Billy Graham on America's Spiritual Condition

Five years ago, in an interview with World Net Daily just after the release of his new book The Reason for My Hope: Salvation, Graham said that with “all my heart I want to leave you with the truth.” “We have been going down the wrong road for a long time.  Seemingly, man has learned to live without God, preoccupied and indifferent toward Him and concerned only about material security and pleasure.

“And yet mankind is also adrift morally and spiritually, confused and fearful because he does not know where he is or where he is going. He lives in a world dangerously torn by hate and violence and conflict, and yet he feels powerless to do anything about them. He also knows his own heart is driven by destructive passions and motives he cannot seem to control or change.

“People need to repent of their sins, turn to God and take the narrow road that Jesus talks about in the Bible. The narrow road means that you forsake sin and you obey God, that you live up to the Ten Commandments and that you live up to the Sermon on the Mount desiring to please God in everything. The narrow road is hard and it is difficult; you can’t do that yourself. You need God’s help and that’s the reason we ask people to come to receive Christ because when you receive Him, the Holy Spirit comes to live within to help us live the life.

“Our world is desperately seeking answers to the deepest questions of life – answers that can only be found in the Gospel. That is the reason for my hope, that there can be changed hearts and a changed society as we yield ourselves to Christ.”

 In 2012 Billy Graham released an open letter to America in the summer entitled My Heart Aches for America. In the letter, Graham wondered what his late wife, Ruth, would think of a nation where “self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.” In the letter, as in his sermon The Handwriting on the Wall, Graham compares America to the ancient city of Nineveh, the lone superpower of its time. When the prophet Jonah finally traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, the people repented and escaped judgment. Graham indicated that he believes the same thing could happen in America now.

Banning Liebscher, director of Jesus Culture, an international Christian revivalist youth outreach ministry based out of Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., remarks about the lack of hope in the church. “One of the things that happens is we lose hope and we begin to become hopeless about the state of our nation and when we become hopeless faith isn’t able to grow.”  

Liebscher said Graham’s comparison of America to ancient Nineveh inspires him that “God can still break in and God can still turn a nation. We read in history again and again that as nations would be in decline, moral decline, and there would be violence and sexual immorality and all this stuff, that God would break in, and he would turn a nation, he would turn the hearts of the people. We see it biblically. We see it in history. I think God is speaking again and that hope is coming. Hope is alive.”

David Jeremiah, pastor of the 8,000-member Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif., remarks about the nation’s moral decline and understands the critical point it is at now. “We’ve continued to slide downward away from the very principles that our country was founded upon – now at an all-time low in all the years I’ve been doing this.” Jeremiah says that national repentance is the only hope America has. “We’ve tried everything else,” Jeremiah said. “There is no other hope. The political process isn’t going to make it happen. We’re not going to elect somebody who is going to immediately turn this thing back. We don’t seem to be able to coalesce as a group of Christians and get anything done together. The Gospel is the power that can change the lives of people, and I believe that’s what Dr. Graham believes in his heart, too.”

An interesting point is the counter-culture that Christians are now finding that they live.  Most Christians surprisingly discover that they live at odds with their society.  Something unthinkable recent as 10 years ago.  Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that holds the Secret of America’s Future and The Book of Mysteries said one of the mysteries contained in “The Harbinger” is the parallel between the fall of ancient Israel and the fall of modern America.

“In this ancient template, the nation undergoes a metamorphosis in which those who simply hold true to the ways of God, to that which the nation as a whole once held to, now find themselves increasingly at odds with the culture around them,” said Cahn. “The case of Billy Graham – reveals this dynamic. Graham is undoubtedly the most famous face of American and world evangelism. Thus, his recent statements concerning America are all the more noteworthy. They are increasingly at odds with the direction of American culture and have increasingly taken on a prophetic tone. It is a sign of the times.”

Cahn notes that Graham has been known as the “pastor to presidents” and has prayed at numerous presidential inaugurations. “But had he began his ministry today instead of years ago, holding the same views he has always held, it is likely he would have been banned from praying at the most recent inauguration. This is a sign of how much America has metamorphosed in the past half-century – a sign of how great and deep is its spiritual and moral apostasy.”

“It is the hope of the Second Coming that thrills me every day of my life,” Graham said. “I know that he’s coming again, and I know that he’s going to set up a kingdom of which there will be no end,” Graham said. “In Titus 2 it says, ‘Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.’ Our hope centers in a person, not in circumstances, not in a political party, but in a person.”

