Priceless
I am the door [said Jesus]: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
John 10:9
When God said, “Come ye, buy . . . without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1), He was saying “Salvation is free!”
God puts no price tag on the Gift of gifts—it is free! Preachers are not salesmen, for they have nothing to sell. They are the bearers of Good News—the good tidings that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3), and that the “grace of God . . . hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). Money can’t buy it. Man’s righteousness can’t earn it. Social prestige can’t help us acquire it. Morality can’t purchase it. It is as Isaiah quotes: “Without money and without price.”
God does not bargain with us. We cannot barter with Him. We must do business with Him on His own terms. He holds in His omnipotent hand the priceless, precious, eternal gift of salvation, and He bids us to take it without money and without price. The best things in life are free, are they not? The air we breathe is not sold by the cubic foot. The water which flows crystal clear from the mountain stream is free for the taking. Love is free; faith is free; hope is free.
We can’t reject God’s grace on the ground that it is too cheap, for the most precious things in life come to us without money and without price. Only the cheap, tawdry things have a price tag upon them. Salvation is free—but it is not cheap!
Our Father and our God, thank You for being the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. I know the greatest Gift of all cost You everything, and I honor and worship You for the sacrifice that You and Your Son made for me. Thank You for Your unspeakable Gift. In His name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Let Your Light Shine!
As long as I am in the world, [Jesus said,] I am the light of the world.
John 9:5
We are holding a light. We are to let it shine! Though it may seem but a twinkling candle in a world of blackness, it is our business to let it shine. Light dispels darkness, and it attracts people in darkness to it.
We are blowing a trumpet. In the din and noise of battle the sound of our little trumpet may seem to be lost, but we must keep sounding the alarm to those who are in danger.
We are kindling a fire. In this cold world full of hatred and selfishness our little blaze may seen to be unavailing, but we must keep our fire burning.
We are striking with a hammer. The blows may seem only to jar our hands as we strike, but we are to keep on hammering. Amy Carmichael of India once asked a stonecutter which blow broke the stone. “The first one and the last,” he replied, “and every one in between.”
We have bread for a hungry world. The people may seem to be so busy feeding on other things that they will not accept the Bread of Life, but we must keep on giving it, offering it to the souls of men.
We have water for famishing people. We must keep standing and crying out, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). Sometimes they can’t come and we must carry it to them.
We must persevere. We must never give up. Keep using the Word!
Jesus said that much of our seed will find good soil and spring up and bear fruit. We must be faithful witnesses.
The Bible says, “He that winneth souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30). “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).
“Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Salt makes one thirsty. Does your life make others thirsty for the water of life?
Our Father and our God, You are the light of the world, and Your light shines through me. Please help me not to put out the flame but to set it on a lampstand as a guide to those around me in darkness. Help me to be salt and light, Father. Help me to show people that You are the light at the end of their tunnels. Through Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Lord Of Life
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man.
John 5:26–27 RSV
Why is Christianity so different from the religions of the world? It is because Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with the living God. Jesus, Son of God the Father and second person of the Trinity, is the central figure of our evangelistic message.
Today many voices are making other claims. Atheists say there is no God. Polytheism may allow that Jesus is one of many gods. When I first went to some Far Eastern countries, I had to learn that in giving the invitation to receive Christ, I needed to make it clear to my listeners that they were turning from all other gods and turning to the true and the living God as revealed in the Scriptures. We, as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20), boldly echo the ringing conviction of the apostle Peter when he affirmed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The title “Christ” means “anointed one.” It is the term, in the Greek language, for the ancient Hebrew word Messiah—the anointed one whom God would send to save His people.
Peter and his fellow Jews, the first believers of the early Christian church, recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Their period of world history was one of discouragement and despair. The promised Messiah shone as a beacon in the darkness, and His light has never dimmed. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. . . . That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:4, 9).
Our Father and our God, shine through the darkness and chase away the evil. I know You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I know You are the King of kings. I worship and adore You, Lord. I place my trust in You. And I draw my encouragement and strength from Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Life That Wins
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
John 5:24 NASB
While it is difficult for us to believe, it is nonetheless true—God will not force the new life upon us against our will. We must be ready to receive Christ as Lord and Savior with all our hearts. Then the miracle of the new birth takes place. It should be as easy for us to believe in the new birth as it is to believe in the atomic bomb.
