank you for the end of the night and the dawn of the day of rejoicing in Jesus Name. Amen.”

Blessings,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Resurrection: God’s Penicillin for Despair

Life is full of “ifs.”

Ifs are the pavement on which we travel to the city called despair. They cluttered the mind of Paul and spilled out of his pen onto the pages of God’s Eternal Word as we read I Corinthians 15: 1, 12-14.

Mary was full of ifs on the first Easter morning. It was not a day of celebration for her. It was a day of mourning and despair. She must have felt like she had been run over by a herd of stampeding donkeys or in modern terminology hit by a big Mack truck. She hit rock bottom as she moved silently through the misty gray dawn in a local cemetery. There were no white Bunny Rabbits, no pastel colored eggs, no frilly bonnets or 5^th Avenue parade. That first Easter sunrise was a bummer with a big capital “B”.

What if Peter had not blatantly denied Christ? What if Judas had not sold him like a stick of butter? What if the disciples had not deserted him? What if Pilate had but listened to his wife about her dream? That was not the case. Ifs are hindsight with 20-20 vision.

A gifted playwright from the early 1900’s might well have expressed the emotions of Mary in the following lines that flowed from the lips of an actress extraordinary. “If, if, if. There were so many “ifs” in life, never any certainty of anything, never any sense of security, always the dread of losing everything, and being cold and hungry again.”

This is the sum total of despair. I don’t think Mary came to the cemetery to have an Easter sunrise service. She came after spending a sleepless night tossing and tumbling in despair and had not pity on her need for sleep. The grisly scene of the cross haunted her and broke her heart.

She had been a recent convert. Before meeting him her life was miserable and out of control, but then she met Him. She met hope face to face. He hurled shafts of light into her world of darkness and despair. She followed the man who broke her chains of bondage and set her free, but now she was following him to a 6 by 6 hole in the ground. She may have been mad at the world and bitter.

She saw the first Easter Dawn through tear blurred eyes, wet cheeks and mascara that was a runny mess.

Where is God? The only law he ever broke was the Law of Nature when He turned water into blushing wine.

The only theft he masterminded was the body he stole from a cemetery in Bethany. But He was not a grave robber. He was a life giver. Ask Lazarus.

• He didn’t have license to practice medicine, but He healed the sick.
• He never promoted social welfare, but he unhesitantly fed a multitude who were faint from lack of nourishment.
• He might have been guilty of jay walking one day when he crossed the street to minister to a weeping mother following the corpse of her dead son to the burying ground and called the dead son back to life.

Mary’s despair was about as bad as it could get and there was no hope that the situation would get any better. Maybe, just maybe, you are carrying the same luggage that she carried can’t sleep, bitter, suspicious of everyone, confused, distraught and overcome with despair. She found her penicillin for despair, of all places, in an empty tomb!!! You can find your on penicillin at the same place today. The tomb is still empty and Jesus is alive and well.

She came to the tomb perturbed but left in peace.

She came to the tomb full of bitterness but left being blessed.

She came to the tomb full of suspicion, but left without a scintilla of doubt.

She came to the tomb in despair but left being filled with delight.

Calvary is the place where God revealed His love so strong, so unbending, so majestic, and the Resurrection is the place where He exhibited His power so enduring, so pervasive, so imposing and so infinite.

Between His matchless love and infinite power, you can find the answer for your despair.

Thank God! Jesus lives.

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Where Is The Rest Of The Cat?

An art teacher walked slowly around the room glancing over the shoulder of the young artist in her first grade class. One drawing caught her attention. The little guy was drawing a cat, but it was only partially finished. Softly she asked him, “Where is the rest of the cat?” His answer came quickly and confidently. “It’s still in the bottle.”

Paul must have reached that same conclusion concerning his friends in Philippi. He recognized that God had started sketching out their lives, but their lives were still a work in process. It was no doubt a comfort to them when he assured them that they could be confident that God would finish what He had started.

God is not done with us yet. He doesn’t quit in the middle of a project or decide to leave the final results in the hands of a half-way house. He is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation22:13). He is the beginning and the end. He is the First and the Last and everything in between.

Language reached its apex in these words of Daniel. “And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, WHOSE DOMINION IS AN EVERLASTING DOMINION…” (Daniel 4:34) The word dominion in Greek (kratos) means force, strength and might. That word is derived from a root –kra- which means to perfect, to complete and creator. No cat will be left in the bottle. God has the wisdom to plan your future and dominion or power to execute His plan.

