When someone says, “Make yourself at home,” it means you’re welcome and accepted. And that’s what Jesus means when He says, “Make yourselves at home in my love.” You never have been and never will be loved by anyone as much as God loves you.
The reason you have such a hard time grasping that concept is that you have nothing to compare His love to. Nothing could make God love you more than He does right now, and nothing could make Him love you less. The great irony is that we spend our lives trying to earn His love, when it can only be received by faith.
John said, “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to” (1 John 3:1-2 TM).
You may have grown up with parents who withheld their love or weren’t capable of expressing it. God doesn’t do that. Throughout Scripture He keeps saying, “I love you. I love you. I love you!”
C.S. Lewis wrote, “God created us to be the objects of His love! Sometimes our actions make us unlovely, but we’re never unloved. And because God loves us—we have value. And nobody can take that value away. God’s love revealed at Calvary fastens itself onto flawed creatures like us and, for reasons none of us can ever quite figure out, makes us precious and valued beyond calculation.
This is love beyond reason. And this is the love with which God loves us.”
Stick With It
September 29, 2017 • Bob Gass
Observe these six things about persistence: (1) You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. (2) The first two letters in the word goal are “go.” (3) Some people dream of doing great things; others wake up and actually do them. (4) Anyone who brags about what they’re going to do tomorrow probably did the same thing yesterday.
(5) You’ll never be what you ought to be until you’re doing what you ought to be doing. (6) If you’re having trouble thinking outside the box, it’s time to get out of the box. When Lester Wunderman was fired from his advertising job, he felt he still had a lot to learn from the head of the agency, Max Sackheim. So the next morning, he went back to his office and continued working as he always had, talking to coworkers and clients, and sitting in on meetings—all without pay.
Sackheim ignored him for a month. Finally he walked up to Wunderman and said, “Okay, you win. I never saw a man who wanted a job more than he wanted money.” Well, guess what? Wunderman went on to be one of the most successful advertising men of the century. He’s credited with having invented preprinted newspaper inserts, plus subscription cards like those used by Time-Life Books and the Columbia Record Club—ideas that produced millions of dollars in profit.
Now, advertising may not be your thing, but action must be. What are you willing to do to achieve your dream? Work without pay? Refuse to quit? Success belongs to those who trust God—and stick with it.
Understanding God’s will (3)
September 28, 2017 • Bob Gass
About 75 percent of believers now live in Third World countries, often in anti-Christian environments. Xu Yonghai is one of them. He worked to see the legalization of house churches in China. The government responded by locking him up for two years in an eight-by-eight-foot cell in a Beijing prison.
There was no bathroom, only a pipe in a corner from which water flowed onto the concrete. “My cell was the last stop for prisoners sentenced to die,” he said. “At times there were as many as three other prisoners in the tiny damp room, awaiting their date with the executioner.” Yonghai survived through prayer, meditation, and writing.
Using a bar of soap to write on the walls of his cell, he outlined the major points of a book about God. When he was finished, he committed the thoughts to memory, and upon his release, he turned his prison notes into a 50,000-word book entitled God the Creator. More often than not, your difficulties and hardships confirm you’re in the will of God rather than out of it! Paul wrote, “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (vv. 23-24 NIV).
Note the word grace. No matter how difficult the will of God may be, you can accomplish it by drawing each day on His limitless supply of grace.
When you know you’re in the centre of God’s will for your life, you have peace in spite of adverse circumstances. You have confidence to go to God at any time, knowing that He’ll provide what you need. You ask, “But how can I tell if I’m in the will of God?”
By knowing these two things, which are clearly laid out in the Bible: (1) You must be a Christian. Paul tells us, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14 NAS). Only as a believer do you have the Spirit’s presence within you. And you must have this inside help if you’re going to follow the will of God and enjoy the blessing it brings.
(2) You must exercise wisdom. “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5:15-17 NIV). The famous theologian and preacher Jonathan Edwards entered Yale University in 1716 at age thirteen, and at seventeen he graduated at the head of his class.