Just Say No

Below is a video of Billy Graham's sermon entitled, "Just Say No".  Back in the '80s this was a slogan to youth referring to "just say no" to drugs.  

I'm not sure if it's in this sermon or not, but Billy Graham is quoted as saying,

"A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone."

It's hard to overlook this in today's society.  Unfortunately, the most disrespectful kids I know are church staff kids whose parents refuse to discipline their kids.  I find it incredibly difficult to understand this lack of action by these parents.  On the other side, when I coached youth in our city, it was the absent parents.  They just weren't around.  It's hard for youth to respect them when they are not there as a parent.

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost." 

Having the courage to take a stand is important.  It doesn't matter how many times you've fallen before, take a stand now!  It's not to late to claim your character.  I find that I ask myself, who is living that is not better because I lived?  Who have I hurt and made life worse by simply being alive?  Even though I've made terrible decisions at times, Jesus found me in it and I took a stand for Him and He wants people to have better lives, through me.  Jesus has to take a stand now in me because it's all I've got.  There is nothing else.

"Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened."

The witness of strong people taking stands, saying no to sin or yes to service, is most definitely contagious.  People are attracted to strength.  I think this is why so many would come out  to see Billy Graham, he always preached unapologetically and with conviction.  Something we rarely see today.

The Sin of Tolerance

This article is from Christianity Today (https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/billy-graham/graham-sermon-sin-of-tolerance.html). 

In my remembering Billy Graham, I am listening/reading to many of his messages.  He gave this radio message in 1959!  It could have just as easily been given this past Sunday.  I believe a message like this is more needed today than in 1959.  This message is for today's church, those who profess to be Christians, Christ followers. 

The Sin of Tolerance

An example of Billy Graham's fiery preaching in the 1950s.

BILLY GRAHAM

This article originally appeared in the February 2, 1959, issue of Christianity Today.

Billy Graham's ministry to the big cities, widened in its outreach by radio and television, is one of the outstanding contributions to the resurgence of evangelical Christianity in our generation. His radio message on "The Sin of Tolerance" has been especially blessed. Reprints are available from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis.

One of the pet words of this age is "tolerance." It is a good word, but we have tried to stretch it over too great an area of life. We have applied it too often where it does not belong. The word "tolerant" means "liberal," "broad-minded," "willing to put up with beliefs opposed to one's convictions," and "the allowance of something not wholly approved."

Tolerance, in one sense, implies the compromise of one's convictions, a yielding of ground upon important issues. Hence, over-tolerance in moral issues has made us soft, flabby and devoid of conviction.

We have become tolerant about divorce; we have become tolerant about the use of alcohol; we have become tolerant about delinquency; we have become tolerant about wickedness in high places; we have become tolerant about immorality; we have become tolerant about crime and we have become tolerant about godlessness. We have become tolerant of unbelief.

In a book recently published on what prominent people believe, 60 out of 100 did not even mention God, and only 11 out of 100 mentioned Jesus. There was a manifest tolerance toward soft character and a broadmindedness about morals, characteristic of our day. We have been sapped of conviction, drained of our beliefs and bereft of our faith.

The Way Is Narrow

The sciences, however, call for narrow-mindedness. There is no room for broad-mindedness in the laboratory. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level. It is never 100 degrees nor 189 degrees—but always 212. Water freezes at 32 degrees—not at 23 or 31.

Objects heavier than air are always attracted to the center of the earth. They always go down—never up. I know this is very narrow, but the law of gravity decrees it so, and science is narrow.

Take mathematics. The sum of two plus two is four—not three-and-a-half. That seems very narrow, but arithmetic is not broad. Neither is geometry. It says that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. That seems very dogmatic and narrow, but geometry is intolerant.

A compass will always point to the magnetic north. It seems that is a very narrow view, but a compass is not very "broad-minded." If it were, all the ships at sea, and all the planes in the air would be in danger.

If you should ask a man the direction to New York City and he said, "Oh, just take any road you wish, they all lead there," you would question either his sanity or his truthfulness. Somehow, we have gotten it into our minds that "all roads lead to heaven." You hear people say, "Do your best," "Be honest," and "Be sincere—and you will make it to heaven all right."

But Jesus Christ, who journeyed from heaven to earth and back to heaven again—who knew the way better than any man who ever lived—said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:13,14).

Jesus was narrow about the way of salvation.

