Discipleship Network Forum

My mother used to worry about me since I exhibited zero musical skills. She actually bought me a trombone and hired a teacher. He showed me the positions on the slide and the sound each made, then quit during the second lesson, when I played “Whispering Hope” by ear. I sang in the church’s Youth Choir because I was the Pastor’s son. I should have suspected something was wrong when the director suggested that I shouldn’t feel forced to sing in the choir. Yet I love music. Most of my family and some of my best friends are musicians. My father was the only family member with less music talent than I, and he whistled everywhere he went. As a Seminary professor some of my best friends were music professors. I enjoyed going to lunch with them because they didn’t have to mix theology with their vegetables. For a segment of my life I awoke every morning with a song in my head. My mother said it was an answer to her prayer and claimed God had given me her song. I’ve actually put new words to existing hymn tunes, so I’m not totally music-less. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, “Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!” I don’t want to do that. Neither do you. So, bottle it up no longer. Somehow, someway, let your music out, “making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19).

Read more from Dr. Dan at www.discipleallnations.org/blog.

“The collapse of the Wall is proof that dreams come true, and continues to offer hope wherever freedom and human rights are threatened or trampled on.” (German Chancellor Angel Merkel)

Sunday, March 9^th, marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the event that heralded the collapse of the communist system. More than 300,000 participated in the celebration. Eight thousand helium balloons stretching across nine miles where the Wall had been were released into the night sky. Tributes were given to the 138 people who were killed over the years trying to cross the Wall and about 1,000 more who died attempting to cross the 856-mile border between what were then East and West Germany.

The Wall, which had not only divided Berlin but also symbolized the "iron curtain" imposed by Communism on the countries where it was the rule of government and society, had stood for 28 years. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. In reality, the Wall prevented emigration and defection from East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. Eventually, because so many people were fleeing East Germany by crossing into West Berlin, the Soviets had the Wall built.

In the closed state of East Germany, the Stasi (secret police) became one of the most hated and feared institutions of the communist government. Infiltrating every strata of society, they developed a system where children spied on parents, pupils on teachers, friends on friends, and spouses on spouses. Informers betrayed neighbors, employers, lovers, and pastors. Jurgen Fuchs, the writer, described his country as "a landscape of lies." The extent of those lies and was discovered in the Stasi files in Berlin after the Wall came down.

In 1989, as Communism was collapsing in the East, communist authorities gave in to mounting pressure and opened the gates of the Wall, relaxing travel restrictions. The Wall was removed in November 1989.

Berliners and other people around the world were surprised by the fall of the Wall. Most had thought of it as a permanent barrier enforced by Soviet might. When the above picture of the Brandenburg Gate was taken in June 1989, most people did not expect the Wall to fall in their lifetime. Only five months later, people were dancing on it.

Evil has often seemed to overwhelm much of the world…but it is good to remember that God sets limits to human injustice. The despicable beheadings carried out by ISIS are only faint echoes of the heinous wrongs of the 20th century—Stalin’s rule of terror resulting in the death of millions of his own citizens, the genocide of the Armenians under the Turks, the holocaust under Nazism. Someday the Almighty will balance the books—evil will be punished, oppression ended. This may not happen in our lifetime, but we can rest assured God will keep His Word. Heaven on earth is more than a dream—it is a divine promise that will come true.   

When time is over, man’s inhumanity to man will give way to God’s goodness in eternity. There’ll be dancing in the streets of the new Jerusalem.

“When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse.” [Joshua 6:5 NLT]

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Read blog at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized

“Gratitude is from the same root word as grace, signifying the free and boundless mercy of God. Thanksgiving is from the same root word as think, so to think is to thank.” (Willis P. King)

Thanksgiving is more than a holiday on the calendar; it is an attitude of heart that praises our Creator and Savior every day we live.

Surely our greatest blessing is the mercy of God—preserving our lives, forgiving our sins, restoring our hope. If we would only think more, we would thank more.

God’s goodness and mercy pursue us all the days of our life (Psalm 23:6). Even when we’re having “one of those days”—when nothing seems to go right, and everything nailed down is coming loose—God’s unfailing love enables us to declare, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

We may not always live on Easy Street; but whatever our address, God is with us so we can find a reason to be thankful. No situation, however desperate, is God-forsaken. So bellyaching is inexcusable. Being humbly grateful is better than being grumbly hateful.  

If we concern ourselves with God’s kingdom, He promises to concern Himself with our needs. There’s no need to fret about tomorrow’s grocery shopping—we can just push our cart down the aisle of our current circumstances and our Father will see to it that it is filled with whatever we need.

Faith’s dusk dinners and hope’s dawn breakfasts are hors d’oeuvres to whet our appetite for the heavenly banquet of love. Realizing who set our table, we bow our head and say grace.  

We should do more than give thanks—we should live thanks.

“In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 16:12 NLT).

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

[This devotion based on Day 47 of Gentle Whispers from Eternity]

Read blog at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” (Robert F. Kennedy, The Pursuit of Justice, 1964)

The evil of violent religion was graphically illustrated again this morning when 47 people were killed and 79 wounded in a bombing outside a school in northern Nigeria. An attacker disguised as a student set off the explosion in a government boarding school, where students had gathered outside the principal’s office for a daily speech. Police suspect that Boko Haram is behind this terrorist act.

Boko Haram (“Western education is forbidden”) is a militant Islamic movement that has carried out several deadly attacks on schools teaching a Western curriculum. They have murdered more than 5,000 civilians since 2009. They have abducted more than 500 women and children, including the kidnapping of schoolgirls last April. They kill people who engage in practices they view as un-Islamic. They offer no breathing room to anyone not adhering to their strict religious code.