I know little about nuclear fission, or of uranium and other elements used in making nuclear explosives; yet I believe in the atomic bomb—so do you. But how can we believe that it exists when we possess no scientific knowledge of how it is manufactured and how it works?
The answer is obvious—by reading accounts of its nature and work and by believing and accepting them. The human mind possesses the ability to accept or reject whatever it reads or hears.
I spend much of my time perusing the pages of a Book—the Bible. It has a message for each of us, and that message is, “Ye must be born again.”
That message contains both a command and a promise. It implies the possibility that I may have a new, changed, transformed nature. And it also implies more emphatically that I will never see the Kingdom of God unless I am born again. Have you accepted the Christ of the Bible into your heart and life? If not, this endless life does not belong to you. If you have opened your heart to Him, it is yours already!
Our Father and our God, thank You for allowing us to be born again into Your family. Thank You for making it possible for me to have a new, changed, transformed nature—a nature more like Yours. Make me like You, Father, Through the power of Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
One Woman’s Testimony
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
John 4:39
We are admonished to seek out the will of the Lord. In Ephesians 5:17 we read, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
To know the will of God is the highest of all wisdom. Jesus said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God” (John 7:17).
Living in the center of God’s will rules out all falseness of religion and puts the stamp of true sincerity upon our service to God. As the Bible says, “Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6).
You should covet the will of God for your life more than anything in the world.
You can have peace in your heart with little if you are in the will of God; but you can be miserable with much if you are out of His will.
You can have joy in obscurity if you are in the will of God, but you can be wretched with wealth and fame out of His will.
You can be happy in the midst of sufferings if you are in God’s will; but you can have agony in good health out of His will.
You can be contented in poverty if you are in the will of God; but you can be wretched in riches out of His will.
You can be calm and at peace in the midst of persecution as long as you are in the will of God; but you can be miserable and defeated in the midst of acclaim if you are out of His will.
All of life swings on this divine hinge: the will of God. So it is all-important that we discover His plan for our lives.
Have you discovered God’s plan for your life yet? Have you asked?
Our Father and our God, I want to be wise and to live in the center of Your will. Give me that wisdom. Teach me how to live for You in every different area of my life. Show me true faith and how to practice it. I would be pure and holy like Jesus Christ, in whom I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Are You Willing To Do God’s Will?
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
John 4:34
We are admonished to seek out the will of the Lord. In Ephesians 5:17 we read, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
To know the will of God is the highest of all wisdom. Jesus said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God” (John 7:17).
Living in the center of God’s will rules out all falseness of religion and puts the stamp of true sincerity upon our service to God. As the Bible says, “Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6).
You should covet the will of God for your life more than anything in the world.
You can have peace in your heart with little if you are in the will of God; but you can be miserable with much if you are out of His will.
You can have joy in obscurity if you are in the will of God, but you can be wretched with wealth and fame out of His will.
You can be happy in the midst of sufferings if you are in God’s will; but you can have agony in good health out of His will.
You can be contented in poverty if you are in the will of God; but you can be wretched in riches out of His will.
You can be calm and at peace in the midst of persecution as long as you are in the will of God; but you can be miserable and defeated in the midst of acclaim if you are out of His will.
All of life swings on this divine hinge: the will of God. So it is all-important that we discover His plan for our lives.
Have you discovered God’s plan for your life yet? Have you asked?
Our Father and our God, I want to be wise and to live in the center of Your will. Give me that wisdom. Teach me how to live for You in every different area of my life. Show me true faith and how to practice it. I would be pure and holy like Jesus Christ, in whom I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
God Is A Spirit
God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24
The Bible declares God to be a Spirit. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking to a woman at the well of Sychar. He makes a straightforward statement about God; He says simply, “God is a Spirit.” Immediately you imagine a sort of cloudy vapor. But that is not a picture of God.
