Overwhelmed With God's Faithfulness Decision 2012

March 1, 2012 - As an associate pastor at Faith Bible Church, John Malito has stood countless times before the congregation to deliver announcements, describe ministry opportunities and pray for God’s leading for the church, nestled in the foothills northwest of Denver.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.—Psalm 139:16 (NIV)

By Richard Greene

So last August, when senior pastor George Morrison asked him to share about Franklin Graham’s upcoming Rock the Range Festival during a Wednesday night service, John felt completely at ease.

What John didn’t expect was the powerful stirring in his own heart while he waited to speak. As he joined in the singing and worship leading up to his comments, memories of the 1987 Billy Graham Crusade in Denver’s Mile High Stadium flooded his heart. That was a momentous life-changer, where John rededicated his life to Christ, and his wife, Cindee, prayed to receive Christ into her heart.

As he prepared to convey his joy that similar decisions would be made a few days later, this time at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park during a Franklin Graham outreach, John was overcome with emotion. Tears trickled down his cheeks.

“God reminded me that 24 years earlier, I was at Mile High coming forward, starting again a new life in Christ, and Cindee was giving her heart to Him,” John explains now. “I was overwhelmed with gratitude and wept with praise for all that Christ has done in our lives.”

John composed himself and then prayed for the 70 some church members and staff who would be participating as counselors during the two-day evangelistic event—himself included.
Before attending the 1987 Crusade, John and Cindee were searching for ways to rear their 1-year-old son, Zach, in a positive spiritual environment. They thought going to the Billy Graham meetings would help them become a better mom and dad.

Both had grown up in Northwest Denver. John and his older brother, Ray, attended the Catholic church across the street from their house, and they were educated in Catholic schools. John served as an altar boy and at one point considered pursuing the priesthood. “I pretty much went to church every week and considered myself religious,” John says. “But I never read the Bible, and I had no personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”

That changed in April 1976. John, who was then a college student, was invited by several of his cousins to attend their church. During the service, John heard that Jesus came to die on the cross for his sins. “I understood for the first time that I was lost and needed a Savior,” he explains. That evening John accepted Christ.

Along with her two younger brothers, Cindee grew up in a home that was moral but far from churched. Her mother is of Jewish descent. “We believed there was a God, and we lived a very moral life,” she says. “But we did not know the Lord personally.”

John and Cindee met in 1984, working in the same department at Mountain Bell telephone company in downtown Denver. John was the only man on a nine-person team. “There were quite a few motherly type ladies among our group, and one in particular felt it was her goal to get us together,” Cindee recalls, laughing.

They did get together—first for a movie, Yentl. “After that movie, I told my brother, ‘She’s the one!’” John recollects.

Then John asked Cindee to go to church with him. “I knew John was religious and went to church, and I had a curiosity about that,” Cindee says. “I remember telling him, ‘If you ever want someone to go to church with, I’ll go.’”

Within the year, the two exchanged wedding vows. In 1986, Zach was born, leading them one year later to the Billy Graham Crusade that made such a difference in their lives.
Following the Crusade, John and Cindee recognized their need to grow in their faith. “We knew that we needed to learn how to trust and serve the Lord,” John says. “And we wanted to develop consistent habits of Bible reading and prayer.”

The couple phoned a local Christian radio station asking for suggestions regarding a church that could help them cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus. The station recommended three, and John and Cindee settled on Community Baptist Church, where they were active for 10 years.

When Zach reached the seventh grade and his sister, Sarah, entered the fourth grade, the Malitos searched for a Christian school for their children to attend. They heard about Faith Christian Academy in nearby Arvada, but the waiting list was as long as Denver is high. John and Cindee prayed hard. God answered, and the door opened.

Soon after, God led Cindee to join the staff at the same school, first in a clerical position and eventually in human resources. Today she coordinates that department.

To augment the quality academic training their children were receiving at Faith Christian Academy, John and Cindee yearned to provide a valuable youth group experience for Zach and Sarah. That’s when they sensed the Lord’s leading to become involved at Faith Bible Church.