The group’s aim is to establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law. This law, which they see as deriving from the Koran, covers public behavior, private behavior, and private beliefs. Of all legal systems, it is the most intrusive and strict, especially against women. A woman can have one husband, but a man can have up to four wives; a man can unilaterally divorce his wife but a woman needs her husband's consent to divorce; a man can beat his wife for insubordination; a woman who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s); a woman's testimony in court, allowed only in property cases, carries half the weight of a man's; a female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits; a woman cannot drive a car, as it leads to “upheaval”; a woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative. Theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand. Several infractions are punishable by death—criticizing any part of the Koran; denying Muhammad is a prophet; a Muslim becoming a non-Muslim; a non-Muslim leading a Muslim away from Islam; a non-Muslim man marrying a Muslim woman. The oppressive list goes on.

Pascal, in Thoughts, points out that the law which governed Jews is the most ancient law in the world, and that Greek and Roman legislators borrowed from it their principal laws. He also comments that this law was the severest and strictest of all, imposing on the Jews “a thousand peculiar and painful observances, on pain of death.” What is astonishing, he says, is that this law was preserved unchanged through many centuries, while other states changed their laws though they were far more lenient.

The apostle Paul, who faultlessly observed the Jewish law and harshly persecuted the church before he was converted to Christ, writes that “those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.’ So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life.’ Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.” (Galatians 3:10-13 NLT).

All Christians have not always practiced religious tolerance, as sadly demonstrated by the Inquisition. But though such historical atrocities and current religious fanatical acts are heinous, we should do some personal soul-searching to see how willing we are to admit we do not have all the answers and we are not holier than others.  

At heart we believe religious freedom is the God-given right of all people. At the same time, we place all our hope in the Son of God to save us from sin. We rest in Jesus Christ, who has answered the demand of law through His perfect life and vicarious death. He is our personal peace, and the ultimate hope for universal peace. The last word is not law—it is grace.

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Read blog http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized

Churches all over the world claim to have Jesus “in the house,” but sometimes there is scant evidence to support that claim. Mark 2:1-12 provides us with a vivid outline of what it looks like to have Jesus actively working in our gatherings. The chapter begins by saying that Jesus had come back to Capernaum, His home base, and word had gotten out “that He was at home.”

I pray that this kind of word-of-mouth marketing is happening for your congregation today. Long before Facebook and Twitter, word quickly got out that Jesus was in the house, and a number of stunning results followed.

Here are 5 things you can expect to happen when people hear that Jesus is regularly “in the house” during your church gatherings:

1. Crowds will come. Verse 2 says, “Many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door.” While your congregation may not be a megachurch, the Biblical model makes it clear that large numbers of people will be attracted if they truly know that Jesus is in the house.
2. The Word of God will be taught. Verse 3 tells us, “He was speaking the word to them.” Other aspects of Jesus’ ministry would be demonstrated later in the story, but first He taught the Word. Today we have many churches that teach the Word, but which demonstrate no power. We also have churches that are highly experiential, with very little teaching from the Scriptures. Yet when Jesus is in the house, the two go hand in hand.
3. Radical faith will be sparked. Hearing that Jesus was in the house, four men carried a paralyzed friend to the meeting place. When the large crowd prevented them from bringing the paralytic through the doorway, they climbed up on the roof and dug a hole to lower the man on a pallet in front of Jesus. What radical behavior! This kind of passionate determination would be so out of character for polite, conventional, American Christians. Verse 5 says Jesus SAW their faith—quite a contrast to the common misconception today that faith can be a private, personal matter that we keep to ourselves.
4. Forgiveness will be released. Although the man had been brought to the meeting for healing of his paralysis, Jesus saw a much more critical need, telling the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (v. 5). Countless people today are paralyzed because of a need for forgiveness. Either they are immobilized by guilt and shame over things they’ve done, or else they are locked in an emotional prison because of their unwillingness to forgive others. Jesus was about to perform a miracle of physical healing as well, but first He made sure that the forgiveness issue was fully dealt with in this man.
5. Miracles will happen. When was the last time you witnessed a genuine miracle in your church? Yet that’s the kind of thing that can be expected when Jesus is in the house. After He had taught the Word and dealt with the forgiveness issue, He boldly told the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your pallet and go home” (v. 11). When people saw the man immediately set free from his paralysis, they “were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this’” (v. 12).

I absolutely love this conclusion of the story. God was glorified by what had happened, as He always is when we invite Jesus to freely work in our gatherings.

People testified that they had never seen anything like this before. That’s exactly what will happen again today when you and I allow Jesus to come and fill our house today. Even if we’re longtime Christians, we will marvel at the blessings and miracles released by our Lord’s presence among us.

So let’s not settle for anything less in our churches and our homes than to have Jesus in the house.

The longer I live, the more convinced I am that most people are paralyzed or imprisoned in some way. No wonder the Bible tells so many stories about those who got healed of paralysis or set free from bondage and imprisonment.

When we read such Bible stories today, it’s easy to miss how these events apply to our lives. If we’ve never been physically paralyzed or lame, we can struggle to relate to the paralyzed man in Mark 2:1-12 or the lame man in Acts 3:1-12. And if we’ve never done jail time, we can assume there’s not much we can learn from Joseph’s release from an Egyptian dungeon (Genesis 39-40) or the supernatural prison breaks of Peter (Acts 12:1-19) and Paul and Silas (Acts 16:16-40).

But, you see, the imprisonment most people face today is emotional and spiritual rather than physical. They’ve been traumatized by their journey through life, whether through the consequences of their own bad decisions or through the unkind actions of others.

In John 20:19-29 Jesus’ disciples were locked in a self-imposed prison after experiencing the trauma of their Master’s unjust arrest, brutal beating, and horrific crucifixion. Today we sometimes call those events “Good Friday,” but there seemed nothing “good” about the cross of Calvary at the time. The disciples were understandably devastated, gathered together behind locked doors because of fear of the Jewish leaders.

