Month: April 2025

Posted in 2Corinthians

Are You “All In?”

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” 2Corinthians 5:15

Our culture is fascinated right now with a game called, “Texas Hold ‘em.” There are tournaments in bars all over the world and ESPN regularly shows the big events entitled, “The World Series of Poker.” Why the craze, and why now? In a regular poker game there is a set limit on the betting, so there’s a ceiling on how much a person can lose in a single hand. But in Hold ‘em there’s no limit. Anyone can go “all in” at any time, so a player either has to match their bet or get out. If you lose after you’ve gone “all in” you’re out of the game. It’s all or nothing.

I believe there is something deep inside this generation that wants to go “all in.” They don’t want to do their “duty,” or give some minimal commitment to something that is socially acceptable, or that their mom and dad believe in. If it is real to them, they are ready to give everything. If it’s not, they don’t want any part of it.

God views the gospel this way. Jesus has died for you and me; He’s gone “all in.” The response can’t be a little religion to ease our guilt.  We must go “all in” as well or we won’t make much spiritual progress. God is patient so He gives us plenty of time to decide, but He won’t lower His wager because we think it’s too high. He gave everything for us and He expects everything from us.

If God gave us some dramatic way to show that we were going “all in,” I think many of us would be willing to do it. But the way we prove our devotion is by seeking to please Him in the midst of our everyday, ordinary lives instead of just living to please ourselves. It’s about our attitudes and decisions each and every day. Will we serve, or seek to control? Will we forgive, or hold a grudge? 

We can’t say we’re going “all in” on Sunday and take the wager back on Monday morning. He wants us to walk with Him 24/7. Because of our sin nature no one will ever do this perfectly, but God’s not looking at that. He’s looking at the attitude of our hearts: Are we holding back from Him, or are we really seeking to please Him every day?

Posted in 1John, 2Corinthians, Revelation

Overcoming the Accuser

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The accuser of the brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” Revelation 12:10b-11

The enemy of mankind tempts people to justify their sins and independence before they come to Christ, but when they become believers, he switches his strategy to persistent accusation. Notice in the text that he doesn’t accuse all people, but only those who call themselves believers. All believers succumb to accusation once in awhile, but it is possible to live overcome by so much accusation that there is no joy or sense of victory in our faith. God doesn’t want us to live under accusation so He tells us specifically how we overcome it.

First, by the blood of the Lamb. The power of Satan’s accusations is the truth in them. We have sinned and failed in the past. He can bring back something we did twenty years ago, or a bad attitude we’ve had recently, or a failure last week and make it seem like any victory is beyond us. It may be true that we’ve sinned in the specific way he is accusing us of, but that’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is that God loves me anyway which is why Jesus came and died for my sins, and now, His blood washes me completely clean when I confess my sins to Him. (1John 1:9) Remember the song: “Oh happy day, oh happy day, when Jesus washed, He washed my sins away.” That’s the other side of truth and must be what we agree with to find victory. Trying to defend yourself and your actions will only lead to deeper condemnation. The power to overcome is not in our righteousness, but in His. When we really believe in His cleansing, every day can be a happy day!

Second, by the word of their testimony. We must never lose the power of how our story intersects with God’s. His story is the gospel, sending Jesus to die for our sins. Our story is how we were drawn to Christ and became saved. Our testimony is a reminder of the new identity we have in Christ. The enemy will try to tie your identity to your old life in sin, but whenever we recite our testimony (to ourselves or others), we are reminded that our identity isn’t in our sin, but in His new life in us. 2Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Posted in Luke, Proverbs

Getting Back Up

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32

Jesus’ prayer concern had nothing to do with Peter denying Him three times; in His mind that was a done deal. What He was concerned about was Peter having the faith to get back up after he had fallen. Peter was about to fall hard and he couldn’t see it coming. In fact, in the very next verse he tells Jesus that he is “ready to go both to prison and to death” for Him. The reality is that he isn’t ready to stand up for Jesus in front of a servant girl. After his failure he would experience the shame and remorse of his actions verses what he had promised. He would loathe himself for a season.