In early 2003, a friend approached John and told him that he thought John should consider full-time ministry. “I replied that I would love to do that some day, if God guided me in that direction,” John says.

It wasn’t long before Mountain Bell downsized John’s department, and he was forced to retire. When a position surfaced at Faith Bible Church to direct its ministry to seniors, John expressed interest and was selected. In 2008, he was ordained into pastoral ministry.
One of John’s favorite verses is Psalm 139:16: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (NIV).

“To know that the Lord is in control of every detail of our lives is so encouraging and comforting,” John says.

One area with which John and Cindee are trusting God pertains to personal witness. As new believers, they reached out to each of their families with the Gospel, and since then, Cindee’s mother has received Christ, as has one of her brothers and his wife.

Upon hearing Pastor Morrison’s announcement to the staff that Franklin Graham would be holding a Festival in Denver, John jumped at the chance to take part. During the outreach held Aug. 27-28, he served as a pairing supervisor, connecting counselors with people who came forward to make decisions for Christ—just as he and Cindee did in 1987.

“Jesus is the Lamb of God who sacrificed His life on our behalf,” John says. “He’s taken away our sins and given us new life. We can trust Him for everything, and we are going to praise Him and serve Him as long as He gives us breath.” ©2012 BGEA

Common Things Decision 2012

March 1, 2012

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.–1 Corinthians 10:31 (NASB)

By Ruth Bell Graham

Lord, let mine be
a common place
while here.
His was a common one;
He seems so near
when I am working
at some ordinary task.
Lord, let mine be
a common one, I ask.
Give me things to do
that others shun,
I am not so gifted or so poised,
Lord, as some.
I am best fitted
for the common things,
and I am happy so.
It always brings
a sense of fellowship
with Him who learned
to do the lowly things
that others spurned:
to wear simple clothes,
the common dress,
to gather in His arms
and gently bless
(and He was busy, too)
a little child,
to lay His hand upon
the one defiled,
to walk with sinners
down some narrow street,
to kneel Himself
and wash men’s dusty feet.
To ride a common foal,
to work with wood,
to dwell with common folk,
eat common food;
and then upon the city dump
to die for me

Lord, common things
are all I ask
of Thee.

Taken by permission from “Ruth Bell Graham’s Collected Poems,” by Ruth Bell Graham, ©1977, 1992, 1997 The Ruth Graham Literary Trust.

A Grave and Growing Threat Decision 2012

March 1, 2012

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.&mdashJames 5:16 (NIV)

By Franklin Graham

The Obama Administration recently set off a firestorm of controversy over an unprecedented expansion of government power. Under a new healthcare mandate, faith-based organizations are required to provide insurance that covers certain services—even if those services violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

This attack on religion comes on the heels of a relentless assault on the biblical definition of marriage. In February, activist judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Within days, the Washington state legislature made Washington the seventh state to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

What’s really going on here?

I believe we are facing the greatest threat to religious liberty in our lifetime. These events are just some of the most recent signs of the growing war on people of faith, especially Christians who believe that the Bible is God’s Word and that Jesus Christ alone is Lord.

My good friend Chuck Colson had this to say: “Our founding fathers—even those who weren’t Christians—believed, as I do, that without freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, all of our other freedoms aren’t worth the paper they are written on. If government can dictate what we may or may not believe, or how we may or may not live out our beliefs, then we are no longer a free people.”

The time may be fast approaching when Christians have to face the very real prospect of civil disobedience—when we will have to choose whether to obey God or government. Whatever lies ahead, we must remember that God’s Word supersedes man’s law.
When the early disciples were forbidden to preach in the Name of Jesus by the Jewish authorities, they boldly said: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

Even after they were imprisoned, beaten and threatened, they refused to obey that edict and declared, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29).

Pray for our country. Pray for our leaders. Pray for godly men and women in places of authority who will not be afraid to boldly stand for the truth of Scripture. The need is urgent, the hour is late, but “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). ©2012 BGEA

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, 1984.

