May 18, 2006

Hi. Welcome to our church growth, mission, and evangelism blog. On behalf of

www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org we are really glad you stopped by. Please take time to listen to the podcast posted today. It is full of really good stuff!

You really need to read Peace with God by Rev. Billy Graham. Here are a few of his thoughts.

 

Time is running out. Is there a path we can follow? Is there a codebook to show us where we are going? Yes, there is a codebook! It is an ancient and historic book we call the Bible. This book has come down to us through the ages. It has passed through many hands and appeared in many forms and survived attack of every kind. It is interesting to note that when Bible reading was outlawed in our American public schools, it was required reading in the Catholic schools of communist Poland.

 

The real theme of the Bible is the story of God’s redemption as it exists in Jesus Christ. God caused the Bible to be written for the express purpose of revealing to man God’s plan for redemption. God caused this book to be written that He might make His everlasting laws clear to His children and that they might have His great wisdom to guide them and His great love to comfort them.

 

The Bible is the only book that is God’s revelation. There are many bibles of different religions; there is the Muslim Koran, the Buddhist Canon of Sacred Scripture, the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, and the Brahman Vedas. All of these nonChristian bibles have parts of truth in them, but they are all developments ultimately in the wrong direction.  They all begin with flashes of true light and end in utter darkness. The Bible is the only book that offers man redemption and points that way out of his dilemmas.

 

During sixteen hundred years, the sixty-six books of the Bible were written by men of different languages, living in different times, and in different countries; but the message that they wrote was basically the same. As we read these ageless words today, we find that the rules of conduct set forth by the ancient scribes are as fresh and meaningful today as they were to the people of Jesus’ time.

 

People are discovering the Bible again. They are finding that the familiar but almost forgotten phrases ring with a current meaning that makes them seem to have been written only yesterday. This is because the Bible embodies all of the knowledge man needs to fill the longing of his soul and solve all his problems. The men who wrote our Constitution knew that they were writing the basic document for a government of free men; they recognized that men could live as free and independent beings only if each one knew and understood the law.

 

Men found out that if they knew the law and lived according to it, they could, in truth, be free. They had their Constitutional rights and they had their Constitutional responsibilities. Just as the Constitution was intended to apply equally to all men living under it, without special favor or interpretation, so the Bible stands as the supreme Constitution for all mankind.

 

Conscience tells us in our innermost being of the presence of God and of the moral difference between good and evil. Only in the pages of the Bible do we find the clear and unmistakable message upon which all true Christianity is based. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

 

Biblical scribes never attempted to gloss over the realities of life. The startling thing is that the lives and motivations of these people who lived so long ago have such a modern flavor. The great all prevailing truth stands for time and eternity. The bold, clear message of the Bible for every living being is the message of Christ and His offer of peace with God.

 

If you have been away from the Bible for a while, start with the book of John. While it is considered one of the most profound books of the Bible, it is also the clearest and most readily understood. It was written for the very purpose of showing the how and the why of man’s salvation, so that the questions of the mind as well as the groping of the heart might be satisfied. When you have read through each of the Gospels individually, start in at the beginning of the New Testament and read straight through all the books in order.

 

Who is God? What is he like? How can we be sure he exists? The only possible answer is that there is a Supreme Creator. Just as a watch must have a designer, so our universe must have a great designer. We call him God. Benjamin Franklin said, “I have lived a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see that God governs in the affairs of men.�

That's it for today. Be sure to stop by tomorrow. My son is playing a concert in Epinal, France tomorrow night and Saturday night they are playing in a 14th century cathedral that is heated by underground hot springs. Talk about being near to God.

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Until next time. God Bless.

Pastor Bob Emery