But Jesus prayed that his faith wouldn’t fail. That Peter would remember God’s love for him and God’s wisdom to take even our brokenness and make something good out of it. That he would be able to look beyond himself and see the bigger picture, recognizing God’s hand even in allowing his failure.

When God looks at our lives, like He did at Peter’s, He sometimes makes a big call for change. It seems like we are put in survival mode when He brings something to bear on us that literally exposes everything inside of us. Sometimes it’s a failure that brings this to light, sometimes it’s a trial, sometimes it’s’ a difficult relationship, and sometimes it’s just God’s direct dealing. When God goes there you aren’t going to get better until you agree with Him about the depth of the problem and begin to face it with His love and grace.

When we sit in shame, condemnation, and self loathing instead of getting back up again in faith, all it means is that it’s going to take that much longer. Proverbs says that a righteous man falls down seven times and gets back up. (Proverbs 24:16) Successful Christians are not those who never fall but those who have learned how to get up quickly!

Posted in 2Corinthians

The Fragrance of Christ

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life…” 2Corinthians 2:14-16

What do you smell like? Not how do you act or what do you do, but what does the essence of who you are smell like? The Lord’s command was not to do witnessing, but to be witnesses. Our very presence should bring people into God’s Presence if we are releasing the aroma of Christ. If people are invited to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” they should at least be able to smell His goodness on us and be drawn to Him the way they would be drawn to a good meal cooking in the oven.

I think it would be a great purpose statement to simply aim to bring the aroma of God’s beauty, love, and intimacy to every place we go and in every circumstance we face. We can’t control our lives, but we do choose where we turn in the uncontrollable events that happen every day. Will I turn to myself and become anxious and irritable or will I turn to God and allow His Presence in me to be released? If you want to get the fragrance out of a tea bag you put it in hot water. Maybe the reason we face all that we do is so God can release more of Himself through our lives.

Paul is using the imagery of a Roman triumph in this passage. The conquering general parades those who he has taken captive through the streets and incense is released throughout the city speaking of the victory that has been won. The captives of Rome were made to follow a general who had conquered them by force. We become part of Christ’s triumph when we willingly choose to surrender to His wonderful love and grace. The captives back then lost their old lives and became the prisoners and servants of Rome. We are called to lose our old lives to become prisoners of His love and servants of the kingdom of God.

Are you really His captive? Have you allowed Him to lead you away from your old life into His ways and Presence? If not, why not ask Him to fully capture you? Someone might need to smell Him.

Posted in 1John, Hebrews

Feeling Guilty

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“When He (Jesus) had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…” Hebrews 1:3b

Do you often feel guilty? Do you find that many things you do are really motivated by a sense of guilt and fear instead of love? “Well, I’d better do this, or my husband will be upset.” “We better go there or our parents will be disappointed.” “If we don’t offer to do that for them then they might not do this for us.”

It is easy to do the right thing for the wrong reason. God wants to break us of the habit of living out of guilt and fear, so that we can please Him by living in His love. But to get there we need to understand a little theology.

There is one piece of furniture in the heavenly tabernacle, the one Jesus entered into after He died for our sins, that wasn’t found in the earthly one: a chair. That’s because under the Old Testament sacrificial system the work was never done. The sacrifices the high priest made for sin had to be made again and again, year after year. Sin was covered but never removed. People still felt guilty because the sacrifice was imperfect. Hebrews 10:2 points this out:

“If the law and its sacrifices could make people right with God, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.”

The sacrifice Jesus made of Himself on the cross was enough to cleanse you of your sins. He sat down. The work is finished. You don’t get right with God by going to church, reading your Bible, doing good deeds, or by being a nice person. You could never be sure you were doing enough. Your own guilt would always demand that you try harder and do more. You couldn’t make yourself right with God, only Jesus could. And thank God He did. We must believe that truth to live free from guilt and fear.

“We who have believed enter that rest.” (Hebrews 4:2) Jesus has made a rest for you, have you entered it? Have you sat down on His finished work? Once you have you can enjoy going to church, reading your Bible, doing good deeds, and being nice. You’re not doing it to get right with God (fear and guilt), but because you are right with God and just want to serve Him out of love. If you blow it, and we all do, you just need to confess your sins and He will cleanse you again. (1John 1:9)

Posted in 1Corinthians

Getting The Win

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep… For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all who are His will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” 1Corinthians 15:19; 22-23

I like to win. If I don’t feel I can win, I’d rather not compete, which is why I almost dropped out of the 2011 McFarland Triathlon my brother Mike asked me to be part of.

