V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! Series

Friends, FORGET THE TATTOO. Satan may accuse us before Almighty God – and He may sear our conscience with tattoos of dishonesty, immorality, disobedience, greed, anger, selfishness, arrogance, or pride. And he may well be right. As he does so he looks at God the Judge and reminds God that, “The wages of sin are death.” And God will agree – and then turn to His Son, Jesus Christ, who is busy interceding on our behalf, and say to Satan the accuser, “And Jesus already died. The price has been paid. The tattoos are gone! He is not guilty! He is not yours. He belongs to me!” When your sin stares you in the face, go on the offense; look to Jesus, forget the tattoo, and experience the victory.

The fifth piece of the foundation of a winning team by Paul’s account is a SUPER-ABUNDANT CONFIDENCE. Some of the greatest athletes appear to be the cockiest people around. And some of them are. But many of them simply have a victorious attitude – they know they can win; they believe no one is better. It’s the same attitude Paul had in life. Listen (8:35-39): “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” NOTHING CAN BREAK, END, OR STOP GOD’S LOVE for us.

As I look back upon my life, this truth is one that, time and again, has carried me through and has given hope and strength to so many of those to whom I’ve ministered. Whether it was when my older sister was hit by a car and killed on her way to school; or when I graduated from high school having had a miserable senior year that left me uncertain where I was headed; or when our son, in 5th & sixth grade, had headaches for an entire year, for which they could not find a cause; or when standing in a hospital room holding hands with young parents staring at the lifeless body of their stillborn baby; or standing at the grave side with the parents of a young man who committed suicide; or presiding at the funeral of a teenager killed in an auto accident; or comforting one whose spouse died way too soon; or listening to someone pour out her heart in confession that she had made a heap of mistakes and was sure no one, especially God, could still love her. At these, and so many other times, the assurance that nothing can break, end, or stop God’s love was the hope to which we clung.

Ruth Calkin has put it beautifully: “God, I may fall flat on my face; I may fail until I feel old and beaten and done in. Yet your love for me is changeless. All the music may go out of my life, my private world may shatter to dust. Even so, You will hold me in the palm of Your steady hand. No turn in the affairs of my fractured life can baffle You. Satan with all his braggadocio cannot distract You. Nothing can separate me from Your measureless love – pain can’t, disappointment can’t, anguish can’t. Yesterday, today, tomorrow can’t. The loss of my dearest love can’t. Death can’t. Life can’t. ...none of these things nor all of them heaped together can budge the fact that I am dearly loved, completely forgiven, and forever free through Jesus Christ Your beloved Son. That’s confidence; that’s a victorious attitude!