By age twenty, he “resolved never to lose one moment of time; but to improve it the most profitable way I can.” At twenty-six, he pastored one of the largest Congregational churches in Massachusetts. And when God decided to visit New England in the “Great Awakening,” He chose to use Jonathan Edwards because he was prepared and ready.
Doing the will of God calls for staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit and living in a state of perpetual readiness. So, how are you doing with that?
Be Wise And Winsome
September 25, 2017 • Bob Gass
The Bible says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15 NIV). But some of us act like loving the Lord more requires loving those around us less.
We may feel awkward around them or lose touch with them or not know how to communicate with them or we give off signals that we are spiritually superior to them. The Contemporary English Bible puts it this way: “If you act wisely, others will follow” (Proverbs 11:30 CEV).
You are called to bring joy to people, not judge them. God has already established a time and a place for judging, and you won’t be on the throne when He does it! Jesus is called “the good shepherd” (John 10:11), and the Greek word for good literally means “engaging, attractive, fetching.”
Christ was so magnetic that people were automatically drawn to Him. Are they drawn to you? Jesus said we are called to be salt and light. Salt makes the taste of food more enjoyable, and light shed on their path shows people the right way to go.
Because they were wise and winsome, Isaiah the prophet spoke into the lives of kings, the three Hebrew children changed the politics of Babylon, and Joseph the economist saved Egypt from famine. Yes, Satan is at work taking Christ out of Christmas, prayer out of schools, and God out of government. But he won’t win, and he knows it (see Revelation 12:12).
His strategy, however, is to convince us that he can. So today endeavour to be wise and winsome so you can lead people to Christ.
Build A Solid Foundation
September 24, 2017 • Bob Gass
Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock…The winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (vv. 24-25 NIV).
When the storms of life come—and they will—it’s too late to lay a solid foundation. That’s when you discover what kind of foundation your life is built on, so don’t short-change yourself by using shoddy materials or taking shortcuts. Be willing to acknowledge your weaknesses and work on them. Some of the strongest people you know needed help overcoming weaknesses at one time.
The pastor of a megachurch recalls his early days, when he prayed that God would increase the size of his ministry. He wrote, “After days of silence, the Lord answered by saying, ‘You’re concerned with building the ministry but I’m concerned with building the man. Woe to the man whose ministry becomes bigger than he is!’ Since then I’ve concerned myself more with praying for the minister than the ministry. I’m still amazed at who I’m becoming as I put my life daily into His hands.
He’s changing me—and He’s not finished yet. There’s so much more that needs to be done. Every day I see more immaturity in me. But what a sharp contrast I am to what I was…and I trust God more than ever.”
So work on your relationship with God. Build the truths of His Word into your life’s foundation, and when the storms come, you’ll be able to stand.
Patience, Love, And Encouragement
September 23, 2017 • Bob Gass
If you had met Asaph, who wrote some of the psalms, you would probably have thought he didn’t have a care in the world. But you would have been wrong: “I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone.” Then at the end of the psalm he did a one-eighty and wrote, “My health may fail, and my spirit grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever” (v. 26 NLT).
Despite his problems, he chose to speak words of courage. When you have an opportunity to encourage someone, do it. You never know what a person is going through—that’s true whether they live in a mansion or a mud hut. Here’s an important principle to keep in mind: people tend to become what the most important people in their lives think of them! So think the best, believe the best, and express the best toward them.
You say, “But they need to stop making the same stupid mistakes!” Change happens by inches, not miles. Even when it seems simple, it’s rarely easy. The only way we can break old habits is to form new ones, and that takes time and practice—lots of it. You can’t tell people something once and expect them to get it; they need to hear it over and over before they can make the adjustment.
And how you tell them can determine whether they freeze in fear or soar above the obstacles. Be persistent. Never give up trying to help them improve. Acknowledge every step of progress they make.
The way to get lasting results is through patience, love, and encouragement.
Your Life’s Assignment
September 22, 2017 • Bob Gass
To miss out on your assignment in life is to miss out on why God put you on earth. You’re gifted and called by God, and you need to take it seriously. The question is not what are you running from, but what are you moving toward? To succeed, you must know God’s will and concentrate on fulfilling it.
