GRACE LEADS YOU HOME

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 24:1-9

Long before my mother died, she and a neighbor friend compiled a book of God's promises taken from the Scriptures. Each made her own. My mother used that little book as a primer for her prayers. After she died, my brother and sister and I viewed that tender compilation as part of her legacy to us. The book swelled with handwritten promises from the Bible.

She must have written out hundreds of promises drawn directly from the Bible. Promise after promise after promise. My name was connected to some of them. "For Charles, I claim this promise," she wrote on one of the pages. For Orville and Luci she claimed scores of others and recorded them in her book.

My friend, go back to the Book. Search for the promises God offers you in His Word. I suggest you start with the Psalms. Look for the promises there. They are myriad. Become familiar with them. Live in them. Walk with them. In some special cases, memorize them. Let them be your guide and comfort. Like Paul, you'll be able to withstand the fiercest storms of criticism when you stand firmly on the promises of God.

I don't know where you are or what you face today. It's quite possible you're living under the pressure of negative criticism. I know that's true if you're in the ministry. Somebody may be determined to "prove" things about you that you know are absolutely false. My advice is to learn from Paul: remain calm. Rest your case with your Lord. Take your battles to Him in prayer. With a clear conscience and committed to the truth, lay your case out before Him. Start there. And the Judge of all truth will guide you to your next step. Don't quit. Don't stop. Don't tell yourself that you really are the kind of person others say you are. If what is being said against you is not true, don't believe it. Count on the Lord to give you the strength and courage to stand on the truth. His grace has brought you safe this far, and it will be His grace that leads you home.

Trust me on that; even better, trust Him.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 23:11-22

Not one assassin but forty of them! Forty determined terrorists, operating under cover of secrecy. All of them vowing, "We will not eat or drink until we've killed him." The plan was treacherous and set in motion by those who wanted him dead. What they hadn't counted on was an unlikely ally for Paul. His nephew had overheard everything and made tracks to warn his uncle.

Remarkably, Paul's nephew plays a major role in his survival. He is not mentioned by name, and we never hear of him again. Then how did he know about the ambush? Only God knows.

Meanwhile, the Roman commander was feeling relieved, proud of his wise handling of the situation. His musings were interrupted by a reluctant knock at the door. The news couldn't be good. One of his centurions reports that the young man with him has some important information about a conspiracy to kill Paul. The Roman commander wasn't about to let some scrappy band of fanatics spoil his plan to bring Paul safely to Rome. So he pulled out all the stops.

Uniformed, armed, and trained soldiers. Four hundred and seventy-two to forty rag-tag conspirators. Nice odds. Talk about overkill. The guy would not be outdone. He made sure no one could get to Paul. Remember God's promise? "You must witness at Rome." This is just part of that divine plan. It was as if God said, "I know what I am doing. I will escort you down to Caesarea by the Sea with full protection. You are in My hand." A massive official escort---that would work just fine.

What a comforting story. Despite the odds stacked against him, Paul was never removed from God's protective hand. And neither are you.

Are you feeling alone, mistreated, misunderstood, forsaken? Remember this true account. God is at work. He's there, working behind the scenes. He'll work it out. He has a plan. Just when you're convinced the bottom is about to drop out from under you, He steps in and lifts you to safety. For Paul, he used an unlikely and virtually anonymous ally, a nameless nephew who comes out of the shadows at precisely the right time. God's timing is always perfectly synchronized with His will. Remember that. And be comforted.

STOP AND SURRENDER

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 18:1-17; 2 Corinthians 11:22-28

So much for Paul. How about you? Fast forward to the twenty-first century. Are you afflicted and burdened excessively? Do you feel as if you're under such intense pressure these days that you, too, are close to despair? I have some surprising news: you're exactly where God wants you to be. It took all these years to get you this low, this needy. Now, look up!

Are you feeling crushed and confused, misunderstood and beaten down? Resist the temptation to roll up your sleeves and muster a self-imposed recovery plan. This is your opportunity! Rather than fighting back, surrender. Embrace your weakness. Tell your heavenly Father that you are trusting in the strength of His power. If Paul could do it, so can you. So can I.

