VIDEO A Tribute to Billy Graham: “I Can Only Imagine”

I just want to take a moment today to honor Billy Graham, “America’s Pastor”. He remained a humble servant of God all of his life as he allowed God to use him to touch a multitude of lives in this country and around the world. He has ministered to millions including presidents, kings, and queens around the world and helped to bring many lost souls to God with his simple message that “God loves you!”.

A humble, Godly man who chose to be buried in a plain wooden casket made by inmates in a prison whose lives were touched by the message that he shared. He was a spiritual leader for this entire nation and has sowed seeds of faith that will reap a vast harvest for the Lord. May we all take a moment to honor him and realize that just as he as “gone home”, we have a home waiting for us with God through Jesus Christ. And just know that no matter what you have struggled through in this life, these famous words of Billy Graham say it all: “I’ve read the last past of the Bible. It’s all going to be alright.”

 https://secretangelps911.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/a-tribute-to-billy-graham-i-can-only-imagine/

Precious to God

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11

His name was David, but most just called him “the street fiddler.” David was a disheveled, older man who was a regular fixture in popular places in our city, serenading passers-by with unusual skill at his violin. In exchange for his music, listeners would sometimes place a dollar in the open instrument case before them on the sidewalk. David would smile and nod his head in thanks as he continued to play.

When David died recently and his obituary appeared in a local paper, it was revealed that he spoke several languages, was the graduate of a prestigious university, and had even run for the state senate years ago. Some expressed surprise at the extent of his accomplishments, having assessed him on the basis of appearance alone.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your wonderful love for me. 

Scripture tells us that “God created mankind in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). This reveals an inherent worth within each of us, regardless of how we look, what we have achieved, or what others may think of us. Even when we chose to turn from God in our sinfulness, God valued us so much that He sent His only Son to show us the way to salvation and eternity with Him.

We are loved by God, and all around us are those who are precious to Him. May we express our love for Him in return by sharing His love with others.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your wonderful love for me. I pray that others may see Your love in my words and actions today.

God’s love is meant to be shared.

By James Banks 

INSIGHT

What does it mean that we are made in God’s image? We are like Him because we possess emotions, intellect, will, and conscience. We are also designed for relationship. In John 17:5 Jesus prayed, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” This shared glory speaks of the eternal relationship between Christ and the Father. Just as there is relationship within the Godhead, we are made for relationship both with God and with one another. Being created in His image means we are not intended to live in isolation.

For more on being created in God’s image, check out the Discover the Wordconversations, “Philemon: Plea from a Friend” at discovertheword.org/series/philemon-plea-from-a-friend.

Bill Crowder

The Man Worthy of Our Hope

1 Peter 1:3-5

Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of our faith. There are many people who think it’s sufficient to believe that Jesus lived and died. However, the Savior’s restoration to life is central to what He claimed about His identity and to Christianity as a faith. Picking up on our question from yesterday’s devotion, we must ask what kind of man is this who rose from the dead?

The answer is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose again because death has no power over Him. The resurrection validated Jesus’ ministry. All along, He said and did things to reveal Himself as Lord. When the Lamb of God—the perfect sacrifice for sin—conquered death, He confirmed His identity. Who but the Creator could return to life?

We could also answer the question by saying that the kind of man who returns from the dead is one worthy of our hope. Since Jesus Christ affirmed God’s power to give His followers eternal life, their earthly existence is not marching toward an end; rather, it is the opening chapter of a beautiful and never-ending relationship with God. Paul said that at death, Christians are absent from their bodies and present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). So the best is yet to come!

Apart from Jesus’ resurrection, there is no hope. Those who chase after their own versions of immortality have no assurance of life after death, because for them, there is none. Yet believers face death with the confidence that nothing can separate them from the love of the Father. Death is just a short trip home.

It Was Without Form and Void

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” (Jeremiah 4:23)

The language in this verse is clearly patterned after Genesis 1:2, the description of the primordial earth: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” That it is a metaphor, however, and not an actual reference to that primordial earth is evident from its context. The previous verse speaks of “my people” (that is, the people of Judah) and the following verse of “the mountains” (there were no mountains as yet at the time of Genesis 1:2).