The oft repeated verse in Jeremiah 29:11 is so appropriate to recall as we contemplate God’s plan for us. It says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, thought of peace, and not of evil, and to give you an expected end.”

Note the word “end.” God doesn’t just begin a picture and leave the rest of the cat in the bottle. He has an exciting end in view that He will finish.

Michelangelo tried to explain how he created one specific masterpiece, and in a best effort he said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

He sees more in you than you see in yourself. He has plans for you that are bigger and better than the ones you have in your own mind, and He will keep chipping away until that plan, that purpose, that person has been set free.

Robert Louis Stevenson believed that “to be what we are and TO BECOME WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF BECOMING is the only end of life.”

Self imposed limitations are no longer acceptable. Allow God to finish the picture. His dominion stretches to cover ever aspect of your life.


He is the Door of your destiny, the Key to knowledge that you need, the Fount of your faith, the Tree of truth, the Branch of blessing, the Fulcrum of fullness and the Heritage of your hope.

He has dominion over the devourer and the heartless destroyer.

I read Malachi 3:11 quiet often. It says, “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy…” The devourer has been put on notice and limitations have been imposed upon him FOR YOUR SAKE. There comes a moment in time in which you are no longer placed into the position of having to do the rebuking and rebuffing. The One who has dominion, God, has said that He would do it for you. The picture has not been completed yet. The rest of the picture is still in the bottle, and God is going to complete the picture. Count on it. The One who has dominion over all things has promised it.

He has dominion over demonic influence and intrusion.

I heard someone say that “this was their personal demon” that they had to deal with. In that case, it was alcohol and sexual encounters. It left me with the impression that this “demon” was so deeply ingrained into their personality that it was inseparable. It domineered, drove and controlled them. No amount of money or prestige could expel it. It was a domineering force that was beyond their control. I don’t know what your “demon” may be. Is it pornography? Incest? Drugs? Is it lust or larceny or lying? Name the demon that is influencing and intruding into you life and making it a wreck just waiting to happen, and then repeat this after me. “This is not the final picture. God still has some ink in the bottle and will exercise His Divine Dominion over all the forces of evil that are warring against me.” The Bible says, “there is a name which is ABOVE every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” (Philippians 2:9-10)

Speak the name. Claim the name. It’s above little demons and big demons and everything in between. It’s a domineering name and you can use it today. Your little demons have to go in the name of Jesus Christ. He is Lord.

He has dominion over disparity.

All things are not equal. All situations are not fair. Disparity sticks its ugly head up every way we turn. Justice may be a long time coming, but God still has some ink in the bottle; and justice will be served. God promises it. We don’t know when, where and how, but we know He who has dominion over all things will see that we will all be standing on level ground when we stand before Him. He will paint a final picture that is fair and equitable. Hang on. Keep looking up. He will balance the scales of injustice and even the odds as He did with David and Goliath. The underdog became the grand champion, and God evened the score.


He has dominion over disease and death.

I am not docile toward disease and death. I hate what they are doing to families all across the globe. No family is immune from sickness and disease and eventually death. Sooner or later we encounter the villain, but the ruthless enemy of health, happiness and financial security does not have the final say. God does.

In the eyes of God, death is not a period but a comma in the story of life. We spend so much time and giving so much credit to the grand Reaper that we forget the Great Resurrection. Jesus declared His dominion over diseases and death when He declared, “I am THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.” (John 11:25)

He won His greatest victory in the grave yard. Death could not detain Him, and the grave could not hold Him. He arose and announced His dominion by declaring, “I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Lloyd John Ogilvie served as Senior Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California for a number of years and held other positions of high honor in America made this striking observation that resounds the dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ over death and disease. He proclaimed, “The resurrection of Jesus began a new age of miracles. A miracle is an intervention of God from beyond the levels and limitations of the natural world. A miracle does not contradict the laws of nature; it reveals a higher law at work---the law of God’s love.”

Yes and amen. His resurrection is proof positive that He does have dominion that nothing can overcome. God still has ink in the bottle as He develops the picture of your life and will complete it by showing His dominion once and for all.