If I want to know what a spirit is, I can find out from these words of Christ after His resurrection: “Come and touch me and see, for a spirit has no flesh and bones such as ye see me have.” So I know that spirit is incorporeal—in other words, it is “unbody.” Spirit is contrary to body. Spirit is opposite to body. Spirit is something that is not limited by a body. Spirit is not changeable as a body.
The Bible declares that God is Spirit, that He is not limited to body: He is not limited to shape; He is not limited to force; He is not limited to boundaries or bonds; He is absolutely immeasurable and indiscernible to eyes that are limited to physical things. The Bible declares that because God has no such limitations He can be everywhere at the same time.
I was reared in a small Presbyterian church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before I was ten years of age, my mother made me memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In that catechism we were asked to define God. The answer we learned was, “God is a Spirit—infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.”
Those three words beautifully describe God. He is infinite—not body-bound. Eternal—He has no beginning and no ending. He is the one forever self-existent. The Bible declares that He never changes—that there is no variableness or shadow of turning with Him (James 1:17).
People change, fashions change, conditions and circumstances change, but God never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Our Father and our God, my finite mind cannot fathom Your infinite nature. My physical body cannot comprehend Your spiritual being. And my ever-changing mind cannot grasp Your never-changing ways. Still, I believe You are all these things. Help me to believe even more through Jesus, through whom I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Mission Impossible
Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.”
John 4:17–18 RSV
In affluent America thousands of us Christians have become too comfortable. We are too much at ease in this world. We have ceased to challenge the world in which we move; and if God wanted to do a great work in our time, we would probably be bypassed.
In John 4:9 we read “the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” The disciples might have thought that the Samaritans were totally outside the Kingdom of God. Perhaps they thought these “outsiders” were unreachable and untouchable by the Message.
How many Christians have given up trying to win their neighbors, their business associates, or their school friends to Jesus Christ? They think they are totally uninterested.
Perhaps that friend or neighbor is watching you very carefully to determine whether you back up your belief with your life.
Some of us have already made up our minds that God has no intention of reaching this person—they are too hard; they are not interested; they are so materially minded; they are so filled with sin, lust, and pride that they are unreachable.
Thus when the woman of Sychar, who had had six “husbands,” was converted to Christ, the disciples were not used.
Many people in history who have been used of God were great sinners and seemed unreachable. John Newton, who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” was a slave dealer in Africa and one of the worst sinners who ever lived. Who could ever have believed that he would one day be a clergyman in the Anglican church and become one of the greatest hymn writers of all time!
Even Paul the apostle was Saul the persecutor. Many times God takes the absolutely impossible person and transforms him by His own grace and mercy and providence to become a mighty servant of God. Don’t give up on anyone. There is no person beyond the grace of God.
Our Father and our God, make my life a reflection of You so that my neighbors and friends will have no doubt about Your existence, Your power, Your love, Your mercy. Help me to see the lost as You see them. Give me courage to touch them with Your saving grace, I ask in the name of Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Give Me!
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
John 4:15 RSV
This woman who startled a city, who set the people marching out to meet Christ, was a transformed and changed woman. The power of Christ had changed her, and in that very transformation two things were involved:
First, she had repented of her sin. The only thing that may be keeping revival from your life, from your church, from your home, from your community, may be unrepented sin. God can only use cleansed vessels.
The second thing in the preparation of the instrument was prayer. She said, “Give me,” and what an intensity of desire must have gone into that prayer! Thus, she repented of her sin, she believed that Christ was the Messiah, and she began to pray. This simple woman was used to transform an entire city.
After the experience of this day, the Scripture says that Jesus went with them. Revival is not more and not less than the presence of Christ in the heart, the home, the community, and the nation. It is the practical application of this fact that we so desperately need to work out in our lifetime.
The cry of the old Testament prophet was “that the mountains might flow down at thy presence” (Isaiah 64:1). Nothing less than this will do. The Psalmist cried, “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Psalm 85:6).
Our greatest need at this moment of confusion and revolution is a moral and spiritual awakening. However, this moral and spiritual awakening is not coming until the people of God repent of their sins, and believe with all their hearts, and begin to pray.