Having a powerful “why” will provide you with the necessary “how.” Purpose, not money and talent, is your greatest asset. To help you discover your life’s assignment, answer these questions: (1) What’s your temperament and what’s your talent? Psychologist and motivational speaker Charles Garfield said, “Peak performers are people who are committed to a compelling mission. It is very clear that they care deeply about what they do, and their efforts, energies, and enthusiasms are traceable back to that particular mission.”
(2) Why do you do what you do? There’s a big difference between doing something because you believe God has called you to do it and doing what your parents, friends, or ego wants you to do. (3) What do you not do well? Knowing what you’re called to do often starts with discovering what you’re not called to do.
When you can accept your limitations, you’re on the road to understanding your life’s assignment. When you pretend to be something you’re not, you live with a chronic sense of inadequacy and set yourself up for frustration. Don’t do that.
Be open to the truth about yourself. Discover your God-given assignment, then give yourself to it.
Stop Beating Yourself Up
September 21, 2017 • Bob Gass
When you sin, God’s Spirit will convict you of your need to repent and change your ways. But until you get your glorified body in heaven, you’re always going to deal with sin. The apostle James wrote, “We all stumble in many ways.” But falling down isn’t what makes you a failure—it’s staying down!
Get back up, dust yourself off, receive God’s grace, learn from the experience, and move on. The Bible says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NIV). God is not condemning you, so stop condemning yourself. A few decades ago, people used to wear a little badge with the letters GNFWMY.
It meant, “God’s not finished with me yet.” And He’s not finished with you either. Sometimes we’re guilty of doing the wrong thing with the right motive. For example, in 1957 Ford Motors described the new Edsel as “the car of the decade.” Try telling that to all those drivers whose doors wouldn’t close, whose horns stuck, and whose transmissions failed!
And remember the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, where the architect designed a 10-foot-deep foundation for a 179-foot-tall building? How would you like to have that on your résumé? The fact is, the most talented people often make the biggest mistakes. Solomon wrote, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20 NIV).
And Paul added, “I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize” (Philippians 3:12 CEV). So stop beating yourself up.
Practice Humility
September 20, 2017 • Bob Gass
When Jesus asked His disciples, “‘What were you arguing about along the way?’ They had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest, and so they did not answer…he said, ‘If you want the place of honor, you must…serve others!” (vv. 33-35 CEV).
If, after living with Jesus day and night for three years, His own disciples struggled with the concept of humility, none of us is exempt. Then Jesus taught them a lesson they’d never forget. “Jesus knew…he had come from God and would go back to God. He also knew that the Father had given him complete power.
So during the meal Jesus got up, removed his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He put some water into a large bowl. Then he began washing his disciples’ feet and drying them with the towel he was wearing” (John 13:3-5 CEV). Then He blew their minds by saying, “If your Lord and teacher has washed your feet, you should do the same for each other. I have set the example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you” (vv. 14-15 CEV).
Chuck Swindoll wrote, “Bending the knee to help others, or to admit weakness, is considered making yourself vulnerable to those who might take advantage of you. Too many leaders view themselves as being there to be served, except for short periods when it’s advantageous to be seen serving others—but not for too long…Not so for the followers of Christ.
For them humility isn’t a religious concept, it’s a way of life.” So today practice humility!
Keep Your Spiritual Glasses Clean
September 19, 2017 • Bob Gass
One day a man was getting his windshield washed at a gas station. When the attendant finished, the man said, “That’s a terrible job. Redo my windshield—it’s as dirty as when you started.”
So the attendant wiped it again. The man looked it over and in frustration said, “That window hasn’t changed a bit.” The man’s wife was sitting next to him in the car fuming.
She reached over, pulled off his glasses, wiped them, and gave them back to him. The attendant had been doing his job correctly. The man himself was the problem all along. Spiritually speaking, the glasses you’re looking through determine what you see and how you see it.
When you look through the lens of jealousy and envy, you become resentful of the blessings of others. When you look through the lens of judgmentalism, you speak and act without mercy and grace.
