On this day in history, March 28, in 1937, Billy Graham got his first opportunity to preach when his teacher John Minder unexpectedly assigned him the Easter evening sermon. Graham tried to get out of it, saying he was unprepared, but Minder persisted. Desperately nervous, Graham raced through four memorized sermons, originally 45 minutes each, in eight minutes.Tonight I am preparing again to preach at First Baptist Church in Allen at 9:00 and 10:30. I've preached hundreds of sermons to this special gathering of believers over the last dozen years. Tomorrow I will preach to a large crowd of people. It seems a far distance from my first sermon preached at a mission church in Raisin, Texas in 1982. I preached in a bar that had been converted into a church. Around 30 people were in attendance. There was not a great deal worthy of note in that sermon. I was terrifed. I will feel the same nervousness tomorrow that I did that day. Sometimes it seems a distant memory and sometimes it feels like the recent past.
On that day that Billy Graham preached his first sermon, few would have predicted the amazing years of ministry to come. Over these decades, Billy Graham has poured out his life to make the love of Jesus known around the world. What an amazing legacy of life and faith! It all began with one day and one worship service on a Sunday evening.
What step with God are you taking today that seems awkward and unsure? When you follow God, the road can lead to exciting places..."beyond all we could ask for imagine." Don't be afraid to take a step with God.
THE DEATH OF GOD
ReplyDelete"Then the Jews, as was the preparation of the Passover, so that the bodies were not on the cross on the sabbath (for that Sabbath day was very solemn) asked Pilate to break them legs, and were removed from there. They came as soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and also the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, as he was already dead, did not break his legs "(John 19,31-33)
As Albert Einstein once said: "The only true problem of all time is in the heart and the thoughts of men. This is not a physical problem but a moral issue. It is easier to change the plutonium compocision that the evil spirit of an individual. It is not the explosive power of an atomic bomb, but what frightens us the power of evil in the human heart, its explosive power for evil. "
No doubt that what the scientist says is one of the harsh realities that describe the human being, that there is an evil inclination in man.
Many of the unhealthy actions of man originated in the laboratory of the evil mind of man, a mind that each day feeds on a terrifying idea, the darkest, most hideous that the man was able to conceive this idea is the desire to "kill God."
Every human being has an area which makes it responsive to think of God, and this sensitive area is in Consciousness. But when the human heart is inclined to build their own roads, to set their own standards, creating an ethical and moral own or her own lifestyle, not subject to anything but the ego itself, the man faces an obstacle: the idea of God in his conscience.
So the man decided that this idea should be removed from his mind.
The apostle John writes about this desire of man, when focusing on the murder and martyrdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, this being done the most despicable act committed to the human race. In reading John 19,31-34 are 2 groups conspired together and with the intent to remove and eliminate the idea of God reflected in the person of Jesus. These groups are the Jews and Romans. But here also notice two things:
1. Religiosity, as represented by the Jews, and that today may well be exemplified by all the religious leaders of all denominations living under Christian rites and ceremonies, traditions or under human schemes, under systems that are not biblical, without guide the Spirit of God. This kills the religious idea of God in man.
2. Spiritual insensitivity, as represented by the Roman soldiers, and exemplified by all those who are disrespectful or irreverent to the sacred, the profane to the church of Christ without fear of seeing God in their hearts, breaking the rules of God, as if break the legs of Christ. These two things darkened conscience of man.
However, as the apostle John writes the death of Jesus, also writes gloriously the event of his Resurrection.
"Ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20.17),
with these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection, he left it that the conception of God is so great and sublime that can never disappear from the consciousness of man.
So for those of evil heart this conception remains a torment to their lives, but for people whose hearts repented the conception of God is an conception of hope, joy, strength, which encourages them to await the Second Coming of Christ .
Note:take it as a blessing, not as an invasion to your blog.