It was a co-ed competition with three legs to the race: swimming sixteen laps in the pool, running five miles, and riding a bike fifteen miles. Mike’s usual swimmer couldn’t compete that year, so he asked if I would fill in.

I hastily said “yes” thinking it would motivate me to get in shape, but as I began to practice, I realized it was too much. I almost called Mike, but decided to train in the health club pool a few more weeks before dropping out. I eventually found that I could make the sixteen laps if I did half breaststroke and only half front crawl. I wasn’t fast, but I knew I could at least finish. Maybe the other teams weren’t that great anyway?

I was wrong. There was a sixteen year old girl sharing my lane who was fast and strong. She didn’t just beat me; she lapped me! I was so humiliated by my horrible first leg that I left a message on Mike’s phone telling him that I wouldn’t be at the awards ceremony. It wasn’t just my bad performance that made me feel ashamed; I had ruined it for the team.

Two hours later Mike called to tell me he would be dropping off my gold medal! I was shocked. He told me the story: “You were way behind after the swim and then we were even farther behind after my run, but Darcy (who once tried out for the Olympics) was so fast on the bike that she caught and passed everyone else. We won! We all get a gold medal.”

This is the gospel in a nutshell. It isn’t about our performance. It’s about whose team we’re on. Everyone who puts their trust in Christ will win for all eternity. He’s that good!

Posted in Acts, Ephesians, Matthew

The Secret Weapon

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:18-20

The secret weapon is a game changer. When Popeye is down and out, when all hope seems to be lost and Bluto is certainly going to defeat him, we all wait for the secret weapon – his spinach. The spinach changes everything; once it is eaten, the victory is secured.

Aladdin is trapped in a cave left to die. He tries to escape but it’s hopeless until he discovers a lamp. The lamp is a game changer because using it gives access to a genie who can transcend all human limitations.

The church has a secret weapon that changes everything: the Father’s response to agreeing prayer. We see it in Acts 2:  The church had been in unified prayer for ten days until the Father responded with “a mighty rushing wind” and “tongues of fire” which so empowered the early church that 3,000 were saved in one day.

We see it in Acts 4:  The persecuted church gathered and in agreeing prayer asked the Father to “do signs and wonders by Your holy Servant, Jesus.” The response: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:31) Abundant grace was released and signs and wonders were performed (Acts 5:12) while multitudes were saved. (Acts 5:14) Heaven invaded earth in response to agreeing prayer by the church.

But my favorite example of the secret weapon is found in Acts 16. Paul and Silas were put in prison and at the midnight hour began to pray and worship together. Here’s the Father’s response, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” (Acts 16:26)  Natural earthquakes destroy, they don’t open doors and release people from chains. Were Paul and Silas asking the Father for everyone’s chains to fall off? Unlikely. This is about the extravagance of a God who is able “to do above and beyond all we can think” (Ephesians 3:20) in response to agreeing prayer.

Posted in Matthew

Loving Righteousness 

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6

I love stories. In the morning I read the Bible and serious devotionals, but at night before bed, I’m usually reading or sometimes watching a story that inspires me to love righteousness.

A story is a powerful tool (Jesus used them all the time) for good or for evil, so I try to be careful. I have found that some books, shows, and movies actually mock righteousness and empower wickedness; and leave me sad, confused, or even despairing if I embraced their message. I sometimes lament having wasted time on such stories and always promise to use more discernment in the future.

A few years ago I gave an illustration from The Horse Whisperer and said it was a good movie and a horrible book. What did I mean by that?

In the book, a woman and the man who healed her horse are drawn to each other, have an affair, and she ends up leaving her husband and her daughter because she has found “true love.” The message: Humans are flawed and messy and certainly not to be blamed if their “heart” leads them to break their wedding vows. Horrible.