Exercising God’s Dominion

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Odd Couple: Grit and Grace

Some things require more than grace! To grace must be added a generous portion of grit. Grace is God’s part. Grit is ours. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that Noah FOUND grace, but it also makes it clear that Noah did not discover a customized, fully equipped, self contained, sink proof ocean greyhound in his back yard. He FURNISHED THE GRIT to build this monstrosity of a schooner. It was Noah’s grit that gripped the hammer pounding nails into the gopher wood for 100 years. God furnished the grace. Noah furnished the grit. God is not our personal valet to jump into action at our whim. He will always have grace for us in time of need, but He will never become our handy-man, or yard man or butler. God sent angels to do what Peter could not do when he was locked up in a prison in downtown Jerusalem, but the angel was not required to put Peter’s shoe on his feet and wrap the musty, wrinkled cape around his neck. God will always be ready to step in and do what we can not do, but will not relieve us of adding grit to His grace for the miracle to be completed. Adam was not granted favorite son status when he inherited the Garden of Eden. It was his honeymoon suite but not a retirement village. With his privileges granted by God’s grace came responsibilities. The garden did not contain a lean-t stocked with crosscut saws, riding lawn mowers and a wide variety of power tools. There was no labor pool from which to employ day labor assistance and not one cordless hedge clipper could be found. God did what Adam could not do but required Adam to do the rest. We know what grace is. It is the unmerited favor of God. It is unearned but unending. But what is grit? The dictionary tells us that it means to have stubborn courage. Robert F. Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events…it is from numberless acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.” People with grit shape history and not necessarily by quantum leaps and legendary episodes but in numberless, small acts of courage. · Grit is getting a grip on grace and refusing to let go. · Grit is standing fast in faith when running would be much easier. · Grit is having guts to believe God in the face of life’s storms. · Grit is stick-to-itivensss when you are tired to the bone. · Grit is persistency trudging on when problems abound. · Grit is determination to trample defeat under your feet regardless. H. Ross Perot spoke with authority when he said, “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success, they give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.” The problem is not a shortage of grace. God’s grace is always and everywhere sufficient. The shortage is a dismal shortage of grit. It is to this end that I Corinthians 13:13 becomes such a motivation to furnish God’s grace with our grit. I love to read it from The Message. It says, “But for now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.” The three things that we must have girt to do are: First, have the grit to trust steadily in God. It takes grit at times to trust God’s grace. We see so much “un-grace” that it can cause us to question God’s grace. It reminds me of Dr. Marshall Craig who was preaching at a southern university and urging people to come to Jesus Christ and accept His grace. They began to come from the smartest scholars to the most outstanding athletes. Then from the rear a helpless crippled young man started crawling down the isle. Finally, kneeling at the feet of Dr. Craig, he pleaded, “Sir, you said God had a place for a man. I know God has a place for these other people, “but sir, does God have a place for a wreck like me?” Through his tears, Dr. Craig replied, “Son, God has just been waiting for a wreck like you.” The young man had grit to crawl down the isles on hands and knees, and God had grace to save him. Get a grip on that reality and don’t let it go. Secondly, maintain enough grit to have unswerving hope. Graceless geezers will limit God’s grace and cremate the last ray of hope for people in hopeless situations. They are prophets of gloom and doom. We all need hope and die without it…angrily, slowly and morbidly. You may be flirting with or infatuated with anger and feel justified to do so. You may feel helpless, hopeless and hostile, but you are not outside the perimeters of God’s grace. You need grit to stiffen up, straighten up and look up. Grit will help you to see hope through the dense fog of despair. The net of God’s grace is underneath you, and hope is His canopy over you. And finally, have enough grit to love extravagantly. Knowing how to love is to know how to win. I Corinthians 13:8 declares, “Love never fails.” The more you sow the more you get. Hannah Moore penned it so beautifully like this. “Love never reasons, but profusely gives---gives like a thoughtless prodigal, its all---and trembles than lest it has done too little.” Have enough grit to give love what ever the cost. It’s the only thing that will truly last! To tell someone you love them today may take a lot of grit, but it will be compensated by a lavish supply of God’s grace. Gritting It Out, Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Big Mix Up

Don’t blame God for something He did not do or give the devil credit for something he had no part of. It’s a mix up that needs to be fixed.

In such a mixed up mess, someone has said that that if the world becomes any more confused, we need not be surprised if monkeys start tossing peanuts to people.

As if things were not bad enough, some ingenious thieves decided to make things even more complicated. They managed to make an unauthorized entry into a department store and staged a “mix up marathon” for the next day when the store opened its doors for business. They went through the store displacing the price tag from one item and placing it on another item. A Plasma TV had the price tag of a pair of baby socks on it, and the baby socks had the price tag of the Plasma TV on it. Items were misstated like that through the entire store, and no body caught the mix up for a few hours.

The shame is that this mix up on price tags was no accident. It was a planned, carefully staged operation that worked like magic for a while until some one discovered that it was a big mistake.