Suddenly Jesus appeared to these shell-shocked men. Although preachers sometimes say, based on Revelation 3:20, that Jesus always knocks before entering our situation, that’s simply not true. This time He just came right on in, bypassing every defense mechanism in order to release these traumatized followers from their emotional bondage.

This is one of the most pivotal scenes in the entire Bible. It’s not an overstatement to say that the whole fate of the church and the expansion of God’s kingdom rested on what would happen in the lives of these shattered men.

The disciples had left everything to follow Jesus, believing that their lives would ultimately change the world. Now their dreams seemed to have reached a cruel dead end. Dazed and confused, they were very unlikely candidates for any kind of heroic, world-changing mission.

So how did Jesus turn the worst of times into the best of times for these emotionally damaged followers? He addressed four different snares that were holding these men in spiritual captivity:

1. FEAR – Not just once, but twice, Jesus told them, “Peace be with you.” And when they “saw the Lord,” their fear and anguish were replaced with great joy. If you are feeling “stuck” in some area of your life today, it’s likely that fear is one of the things holding you back. Just as He did for the disciples, Jesus wants to penetrate your closed doors and replace your fear with faith, and your anxiety with His peace and joy.
2. PURPOSELESSNESS – These men who had taken such bold steps to leave their careers and families in order to change the world with Jesus were now left without a purpose or a vision. They had abandoned and denied their Savior in His hour of need, and now their traumatized condition seemed to disqualify them from any significant usefulness in His plan. Nevertheless, Jesus re-commissioned and affirmed them with fresh vision and purpose: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” What an encouraging story for us today. Even when we feel like failures, unusable by God, He can reaffirm our calling and give us a new commission to impact the world.
3. WEAKNESS – In addition to a lack of purpose, Jesus’ disciples were suffering from a lack of power. A new commission would have fallen on deaf ears unless they also received new empowerment. Recognizing their need, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In their own strength, they never would have been able to fulfill His majestic plan for their lives—nor can you or I. But, empowered by the Spirit, we can transform the world (Acts 1:8, Philippians 4:13).
4. FORGIVENESS ISSUES – Jesus showed them His wounds, proof that they had been forgiven by His shed blood. But then He talked to them about their calling to extend His forgiveness to OTHERS. If you are in some kind of spiritual prison today, there’s a good chance that forgiveness is one of the keys needed to set you free. Perhaps you need to RECEIVE God’s full forgiveness of your past, releasing you from any guilt, shame, or condemnation. Or maybe you are still locked in emotional bondage because you’ve not yet forgiven someone who has hurt you. Either way, forgiveness is an indispensable key to your spiritual and emotional freedom.

I encourage you to read this list again, asking God to show you which of these four keys are needed to help you get unstuck and ready to fulfill your destiny as a follower of Christ.

Perhaps you’ve been hiding out behind closed doors for a long time now, traumatized by some experience that has been hard to shake. But if Jesus could take these distraught men from the shadow of the cross to the glory of resurrection life, surely He can transform your life and give you a new beginning.

Like Jesus’ disciples, you may seem like an unlikely world-changer today. But once He has freed you from fear, given you fresh vision, empowered you by His Spirit, and dealt with your forgiveness issues, your life can be amazing. You don’t have to wait any longer!

I’m currently reading an excellent book by Matthew Aaron Perman entitled What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done.  I highly recommend you get a copy.  So, today I want to share a couple of paragraphs from the book. 

“Teaching morals alone will not result in morality. You cannot get moral and ethical behavior by urging people to try harder, for it is the affections that lead to transformed lives, and these affections are driven by the doctrines of Christianity. If you take the doctrine away, you destroy the foundation.

Thus, when doctrine goes, the ethical teachings of Christianity eventually go as well, because the ethical teachings grow out of Christian doctrine. Doctrine is the soil in which the ethical teaching of Christianity grows, and which gives it life and nourishment and energy. Thus, when emphasis on doctrine declines, emphasis on the practical eventually declines as well.“

Perman goes on…

“One implication of these things is that the way to change society – to change the nation and the world – is, interestingly, not primarily to preach on politics or ethics or ten steps to a healthy marriage, but to preach on doctrine.”

What you do flows out of who you are.  If you are united to Christ then Christian love and good deeds and true morality will flow out of you. And then God will be glorified.

All for Jesus,

Fletch

When I was a student at Dominion Junior High, I had a rather idyllic life and no concept of emotional wounds. But lately I’ve found myself reflecting on the lessons I learned from a physical wound I experienced in gym class one morning.

We were running track events that day, something I never was very good at. While trying to jump over a hurdle on the school’s crude cinder track, I caught my foot and plummeted to the ground. Although the main thing hurt was my pride, I also incurred a bad scrape to my knee during this mishap.

This really didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. I just vowed to be more careful and jump a little higher the next time I ran over hurdles.

After gym class I took a shower and tried to wash my knee the best I could. I figured it would be red for a while, but certainly nothing serious.

However, a few days later, I noticed there was some white pus on the area of the grapefruit-sized wound. And by the following day, the original red wound couldn’t be seen at all—just a disgusting thick layer of yellowish white pus.  

Things got so bad that my mom had to take me to the doctor to address this repulsive condition. He warned that the infection might have spread throughout my body if I had waited any longer.

With the help of some antibiotics, the infection finally cleared up after about a week. But this experience provided a lesson I would never forget: Often our original wounds are relatively minor, but the secondary infections can cause us real problems.

Emotional wounds work the same way. We’ve all been wounded emotionally at one time or another, to one degree or another. Just like my scraped knee in gym class that day, our emotional wounds are seldom debilitating or life-threatening in themselves.

However, I’ve met many people over the years who’ve allowed their emotional wounds to become infected. Because they weren’t diligent to keep the initial wound clean, toxic conditions such as unforgiveness, resentment, and bitterness set in. What started as a temporary, treatable condition grew into something much more severe and chronic, robbing them of their joy and peace of mind.