He plainly pointed out that there are two roads in life. One is broad—lacking in faith, convictions, and morals. It is the easy, popular, careless way. It is the way of the crowd, the way of the majority, the way of the world. He said, "Many there be that go in thereat." But he pointed out that this road, easy though it is, popular though it may be, heavily traveled though it is, leads to destruction. And in loving, compassionate intolerance he says, "Enter ye in at the strait gate … because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life."

Our Lord's Intolerance

His was the intolerance of a pilot who maneuvers his plane through the storm, realizing that a single error, just one flash of broad-mindedness, might bring disaster to all those passengers on the plane.

Once while flying from Korea to Japan, we ran through a rough snowstorm; and when we arrived over the airport in Tokyo, the ceiling and visibility were almost zero. The pilot had to make an instrument landing. I sat up in the cockpit with the pilot and watched him sweat it out as he was brought in by ground control approach. A man in the tower at the airport talked us in. I did not want these men to be broad-minded, but narrow-minded. I knew that our lives depended on it. Just so, when we come in for the landing in the great airport in heaven, I don't want any broad-mindedness. I want to come in on the beam, and even though I may be considered narrow here, I want to be sure of a safe landing there.

Christ was so intolerant of man's lost estate that he left his lofty throne in the heavenlies, took on himself the form of man, suffered at the hands of evil men and died on a cross to purchase our redemption. So serious was man's plight that he could not look upon it lightly. With the love that was his, he could not be broadminded about a world held captive by its lusts, its appetites and its sins.

Having paid such a price, he could not be tolerant about man's indifference toward him and the redemption he had wrought. He said, "He that is not with me is against me" (Matt. 12:30). He also said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).

He spoke of two roads, two kingdoms, two masters, two rewards, and two eternities. And he said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24). We have the power to choose whom we will serve, but the alternative to choosing Christ brings certain destruction. Christ said that! The broad, wide, easy, popular way leads to death and destruction. Only the way of the Cross leads home.

Playing Both Sides

The popular, tolerant attitude toward the gospel of Christ is like a man going to watch the Braves and the Dodgers play a baseball game and rooting for both sides. It would be impossible for a man who has no loyalty to a particular team to really get into the game.

Baseball fans are very intolerant in both Milwaukee and Los Angeles. If you would cheer for both sides in Los Angeles or Milwaukee, someone would yell, "Hey, make up your mind who you're for."

Christ said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon … no man can serve two masters" (Matt. 6:24). One of the sins of this age is the sin of broad-mindedness. We need more people who will step out and say unashamedly, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:15).

Jesus was intolerant toward hypocrisy.

He pronounced more "woes" on the Pharisees than on any other sect because they were given to outward piety but inward sham. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" He said, "for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within ye are full of extortion and excess" (Matt. 23:25).

The church is a stage where all the performers are professors, but where too few of the professors are performers. A counterfeit Christian, singlehandedly, can do more to retard the progress of the church than a dozen saints can do to forward it. That is why Jesus was so intolerant with sham!

Sham's only reward is everlasting destruction. It is the only sin which has no reward in this life. Robbers have their loot; murderers their revenge; drunkards their stimulation; but the hypocrite has nothing but the contempt of his neighbors and the judgment of God hereafter. That is why Jesus said, "Be not as the hypocrites" (Matt. 6:16).

Jesus was intolerant toward selfishness.

He said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself" (Luke 9:23). Self-centeredness is the basic cause of much of our distress in life. Hypochondria, a mental disorder which is accompanied by melancholy and depression, is often caused by self-pity and self-centeredness.

Most of us suffer from spiritual near-sightedness. Our interests, our loves, and our energies are too often focused upon ourselves.

Jesus was intolerant of selfishness. He underscored the fact that his disciples were to live outflowingly rather than selfishly. To the rich young ruler he said, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven …" (Matt. 19:21). It wasn't the giving of his goods that Jesus demanded, particularly-but his release from selfishness and its devastating effect on his personality and life.

He was intolerant of selfishness when he said, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:25). The "life" which Jesus urges us to lose is the selfishness that lives within us, the old nature of sin that is in conflict with God. Peter, James and John left their nets, but Jesus did not object to nets as such—it was the selfish living they symbolized that he wanted them to forsake. Matthew left the "custom seat," a political job, to follow Christ. But Jesus did not object to a political career as such—it was the selfish quality of living which it represented that he wanted Matthew to forsake.

So, in your life and mine, "self" must be crucified and Christ enthroned. He was intolerant of any other way, for he knew that selfishness and the Spirit of God cannot exist together.

Jesus was intolerant toward sin.

He was tolerant toward the sinner but intolerant toward the evil which enslaved him. To the adulteress he said, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:11). He forgave her because he loved her; but he condemned sin because he loathed it with a holy hatred.