That revival must begin with individuals. In the words of an old hymn, “Lord, send a revival, and let it begin with me.”
Our Father and our God, please use me, as You used the woman at the well, to bring revival to myself first, then to my family, friends, and community. Make me an instrument of prodding and prompting toward moral and spiritual awakening in the name of Jesus, who came to bring revival to all people. In His blessed name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Looking For Joy In All The Wrong Places
For God is love.
1 John 4:8
Some years ago there was a popular song which included the lyrics, “I’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.” What a profound statement that is.
A Christian song puts the despair of looking for love in the wrong place in perspective: “You have searched in vain for something; now you don’t want that something you’ve found.”
How often have you found what you were looking for, only to realize it did not bring the satisfaction you thought it would? It is the ultimate frustration. That frustrating search, which never ends if we are looking for fulfillment in the things of this world, was never expressed better than on a bumper sticker I saw. It said, “All I want is a little more than I have now.”
We look for love, acceptance, and joy in our careers, in money, in power, in all sorts of material things, but if they really brought lasting joy, would we not have testimonies from millions of people around the world to that effect? Wouldn’t someone have written a book by now, the title of which might be, I Found Joy, Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness in My New Mercedes-Benz?
The rest of that Christian song I mentioned goes, “put Jesus first in your life, and turn your life around.” Order is very important in most everything we do. By putting Jesus Christ and His will for your life first, everything else will fall into place. When Christ is out of order, or way down on your priority list, your whole life is upside down.
Try putting Christ first and watch how your life is turned around. You will discover where the love, peace, joy, and acceptance you’ve been searching for is to be found.
Our Father and our God, I know that true joy comes from being one with You and Your Son, Jesus. I pray for increased trust and faith in You, Lord, and less confidence in the things of this earth that will pass away. Help me look for joy in the right place—in Christ Jesus, my Savior, in whose name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Necessity of the New Birth
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3 RSV
We cannot explain the mystery of our physical birth, but we accept the fact of life. What is it that keeps us from accepting the fact of spiritual life in Christ?
Just as surely as God implants the life cell in the tiny seed that produces the mighty oak, and as surely as He instills the heartbeat in the life of the tiny infant yet unborn, as surely as He puts motion into the planets, stars, and heavenly bodies, He implants His divine life in the hearts of men who earnestly seek Him through Christ.
This is not conjecture; it is a fact. But has it happened to you? Have you been twice born? If you have not been, you are not only unfit for the Kingdom of God—you are cheating yourself out of the greatest, the most revolutionary experience known to man.
This new birth is an eternal birth. The Bible says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). Our physical birth in life is consummated at death; but if we have been born again, death becomes the bright threshold of eternity.
That unknown writer who said, “Better never to have been born at all, than never to have been born again,” never uttered a truer statement.
Our Father and our God, I celebrate the fact that I have been born again and that I am a new creature. That new birth has cleansed me, saved me, and made me Your child for eternity. Help me to be a child of whom You can be proud, Father, just like Jesus, the perfect One in whose name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Study The Signs
When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Luke 21:28
The daily events of our world and the prophecies of the Bible are beginning to coincide. We’ve been told in Scripture to study the signs and to learn the signs of the times. If only the world had studied the signs of the Old Testament, it would have known that Jesus was coming the first time. But ignorance and blindness concerning the teaching of the Scriptures led men to fail to recognize hundreds of years before Jesus was born that the Old Testament revealed these things.
The Scripture said that He would be born of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 4:9); He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5); He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7). He would be called out of Egypt (Hosea 11). He would be a prophet (Deuteronomy 18). His own people would reject Him (Isaiah 53). He would be betrayed and sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11). He would be put to death by crucifixion (Psalm 22). The soldiers would cast lots for His clothing (Psalm 22). He would ascend into heaven (Psalm 68). And on and on. Almost every detail which happened to the Lord Jesus Christ was predicted hundreds of years earlier by prophets inspired by the Spirit of God.
Jesus told His disciples that there would be signs for which they could watch when He would come back again. When He warned them on two occasions to beware of setting dates, he said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36). He also said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” To speculate about a date would be absolutely foolish and unbiblical and against the teachings of our Lord. But we are told to watch for the signs.