At this moment I am facing a few impossible situations. No doubt, so are you. To be honest, I'm too weak to handle any of them. So are you. I'm often near tears. I'm frequently discouraged. There's hardly a week that passes that I don't slump into a mild feeling of discouragement. Sound familiar? Admit it! Some nights I don't sleep well. There are times that I absolutely weep out of disappointment in some individual's failure . . . or my own. You too? You and I need to face the fact that we will never be able to handle any of these pressures alone. When we acknowledge this, and not until, His strength will be released in us.

Are you ready to face the next battle with a new strategy? Okay, start by surrendering. Instead of returning to your same-old method---doing a month of mental push-ups, talking yourself into looking strong and acting brave, putting on the gloves and stepping into the ring with swagger, relying on your own strength to win and succeed and impress. Stop and surrender. Drop to your knees and cry out to God. Admit your inadequacies, and declare your inability to keep going on your own.

If you're finally ready to step aside and let Him have His way, say so; then do it. He will honor your admission of weakness by showing Himself strong through you. But if you don't, He won't.

It's your call.

GENUINE HUMILITY

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 18:1-17; 2 Corinthians 11:22-28

We'd rather admire Paul for his strength in trials. We want to applaud his fierce determination against vicious persecution. If the man were alive today, he would not tolerate our congratulations. "No, no, no. You don't understand. I'm not strong. The One who pours His power into me is strong. My strength comes from my weakness." That's no false modesty. Paul would tell us, "Strength comes from embracing weakness and boasting in that." It is that kind of response that brings divine strength and allows it to spring into action.

J. Oswald Sanders, in his book, Paul, the Leader, writes, "We form part of a generation that worships power---military, intellectual, economical, scientific. The concept of power is worked into the warp and woof of our daily living. Our entire world is divided into power blocs. Men everywhere are striving for power in various realms, often with questionable motivation."

The celebrated Scottish preacher, James Stewart, made a statement that is also challenging: "It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build His Kingdom; and that He can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them."

That's a thrilling discovery to make. It transforms our mental attitude toward our circumstances.

Let's pause long enough here to consider this principle in all seriousness. Your humiliations, your struggles, your battles, your weaknesses, your feelings of inadequacy, your helplessness, even your so-called "disqualifying" infirmities are precisely what make you effective. I would go further and say they represent the stuff of greatness. Once you are convinced of your own weakness and no longer trying to hide it, you embrace the power of Christ. Paul modeled that trait wonderfully, once he grasped the principle. His pride departed and in its place emerged a genuine humility that no amount of hardship could erase.

SENSITIVE LEADERS

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 17:1-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6

Good leaders are sensitive to the needs of others. Paul compared his ministry to a mother who tenderly cares for the needs of her children. I love that word picture. I watched my wife nursing our children when they were tiny, without giving one thought to her own needs. It has been my joy as well to witness my grown daughters caring for our grandchildren too. It's a precious sight to behold.

Watching my wife and daughters gently cradle their little ones close to their breasts, and lovingly providing for their needs, helps me understand what Paul meant by "gentleness." His ministry was marked by a gentle nurturing of the flock. Paul says, "I was like a mother nursing a child, in my manner among you."P>

If God has placed you in a leadership responsibility, I urge you to cultivate a spirit of gentleness. It is after all a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23). Your tenderness will work wonders in the lives under your care.

In the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy, the world watched in wonder as powerful leaders spent time tenderly listening to the gut-wrenching stories of rescue workers and grieving New Yorkers. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani impressed the world day after day standing before the people of that great city chronicling the grim progress reports from Ground Zero. He spoke softly and compassionately, sometimes with tears, as the gruesome figures stuck in his throat. Somehow he made it through each meeting. Holding back his tears seemed as futile as trying to recover victims from the ten-story mound of twisted Trade Center rubble. Americans needed to see gentle leaders weep.

So do Christians. Spiritual leaders need to be just as real, as gentle, as understanding, and as empathetic. You and I appreciate spiritual leaders who consistently reveal their human sides. Contrary to popular opinion, Paul, the strong-hearted, passionate, gritty leader was also known for his gentleness and grace.

Are you known for yours?

THANKSGIVING

by Charles R. Swindoll

My love affair with Thanksgiving takes me all the way back to my boyhood days. I had just turned 10 years of age and was in fifth grade at Southmayd Elementary School in East Houston. As I recall, I was still going barefoot to school--and I combed my hair, maybe three times a week. Girls didn't matter a lot to me when I was 10! It was on a Wednesday, the day before our Thanksgiving holidays began.