When God Moves Decision 2012

March 1, 2012

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.—John 3:8 (NIV)

By Anne Graham Lotz

March is the windy month. And when I see the evidence of the wind in the bending trees and rippling lake water, I’m reminded of the example Jesus used in John 3:8 to describe God’s movement in a person’s life. He said, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going” (NIV).

Have you ever prayed for the Wind to blow? “God, would You please move in this situation? Do something! Make Yourself known!” And have you assumed that His movement would be wrapped in glory and blessing? That if only God would move in your family, in your marriage, in your church, in your community, in your own life, something dramatic would happen, and things would get better?

Hosea was an Old Testament prophet who also longed to experience the movement of God in his life and in his country. But in his wisdom, he knew that the movement of God is not always pleasant. In fact, it can be painful.

Read Hosea 6:1-3

I. GOD’S MOVEMENT IS PAINFUL
Hosea 6:1

• Give the two phrases in verse 1 that indicate God’s movement is sometimes painful.
• Give the two phrases in verse 1 that indicate God cares for those He wounds.
• How is the movement of God described in John 15:1-2? If a plant had feelings, do you think pruning would hurt?
• How is God pruning you? What has He “cut you back” from doing? Or saying? Where has He cut you back from going?
• What word is used to describe the painful movement of God in Hebrews 12:10-11?
• What are at least three things the pain produces, according to Hebrews?
• Do you think there is any way to achieve these three things without pain?
• What are two things Jesus teaches us by His own example in Hebrews 5:8?
• How does Peter answer those who say God’s will is for us to be happy, healthy, prosperous and problem free? List phrases from 1 Peter 1:6, 4:19 and 5:1.
• How does Peter also refer to God’s care for the wounded? See 1 Peter 5:10.
• What painful experience are you now going through? Could it be evidence of the Wind?

II. GOD’S MOVEMENT IS PROGRESSIVE
Hosea 6:2

• What phrase in verse 2 implies that God may not do everything all at once, but that His movement may be progressive?
• Describe how this progressive movement is confirmed in Genesis 1:1-31 and 2:1-2, Exodus 14:13-14 and 19-22, Joshua 6:1-5, Hebrews 11:30, 1 Kings 17:17-24 and 18:41-45, Psalm 27:13-14, Mark 8:22-25 and Luke 9:22.
• Read God’s promises in these verses: Genesis 12:1-2, 13:15-16 and 15:1-6. Then read Genesis 16:1-4 and Genesis 16:15-16 and describe how Abraham tried to “help” God out when God’s movement seemed too slow.
• What were the results of Abraham’s effort to rush God? Read Genesis 21:8-14.
• Read Genesis 27:1-45. Describe how Jacob and Rebekah tried to help God out. What were the results?
• What counsel does the Bible give to those who are tempted to help God out? See James 5:7, 2 Peter 3:9, Genesis 27:1-45 (Rebekah and Jacob deceiving Isaac), and Psalm 40:1-3 and 27:13-14.
• Instead of rushing God or helping Him out, would you give Him time to move?

III. GOD’S MOVEMENT IS PURPOSEFUL
Hosea 6:2-3

• What three words reveal the purposes for God’s movement in verse 2? List the phrases that include these words.
• Write out the dictionary definition for each of these words.
• How are these purposes confirmed in Psalm 80:16-19?
• What additional purpose is mentioned in Psalm 85:6?
• Is it possible that you are spiritually dry and lack joy because you have been resisting God’s purpose when it involves pain and patience?

IV. GOD’S MOVEMENT IS POWERFUL
Hosea 6:3

• Read Hosea 6:3. Give characteristics of the sun’s rise each day that illustrate the movement of God.
• Describe these same characteristics in Exodus 16:4 and Luke 9:10-17.
• What general transformation do spring rains bring about? See Leviticus 26:4.
• How is the movement of God similar to the rain? Read Isaiah 55:10-11, John 10:10 and Galatians 5:22-23.
• Have you misunderstood the quietness of God’s power and thought He was inactive?
• What example does Paul use to describe the powerful movement of God in our lives? See Ephesians 1:19-21.
• Describe a time in your life when you have experienced the powerful movement of God.