If you’ve been emotionally wounded by traumatic events in your life, there’s no need to panic. Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6), ready and able to heal your wounds. But you have a vital role to play in keeping the wound clean so a secondary infection doesn’t set in.

This means forgiving anyone who has hurt you, allowing the crystal clear waters of God’s love and mercy to regularly cleanse you of any resentment or bitterness. And if you see that some yucky white pus is developing at the site of the wound, you may need to ask God for spiritual antibiotics to keep the infection from taking over your life.

Is this an easy process? No, not at all. But the longer you wait, the harder the healing process will become.

And don’t be deluded by the old line that says, “Time heals all wounds.” That is only true if the site of the wound is kept free of secondary infections.

Remember that you aren’t the only one who has ever had to deal with infected emotional wounds. The Scriptures are full of instructions like this:

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma (Ephesians 4:31-5:2).

My knee is perfectly fine today. There’s no on-going infection or scar. And I’m convinced our emotional scars can disappear as well.

When I was a kid I loved to go to the local YMCA. My dad’s boss, Mr. Meek, would buy memberships to the Y for the families of his employers, an incredibly kind gift. As a member, I could get my buddies in for a small fee. We would head there many weekends and weekdays over the summer.

Besides swimming, there was a room full of table games like foosball, ping-pong, and whatnot. One day while standing idly in the game room, someone tapped me on the shoulder saying, “Hey, buddy!”

When I turned around -- Pow! -- I was punched firmly in the jaw and went down. I think I may even have been out for a couple of moments and saw a star or two.

The kid who hit me took off with his buddies, laughing. Kind of like Scut Farkus and his sidekick Grover Dill in “A Christmas Story,” minus the humor.

I didn’t know the kid, but had seen him around and knew he had an air of “ill repute.” He wasn’t the kind of guy I would have chosen to hang with.

The experience drained a little of the fun out of going to the Y. From that moment on, I was always on my guard.

The Y lost a good bit of its attraction.

Grace misspelled as O-U-T-R-A-G-E-!

A few days ago I was scrolling through posts in a Facebook group consisting of people who grew up as I did in the Assemblies of God (AOG). Someone shared a link to an article posted in an AOG online magazine asking if this article was “concerning to anyone.”

The article was titled, “Desires in conflict: Hope and healing for individuals struggling with same-sex attraction,” and subtitled, “Practical tips for those who find themselves in a position to help people struggling with same-sex attraction.”

The conclusion of the article issued a call for gentle grace:

“In closing, it is important to remind ourselves that sin has damaged and broken everyone’s sexuality — not just those who struggle with same-sex attraction or a disordered sexual identity. The sin of Adam and Eve affects every aspect of our creation and existence. No one escapes the effects of the Fall. No part of the human existence remains untouched....When defending our scriptural stance and interpretation regarding serious issues, let us be careful to not further damage the hurting and broken seekers and instead offer the good news of Jesus Christ with compassion and love.”

How did those in the Facebook group react to this article?

Most were certain Satan was at the helm of the AOG. A comment by a woman named, ironically, Joy, sums up the general consensus of responses: “Yikes! ‘Concerned’ sounds like such a mild reaction in this context! I need something more like ‘outraged’!”

So much for grace.

I don’t mean to beat up on the AOG or any specific group who adheres to biblical Christian faith.

We all have skin in the blame.

A person walks into a church and...

Church, religion, Christians, evangelical are all becoming bad words, and we who fit these labels wonder why.

We shouldn’t.

In his new book, Vanishing Grace: Whatever happened to the Good News?, Philip Yancey references  surveys by Ellison Research of Phoenix that indicate 36% of Americans have no idea “what an evangelical Christian is,” a mere 35% believe they know “someone very well who is an evangelical,” and  51% are certain they don’t know any evangelicals at all.

But these same people still have a clear opinion about evangelical Christians. Not that we Christians would hold opinions about others we don’t know.

Yancey quotes the president of the research company who stated, “Evangelicals were called illiterate, greedy, psychos, racist, stupid, narrow-minded, bigots, idiots, fanatics, nut cases, screaming loons, delusional, simpletons, pompous, morons, cruel, nitwits, and freaks, and that’s just a partial list....Some people don’t have any idea what evangelicals actually are or what they believe — they just know they can’t stand evangelicals.”

Frankly, a lot of evangelicals can’t stand evangelicals, but that’s fodder for a different blog post.

A lot of believers are certain we possess “sin-dar” as we attribute a plethora of bad thoughts and behaviors onto those around us.

Or we stand inside the doors of our churches as if the entrances are equipped with sin scanners waiting for them to beep as “those” people walk in. When the alarm sounds -- Bam! -- we knock them down by the power of the Spirit and beat the hell out of them, figuratively speaking of course. They're not sure what hit them, or why.

Somehow this just doesn’t fit with Jesus’ invitation to “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29, ESV).

Seek first to understand

So what do we do to fix this?

Yancey says, “To communicate to post-Christians, [we] must first listen to their stories for clues as to how they view the world and how they view people like [us].” We need to find a way to move beyond being “perceived more as guilt dispensers than as grace dispensers.”

He found a clue for doing this when he spent a day with Henri Nouwen who had spent time in San Francisco working in hospitals with AIDS patients.

“I’m a priest,” explained Nouwen, “and as part of my job I listen to people’s stories.” As he heard story after story recounting promiscuity, addiction, and other self-destructive behavior, what Nouwen picked up on was a theme hinting of a “thirst for love that had never been quenched.”

He told Yancey that his perspective changed and his prayer for others became, “God, help me to see others not as my enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion to offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst.”

Yancey’s new book is rooted in a prior book, What’s so Amazing About Grace that concludes with this thought: “The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.”