In the movie, the woman and the man who healed her horse are also drawn to each other and are tempted to be adulterous.  Yet they resist the temptation, and in the end she returns to her husband and daughter. We empathize with flawed, emotional human beings, because we relate to them, and then we celebrate when they do what’s right in spite of their flaws. It strengthens us and feeds our hunger for righteousness. We too are flawed but we can still do what is right!

I stop reading a book or watching a show when I have no one to cheer for (hopefully sooner rather than later!). I expect people to be flawed because I can’t relate to  a perfect character. However, I like someone who is trying to do what is right. Someone who is rising above their own comfort, sorrow, or selfish desires to courageously do what is right. Just because something appeals to our love of humor, action, or mystery doesn’t make it “good” art. Art that we participate in should inspire our love for righteousness and our hatred for wickedness, not dampen it.

Posted in Ephesians, Hebrews, Matthew, Micah, Proverbs

Why We aren’t the Judge

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the motives.” Proverbs 16:2

For years growing up my brother, Jimmy and I would come home from school, eat a bowl of cereal, and watch Gilligan’s Island. From time to time the entire episode would be about something that happened on the island in the past.

Skipper would start telling about the event and all of a sudden we were back there; but it was all from Skipper’s perspective. He was in the middle; he was doing the right thing while those around him were doing questionable things.  He was the hero; that’s how he remembered it.

The episode would return to the present, and then another character would start to give their version of the story (Ginger, the professor, sometimes Mr. Howell) and in their memory they were the hero. And then finally, Gilligan would start talking about it and we’d go back a third time. Where others’ versions had Gilligan at blame, Gilligan always had himself being somewhat heroic. Yes, bad things happened but he was actually part of the solution, not the main problem. The funny thing was we were never told what actually happened – only three different perspectives of the same event.

This is why Jesus told us not to judge. (Matthew 7:1) We experience life only from our own perspective and even our own motives are often hidden from us. When we feel others have wronged us, or betrayed us, it’s important to realize that that’s probably not how they see it. Instead of believing the worst and playing judge, we’re called to believe the best and let God be the judge. Where there has been definite sin, we’re called to forgive “as God, in Christ, has forgiven us.” (Ephesians 4:32)

All things are laid bare before Him to whom we will give an account. (Hebrews 4:13) God calls us to do what’s right in His eyes: “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8)  It’s humanly natural to have mercy for ourselves, love justice for others, and walk in the pride of being a judge, instead of submitting to God as the only one able to judge rightly. The Holy Spirit wants to help us live differently. He wants us to apply justice to ourselves while giving mercy to others. This is part of what it means to walk humbly with God.

Posted in Ephesians, Joshua

Entering the Promised Land

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

I was talking with a business man recently who was going through a time of tremendous fear and despair. He was so gripped that he questioned whether he could do his job anymore. In the midst of our conversation he said, “I’m right at the Jordan River.” What he didn’t know was that I was working on a message from Joshua 1, where the Jordan River is between Israel and the promised land.  To be “at the Jordan River” is to be at a place where a decision has to be made: Do I go forward in faith, or do I retreat in fear?

In nine short verses God tells Joshua to be “strong and courageous” three times. Why is this? I believe it’s because we have a role in whether we go into the promised land or not. God will defeat the giants and take down the walls that oppose us; but He won’t do it apart from us agreeing with His purpose and power working in us. (Ephesians 3:20)

The previous group that was at the Jordan River didn’t make it into the promised land because of fear. Twelve spies had gone out and brought back two narratives of what was happening:

One narrative, given by ten of the spies, went something like this: “We are in big trouble. There are giants in this land that make us look like grasshoppers. There are impenetrable walls that we could never take down. If we go forward we will fail – God has deceived us. It’s time to retreat to Egypt.”

The other narrative, given by Joshua and Caleb, went something like this: “There are giants and walls, but it’s an amazing land, and God has given it to us. The giants and walls are nothing compared to God and He is going with us. He is so good to give us this spacious land that flows with milk and honey. Let’s cross the Jordan and take our land!”

Whichever narrative we agree with will be reality we live in. God doesn’t make anyone go into His promised land for their life. He encourages, He plans, He invites, but He doesn’t force us. If we choose to listen to the voice of fear instead of the voice of faith, we will wander in the wilderness and never become all that He wanted us to be.