God has always been intolerant of sin! His Word says: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil" (Isa. 1:16). "Awake to righteousness, and sin not" (1 Cor. 15:34). "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts …" (Isa. 55:7).

Christ was "so intolerant of sin that he died on the cross to free men from its power. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Sin lies at the root of society's difficulties today. Whatever separates man from God disunites man from man. The world problem will never be solved until the question of sin is settled.

But the Cross is God's answer to sin. To all who will receive the blessed news of salvation through Christ, it forever crosses out and cancels sin's power. Forest rangers know well the value of the "burn-back" in fighting forest fires. To save an area from being burned, they simply burn away all of the trees and shrubs to a safe distance; and when the fire reaches that burned-out spot, those standing there are safe from the flames. Fire is thus fought by fire.

Calvary was a colossal fighting of fire by fire. Christ, taking on himself all of our sins, allowed the fire of sin's judgment to fall upon him. The area around the Cross has become a place of refuge for all who would escape the judgment of sin. Take your place with him at the Cross; stand by the Cross; yield your life to him who redeemed you on the Cross, and the fire of sin's judgment can never touch you.

God is intolerant of sin. That intolerance sent his Son to die for us. He has said "that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish." The clear implication is that those who refuse to believe in Christ shall be eternally lost. Come to him today, while his Spirit deals with your heart!

You Do You - The Distance from God's Ways

Mark Batterson describes in his book, The Circle Maker, just how expansive the universe is. He describes galaxies with millions of suns like our own or much larger than our sun being located 15.5 billion lightyears away from us. Then he gives us this thought, “Your best thought on your best day falls 15.5 billion lightyears short of how great and how good God really is.” This is a wonderful description of just how far apart we are from the perfection and righteousness of God.

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” (Isaiah 55:8) 

Yet, we think we know what is best. We think we know that God in His Word to us didn’t really mean what it says. Or, we think we’ve grown or evolved since then. … Really?!? … Do we really think we are gods? In order to say we know better than God is to say we are equivalent or more elevated, that we are a god. When I suggest this to people who have made a conscious decision to oppose the Word of God, even as they declare they are a Christian, I find they get into a rage at the suggestion. How could I possible suggest something so preposterous? Yet, they are making an active decision at that very moment in contradiction to the clear direction of God to do otherwise.

“You do you” society says. How exactly can we possibly know who we are or what we are made to do apart from God? We can’t even explain how we are alive, or where the spark of life comes from. We can’t explain with certainty how we came into being. We can’t explain with any knowledge where we go when we die … apart from God and His Word. We truly know nothing of life, yet we are more than willing to tell God we know what’s best for us.

In the Andy Stanley study series, In The Meantime, Andy Jones says in Part 4 that “when you focus on what’s wrong, you lose sight of what God is doing right.”  Our society does a phenomenal job at focusing on what’s wrong and a dismal job at focusing on what’s right.  In fact, when something right happens, half the country finds a way to describe it in such a way that it looks wrong.  No wonder so many Americans are depressed.  When I consider that so many people are focused on themselves and seeking to glorify themselves, is it any wonder that they can’t see God?  They focus on what’s wrong (themselves) and lose sight of what’s right (God).

Mr. Jones continues saying, “What I feel like needs to be made right and what you feel like needs to be made right may not be what God feels like needs to be made right.  And the timing in which we feel it needs to be made right may not be the timing that God feels like it needs to be made right.”  Considering how far removed we are from the mind and perfection of God, can we really understand the difference between wrong and right apart from God?  How can we possibly know what a good action even is?  

We are advised to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

If we trust in what we understand and know we can be sure to get a fool’s reward.  It has been said that we should “never argue with an idiot, he’ll bring you down to his level and beat you with experience.”  The world is much more experienced at operating and validating its foolishness than you possibly can be.  The world will beat you with experience of doing the wrong thing and being evil (against God). 

We must understand that the only way for us to be who we were made to be, to live into our purpose, is to depend solely upon God and His Word.  God doesn’t lead a husband or a wife to leave their spouse and kids after 20 years and a commitment before Him to “have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part”.  But, I see Christians, those who by name profess to follow Christ, do this every week.  How is that possible except they think they are god?  God doesn’t lead someone to abuse a child, but I see even Christians, in the news being arrested for such acts.  God doesn’t lead someone to fall into alcohol or drug abuse, but I see Christians falling into it.  God doesn’t lead someone to worship their own body and dedicate themselves to being so fit that they think they are better than others, but I see Christians falling into that trap every day.  How can any of this happen except that we think we know better what is good for us and think we are god? 