When you look through the lens of fear and unbelief, you limit God and forfeit what He can do for you. When you look through the lens of selfishness, you put yourself first and your loved ones suffer. When you look through the lens of negativity and cynicism, people begin to avoid you because you’re not enjoyable to be around.
“Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” Just as your glasses need to be wiped clean from the contamination around you, so do your heart and mind. How does this happen?
Jesus said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). Through prayer and daily Bible reading, your perspective on life is kept right.
Good Thinking
September 18, 2017 • Bob Gass
In his book Thinking for a Change, Dr. John Maxwell gives us eleven different types of thinking; to each we’ve added a Scripture. (1) Big picture thinking—the ability to think beyond yourself is required in order to process ideas from a “faith” perspective (Ephesians 3:20).
(2) Focused thinking—the ability to think with clarity on issues by removing distractions and mental clutter (Philippians 3:13-14). (3) Creative thinking—the ability to break out of the box and explore ideas and options in order to experience a breakthrough (Isaiah 54:2-3).
(4) Realistic thinking—the ability to build a solid foundation on facts, to think with certainty (Luke 14:28). (5) Strategic thinking—the ability to implement plans that give direction for today and increase your potential for tomorrow (Proverbs 19:21).
(6) Possibility thinking—the ability to unleash your enthusiasm and hope, to find solutions for even seemingly impossible situations (Matthew 19:26). (7) Reflective thinking—the ability to revisit the past in order to think with understanding (Psalm 1:1-3).
(8) Questioning popular thinking—the ability to reject common thinking and accomplish uncommon results (Isaiah 55:8-9). (9) Shared thinking—the ability to include others who can help you think “over your head” and achieve greater results (Psalm 133:1-3).
(10) Unselfish thinking—the ability to consider others and their journey, to think with collaboration (Romans 12:10). (11) Bottom-line thinking—the ability to focus on results in order to reap the full potential of your thinking (Matthew 25:14-30).
Let’s add: Spiritual thinking. “We have the mind of Christ.” One God-given thought can change your life!
Are You Resisting A Rest?
September 17, 2017 • Bob Gass
Following Jesus should energize you, not leave you feeling burned out. Jesus preached to farmers who used oxen to plow their fields. They also lived by religious rules that didn’t permit them to relax and experience God’s love and grace.
So Jesus told them, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you…and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:28-29 NLT).
Jesus had more to do than any of us, yet He never seemed to do it in a way that severed the life-giving connection with His Father or interfered with His ability to show love when it was called for. He regularly withdrew from the rat race in order to pray.
Even when His disciples returned, flushed with success from a busy time of ministry, He told them, “Come away…and rest a while,” because as Mark records, “Many people were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”
Constant hurry is the mark of an un-prioritized life—a sure sign that second and third things have become first things. Not only did God command us to rest every seventh day, He told Jewish farmers to let their fields rest every seventh year so they would produce better harvests.
The problem is we want microwave maturity: to exchange wisdom for information and depth for breadth—but it doesn’t work.
Depth comes slowly. Following Jesus can’t be done at a sprint; you can’t go faster than the One who’s leading.
Relationship and fellowship
September 16, 2017 • Bob Gass
God is responsible for your relationship with Him. The moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, His Son, you are a fully accepted family member. But you are responsible for your fellowship with God.
The Bible says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Stop and think about the last time you experienced tension with one of your family members.
You were still members of the same family, but your conversation became superficial and you found that you were more comfortable apart than together. When something happens between two people who are normally close, the first thing to vanish is the evidence of fellowship. And it’s the same in our walk with God.
Suddenly our prayers become surface and shallow: “Lord, please bless this food.” And we begin to avoid spending time with that Person: “I just don’t have time for my devotions.” The main prerequisite for experiencing fellowship with Jesus is following Him each day and obeying His commands.
When Peter and the disciples were fishing, the Lord told them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. When they obeyed Him, they caught a boatload of fish. But something even greater happened that day.
As Jesus drew closer, John said, “It is the Lord” (John 21:7). What followed was an intimate meal and a sweet time of fellowship with Jesus.
So if you are feeling out of fellowship with Jesus today, the chances are that you’ve either stopped fellowshipping with Him or started disobeying Him. If that’s so, do something about it.