Turn back the pages of time to page 1 in Genesis 3 and take a look at the world’s first lady as she took a fatal shopping trip. She was not shopping for a bargain dress, a pair of designer shoes and a custom made matching bag. She found herself in an auction packed drama for her life when in fact the price tags had been changed.

The change was minor, but the consequences were major. It was die or not die. Live or not live. Obey or not obey. Believe God or not believe God. Read it directly from the marketing strategy summary. It says, “And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall NOT surely die.” (Genesis 3:5) God said they would die, but the serpent changed the price tag to read: NOT DIE.

It was a mix up, but it has messed with our minds ever since that day and been the source of major confusion. It was not an advocacy to perpetrate murder or mayhem or suck down some marijuana. It was a mind game to encourage Adam and Eve to question the motives of God and throw a huge question mark into simple trust in God. It was not a simple slip up. It was a major mix up.

And the mix up goes on. Most Christians I have known are not caustic, calloused consummate complainers. They are confused and mixed up. They know tradition but have not really discovered truth. Paul hit the nail on the head when he wrote these words in II Timothy 3:7. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Tragically, without the truth, we can never be free to live our lives victoriously in Christ. Jesus said, “You shall KNOW the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)


Many years ago Sir Isaac Newton had a dog named Diamond that knocked a candle over on Newton’s desk that immediately started a flame which destroyed years of research. New after viewing the destruction simply turned to Diamond and said, “Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the damage thou has done.”

It would be impossible for us to calculate the damage that has been done to honest hearted believers who have fallen for the bait and switch tactic or the destructive power that has been caused by switching the price tags.

The only resolution is to revert back to the truth to clear up the mix up. Lets consider a few.

One of the most prevalent mix ups is that you haven’t forgiven if you haven’t forgotten.

Confusion and self condemnation are the results of this mix up. You feel guilty when you remember the man who raped you savagely. You can’t help but remember your nasty divorce when the IRS demands to see a copy of your divorce decree. Every visit to the grave of your son who was killed by a drunk driver who ran over him and left him to die in a puddle of his own blood is a reminder that something bad wrong happened. You can forgive without total amnesia, but you can also pardon them which means that there will be no demand that justice be served.

Don’t confuse forgiveness and pardon. Pardon means to release from further punishment or to excuse for a fault. It means absolution, grace, amnesty and exoneration. It means to literally set free without a penalty hanging over your head.

It takes a greater degree of grace to forgive and pardon when you have a clear memory of the offense that one has committed. We don’t forget the offense, but we forget to file charges against them in the court of heaven. Don’t get mixed up about this and lose your peace. The words of Lewis B. Smedes merits a new point of consideration. He said, “Love lets the past die. It moves people to a new beginning without settling the past. Love prefers to tuck the loose ends of past right and wrongs in the bosom of forgiveness---and pushes us into a new start.”

Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is remembering and letting it go. It’s God’s way of turning loose of the past and pressing on into a brand new future.

A second mix up is to ascertain that my sickness is punishment for my sins.

To me it is despicable to add the weight of guilt to the pains and problems of sickness by accusing the sick person of getting what they deserve because of un-confessed sin. God doesn’t stick us in a wheel chair to accentuate the guilt of our sin. If he did, we wouldn’t need the HOV Lanes on interstate. We would need a “wheel chair tarmac” for all of us to take advantage of. The Bible says, “We have ALL sinned.” Don’t allow the “do gooders” to add insult to your injury. Pray the prayer of faith, and the Lord will raise them up. Speak compassion and not condemnation. Show mercy and not meanness. God is not Dr. Frankenstein inflicting punishment upon you for His pleasure. He has made plans that will not allow you to leave this planet with sickness and diseases. You will leave it all here. There will be no crutches, oxygen tents and hypodermic needles in heaven. His plans for you include a deathless, tearless, painless paradise forever with him. Don’t get mixed up. His promises are certain.

A third mix up is assume that your check book is the thermometer of your spirituality.

Poverty and piety are not Siamese twins, and neither are riches and righteousness. The size of your tombstone, small or great, will have no correlation to your rewards in heaven. Don’t expect God to do kudos in your honor when you jingle the coins you have in your pockets or be impressed by your soup line mentality. God is impressed by your faith not your finances, your patience not your poverty, and your compassion not you’re loud clamoring for attention.

It is neither wealth nor poverty that moves the heart of God. It is your love, loyalty and obedience to Him. Mother Teresa said, “God has not called me to be successful. He has called me to be faithful.” Anything less is a mix up.

What I can do, plus what God can do, equals enough and He demands no more and no less.

Getting UnMixed!

Pastor Jimmy & Bob