The truth of life is we are incapable of “you do you”.  Only God can lead us, sustain us, and give us a purpose.

You Do You - The Way of the Human Heart

Soloman, the wisest man that ever lived, said in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

This would indicate that a human’s heart is evil, since it leads to death.  Jesus tells us in John 5:26, “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.”  So, God tells us that He alone is life.  Therefore, in the essence in a person’s heart is opposition to God.

It is my observation that this single message is the most rejected message of God.  People seem incapable of believing that there is no good thing within them.

“A 2011 Barna Poll showed that 71% of Americans believe in hell, but less than one half of 1% believe they’re going there. Yet, Jesus said in Matthew 7 that many are going there, and few are going to heaven. The poll also revealed that 54% of Americans believe if they do good works they’ll enter heaven, yet Ephesians 2:8,9 says, ‘We are saved by grace, not by works.’ In addition, only 32% of Americans believe that hell is a place of torment, yet Jesus said, ‘Where their worm dies not and the fire is not quenched, where they’ll be cast into outer darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ He mentioned everlasting fire, everlasting damnation, and everlasting punishment.” (soulchoiceministries.org/gods-heart-vs-mans-heart/)

So, 71% believe in hell, but only 0.5% think they are going there.  Over 50% (54) believe if they do good they’ll get to heaven.  Each of these shows that people believe in their own goodness. 

The truth is that people refuse God and push the truth of their heart condition away, they lie to themselves.  People know they’re not doing evil by mistake or by default or ignorance.  In their heart of hearts, they know they have made a decision and performed an evil action.  They know they have made a conscious decision.  They go to great lengths to confuse themselves that the decisions they make, because it’s what they want, is what is best for others.  (Even worse, it seems that now it is more prevalent for someone to just say it was best for themselves.  Pain to others is remarkably unimportant.)  In this way they can pretend that they are good.  It should be no surprise to us then when we go to a jail and ask around, we find that no one is guilty.  People have to spread their innocence to everyone around them in order to gain support for their actions and turn their evil into a good work, otherwise they have to face the fact that their heart is evil.  It is a rare person that can face their own evil and consciously repent, then admit their evil to others as evil. 

Today, the current saying is "you do you".  Supposedly, this is about individualism, but ultimately it is selfishness in its core and advocates not taking responsibility for anything except doing what you want to do for yourself.  I hate to bear bad news, but everything we do for ourselves borne from our heart is evil and we are responsible for it.  We have completely lost teaching the ability to take responsibility for our actions.  It’s never anyone’s fault, it’s always someone else’s fault.  If only someone hadn’t done this or that back then.  If only someone wasn’t green, red, purple, yellow, or an outie or an innie, then they wouldn’t have done it. #metoo is the thought in today's society.  Metoo, I've been hurt too and someone else is too blame.  Well, welcome to the party pal.  It's called being born.  Everyone has been hurt because we all live around people and people have evil hearts.  Society is confused because it will not accept that people are evil without God.

We have also lost teaching how to be accountable to others for our actions.  This is the primary failure of the church.  Most churches teach forgiveness and to love everyone to excess.  But it would be more valuable to teach accountability, repentance, and then forgiveness and compassion.  Jesus said (Jn 15:13) “Greater love has no on than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  The tragic missed truth is confession.  While we want to glorify this as a sacrifice of life for another, the closer reality is confession of who we are to one another.  We sacrifice our innermost evil secrets to one another and they bear it with us.  They hold us accountable to maintain a repentive heart and to not act on that evil in our heart.  It is a great love to set aside our life and bear the burden of our friends.  But it is hard to find friends who will invite such a friendship and truth in love.

Accept it that your heart is evil without God.  Pray for God today to be in your heart, His Spirit with your Spirit, and His mind over your mind.  Only there does life truly exist.

Worry

In was an unusual place for me.  It was gloomy, dark, rainy.  Everything was being pelted upon steadily.  "It's raining again, oh no, my love's at an end" sings through the radio by Supertramp.  ...  But it wasn’t just an unrelenting rain.  It was life.  Unknowingly, the steady beating had broken through the roof and the inside was not safe and dry as it should be.

The pressures of work, family, future, health, responsibility, … just everything.  Worry.  It was worry.  Worry had beat its way through.  I was exasperated.  It seemed that every step was too important to take because it might lead to the wrong outcome.  Worry leads to fear.  Fear leads to death.