The year was 1944. Our nation was at war across the Atlantic into Europe as well as in the Pacific and far beyond. Times were simple back then but they were also rugged. Everything was rationed. Framed stars hung proudly in neighborhood windows--and sometimes they were quietly changed to crosses. Everyone I knew was patriotic to the core. Without television, we relied on "newsreels" that were shown at the movies, bold newspaper headlines, and LIFE magazine, which carried photos and moving stories of courage in battle and deaths at sea. Signs were posted inside most stores and on street corners, all of them with the same four words:

"Uncle Sam Wants YOU"

Draped high across the front of our classroom was a huge American flag with its 48 stars and 13 stripes. We began that Wednesday as we did every other day in school, standing erect beside our desks, repeating the Pledge of Allegiance and then bowing our heads as our teacher led us in prayer. Hanging just below the flag was a large picture of our 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She always remembered to pray for him--and our "soldier boys"; who were serving their country in dark, dreary, and dangerous places a half a world away from my fifth-grade class.

My teacher had lost her husband on the blood-washed shores of Normandy the previous June. After we had saluted the flag, a hush fell across the room as we bowed our heads together. No one moved. As she began to pray and give thanks, her voice broke and she started to weep. I did too. So did Richard Webb, my best buddy. And Wanda Ragland. Even Charles White and Warren Cook, two tough kids who later played high school football when we were all Milby Buffaloes, wiped back their tears. No one moved as she stumbled and sobbed her way through her prayer, which was filled with some of the most moving expressions of gratitude and praise that I have ever heard emerge from a soul plunged in personal grief and pain.

In that epochal moment, time stood still. And I believe it was then--right then--that I fell in love with Thanksgiving. It became, for me, far more than just another holiday; it took on a significance that bordered the sacred.

Lost in sympathy and a 10-year-old-boy's pity for his teacher, I walked home much slower that autumn afternoon. Although only a child, I entertained deep and profound feelings of gratitude for my country, kept free by the bravery and blood of men and women only a few years older than I, most of them fresh out of high school. On that cool afternoon I felt a renewed surge of thankfulness for my mom and dad, my older brother and sister . . . my maternal grandparents . . . my friends . . . for my school . . . my neighborhood . . . my church. Though only a child, I promised God that I would fight to the end to keep this land free from enemies who would take away our liberty and erase America's distinctives and steal the joys of living in this good land.

I have never forgotten that childhood promise. I remembered it at another Thanksgiving, fourteen years later in late November of 1958, when I wore the uniform and silently walked the same beaches of Okinawa where my fellow Marines had sacrificed their lives in the last great battle of the South Pacific in WWII. And as Thanksgiving returns annually, I still pause; I still let the wonder in.

Thanksgiving puts steel in our nerves and causes fresh blood to course through our patriotic veins. It reminds us of our great heritage. It carries us back with humbling nostalgia to those first dreadful winters at places like Plymouth and Jamestown, where less than half of those who first landed survived. But what grand men and women those pioneers became--those who pressed on. Reading their names today is like reading a page out of our national heroes' Hall of Fame. In words taken from Hebrews 11, they were those "of whom the world was not worthy." At this time every year I pause and remember how thankful I am for each one of them. They had the stuff of which greatness is made.

POSITIVE SEPARATIONS

POSITIVE SEPARATIONS by Charles R. Swindoll Read Acts 15:30-41 Let’s be painfully candid here. I’ve had my own share of arguments, and you’ve had yours. I’ve had some that were never reconciled. Thankfully, most ended in a renewed friendship. I’ve learned through the years a few strategies that have proven effective in facing difficult disagreements. 1. When in a disagreement, work hard to see the other point of view. That begins with listening. Include in the formula three qualities that don’t come easily: honesty, objectivity, and humility. That’s the full package for handling conflict God’s way. None of that comes naturally. They come to full bloom as products of the Spirit-filled life. 2. When both sides have validity, seek a wise compromise. For those who were reared as I was, even the thought of compromise makes you bristle. If you’ve got backbone, you don’t give in. You stand firm, regardless. I appreciate an individual with backbone—true grit. But one who never bends, one who refuses to negotiate toward resolution? Hardly. I admire more someone who willingly and graciously seeks a suitable solution to disagreement, without in any way compromising biblical principles. 3. When the conflict persists, care enough to work it through rather than walk out. Slamming a phone down in the middle of a conversation or breaking through the screen on the front door as you stomp into the street solves nothing. Nor does a lengthy, manipulative silent treatment benefit either party. Or bolting from a marriage. Or quitting your job in a huff. That’s not how to handle disagreements. Work it through. Stay at it. It’s some of the hardest work you’ll do, but it’s also the most rewarding. 4. When it cannot be resolved, graciously agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable. I think Paul and Barnabas did that. Paul never takes a shot at Barnabas when he later wrote to the churches they had planted. In all of his letters, you’ll not find one slam against his former companion. And there’s no evidence of Barnabas licking his wounds either. Honestly, not all separations lead to bad endings. Some of the greatest seminaries were birthed from a crucible of conflict. Some significant churches started as a result of an ugly split. It’s never too early to start moving on. Phillip Melanchthon, that persuasive tempering force in Martin Luther’s life, put it best in these few words: “In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things charity.”

Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives

ELUSIVE POPULARITY

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 14:1-20

Remarkably, though laying lifeless in a pool of his own blood, Paul got right back up and walked back into the city from which he had been dragged and left for dead. I mean, is this missionary determined or what? True grit.

Let me ask you a couple of questions: Can you imagine being so hated that people literally pick up rocks and strike you repeatedly until you’re unconscious and left for dead? Here’s another one: If they stone you in Abilene, are you going to stay in Abilene overnight? Okay make that Phoenix or Bakersfield. Not a chance! You’re going to take as quick a flight to a place as far away from there as possible. Get serious—if you’re operating strictly from a horizontal viewpoint, you don’t want to be within a thousand miles of that place when the sun rises the next dawn.

That is, of course, unless you’re called and fully committed to the vertical perspective. Then you stick it out. You don’t quit. Neither do you retaliate or throw a pity party. You go to sleep night after night, trusting in the same God who called you to serve there—convinced that He is sovereign and in absolute control.

That’s exactly what Paul did. As a matter of fact, he entered that same city and spent the night there (14:20). He picked himself up off the dusty ground, pushed aside the larger stones, wiped the blood from his face and hands, gathered his composure, and climbed right back into the pulpit. They could not drive him away. Welcome to an authentic ministry!

You’d think he’d demonstrate a little caution and common sense. After all, Lystra is a dangerous, unpredictable city. Paul was stoned and left for dead! They wanted him gone, but God called him to minister there.

Listen to me: A ministry that lasts is a ministry that relentlessly perseveres through periods of enormous persecution. It is not fickle. It does not need the applause of people. It rejects being enshrined as a god. Authentic ministry delivers the truth of God, no matter how jagged the edges or perilous the threats. The ministry of Paul and Barnabas dripped with that kind of determination. Does yours?

GRACE TO THE SAVED

Read Acts 13:14-52

Paul’s message emphasized the gospel to the lost and grace to the saved. That is a wonderful paradigm for any minister or ministry to adopt. As I’ve studied the life of Paul, particularly in his later years, I find two prominent themes woven like threads through the tapestry of his ministry.

First, to the lost he presented the Gospel: “Let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

Imagine the impact our churches would have on our communities if each Christian committed to sharing the Gospel once a week with someone who expresses a need.

Second, his message included large doses of grace for the saved. Just as the lost don’t understand the Gospel, the saved rarely understand grace. There are few activities more exhausting and less rewarding than Christians attempting to please the people around them by maintaining impossible legalistic demands. What a tragic trap, and thousands are caught in it. When will we ever learn? Grace has set us free! That message streamed often through the sermons and personal testimonies of the apostle Paul.

The lost need to hear how they can go from the island of debris, filled with misery and guilt, to the land of peace and forgiveness, flowing with mercy and grace. We build those bridges when we lovingly and patiently communicate the Gospel. You don’t have to have a seminary degree. You don’t have to know a lot of the religious vocabulary. In your own authentic, honest, and unguarded manner, share with people what Christ has done for you. Who knows? It may not be long before you will know the joy of leading a lost sinner from the darkness of death’s dungeon across the bridge to the liberating hope of new life in Christ. Once they’ve arrived, release them. Release them into the magnificent freedom that grace provides. Don’t smother them with a bunch of rules and regulations that put them on probation and keep them in that holding tank until they “get their lives straightened out.” Making us holy is the Spirit’s work. You be faithful to dispense the Gospel to the lost and grace to the saved. Then leave the results in the Lord’s hands.

by Charles R. Swindoll