Furthermore, the broader context makes it plain that the prophet is speaking of a coming judgment on the land of Judah because of the rebellion of its people against their God (verse 16 specifically mentions Judah, and verse 31 mentions Zion). The land is to be so devastated that the prophet compared its future appearance to the unformed and barren earth at its very beginning.

This ultimate fulfillment will be at Armageddon. The same Hebrew words (tohu for “without form,” and bohu for “void”) occur again in this context in an awesome scene of judgment described by Isaiah: “For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations” (34:2), gathered together in the former land of Edom to fight against Jerusalem when Christ returns, “and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion [i.e., tohu], and the stones of emptiness [i.e., bohu]” (34:11). Instead of the regular surveyor’s line and markers ordering the property boundaries, God’s judgment will bring such disorder and barrenness to the land that it almost will seem to revert back to its primeval state at the beginning of time. “Nevertheless we . . . look for new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13), and that earth will be beautiful and bountiful with “no night there” (Revelation 22:5). HMM

Consider your ways

Haggai 1

After the foundations of the temple had been laid, the work was opposed, and the people grew dispirited; the prophet Haggai was sent to exhort them to begin again.

Haggai 1:1, 2

The difficulties placed in their way by their enemies had discouraged the people, and led them to believe that the set time, mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, had not yet come. When we do not like a work it is easy to find an excuse for postponing it.

Haggai 1:3, 4

They had made their own houses luxurious, but the temple was as yet little better than a ruin. Its unfinished and unroofed walls accused them of want of zeal for the Lord.

Haggai 1:5, 6

Meanness towards God’s work had kept them poor. If men are selfish and keep their wealth to themselves, and rob God of his portion, they shall not prosper, or if they do, no blessing shall come with it.

Haggai 1:7

Judge whether you are acting honestly and fairly with the Lord, and consider whether your poverty may not be sent as a punishment for your robbing God of his due.

Haggai 1:11

They gave little, and therefore received little. When men are bad stewards, their great Lord refuses to trust them with his estate; if they deprive the great Owner of all things of his quit-rent of grateful offering, he will take away their vineyard, and let it out to others. This is but just and right.

Haggai 1:12-15

See the value of a man of God! His voice calls others to their duty, who else would have quite neglected it. If we have been niggardly to the cause of God, let Haggai’s voice sound across the centuries, and quicken us also to diligence in service and liberality in gift to the work of the Lord.

 

Wake thy slumbering children, wake them,

Bid them to thy harvest go;

Blessings, O our Father, make them;

Round their steps let blessings flow.

 

Give reviving—give refreshing—

Give the look’d-for Jubilee;

To thyself may crowds be pressing,

Bringing glory unto thee.

 

Yes, Glory of the Trinity

Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (1 John 5:7)

The more I read my Bible, the more I believe in the triune God!

With the prophet Isaiah, I am stirred by the vision of the heavenly creatures, the seraphim around the throne of God, engrossed in their worship and praise.

I have often wondered why the rabbis and saints and hymnists of the olden times did not come to the knowledge of the Trinity just from the seraphims’ chorus: “Holy! Holy! Holy!”

I am a trinitarian—I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, begotten of Him before all ages. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.

Isaiah was an astonished man. He could only manage this witness: “Mine eyes have seen the King!” Only the King of glory can reveal Himself to the willing spirit of a man, so that an Isaiah or any other man or woman, can say with humility but with assurance, “I know Him!”

 

Not Left to Perish

“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Ps. 16:10

This word has its proper fulfillment in the Lord Jesus; but it applies also, with a variation, to all who are in Him. Our soul shall not be left in the separate state, and our body, though it see corruption, shall rise again. The general meaning, rather than the specific application, is that to which we would call our readers’ thoughts at this particular time.

We may descend in spirit very low till we seem to be plunged in the abyss of hell; but we shall not be left there. We may appear to be at death’s door in heart, and soul, and consciousness; but we cannot remain there. Our inward death as to joy and hope may proceed very far; but it cannot run on to its full consequences, so as to reach the utter corruption of black despair. We may go very low, but not lower than the Lord permits; we may stay in the lowest dungeon of doubt for a while, but we shall not perish there. The star of hope is still in the sky when the night is blackest. The Lord will not forget us and hand us over to the enemy. Let us rest in hope. We have to deal with One whose mercy endureth for ever. Surely, out of death, and darkness, and despair we shall yet arise to life, light, and liberty.