As you view your life, or that of your loved one or your friend …
As you view your church, or this nation, or this world …
Ask God to give you eyes to see the Wind.
It’s blowing!
©2012 Anne Graham Lotz

Why We Must Forgive Decision March 2012

March 1, 2012

...Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.—Colossians 3:13 (NIV

By Denise George

My friend’s unkind comments cut me to the bone. After many years of close friendship, she lost her temper, accused me of things I didn’t do and blasted me with an onslaught of hurtful words.

She crossed every boundary of decency, respect and friendship, and the more I replayed her careless and caustic words in my mind, the more furious I became. I felt miserable and decided to have nothing more to do with her. “She doesn’t deserve my forgiveness,” I told myself repeatedly.

I shared my painful experience with another close friend. She listened to me and then surprised me with her advice.

“Denise,” she said. “You need to forgive her. You don’t want to live your life with the weeds of unforgiveness and bitterness growing in your heart.”

“Forgive her?” I cried. “She intentionally hurt me! Why should I let her off the hook and forgive her? She needs to suffer just like she has caused me to suffer!”
“You must choose to forgive her, Denise, even though she purposely hurt you. If you decide not to forgive her, you’re the one imprisoned in the past, not her. You’ll suffer, not her.”

She then reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s wise words to the Colossians: “Bear with each other,” he wrote, “and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13, NIV).

“‘Whatever grievances’ covers just about everything,” my friend told me, “even the hurtful words and actions of a dear friend.”

It took me some time to think, pray and study God’s Word about forgiving those who purposely hurt others. But I finally chose to forgive my friend. It wasn’t easy, but I knew it was necessary. During that period, I made some fascinating and surprising discoveries about biblical forgiveness.

What Must I Do?

Forgiveness is essential, even in the absence of an apology. Jesus provided the supreme example when He forgave those heartless people who nailed Him to a cross, sneered at Him and watched Him die. They never apologized to Jesus. Yet forgiveness was genuine and complete on Jesus’ part when He prayed the words: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34, NIV).

My friend had injured me with her words and accusations. She owed me a debt because of her disrespectful behavior. But when I chose to forgive her, I canceled that debt. I decided to no longer hold her responsible for the pain she had caused me. Fortunately my friend apologized and accepted my forgiveness, but if she hadn’t apologized, the act of forgiving on my part would still have been genuine.

I didn’t need her apology in order to forgive her. I could forgive her without ever hearing the words “I’m sorry.” Her willing apology graced my heart, but it wasn’t necessary to my forgiving her.

Four Little Sunday School Girls

Carolyn Maull McKinstry chose to forgive the members of the Ku Klux Klan who planted a bomb in her church on Sunday morning, Sept. 15, 1963. Carolyn, then 15 years old, had just spoken to her four friends in the basement restroom of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. As Carolyn walked upstairs into the sanctuary, the bomb exploded. The blast killed her four friends.

In her book, “While the World Watched,” Carolyn writes: “I know that because of the way Christ has forgiven me, I have no option but to forgive others who have intentionally hurt me and those I love.”

Carolyn knew that unforgiveness poisons the heart. The resulting bitterness can pollute the soul. Unforgiveness breaks God’s heart and interferes with intimate communion with the Heavenly Father. Believers in Christ do not hold grudges. Carolyn’s forgiveness has since enabled her to sow seeds of reconciliation and love around the world.

Holocaust Survivor
Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a young Russian Christian, suffered the loss of friends and family when German armies invaded her home in Ukraine during World War II. Nonna and her mother ended up in a German concentration camp and suffered unspeakable tortures. After years of imprisonment, her mother and her entire family murdered, Nonna was able to leave war-torn Germany and settle in the United States with the help of Southern Baptist missionaries.