Given that the labels above (psychos, racist, bigots, delusional, freaks, etc.) applied to evangelicals are often applied by evangelicals to those “outside the fold,” sitting down at the table together is going to be tough.

As one person stated, “We’re suspicious of one another. So we start off with a grudge.”

Still, explains Yancey, “For true dialogue to occur, we must cut through those stereotypes and genuinely consider the other’s point of view. Perhaps this is part of what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Smacking people upside the head with a Bible is not grace. Being outraged toward others is not loving them. These are failed and polarizing tactics, to say the least.

As Yancey says, “I’ve yet to meet someone who found their way to faith by being criticized.” Or, we can add, by being bludgeoned.

Moving from overt obnoxiousness to subversive grace

Yancey’s book consists of 13 chapters broken out into four parts. There is a separate study guide with a DVD available that covers the book in five sessions.

After laying out the problem of being guilt dispensers in part one, Yancey challenges us in part two to become instead dispensers of grace as pilgrims, activists, or artists.

We are all pilgrims. That is, we must view our faith walk as a process, not as having “arrived” and “holding all the answers.” Viewing others from a self-righteous sense of holy superiority or “knowing it all” is not attractive. We follow Jesus as we walk alongside others.

The activists are those who are probably more extroverted. These are the change agents wading into the fray, engaging in politics, doing missions work, engaging in international relief activities, handing out hot meals to the homeless, hanging out with friends and being salt and light in unlikely places.

The artists are most likely more on the introverted side of the equation, those who tend to be a little quieter in their evangelizing. Instead of crowds, they share faith quietly with one or two at a time. They are the writers, teachers, hospice workers, bloggers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and behind-the-scenes workers.

In part three, Yancey lays out a practical and personal theology of sorts, addressing the God question, the human question, and the social question. He provides tools and reasoning to show that faith does matter, that God is there and He cares, and that the purpose of holiness is to lift us up to our full potential. “Somehow,” he states, “we need to communicate to the uncommitted that God wants us to thrive, to live in joy and not repression, trust and not fear.”

Part four addresses how to live out faith in culture. Given that politics is such a big part of our culture, even “a sort of substitute religion” for some, Yancey offers five suggestions for safely engaging politically: (1) Clashes between Christ and culture are unavoidable, (2) Christians should choose their battles wisely, (3) Christians should fight their battles shrewdly, (4) In engaging with culture, Christians should distinguish the immoral from the illegal, and (5) The church must use caution in its dealings with the state.

You say you want a revolution

Finally, in the last chapter, Yancey suggests, “Rather than looking back nostalgically on a time when Christians wielded more power, I suggest another approach: that we regard ourselves as subversives operating within the broader culture.”

“Subversively,” he continues, “we act out our beliefs as they go against the grain of surrounding culture. When parents discard unwanted children, Christians make a home for them. When scientists seek ways to purify the gene pool, Christians look for special-needs babies to adopt. When politicians cut funding for the poor, Christians open shelters and feeding stations. When law enforcement confines criminals behind barbed wire, Christians run programs for them.”

Yancey also states that “Art may be the most effective subversion tactic,” citing that the books he read as a younger man “subverted the fragile world of fundamentalism” he grew up in.

Whether through activism or art, he explains, “Gradually, like the melting of a glacier, change takes place and what first seemed subversive becomes an accepted feature of the landscape.”

It’s only through selfless love and the power of grace that we can win the world over to faith, not through criticism and outrage.

In other words, we Christians need to stop punching our neighbors in the jaw, no matter what names they call us.

They're thirsty. Let's offer them the thirst quenching Living Water. After all, isn’t that what Jesus would do?



NOTE: To comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255): I selected this book to review and received it free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.


Additional resources:

• Author book tour - http://www.gotothehub.com/live-events/philip-yancey-vanishing-grace/
• Author interview - https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2014/10/vanishing-grace-an-interview-with-philip-yancey/
• Author website - http://philipyancey.com/
• Author Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/PhilipYancey

Read more at www.FaithBraised.com

We equate numbers with success. The more we have the better we think it is. The world promotes and understands success this way. Numbers are great but once that becomes your ultimate goal, life can become an illusion.

In the past, many corporations began with an understanding and passion to stick to a plan of growth. Over time, as corporations grew, obedience to the original plan wavered. In 2008 during the financial collapse on Wall Street, huge companies began to fall. Somewhere in their scheme of things a different desire took hold, and they began to focus on a different target. When this happens, God takes a backseat and we learn to drive.
CLIMB’S Roast began with a vision. No matter what transpires, this ministry is built on God’s vision, not ours. What we need to keep in mind in the decision making process is to be obedient in all things, even when things don’t seem to add up. As other coffee roasting companies chase their set goals, our path to success is most likely different. We seek the aroma of God and where He leads. 

   
The next time you decide to set out on a vision, remember that God will supply all you need, not the world.

Riches - In the OT, physical blessings had main emphasis. Abrahm, Isaac & Jacob were men of physical and material substance. They had great possessions and store up servants. But in this last days, Our Saviour, Christ Jesus has revealed the true nature of riches according to His eternal Word. "To do good... RICH in good works, ready to give,...storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life"(1 Tim. 6:17-19). A young man came to Jesus one day and began to ask Jesus, ...what can I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him,..."You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not defraud,' 'Honor your father and your mother.' " And he answered and said to Him, "Teacher, all these things have kept from my youth." Then Jesus, looking at him loved him, and said to him, "ONE THING YOU LACK (one thing is needed - Luke 10:42): Go your way, SELL WHATEVER you have and GIVE to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; AND COME, TAKE UP the cross, and FOLLOW ME. But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, "How hard it is for those who HAVE (or TRUST in) riches to enter the kingdom of God!"...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."..." Mk. 10:17-31

“You’re not free until you’ve been made captive by supreme belief.” (Marianne Moore, “Spenser’s Ireland,” 1951)

Between the Devil and the deep blue sea, we may feel we have no other choice than to run or engage in mortal combat. If we audaciously take on an evil army as a solo warrior, we set our self up for flat-on-our face defeat. If we deny the gravity of our situation, we do not alter reality. Feeling trapped with no way out, we may panic. There are many situations we cannot handle, but handling impossible situations is God’s everyday business.

