Dave White

In our history, and in the history of any great event, the patriots and founders often spoke of the “Cause” to remind each other of what they were fighting for.  In our American situation, the Cause was seeking liberty from tyranny.  So, what is our Cause, as followers of Jesus?

For the Christian, our Cause is the Gospel.  (“Gospel” is a tricked-out word that means “good news” [but not just any good news, the Good News].)  The Gospel is incredibly simple and, at the same time, immeasurably deep.  The Gospel motivates us and makes our work more effective by the power of its message.

God Almighty is holy, eternal, sovereign, and good.  Out of His magnificent character and power, He created us to glorify and delight in Him.  But we have all rebelled against His good orders to honor and enjoy Him.  We have all sinned.  There are deadly consequences of sin: temporal pain and eternal judgment.  But Jesus, the Anointed Savior, came to us, in fullness of deity.  He bought us reconciliation to the Father through His sinless life, substitutionary sacrifice, and victorious resurrection and ascension!  If we will repent and believe in God’s work through Jesus, we can be liberated from the slavery of sin.  Through the active work of the Holy Spirit, we get to live an abundant life now and an eternal life to come!

That is the Gospel!  That is the Good News!  That is our Cause and Constitution.  We rejoice in the grace of God, poured out on us by Jesus’ work and washing us clean by the regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit!  Volumes have been written and will be written flowing from the joy of this Good News.  I hope that you are able to join with the throngs of worshipers rejoicing in what God has done!

Steve Timmons

This week, I’m sharing a devo from my buddy, Steve Timmons.  Enjoy!  -Dave

“Do you think you’re good enough to go to Heaven?”

This is a question people hear a lot when being witnessed to. However can it be possible to focus too much on where we’re going and not on who we’re going to see?

The Bible is all about being close and intimate with God. He is holy and sovereign and good. He is also relational, as it is even shown in the three separate persons whom He is composed of. They are all individuals, but all work and commune harmoniously together.

God desires a relationship with us. And it is not because God needs a relationship with us. He doesn’t need us at all, and really wouldn’t want us after we have sinned and screwed up so many times against Him. However for some strange reason, God chose to desire us. That is one of the reasons why He sent His Son to die for us.

Nahum 1:2 says, “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God.” This does not mean that God is an obsessive, abusive control freak. What this verse is saying is that God is jealous for our affection and will do absolutely anything to obtain it. This is almost like a man seeking the affection for another woman as his bride. He will do absolutely anything he can to win her affection: buy her dinner, get her flowers, buy a $3,000 engagement ring, etc. The same goes with God. His jealousy also went as far as sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to provide that way for us to freely seek Him. Jesus Christ died a brutal death and bore the wrath of God. He took that vengeance that God should rightly have against us. He took it and through Him we are set free from our sins.

Remember, there is more to Christ’s selfless sacrifice than just our sins being wiped away. We are now free to seek God no matter where we are. We could be in a church service lifting our hands, or we could be at home eating breakfast in a bathrobe with morning breath and bed-head hair. God meets us where we are. He hangs out with us; He encourages us; and He just plain shows affection to us, not because we deserve it, but because we don’t! Our God is good!

Have you ever felt the warm embrace of God? There was one time a few weeks ago when I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really distressed. I was worried about a lot of issues concerning money and what was going to happen to me in the next few months. I broke down confessing my sin to God in tears. I felt so insufficient because I knew this anxiety was wrong, but I couldn’t let it go. As I was weeping, I felt God’s warm embrace and His peace all around me. I felt warmth like no blanket or heating system has ever given me before. All my muscles relaxed and I felt peace. This was God’s peace. I believe He was holding me close and comforting me with His love.

So will Heaven be nice? Absolutely. But Heaven won’t be nice because of tricked out streets of gold, seeing old friends long gone and not having to deal with the burdens of this sinful world. Heaven will be nice because of Jesus Christ! I’ll be able to see Him face to face! I’ll be able to walk with Him, talk with Him, ask Him questions, and did I mention WORSHIP HIM?! I’ll be seeing that beautiful throne like what John describes in Revelation as Jesus sits upon it. Not only that but I can freely approach that throne without fear of rejection or punishment because Jesus Christ has washed me clean of my filthy sin.

Heaven is not just about comfort. It is about Jesus Christ. If you think Jesus Christ is not in Heaven, then you are not thinking about Heaven.

“Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
-Psalm 73:25-26

Dave White

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is,’Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ – Mark 12:28-30

As I compose this week’s little devo, I am ill.  I bring this up because this particular illness is affecting my ability to think, breathe, and balance.  I am not my usual witty, oxygenated, and well-balanced self.  My heart, soul, mind, and strength are not as hearty, soulful, cognisent, and strong as they usually are.  What’s cool about God is that He’s ok with that.  Our God meets us where we are and ushers us into His Presence because of the work He has done through the cross – not by our work or morality, but by His grace.  Love God with all that you have.  Our God does not demand any more than we are able to give.  Jesus takes care of the rest.

No matter what your emotional condition, God will take you as you are.  Even if we are angry at the Sovereign God, He will take us as we are.  From the depths of despair, He will welcome us into His hope and love.

No matter what your spiritual condition, God will take you as you are.  Whether someone has served the Lord for decades or been in rebellion against Him, God calls all people to turn to Him.  To be welcomed by God, one does not need to have a perfectly clean moral record.  I’ll add here that my illness has weakened my ability to fight temptations today and that the Lord knows my weaknesses and that His grace covers it.  (The Holy Spirit’s strength is not weakened, and His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.)