Nonna chose to forgive those who purposely tortured her, killed her family members and caused her such great suffering. In her secret diaries, she wrote her eyewitness account of the Holocaust, her love for God and her family—and her forgiveness of Hitler. Nonna kept her diaries hidden for a half century until they were published in 2009 by her husband, Henry, with Nonna’s blessings. In her book, “The Secret Holocaust Diaries,” Nonna notes that forgiveness requires “much generosity and wisdom.” Her forgiveness enabled her to live a life of compassion, love and Christ-like generosity toward others.
Acts of Obedience
Forgiveness begins by recognizing evil in all of its horror. We can forgive without denying the reality of the evil and hurt we suffered at another’s hand.
We can also forgive those who hurt us without condoning or excusing the offender’s hurtful act. Forgiveness doesn’t brush aside the hurt, nor dismiss it. We must choose to forgive anyone who wrongs us.

Our forgiveness is not predicated on our understanding why the offender hurt us. We may never understand the cruel actions of people like Hitler or the Ku Klux Klan, but we can still choose to forgive them.

Feelings have nothing to do with the willful choice we make to forgive others. Surely the Apostle Paul didn’t “feel” like forgiving when his offenders stoned him, tried to kill him and threw him into prison. Even in his pain, he could write: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32, NIV).

And we can forgive our offenders no matter how horrible the crime against us. Some crimes are so heartless and inhumane, we may even wonder if God Himself expects us to forgive.

On Oct. 26, 2001, a nurse’s aide, Chante Mallard, drove home from work and hit a homeless man, Gregory Biggs. The impact broke his leg and thrust him head first into her windshield. Mallard didn’t stop to help him, but instead, with Biggs lodged in her windshield, she drove eight miles and parked her car in her garage. She ignored Biggs’s pleas for help, and he finally bled to death.

Police arrested Mallard. The judge sentenced her to 50 years in prison. At her trial, Biggs’s college-aged son, Brandon, a Christian, addressed the courtroom. He told the Mallard family that his family was sorry for their loss as well. He offered his family’s forgiveness to Chante.

After the trial, a TV interviewer asked Brandon how he could possibly forgive Mallard for killing his father in such a brutal way.

Brandon told him: “It comes because I’ve been forgiven for so much … I can’t not be forgiving. Life is too short to live with all the anger and bitterness. … Life’s too short for that.”

Why must we forgive those people who hurt us or those we love? Because God, in Christ, has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32), and because Christ commands us to forgive others (Luke 17:4). So, for me to grow in Christ, I, too, must obey His Word and continue to forgive. God requires nothing less. D ©2012 Denise George

Denise George (denisegeorge.blogspot.com) is author of 25 books, including “Learning to Forgive Those Who Hurt You.” She teaches “The Writing Minister” at Beeson Divinity School and is co-founder and co-teacher of the write-to-publish seminars: Boot Camp for Christian Writers.

1 Comments

Bill says 3.2.2012, 8:49 p.m.

I really enjoy this issue of learning to forgive others, my brother was killed in a motorcycle accident and it took me years to forgive the person who ran him off the road. As time went on I believe he was in heaven and had no thought of coming back

Opening the Door Decision March 2012

March 1, 2012

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.—Revelation 4:10-11 (NKJV)

By Ross Rhoads

This is the most familiar verse in the Book of Revelation. Although often used in evangelistic appeals, it is the invitation by Jesus to believers—to the church at Laodicea, which existed in the first century after His crucifixion and resurrection. The Christians there had become lukewarm and tepid, causing the Lord to say that He would vomit them from His mouth (Revelation 3:16).

The image of Jesus knocking at the door of the church is striking. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The church is His bride, whom He loved and washed from her sins (Revelation 1:5).

Also, throughout the Book of Revelation, Jesus is presented as “the Lamb,” who is seated on the throne and being worshiped: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power” (Revelation 4:10-11). “You … have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Then He stands and opens the scroll that initiates the beginning periods of judgments on the earth. He is pictured directing, executing and overseeing increasingly horrific global events.
Universal chaotic sounds explode as the heavens and the earth shake with crackling cosmic shifts of upheaval and human anguish.