When we’re apprehensive because of future concerns, we should not repeat the Israelites’ mistake of despairing. Recounting God’s faithfulness, we will stop shaking at bad prospects. Listening to a drumbeat outside the world’s hearing range, we have marched out of slavery under Higher Guidance. Listening to the cadence of the Holy Spirit, we stay in step. In threatening circumstances, we are serene in trusting inner-stances. In the fog of war, we rely on supernatural direction. In battlefield chaos, we follow heaven’s flag draped with battle streamers commemorating past wins. Standing still, we watch God do His work.

God enlightens pockets of fear and darkens arrogance. God illumines doubt daring to trust and muddles conceit presuming to oppose Truth. God tranquilizes scared believers and terrifies self-confident atheists. God focuses heaven’s light to defend us from hell’s marshaled fiends. God rescues believing souls from floods of judgment and drowns haughty souls in torrents of justice. God commands invisible troops with strategies defying human wisdom. God guarantees ultimate triumph even in the face of impending defeat. God walls surging currents right and left on exit ramps to joyful freedom.

Human instinct limits options to flight or fight. But relying on God’s front-line Presence teaches us a third option—FAITH.

“Don’t be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you. The Lord himself with fight for you. You won’t have to lift a finger in your defense!” (Exodus 14:13-14 NLT)

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

[This devotion based on Day 46 of Gentle Whispers from Eternity]

Read blog at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/

“Play so that you may be serious.” (Anacharsis, c 600 B.C., quoted in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, 4^th century B.C.)

On this day in 2004, after an 86 year wait, the Boston Red Sox finally captured a World Series trophy. Celebration was intense when success finally happened. Victory was sweet because it was a long time coming.

After last night’s game, with Madison Bumgarner pitching a shutout, the Royals’ hope of winning the World Series began to dim. The San Francisco Giants lead the series 3-2 against the Kansas City Royals.

People pay unbelievable prices for tickets to see these games. Intense emotion is evident on the faces of fans, alternating between agony and ecstasy as their favored team stumbles or shines.

Whatever happens, die-hard fans never quit cheering their beloved team. Holding signs that read “WE BELIEVE”, they persist in counting on their team’s ability to win, and they refuse to surrender to despair even when they lose a game. Next season they’ll do better, next time they’ll make the playoffs, next year they’ll win the World Series.

I recall hearing a story about a man strolling by a little league baseball field and having a conversation with the center fielder. “How’s it going, young fella?” he inquired. “Just fine, mister” the boy replied. “What’s the score?” the man asked. “It’s 14 to nothing” the youngster reported. “And it’s still just fine? How could that be?” the man asked. “It’s because,” the center fielder said, “we’re not up to bat yet!”

Sometimes it seems the score is “Evil 14, Good 0”. But beyond the numbers on the scoreboard, there’s an undying hope for an ultimate victory that will be sweet indeed—when Jesus gets up to bat.

“Next year in Jerusalem” is the true believer’s rallying cry of hope.

“Thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT)

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Read blog at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized

Lately, I’ve seen an interesting quote circulating. “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, Thank you, that would suffice.” Is that true? How does one reconcile this idea of only saying thank you, with Jesus’ comment to Peter, “I have prayed for you” (Luke 22:32), Paul’s frequent reminder to those to whom he wrote that he was praying for them, or James’ instruction to “pray for one another” (James 5:16). A colleague, who took the time to count, says 78% of the prayers in the Bible are prayers for someone other than self. So, who made this questionable quote? The quote is attributed to Meister Eckhart, also known as Eckhart von Hochheim, a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, who lived in the late 1200s and early 1300s. In later life he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. I encourage you to pray lots of “thank you” prayers, but don’t stop with the advice offered in a popular quote from a heretic theologian. Go ahead and practice biblical praying through intercession, petition, and supplication.

When I went through a rather traumatic experience recently, I found myself reflecting on a commonly held maxim of today’s pop culture: “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” Depending on your taste in music, you can find this statement in recent songs by Kanye West or Kelly Clarkson.

I’ll have to admit, there’s something rather uplifting about this premise. It’s great to hear that you can be made stronger, instead of weaker, during the storms of life.

But is this axiom truly Biblical, or just wishful thinking?

It turns out that the originator of the “Whatever doesn’t kill you…” statement appears to be nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He is more famous—or infamous—for launching the “God Is Dead” movement. But that alone doesn’t mean we should totally dismiss his view that whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

As I’ve pondered this, I’ve concluded that Nietzsche’s statement is a half-truth, something that can be either true or false depending on other factors. Let me explain…

There’s no guarantee that you will be strengthened by the traumas of life. We’ve all known people who experienced traumas and didn’t end up stronger—they just ended up traumatized. However, I bet you also can point to people who truly did become stronger as they overcame adversity.

You see, the evidence is pretty clear: Some people become BITTER when dealing with adversity, while others grow BETTER.

So what causes this stark difference in outcomes? Basically, the key is how we respond to the trauma. When faced with hardship, we have a fantastic opportunity to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:1). Instead of being destroyed by our trials, we can “go from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7). When the flood waters come, they can lift us higher instead of drown us.

However, there’s nothing automatic about this. It’s a choice. A lifestyle. A recognition that God’s strength can be revealed amid our human weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Jacob wrestled with God one night and ended up limping as a result (Genesis 32:24-31). Was he stronger after that experience? Certainly not physically stronger.

But spiritually Jacob was infinitely stronger after this divine wrestling match. The transformation was so great that his whole identity shifted from “Jacob” (the scoundrel and deceiver) to “Israel” (a prince with God).