Although He warned about speculating on the exact time of His return, Jesus did assure the disciples that there were signs throughout the Scriptures, as well as in His own words, which would make it clear to those who have eyes to see that the time is near. He said, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). That is the hope that is in the heart of every believer—that our redemption is drawing nigh. Certainly we are two thousand years nearer the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ than we were when He made those predictions.
Are you excited? I am!
Our Father and our God, You are my great Redeemer. You are my Savior, my hope, and my dearest love. You are the source of all grace and mercy, and I cannot live without You. Save me in that final hour, O Lord, because of the purity and sacrifice of Jesus Your Son, through whom I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Later Than Ever Before
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luke 21:27
A little girl heard a clock strike thirteen times. Breathlessly she ran to her mother and said, “Mother, it’s later than it’s ever been before.” Almost everyone throughout the world will agree. It’s later than it’s ever been before. The human race is rushing madly toward some sort of climax, and the Bible accurately predicts what the climax is! A new world is coming. Through modern technology and scientific achievement we are catching glimpses of what that new world is. If it were not for depraved human nature, man could achieve it himself. But man’s rebellion against God has always been his stumbling block. The penalty for man’s rebellion is death. The best leaders and the best brains have many times been stopped by death. The Bible teaches that “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27). Today the world longs for a leader such as Abraham Lincoln—but death took him from us.
God will use the angels to merge time into eternity, creating a new kind of life for every creature. Even today’s intellectual world speaks of a point when time will be no more. Most scientists agree that the clock of time is running out. Ecologically, medically, scientifically, morally, time seems to be running out. In almost every direction we look, man’s time on earth seems to be running out. Self-destruction is overtaking us as a human race.
Will man destroy himself? No! God has another plan!
That plan was inaugurated at the first coming of Jesus Christ. It will be completed at His Second Coming! You and I as Christians can look forward to that climactic event with joyous anticipation!
Our Father and our God, when You come again, please receive me unto Yourself. Send Your angels to translate me from earth to heaven. I wait with open arms for death, which I know is the door to eternity. Until then, I will live my life to the fullest for You. Through Jesus, the One who died so that I might live. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
To Busy To Pray
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 NIV
Here are some thoughts on prayer.
In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under His protection and safeguard.
“God’s way of answering the Christian’s prayer for more patience, experience, hope, and love is often to put him into the furnace of affliction.”—Richard Cecil (1748–1810)
“Our prayer and God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends, the other descends.”—Mark Hopkins, American educator (1802–1887)
My longtime friend, that great humanitarian missionary and man of prayer Frank C. Laubuch, said, “Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation—and for me the most important is listening to God’s replies.”
“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”—William Cowper (1731–1800)
G. Campbell Morgan tells the following story:
A father and his young daughter were great friends and much in each other’s company. Then the father noted a change in his daughter. If he went for a walk, she excused herself from going. He grieved about it, but could not understand. When his birthday came, she presented him with a pair of exquisitely worked slippers, saying, “I have made them for you.”
Then he understood what had been the matter for the past three months, and he said, “My darling, I like these slippers very much, but next time buy the slippers and let me have you all the days. I would rather have my child than anything she can make for me.”
Some of us are so busy for the Lord that He cannot get much of us. To us He would say, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, but I miss the first love.” (Revelation 2:2–4)
If there are any tears shed in heaven, they will be over the fact that we prayed so little.
Our Father and our God, forgive this child of Yours for neglecting to talk to You more often. I love You, Father, and I want to be in constant conversation with You. Bless me with a vision of eternity so that I don’t get so mesmerized by the details of today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Mandate to Pray
Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.
Luke 18:1
We don’t have to think that our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. The living Christ is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. God the Son retains the same humanity He took to save us and is now living in a body that still has nail prints in its hands. He is our great High Priest, interceding for us with God the Father.
The resurrection presence of Christ gives us power to live our lives day by day and to serve Him. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these will he do; because I go to My Father” (John 14:12 NKJV).