Earlier, in the opening chapter of Revelation, Jesus is described as having a face that shines like the power of the sun and eyes that penetrate like flames of fire. His voice thunders like the waves against the shore. This awesome, terrifying vision causes the Apostle John to write, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead” (Revelation 1:17, NLT).

Then Jesus is pictured speaking to seven first-century churches, though we should remember that His instruction applies to churches throughout history, up to the present day. The last church described is the church of the Laodiceans. Jesus wants to come into His church, but the door is closed and He cannot enter. What’s wrong with this picture?

Jesus, “the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8), is blocked from entering His own church. “Hear my voice,” He pleads. He is not forcing His way inside, but He is giving those inside a choice. Jesus, that great Shepherd who came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), is now seeking access to the sheep He found and saved (Luke 15:6).

God is also patiently waiting to be invited into the hearts of all mankind. Adam and Eve were given a choice—would it be the tree of life or the tree that brought death? Moses placed a choice before ancient Israel: “I set before you life and death. … Choose life, that you may live” (Cf. Deuteronomy 30:19). Joshua told the people, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). The Prophet Elijah called the people to choose between God and the idols of Baal. And Jesus spelled out the options to the religious leader: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

Jesus has taken the initiative; He will condescend. He will seek to enter a closed door that has shut Him out. He desires to talk to, share and fellowship with the ones He loves, His redeemed.

The knocking makes a sound. Can’t they hear it? What is preventing them from answering the door? Are they preoccupied? Is it possible those inside don’t want to open the door? Or is there just no urgency to respond?

Jesus said that true disciples hear and know His voice. They hear His voice and they follow Him. Those who do not hear His voice are not His disciples (John 10:27). When He comes for His church, it will be the sound of His voice that will resurrect those who have died and believed in Jesus. His church will be evacuated to meet Him, the Lord, in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). But here it appears, doesn’t it, that His own people are not responding to His voice, as He repeatedly knocks and patiently waits at the door of His church.

Is He knocking at the door of the institutional church? Is the Savior outside their lives? Does He want entrance to those He redeemed who have become casual and indifferent to Him? An “evil heart of unbelief” hardens “through the deceitfulness of sin,” and believers become “dull of hearing” (Hebrews 3:13, 5:11).

Jesus wants to have a meal with His church. The most intimate of close fellowship in Hebrew tradition was people eating together, having “a seat at the table,” sharing nourishment. Holy Communion is the “table of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 10:21). “He prepares a table before me” (Psalm 23:5). Did they forget the Last Supper? How, on the night Jesus was betrayed, He promised to sit down with them in the Kingdom to come? The marriage supper of the Lamb is the final picture of full acceptance.

T.S. Elliott wrote that “hollow men” are those who hear the call and refuse to heed it. The Lord of the church is seeking to enter His church. He presents them with the choice, “Open up or shut me out.”

And the consequences are clear. Jesus says, “I love you, rebuke and chasten you. Be zealous and repent” (Cf. Revelation 3:19). Open the door now! Each of us has something we would not like the Lord to identify in our lives, but there is no barrier that His eyes cannot see. What is your closed door?

Jesus knows why there is no response to His knocking. Spoiled by their prosperity, believers are complacent and content. They feel they “have need for nothing.” Jesus says they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17). Too much of everything resulted in the loss of the Lord’s presence and fellowship. Could that be true of us today?

C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘thy will be done.’”
An old hymn puts it this way: “Have you any room for Jesus, He who bore your load of sin? As He knocks and asks admission, sinners, will you let Him in? Room for Jesus, King of Glory, hasten now His Word obey, swing the heart’s door widely open, bid Him enter while He may.” ©2012 BGEA

Ross S. Rhoads is special assistant to Franklin Graham and chaplain of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. The Scripture quotation marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, ©1996, 2004, 2007 Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Ill.

Heaven by Billy Graham March 2012 issue

March 1, 2012

In my Father’s house are many mansions—John 14:2 (NKJV)

By Billy Graham

A young man with an incurable disease was reported to have said, “I don’t think I would be afraid to die if I knew what to expect after death.” Evidently this young man had not heard of what God has prepared for those who love Him.