Once I finally saw it, so many things came to my observation that I had missed.  Four times this verse had come before me, “in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God (Phil 4:6)”.  A song I’ve never hear before came through the radio twice.  It was “Fear is a Liar” by Zach Williams.  In addition, God lead me to teach the series called Circle Maker which is a study about praying.  I didn’t even know I had the DVD series and just stumbled across it looking for a Windows CD.  I had a weird message that came up on my computer and I was trying to find the Key Code.  There are four computers exactly like mine in the office and none of the others had this message.  No virus can be found.  Strange.  Yet it led me to that DVD series on prayer.

The odd thing about the verse is it came to me just like I wrote it above, incomplete.  As I look back I can see that maybe God was wanting me to read the whole verse in context. “⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)”

In other words, DO NOT WORRY.  God knew of the attack and was sending message after message after message.  If only God had a better clay to mold with.  I am the dumbest sheep and would surely perish without His protecting hand.

Fortunately, God never stops.  Today the verse on the daily verse is: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)” 

We are not to be consumed by the world, but by the fire of the reality that God is.

And That's It!

I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” – Ecclesiastes 3:18 (NKJV)

The Lord tests us so we can see that we are born of dust and return to dust. All that we do of ourselves is meaningless. Apart from God, we have no purpose but to live then die, just as the animals. God tests all men in life, so they may know Him by learning and accepting their reality. The only real thing in life is God. Yet, all men look anywhere and everywhere to find something, anything, else. All people want a place of prominence and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that they are simply headed towards death, the same fate as all animals. However, once anyone realizes that there is a real God and only He can make the life we have valuable, everything we see, hear, and do will change.

Examine me, O Lord, and prove me;
Try my mind and my heart. – Psalm 26:2 (NKJV)

I don’t know a single person strong enough to repeat these words that David wrote. How bold David was! We are so incredibly weak by comparison. Yet, I feel as though we should all direct the Lord to do so with us. “Examine me, Lord, and show me my errors.” We should want the Lord to reveal our imperfections, so we don’t sin against Him. This is a true heart, one that is pursuing the right purpose in life. One that wants guidance and direction. One that wants the Lord’s hand in their life. “Refine me Lord, do not leave me where I am!”

The last and final word is this:

Fear God.
Do what He tells you.

And that’s it. – Ecclesiastes 12:13 (MSG)

The wisest person to have very lived, Solomon, leaves this as his final direction to humanity. In order to fear God, you must know that He exists and that He has the power and strength to do His will with all that is as He sees fit. So, respect God for who He is, acknowledge that He is awesomely more than you can contain, cower under His might, and be fearful of Him who can create and destroy life. Following that, do what He tells you to do. Don’t think you are mighty enough to change His commands. Step down off your pedestal and stand on that level ground where you acknowledge your place as an animal, lest God provide such tests for you that you cannot withstand them. All people stand on the same level ground and not a single person stands above another. There is God, above all and over all forever, then there is created humanity. The most any person can accomplish is to know God and be in His purpose by following His Word. 

And that’s it.

The Parable of the Sower (P-I)

Mark 4

¹ Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.

In Matthew, a point is made that Jesus leaves a house and gets in the boat.  This represents the Message of God leaving the house of Israel and going to the Gentiles.  The background of these parables is in the context of the world.

² He taught them many things by parables, and in His teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

This is equivalent to the railroad crossing guard.  It’s time to Stop, Look, and Listen!  I find it a call to listen with our hearts.

¹⁰ When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹² so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”  (Isaiah 6:9-10)

There is lots of reasons given for why Jesus turned His messages in mid-ministry and talked in parables.  Some descriptions are:  

1. As we see where He is turning from the house of Israel to the Gentiles, His message can’t contain the depths of the Law.  No none Jew would understand its message. 
2. The multitudes were interested in miracles and not the spiritual application.  The parables help get them interested. 
3. They apply to everyday life.  The gospel is everyday for everyone. 
4. Those who pursue it, they want to listen and hear, will understand it.  Paul expounds upon this in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 13-14).

Basically, we can use every means to try to get people to understand spiritual truth, but they must want to understand them before those truths can be made real to them.  If a person’s heart is open then the Spirit of God will bring truth to them.  People are lost until they accept Christ as their Savior.  They will continue to be lost until they receive Christ.  What kind of soil are they? 

What kind of soil are we?  When Biblical truths land upon us, how do we accept them?  Are we joyful?  Or do we mourn as though the Word is another burden?