Ironically, the traumas of life ARE supposed to “kill” us, in a sense. But this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll immediately exit this world for heaven. Rather, it means we’ll increasingly die to ourselves and then experience more of God’s resurrection power.  

The apostle Paul said it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). You can’t get any stronger than that. 

I don’t know what you’re going through today. But I DO know this: God is faithful. He has a good plan for you (Jeremiah 29:11). And if you look to Him in your adversity and weakness, He will fill you with His supernatural strength. 

“The man whom heaven helps has friends enough.” (Euripides)

God directs our days—overshadowing when life overwhelms, energizing response-abilities, calming chaos, influencing decisions in puzzling crossroads.

God is our Night Light—inspiring us with nocturnal melodies, illuminating every step by His Word Lamp, protecting us from enemies of our soul lurking in sinister alleys.

God is our Morning Wake-Up Call—igniting enthusiasm for His business.

God is our Shepherd—walking ahead, calling our name, training us to recognize His voice. On the less-traveled way, He teaches us lessons we would never learn on other roads.

God is our Traveling Companion—riding with us on life’s roller coaster, Sun of Righteousness when we’re awake, Bright Morning Star when we’re asleep.

Stepping into tomorrow, there’s no need to let anxiety get the best of us. Round the clock, every second, every hour, every heartbeat, from here to eternity—God travels with us 24/7.

“The Lord guided them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. That way they could travel whether it was day or night.” (Exodus 13:21 NLT)

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

[This devotion based on Day 45 of Gentle Whispers from Eternity]

Read blog at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized

“God is in control. This is no time for fear—it is a time for faith and determination.

There is a bottom line drawn across the ages. Culture can make its plan, but the line never changes.

No matter how deception may fly, there is one thing that has always been true and will be true forever.

He is still the Lord of all we see, He is still the loving Father watching over everything and you and me.”

(Twila Paris)

If we’re honest, we admit sometimes we find it hard to believe God is in control—

when we are flustered, scared, or confused, not knowing which way to turn;

when we consider the moral corruption rampant in American society;

when we hear predictions of a possible 30-year war against ISIS;

when we’re concerned about the Ebola virus spreading;

when we read about bloody international conflicts;

when we wonder if peace will ever prevail.

Pondering the sadness of the human situation, we wonder—

How did people believe in God during WWI, when 16 million died?

How did people trust God during the Black Death, when 200 million died?

How did people believe in God during the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews died?

“Hominum confusione et Dei providentia Helvetica reqitur”—

a Latin saying that originated in the political unrest of the 16th century,  

“Switzerland is governed by the confusion of men and the providence of God”,

was revived by theologian Karl Barth in the midst of the second World War.

Changing Switzerland to “world”, he stated poignantly the Christian credo of history.

The human race has turned God’s world upside down, but God is still in control.

We dare to believe that someday it will finally be clear to the entire universe.

“Be still, my soul, your God does undertake to guide the future as he has the past.

Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last.”

(Katherine von Schlegel)

“This is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—

everything in heaven and on earth.” (Ephesians 1:10 NLT)

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Gentle Whispers From Eternity-Scripture Personalized available from Amazon.com

Although I’m grateful for all the good accomplished through the Recovery Movement over the years, I get perturbed by its tendency to assign people to long-term victimhood. The philosophy seems to be, “Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic,” even if God has transformed your life and you’ve been sober for decades.

And things aren’t much better if you attend a recovery group for grief, divorce, overeating, codependency, or some other trauma in your life. It’s as if they hand out scarlet letters at the door, reminding you of your past.

When a friend recently attended a divorce recovery group, the leader told him that for every year of marriage, it generally takes several years to recover after a divorce. This is nonsensical, of course. My friend had been married for more than 30 years, so it would take him at least 60 years to recover based on the group leader’s formula. The leader’s prognosis was pretty disheartening to say the least.

And then the divorce group leader made another misguided statement: “There is absolutely nothing you can do to speed up your recovery. You just have to endure the pain until it subsides.”

Okay, I know what he means. You can’t take shortcuts. For every trauma in life, there will be some pain that simply must be endured. But does that mean there’s nothing we can do to speed the recovery? That’s both ludicrous and unscriptural.

We’ve all met people who are so full of unforgiveness and bitterness after a trauma like divorce that they’re prolonging their recovery. In fact, I’ve known people who will never recover in this life, because they won’t let go of their offense. Instead of the initial wound killing such people, their life is undermined by the infection they allowed to set in.

Just as we can do things to hinder our recovery, I believe we can position ourselves for faster and more complete healing.

Isaiah 58:8 describes this in a context of fasting, seeking God, repenting of wickedness, and serving the poor: “Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily.” Isn’t that good news? Yes, healing is a process that may take some time. But when you take the right steps, “your healing shall spring forth speedily.”

Years ago, the Lord showed me that discipleship is basically a matter of 5 Connections: God, People, Truth, Character, and Service. Remarkably, these same five components can speed along our emotional healing and recovery from difficult situations:

Connection with GOD: In His presence is healing balm and fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). That’s the ultimate key to any kind of positive transformation we seek (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Connection with PEOPLE: Even though most emotional traumas are caused by other people, it’s also likely that God will use our relationships with people as an important component of our recovery. It’s an indisputable fact of life that positive, truth-speaking, encouraging people can help to speed our recovery, while negative, cynical people will just prolong our pain and foster more toxicity.

Connection with TRUTH: When we’ve gone through a life-altering situation, we must be careful to remain grounded in the truth of God’s Word rather than our transitory and misleading feelings. Satan uses our emotional traumas as opportunities to speak his lies, so it becomes more important than ever to cling to the truth about who God is and how much He loves us.

