…a loneliness that is caused by sin and being estranged from the God who gives life.

This was Michael Jackson’s reply to his friend who asked him if he’s lonely. You would never think that in spite of the fame, riches, and success that a man in his calibre would say those words. But if you know the Scriptures it is not surprising. It reveals to us that these things would never make anyone happy. Solomon can testify to it, “Everything is meaningless under the sun!” Many people today can relate…for many are lonely. And I’m referring to a loneliness that is caused by sin and being estranged from the God who gives life. And even the Son of God knows what it’s like to be lonely as He begins to carry the sins of the world to His shoulders.

Isn’t that a comforting thought? Jesus walked this valley before us. He felt the pang of isolation in the Garden of Gethsemane. And He felt the ultimate loneliness on the cross when He bore our sin. Because He has gone before us, He is our lifeline of hope. The author of the letter to the Hebrews assures us, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:15-16Heb. 4:15-16
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15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  

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Jesus will meet you in your loneliness with a word of understanding and a heart of compassion. With Christ, you can be alone without feeling the sadness of loneliness. Right now, your aloneness is like an emotional desert, where the landscape is barren and all you feel is the heat of the sun and an awful thirst for companionship. Now, contrast this desert image with a garden image. Imagine yourself alone in a garden, listening to the soothing sounds of the birds and the relaxing rhythm of the wind in the trees. In the garden, you experience solitude—an entirely different sensation. Solitude brings refreshment, peace, and meaning.

How can you start feeling less like you’re in a desert and more like you’re in God’s garden? First, be right with God by confessing your sins. Let Jesus cleanse you by His blood. Second, stay close to the Lord through prayer and Bible reading. God invites you to share everything that you’re experiencing with Him: Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:8Psalm 62:8
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8 Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.  

WP-Bible plugin). Third, look for people who need a friend and show Christ’s love to them. Seek out people who are likely to relate to you, those with whom you share common interests. Often people around us are also lonely and looking for companionship. Maybe you could connect with others in your church or your neighborhood.

Go to Jesus today and He can turn deserts into gardens.

Beloved, He is close to the brokenhearted. Go to Jesus today and He can turn deserts into gardens. He really can. May you find His peace in your lonely place.

What exactly is grace? And is it limited to Jesus’ life and ministry? You may be surprised to know that Jesus never used the word itself. He just taught it and, equally important, He lived it. Furthermore, the Bible never gives us a one-statement definition, though grace appears throughout its pages . . . not only the word itself but numerous demonstrations of it. Understanding what grace means requires our going back to an old Hebrew term that meant “to bend, to stoop.” By and by, it came to include the idea of “condescending favor.” If you have travelled to London or perhaps heard or read about it, you know royalty – the most famous was the late Princess Diana. If so, you may have noticed sophistication, aloofness, distance.



Every time the thought of grace appears, there is the idea of its being undeserved.

On occasion, royalty in England will make the news because someone in the ranks of nobility will stop, kneel down, and touch or bless a common person. That is grace. There is nothing in the person that deserves being noticed or touched or blessed by the royal family. But because of grace in the heart of the queen or the princess, there is the desire at that moment to pause, to stoop, to touch, even to bless. Someone said it best: “Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace.” To show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn’t deserve it and can never earn it. Receiving God’s acceptance by grace always stands in sharp contrast to earning it on the basis of works. Every time the thought of grace appears, there is the idea of its being undeserved. In no way is the recipient getting what he or she deserves. Favor is being extended simply out of the goodness of the heart of the giver.

And the greatest demonstration of grace is the cross of Calvary. There the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, stoop down to save us from our sins. Undeserving as we are we receive His love. What kind of love is that? It is a love that is more concerned about making the object of love feel loved, than it is in making the lover feel loved. The lover is willing to sacrifice, to make any sacrifice necessary just to make the object of love feel loved. That is what God did. It is the kind of love that does not regard itself, but unselfishly goes to the cross & sheds its blood, & gives its life so that there might be hope for those of us who are hopeless without it. That is “agape” love.



And the greatest demonstration of grace is the cross of Calvary…



So when the Bible says that “God is agape love” it means that God doesn’t love us with just a surface type of love, but He loves us with an all-sacrificing love. He gives Himself completely to express His love. And this we never deserve…it’s grace from beginning to end! As we come to the Lord’s table today, thank Him for His grace and love undeserved!