The resurrected body of Jesus is the design for our bodies when we are raised from the dead also. No matter what afflictions, pain, or distortions we have in our earthly bodies, we will be given new bodies. What a glorious promise of things to come! “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform our lowly body to be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself ” (Philippians 3:20–21 NKJV).
Our Father and our God, I come to You in the name of the resurrected Jesus to praise and glorify You for Your mighty works. I am excited to claim my citizenship in heaven, Lord, and to be with You forever. Keep me walking with Jesus every day of my life, for He is the only Way to You, and through Him I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Carried By The Angels
And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.
Luke 16:22
In telling the story in Luke 16 Jesus says that the beggar was “carried by the angels.” He was not only escorted; he was carried. What an experience that must have been for Lazarus! He had lain begging at the gate of the rich man until his death, but then suddenly he found himself carried by the mighty angels of God!
Another beautiful account of this kind comes from the life of Stephen (Acts 6:8–7:60). In a powerful sermon Stephen declared that even unbelievers “received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:53). When he had finished his discourse, Stephen saw the glory of God and Jesus at the Father’s right hand. Immediately his enemies stoned him to death, and he was received into heaven. Even as the angels escorted Lazarus when he died, so we can assume that they escorted Stephen; and so they will escort us when by death we are summoned into the presence of Christ. We can well imagine what Stephen’s abundant entrance to heaven was like as the anthems of the heavenly host were sung in rejoicing that the first Christian martyr had come home to receive a glorious welcome and to gain the crown of a martyr.
Hundreds of accounts record the heavenly escort of angels at death. When my maternal grandmother died, for instance, the room seemed to fill with a heavenly light. She sat up in bed and almost laughingly said, “I see Jesus. He has His arms outstretched toward me. I see Ben [her husband who had died some years earlier] and I see the angels.” She slumped over, absent from the body but present with the Lord. What a glorious experience for the believer!
Our Father and our God, I look forward to the day when You will send Your angels to carry me home to You. I can’t imagine what that experience will be like. Help me to be prepared for that day, O Lord, and to die with the grace and confidence of someone who is a fellow heir with Christ Jesus. In His matchless name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The New Puritanism
She calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Luke 15:9–10 RSV
While angels will play an important role in executing the judgment of God on those who refuse Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, the Bible tells us that they also rejoice in the salvation of sinners. Jesus tells several striking stories in Luke 15. In the first, a man had a hundred sheep. When one was lost, he left the ninety-nine in the wilderness to seek it. When he found the sheep, he slung it over his own shoulders and brought it back to the fold. At home he summoned all his friends saying, “Rejoice with me: for I have found my sheep which was lost” (v. 6). Jesus said, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (v. 7).
His second story is that of a women who lost a valuable silver coin. She looked everywhere. She swept her house carefully. At last when she recovered the coin she called all her friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost” (v. 9). “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10).
In these two parables is not Jesus telling us that the angels of heaven have their eyes on every person? They know the spiritual condition of everybody on the face of the earth. Not only does God love you, but the angels love you too. They are anxious for you to repent and turn to Christ for salvation before it is too late. They know the terrible dangers of hell that lie ahead. They want you to turn toward heaven, but they know that this is a decision that you and you alone will have to make. What is your relationship to the Lord?
Isn’t it comforting to know that, no matter how alone we may feel, God’s angels are watching over us?
Our Father and our God, Your mercies, kindnesses, and care overwhelm me. I am so humbled by Your constant attention and gentle dealing with me. My life is Yours to direct, Lord. Keep me safe and ever near You. I can’t make it without You. Help me to walk heart-in-heart with Jesus. In His name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Angels Rejoice
She calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Luke 15:9–10 RSV
While angels will play an important role in executing the judgment of God on those who refuse Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, the Bible tells us that they also rejoice in the salvation of sinners. Jesus tells several striking stories in Luke 15. In the first, a man had a hundred sheep. When one was lost, he left the ninety-nine in the wilderness to seek it. When he found the sheep, he slung it over his own shoulders and brought it back to the fold. At home he summoned all his friends saying, “Rejoice with me: for I have found my sheep which was lost” (v. 6). Jesus said, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (v. 7).