The man had within him the fear of death. For the Christian there need be no fear. Christ has taken away the fear of death and has given hope.

Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go … I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:2-3). And that place, according to the Apostle Paul, is a “far better” place. Paul wrote, “having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:23).

The grave is not the end. For those who don’t know Christ, death is a calamity—eternity in Hell. For the Christian, death holds a glorious hope—the hope of Heaven. But you ask, “What kind of place is Heaven, and how can I go there?”

First, Heaven is home. The Bible takes the word home, with all of its tender associations and with all of its sacred memories, applies it to the hereafter and tells us that Heaven is home.

Just before Christ went to the cross, He gathered His disciples in the upper room and talked about a home. He said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). When Jesus spoke of Heaven as “My Father’s house,” He was referring to it as home. The Father’s house is always home.

The Bible teaches that you have a soul. Your soul has certain attributes, such as conscience, memory, intelligence and consciousness. Your soul is the real “you.” Your body soon goes to the grave, but your soul lives on. The Bible teaches that the moment Christians die they go immediately into the presence of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). We go home to a place the Bible calls Heaven.

The body is the house in which the soul resides temporarily. The soul is never completely satisfied and happy here, because the soul is not home yet. The true home of the soul is with Christ.

Second, Heaven is a permanent home. One of the unfortunate facts about the houses people build for themselves is that they are not permanent. Houses do not last forever.
The Greek word translated mansion that Jesus refers to in John 14:2 does not mean an imposing house. The idea in the Greek is that of a home that is permanent. It is translated in the margin of the American Standard Version, “abiding place.” It comes from the same stem as the English word remain.

During Christ’s ministry on earth, He had no home. He once said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20).

Those who for Christ’s sake had given up houses and lands and loved ones knew little of home life or home joys. It was as if Jesus had said to them: “We have no lasting home here on earth, but my Father’s house is a home where we will be together for all eternity.”

Amid all the changes that sooner or later will come to break up the earthly home, we have the promise of a home where Christ’s followers will remain forever.

The Bible teaches, “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Hebrews 13:14). The Bible says, concerning Abraham, that “he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Our permanent home is not here on earth. Our permanent home is Heaven. Sometimes when things do not go right down here, we get homesick for Heaven. Many times in the midst of the sin, suffering and sorrow of this life, there is a tug at our soul. That is homesickness coupled with anticipation.

You may be lying on a hospital bed today, you may be suffering from terrible disease or financial loss or bereavement, and there is a tug in your heart. You are longing for home. You are longing for Heaven.

Third, the Bible teaches that Heaven is a beautiful home. Almost all of us like to beautify our homes. There is something wrong with the home where there are no flowers in the yard and no pictures on the walls, where no effort at all has been put forth to make the home attractive.

Very few people have their homes as beautiful as they would like to have them, but the Bible teaches that Heaven will be a glorious and beautiful place. Heaven could not help but be so, because God is a God of beauty.

I have traveled all over America and in many parts of the world. I have never seen a place that I did not think had some charm and beauty. There is even something about a bleak desert or a bare mountaintop that has its charm. It seems that all of nature is beautiful, and only the disposition of mankind is ugly.

Nothing made by human hands has ever been so beautiful as moonlight on the water or moonlight on the snow. And the same heavenly hand that made trees and grass and flowers and snow and seas and hills and clouds and sky has made the Father’s house.

If, in a world cursed by sin, God has made so many beautiful things, how much more beautiful must be that home where there is no sin to mar His perfect handiwork!

The description of Heaven and the holy city given in Revelation 21 and 22 is beyond understanding. The Bible talks about gates of pearl, streets of gold, a river of life and a tree of life. It is a place so beautiful that when the Apostle John caught a glimpse of it, the only thing to which he could liken it was a young woman on the crowning day of her life: her wedding day. He said that the holy city was like “a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).