No matter what your mental condition, God will take you as you are.  It does not matter whether you have an IQ of 0 or 160, God will take you as you are.  God welcomes forgetful people and those with photographic memories.  God grace covers people with autism, schizophrenia, ADD, OCD, PTSD, and every other acronym.

No matter how much strength you have in body or will, God will take you as you are.  One does not need to be able to climb a mountain, swim a river, run a mile, or hog-tie a bull in a rodeo.  You don’t need to be in perfect health or a certain height or a particular build in order for God to pour out His abundant grace on your insufficient strength.

These truths apply to both those who have and those who have not accepted Christ as their personal Savior.  For those who have accepted Christ, we walk with Him knowing that He will continue to meet us where we are. As we walk with Him, we do become more like Him in heart, soul, mind, and strength; and we should strive for holiness; but we also have full confidence that He accepts us in our current state because of Jesus’ finished work of redemption on the cross.

For those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord (Boss of your life) and Savior (Rescuer of your soul), God invites you to give Him your all, your everything.  Your sin weighs you down and separates you so much from a good and holy God, that you can never reach Him by your own efforts.  Even more than that, the only right response of the perfectly good God against your sin and rebellion is justice.  But God, who is so generous with His mercy, has actually taken upon Himself the penalty of our sin so that, through Jesus, our relationship to our loving Creator can be restored.  A restored friendship with God is the best thing that can happen to anybody!  God invites you to that.  Accept God’s gift of rescuing and restoring through Jesus Christ, and love God with everything you have!

Tonight (Saturday), I was reminded of the reality of what we are dealing with in regards to our youth.  Brothers and sisters, we must fight the battle for their souls and their lives.  We cannot give up.  We cannot ignore their struggle.  We must remind ourselves of the depth and breadth and importance of what they are going through every day in their schools, and we must not forget the terrible strength of the world’s enticing culture of self-worship and impermanent pleasures.The world has a powerful grip on the spiritual throats of these kids, but our victorious Christ has said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Our struggle may be great, but our God is so much greater than our task.  He is mighty in deed and powerful in effect.  “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Pray for us and all those who minister the GOOD NEWS of Jesus our Savior to those who are dying in their sins.  Pray for these kids, caught in the spell of the devil, world, and flesh.  Only Jesus can save them, and He is able!

^{Psalm 78:4-8}

⁴We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
⁶that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
⁷so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
⁸and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Dave White

Well, not really. Anyways…

I had a wonderful time early this month spending time with great friends out of state. I did a lot of driving, and, by the time I returned home, my car was filthy. So, Thursday evening after work, I took my car through the wash. I even splurged and got the $8 wash with the special foam and dry. I felt pretty good about myself as I drove home in my shiny car.

On Friday, I awoke to snowfall, and I drove to work through the snow. By the time I got to work… my car was filthy again. Far better than being grumpy about this, God used this to remind me of His forgiveness. Through the blood of Jesus, we are washed clean of our sins. Though we sin again and again, the Father welcomes us back into His arms and washes us clean through the regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Thesis #1 of Martin Luther’s 95 theses was this: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent”, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

It’s shameful how often I cover myself with filthy sin, but God’s love and grace is greater than my tendency toward depravity. More than I dislike the dirt on my car, God hates our sin. He is good and cannot stand evil. Nevertheless, far more than I enjoy my ‘95 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, God delights in, rejoices over, and adores His children!

My car gets dirty again and again, and I need to keep washing it. Our lives get mucked up again and again, and we need to continue repenting of our sins before God- turning from our wrong deeds, words, thoughts, and feelings and turning to Jesus, who washes us clean again and again by His Spirit.

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” – Titus 3:3-7

I am constantly amazed at my stupid sinfulness and at God’s amazing grace, grace being a gift that I have not earned.  The longer and farther I walk with Him, the more and more I am amazed at Who He is.  Simply knowing Him in His grace or forgiveness is like diving deeper and deeper into a beautiful sea or like walking further into a gorgeous forest than you’ve ever been.  His grace is soooo deep!  There’s no sin that I can commit that will be too strong for His grace, and there is no perpetual trespass that, by attrition, will wear out His forgiveness.  This, of course, is no excuse for sin, but it is a motivation for praising our glorious God and pursuing a holy life!

This past week, the Holy Spirit kindly warned me of something.  I ignored Him and suffered the consequences of disobedience.  Thankfully, the consequences for me were not much more than being delayed, but the amazing thing is the grace of God!  He forgave me at the price of His one and only Son.  What’s more, His grace extends to the far reaches of eternity.  He did not just pay the penalty for my sin, but God has made a way to eternal life with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, His grace gives us abundant, vibrant life with Him now, as well as eternal life later.

As I was suffering the consequences of my sin, I stopped and prayed to God for help.  He heard me in my distress and gave me grace, lifting me out of my trouble and blessing my life.  I fell on my knees in gratefulness, something I do not do as often as a Christian should, and basked in His loving kindness.  God is so good!  His kindness leads us to repentance.  I encourage you, reflect on God’s goodness, and think about His holiness.  Perhaps there are some things you need to repent of, some things you need to let God change.  Bask in God’s goodness, grace, love, and holiness.  He is great!  He is worth praising!

-Dave White, f2fmi prayer guy