There are times and seasons that all of us will pass through. Just as there are different seasons in the earth, so life has its own seasons. If we are in a season of difficulty, the tendency is we pray intensely that our difficulties will go away but God does not remove them. Some difficulties cannot be prayed away. When we are in a difficult season in life, we should pray that God will give us the grace to go through the difficulties. We are not really the masters of time and seasons. We are all bound to live through various cycles in life, and this will never change whether we like it or not. We must respond to these cycles, not they to us. God balances our lives by giving us enough blessings to keep us happy and enough burdens to keep us humble. If all we had were blessings in our hands, we would fall right over, so the Lord balances the blessings in our hands with burdens on our backs. That helps to keep us steady, and as we yield to Him, He can even turn the burdens into blessings.



…God will give us the grace to go through the difficulties.

Why does God constitute our lives in this way? The answer is simple: to keep us from thinking we know it all and that we can manage our lives by ourselves. Just about the time we think we have an explanation for things, God changes the situation and we have to throw out our formula. This is where Job’s friends went wrong: they tried to use an old road map to guide Job on a brand new journey, and the map didn’t fit. No matter how much experience we have in the Christian life, or how many books we read, we must still walk by faith! To people without faith, time simply rolls onward, with no apparent rhyme or reason; accidents happen, and they are alone in the world. For believers, time is ordered by God’s providence. Events don’t “just happen” by chance; there is “a time for everything” (Eccl.3:1). God is with us, and is actively involved in our lives. Find comfort in the truth that “God has made everything beautiful in its time”. God is sovereign, He controls the “times”, yet in spite of this, we often fail to recognize God’s hand at work in the world and in our lives. But He causes all things to work together for good (Rom 8:28Rom 8:28
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  

WP-Bible plugin), and our times are in His hand. His timing is perfect. Those who see God’s hand in everything can best leave everything in God’s hand. There are no chance encounters in life, only divine appointments.



…and whatever season of life you are in now, know that God has a wonderful plan and a purpose.

Faith means trusting God, even when our timing disagrees with His. In times of hardship we draw comfort from knowing that God is in control. So, in every season of life, and whatever season of life you are in now, know that God has a wonderful plan and a purpose. He wastes nothing. He uses all things to accomplish His purposes and to make us the kind of people He designs us to be – for His glory! This is not fatalism, nor does it rob us of freedom or responsibility. It is the wise providence of a loving Father Who does all things well and promises to make everything work for good! So, instead of fighting it, EMBRACE THE SEASON, LEARN THE LESSONS, AND MORE THAN THIS – EMBRACE THE GOD OF THE SEASON…AND THE ONE WHO SEASONS YOU!

When God scans the earth for potential leaders, He is not on a search for angels in the flesh. He is certainly not looking for perfect people, since there are none. He is searching for men (and women) like you and me, mere people made up of flesh. But He is also looking for people who share the same qualities He found in David. God is looking for men and women “after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:141 Samuel 13:14
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14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.  

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God is looking for men and women “after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:141 Samuel 13:14
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.  

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What does it mean to be a person after God’s own heart? It means your life is in harmony with the Lord. What is important to Him is important to you. What burdens Him burdens you. When He says, “Go to the right,” you go to the right. When He says, “Stop that in your life,” you stop it. When He says, “This is wrong and I want you to change,” you come to terms with it because you have a heart for God. That’s bottom-line, biblical Christianity.

When you are a man or woman after God’s heart, you are deeply sensitive to spiritual things. Second Chronicles 16:9es 16:9
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. the shouting...: or, the alarm is fallen upon, etc  

WP-Bible plugin explains it this way: “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (emphasis added).

What is God looking for? He is looking for men and women whose hearts are His—completely. That means there are no locked closets. Nothing’s been swept under the rugs. That means that when you do wrong, you admit it and come to terms with it. You long to please Him in your actions. You care deeply about the motivations behind your actions. God is not looking for magnificent specimens of humanity. He’s looking for deeply spiritual, genuinely humble, honest-to-the-core servants who have integrity.



God is looking for deeply spiritual, genuinely humble, honest-to-the-core servants who have integrity.

Listen to some of the synonyms for this Hebrew word thamam, translated “integrity”: “complete, whole, innocent, having the simplicity of life, wholesome, sound, unimpaired.” It’s what you are when nobody’s looking. We live in a world that says, in many ways, “If you just make a good impression, that’s all that matters.” But you will never be a man or woman of God if that’s your philosophy. Never. You can’t fake it with the Almighty. He is not impressed with externals. He always focuses on the inward qualities, like the character of the heart . . . those things that take time and discipline to cultivate.

Fellow Dads, may we be, by His grace, men after God’s own heart…for this truly is the best gift we can give to our children…and to their Mom.



HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!