Fourth, the Bible teaches that Heaven will be a happy home. I know many beautiful homes that are not happy. They are homes made beautiful by everything that culture and wealth can do, yet there is something wrong, something lacking. They are homes that bring to mind the wise man’s words: “Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife” (Proverbs 17:1).

God’s house will be a happy home because there will be nothing in it to hinder happiness (Revelation 21:4).

This world has in it much happiness for those who know how to find it. Sooner or later, however, something interferes. No face is so perfect but that it has some blemish. Every rose has its thorn, every cup of sweet has its drop of gall. But in the Father’s house there will be nothing to mar the happiness. Think of a place where there will be no sin, no sorrow, no quarrels, no misunderstandings, no hurt feelings, no pain, no sickness, no death!

The Father’s house will be a happy home because there will also be work to do. Certainly this is true in every well-ordered home on earth. Some people are so overworked that their greatest longing is for rest. The Bible verse that most appeals to them is, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). But the time will come when they will be rested and will become weary of doing nothing. I can think of no more terrible fate than to be condemned to sit forever and ever in idleness.

John wrote in Revelation 22:3, “His servants shall serve him.” Each one of us will be given exactly the task that suits our powers, our tastes and our abilities. Whatever we do, the Bible says we shall serve Him.

And the Father’s house will be a happy home because friends will be there. Have you ever been to a strange place and had the joy of seeing a familiar face? Not one of us who enters the Father’s house will feel lonely or strange, for our friends will be there.

Many people write and ask, “Will we know each other in Heaven?” Certainly we will know each other in Heaven. On the Mount of Transfiguration, did not Elijah and Moses know each other? (Luke 9:28-33). And in the story that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus, did not the rich man, after death, recognize Lazarus and Abraham? (Luke 16:19-24).

If you are a Christian, you are going to see again those who have accepted Christ. In Heaven families and friends will be reunited.

God’s house will be a happy home because Christ will be there. He will be the center of Heaven. To Him all hearts will turn and upon Him all eyes will rest.

Once in a miserable attic there lived a widow and her son. Years before, she had married against her parents’ wishes and had gone with her husband to live in a strange land.

Her husband had proved to be irresponsible and unfaithful, and after a few years he died without having provided in any way for her and the child. It was with the utmost difficulty that she managed to secure the bare necessities.

The happiest times in the child’s life were those when the mother took him in her arms and told him about her father’s house in the old country. She told him of the grassy lawn, the noble trees, the wide porches, the lovely pictures and the delicious meals.

The child had never seen his grandfather’s home, but to him it was the most beautiful place in all the world. He longed for the time when he would go there to live.

One day the postman knocked at the door. It was quite an event. The mother recognized the handwriting on the letter he brought and with trembling fingers opened the envelope. There was a check and a slip of paper with just two words: “Come home.”

Some day a similar experience will come to all of us who know Christ. It may be when we are in the midst of our work. It may be after weeks or months of illness. Some day a hand will be laid upon our shoulder and this brief message will be given: “The Father says, ‘Come home.’”

All of us who know Christ personally are not afraid to die. Death is not the “grim reaper” to Christians. For us it is not the last great enemy. Death to the Christian is “going home.”
Perhaps you are not a Christian. You have never bent your will to the will of God. You have never accepted Christ as your Savior. You have never been born again. You have never been converted to Christ.

Some day you are going to die. To you, death will be a terrible, agonizing enemy. You will be banished from the presence of God into another place that Jesus called Hell.
Right now, at this moment, you can make your decision for Christ and start on the road that leads to Heaven!

Jesus said there are two roads. One is a broad road that leads to destruction. The other is a narrow road that leads to Heaven. You can receive Christ in a moment, renounce your sin, turn by faith to Him, and you can know with certainty and assurance that if you died this moment, you would go straight to Heaven. ©1996 BGEA

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version.

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1 Comments

Jerry says 3.1.2012, 11:14 p.m.

God is Love and he want for us to Love one another. For this reason: God gave his only begotten Son. That for those who believe in him will have everlasting life. Amen.