Connection with CHARACTER: Too often, people who are hurting try to self-medicate their pain through alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, toxic relationships, or other destructive activities. Such things are a great way to go from the frying pan into the fire. Instead, we should use any emotional trauma as a time for God to expose and heal any wicked or hurtful areas of our heart (Psalm 139:24). We also must carefully monitor our lives and take preventative action if we see some kind of bad fruit developing.

Connection with SERVICE: One of the greatest ways for us to receive healing is to reach out to heal the pain of others. Like the man who had a shriveled hand in Mark 3:1-5, our disability can be healed when we stretch out our hand in obedience to the Lord.

Those of us from a charismatic or Pentecostal background might prefer to think that all emotional healing should come from a supernatural, instantaneous touch from God. Just come to the altar for prayer, and everything will be alright.

While that kind of immediate remedy is surely possible, the Lord often prefers to take us through the process of healing. Why? Probably because the 5 connections in the healing process are the very same connections we need to become more like Christ. Just as sanctification and discipleship aren’t instantaneous propositions, emotional healing may take more than a single prayer.

If you’ve been struggling to break free from some kind of traumatic experience or relationship, don’t despair. God has a plan for your recovery—and it doesn’t have to take as long as you’ve thought.

Make a decision today to forgive and release those who have wronged you. Then engage in the 5 connections in the Lord’s unfailing process of recovery and transformation.

If you’re like me, you have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. Yes, it provides a convenient way to keep up with my friends and let them know what I’m up to. And occasionally someone posts an interesting video clip or news item that I find profitable.

However, I’ve concluded that for many people, Facebook is all about “keeping up appearances.” If you spend all your time in the unreality world of Facebook, you’ve probably concluded that every one of your friends is living the perfect life. Awesome spouse. Incredible kids. Fantastic vacations. One fun experience after another.

In the world of Facebook friends, there is seemingly no pain…loneliness…or depression. No one posts anything about marriage struggles or rebellious children or trouble with their boss. In fact, people seem to feel obliged to write a post on their anniversary that says something like, “Thirty years ago I married my soul mate, and we’ve had one glorious year after another ever since.”

The problem is, there’s quite a difference between the digital lives of my Facebook friends and the actual lives of the friends I know in the real world. Maybe I’ve been hanging out with too many losers, but some of my friends have been divorced…have lost jobs…have gone bankrupt…have had bouts with depression…or have gone through agonizing situations with their children.

Of course, I would never have known any of these things about my friends through their Facebook posts. No, I had to spend time with them, face to face, looking them squarely in the eyes. And I had to share my own struggles, so they could trust me enough to share their struggles.

The tendency for people to “keep up appearances” is certainly not a new phenomenon. The Bible is filled with descriptions about the common human tendency to fall into “play acting” or “hypocrisy,” especially for us religious folks.

Amazingly, Jesus was compassionate toward prostitutes and drunkards, yet very severe to people who played religious games for the sake of keeping up their appearance:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness (Matthew 23:27-28).

If I had nothing better to do, I think I should start a Facebook alternative for people who want to be honest about their lives. Maybe I could call it Heartbook, or something like that. It would be the no-spin zone of social media sites.

The theme verse of my new Heartbook initiative would be 1 Samuel 16:7: “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” There would be a strict policy against sharing your selfies unless you also shared the condition of your heart.

You see, 1 John 1:7 says the only way we can have true friendship and fellowship is to “walk in the light.” In other words, transparency and openness are prerequisites for genuine relationships.

That’s why I frankly don’t care how many Facebook friends you have. Heartbook will trump the Facebook any day. (Watch out, Mark Zuckerberg!)

So the real question isn’t your number of Facebook friends, but whether you have any friends you can be real with. You need people who see beyond your appearance to your heart…people who love you unconditionally, no matter how you are doing or what you are going through.

A true friend is worth thousands of people whose goal in life is to keep up their appearance. Don’t settle for anything less.

“To be individually righteous is the first of all duties, come what may to one’s self, to one’s country, to society, and to civilization itself.” (Joseph Krutch, 1964)

“If you don’t mind my saying so” people state before voicing their opinions. But the following thoughts are not merely my opinions—they are convictions based on the Scriptures.

Believers in Jesus Christ are different from infidels. Forgiven by heaven’s flawless Lamb, belonging to God in a personal way, they are compelled to live with moral excellence. The middle cross eternally separates repentance from derision, faith from skepticism, and paradise from perdition.

Believers in Jesus Christ are distinguished by humility. “Movers and shakers” have no time to listen to God’s Word and no inclination to live His way. But followers of Christ reverence Him and attempt to emulate His humble lifestyle.

Believers in Jesus Christ are characterized by integrity. Inspired by grace, they run from pleasures others run to. Taught by faith, they anticipate Christ’s coronation as Monarch of the universe. Charmed by holiness, they cry their heart out over wrongs committed. Humbled by God’s power, they lean on His everlasting arms. Instructed by experience, they seek to honor the Lord. Trained to think like Christ, they live in tension with society’s perverted values. Juxtaposed by darkness, they sparkle like a diamond on black velvet.

Believers in Jesus Christ sing a different melody. With Jesus topping their charts, they credit Him with strength to persevere and rehearse heaven’s theme song of victory.

Believers in Jesus Christ live with hope. In contrast to the despairing world, they detect the first gleam of a sunrise of hope. Hearing echoes of the New World Symphony, they feel the Spirit Wind unfurling new Jerusalem’s flag. Celebrating the future’s faint overture, they are beginning to learn how to dance for joy.

Everything about Christians is different because of Christ.

I am deeply concerned about the future of America and the world; but whatever happens to me, my country, or civilization, I want to always be true to Jesus Christ.

“Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites.” (Exodus 11:7 NLT)

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

[This devotion based on Day 44 of Gentle Whispers from Eternity]

Gentle Whispers From Eternity-Scripture Personalized available from Amazon.com