His second story is that of a women who lost a valuable silver coin. She looked everywhere. She swept her house carefully. At last when she recovered the coin she called all her friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost” (v. 9). “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10).
In these two parables is not Jesus telling us that the angels of heaven have their eyes on every person? They know the spiritual condition of everybody on the face of the earth. Not only does God love you, but the angels love you too. They are anxious for you to repent and turn to Christ for salvation before it is too late. They know the terrible dangers of hell that lie ahead. They want you to turn toward heaven, but they know that this is a decision that you and you alone will have to make. What is your relationship to the Lord?
Isn’t it comforting to know that, no matter how alone we may feel, God’s angels are watching over us?
Our Father and our God, Your mercies, kindnesses, and care overwhelm me. I am so humbled by Your constant attention and gentle dealing with me. My life is Yours to direct, Lord. Keep me safe and ever near You. I can’t make it without You. Help me to walk heart-in-heart with Jesus. In His name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
Discipleship
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost?
Luke 14:28
A generation ago, Jim Elliot went from Wheaton College to become a missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador. Before he was killed, he wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
The Christian faith brings its own “blood, sweat, and tears” to those who would follow Jesus Christ. Christ calls us to discipleship. When we come to Him, He takes away one set of burdens—the burden of sin, the burden of guilt, the burden of separation from God, the burden of hopelessness. But He also calls upon us to “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me” (Matthew 11:29). It is not a yoke that is too heavy for us to bear, for Christ bears it with us: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
Nevertheless, Christ calls us to follow Him, regardless of the cost, and He has never promised that our path will always be smooth. There is no life that is without its own set of burdens. I have chosen Christ, not because He takes away my pain, but because He gives me strength to cope with that pain, and in the long range to realize victory over it. Corrie ten Boom said, “The worst can happen, but the best remains.”
The late Dr. Walter L. Wilson once said, “God is more interested in making us what He wants us to be than giving us what we ought to have.” Is that the way I’m living my life?
Our Father and our God, take away my burden of guilt and shame caused by my sins. And place on me Your servant’s yoke. Let me walk through life yoked to Your Son, Jesus, for I know that with Him by my side I cannot fail. In His Name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).
The Highest Calling
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:33
If I leave my room in the morning without my quiet time, my day is all wrong, my ministry curtailed. I have no close walk, no intimate fellowship with Christ.
We need to have our time of prayer, our time of Bible reading, and above all discipline our minds. The Bible says much about the mind. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” We should make it a habit to center our minds on the Person of Christ.
Let Him take your tongue and nail it to the cross. The Scripture says that we smite with the tongue. “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell” (James 3:6). Take this little muscle of yours in your mouth and nail it to the cross.
Take those eyes of yours and say with Job, “I’ve made a covenant with my eyes.” Make a list of every area of your life and say, “Oh, Lord, by Thy grace, I reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, I nail these things to the cross, I identify myself with Thee at the cross.” That is what the Scripture means when it says, “But if by the Spirit you put to death decisively the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13).
Do you know what Lenin said about a Communist? He said, “A Communist is a dead man on furlough.” That’s exactly what we ought to be for Jesus Christ—men and women who are living disciplined lives, men and women who are following Christ in a Spirit-filled life. The Spirit-filled life produces the fruit of the Spirit. Having had your heart cleansed by the blood of Christ, having submitted and yielded every area of your life to Him, you can claim by faith to be filled with the Spirit.
When the Standard Oil Company was looking for a representative in the Far East, they approached a missionary and offered him $10,000. He turned down the offer. They raised it to $25,000, and he turned it down again. They raised it to $50,000 and he rejected it once more.
“What’s wrong?” they asked.
He replied, “Your price is all right, but your job is too small.” God had called him to be a missionary, and that was the highest calling.
Our Father and our God, I recognize that being Your child is the greatest honor in life. I present myself as a living sacrifice to live and to serve for Your good pleasure. May my life be a sweet-smelling aroma to You because of my relationship to Jesus Christ and because of His sacrifice for me. In His name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).