The Word For Today

What do Billy Graham, Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright, Young Life founder Jim Rayburn, and the Navigators founder Dawson Trotman have in common? The answer is a Sunday school teacher named Henrietta Mears. When Henrietta was thirty-eight years old, she moved to Hollywood, California. She taught Sunday school at First Presbyterian Church, and she eventually attracted an astounding attendance of 6,500 students. For four decades, she faithfully devoted herself to her passion of building a cradle-to-grave Sunday school. She also started a publishing company called Gospel Light and a successful conference centre called Forest Home. Additionally, she wrote a book, What the Bible Is All About, which has sold more than three million copies. It is impossible to estimate how many millions of people have heard the gospel through this woman and the Christian leaders she mentored and moulded for God. Take the ministry of just one of her students, Bill Bright. He started Campus Crusade for Christ, which at last count had 20,000 full-time staff plus 663,000 trained volunteers in 181 countries. Largely due to The Jesus Film project, Bill Bright's organisation has reached over 3.4 billion people with the gospel - half the world's population.

Now you may not influence millions, but you may influence one person who ends up influencing many others. Andrew, one of the twelve disciples, brought his brother Peter to Jesus, and Peter ended up bringing multitudes to him. You can make a difference. All you have to do is make yourself available to God.

In 1755, a twenty-three-year-old army colonel was running for a seat in the Virginia assembly, when he made an insulting remark as part of a campaign speech. It was addressed to a hot-tempered man named Payne, who responded by knocking the colonel down with a hickory stick. Soldiers rushed to the colonel's assistance, and it appeared a full-blown fight would ensue. But the would-be politician got up, dusted himself off, called off the soldiers and quietly left the scene. The next morning, the colonel wrote to Payne requesting his presence at a local tavern. Payne obliged, but he wondered what motives and demands the colonel might make - perhaps an apology or even a duel. To Payne's surprise, the colonel met him with an apology, asking forgiveness for his derogatory remarks and offering a handshake. Others may have viewed the move as politically expedient, but Colonel George Washington considered it personally imperative if he was to enjoy internal peace as he continued with his political campaign on his way to becoming America's first president.

Jesus said, 'If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly' (Matthew 5:23-25 NKJV). Solomon said, 'Here is how to get free. Don't be proud. Go to your neighbour' (Proverbs 6:2-3 NCV).

The word for today is: humble yourself, and try to make it right.

We are three-part beings: spirit, soul and body. When we make Jesus Lord of our lives, our spirit receives healing from spiritual death. But there are still two areas that need Jesus' healing touch: our souls (mind, emotions and will) and our physical bodies. God's word teaches us that physical health and mental health are irrevocably linked. 'For as he thinks in his heart, so is he' (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV). What we think about ourselves is inevitably what we become. Unhealthy thinking produces unhealthy living. John wrote: 'I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers' (3 John 1:2 NKJV).

For any area where our souls are sick - low self-esteem, negative thoughts, destructive habits - the word of God is the answer to nourishing us into a balanced and healthy state. The majority of Satan's attacks begin in the mind. He uses wrong thoughts and images in our minds to lead us away from God's best. The only way to counteract this is to stand on God's word and allow his healthy thoughts to permeate our thinking daily. Thoughts of fear can be replaced with thoughts of faith; thoughts of lack with thoughts of provision; thoughts of failure and depression can be replaced with thoughts of success and joy.

How does this change happen? Paul answered: 'Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy' (Ephesians 4:23-24 CEV).

One day your heart will give a final pulse, and your lungs will empty a final breath. And barring the return of Jesus, you will die. The psalmist asked, 'What person alive will not die? Who can escape the grave' (Psalm 89:48 NCV)? Young and old, good and bad, rich and poor; neither gender is spared; no class is exempt. 'No one has power over the time of their death' (Ecclesiastes 8:8 NIV). The geniuses, the rich, the poor - no one outruns or outsmarts it. Julius Caesar died. Elvis died. John Kennedy died. Princess Diana died. We all will die. We won't escape death. The finest surgeon may enhance your life but can't eliminate your death. The Hebrew writer was blunt: 'People are destined to die once' (Hebrews 9:27 NIV). Exercise all you want. Eat nothing but healthy food and pop fists full of vitamins. Stay out of the sun, away from alcohol and off drugs. Do your best to stay alive, and still, you will die.

Death seems like such a dead end until we read Jesus' resurrection story: 'He is not here; for he is risen, as he said...Go quickly and tell his disciples...he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him...So they went out quickly...to bring his disciples word...Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped him' (Matthew 28:6-17 NKJV).

For the redeemed child of God, death is not the end but the beginning of a glorious life in Heaven that will have no end.

In Old Testament times, people received forgiveness from God by bringing a sacrificial lamb to the altar, where a priest would shed its blood and offer it as atonement. The first person in Scripture to do this was Cain's brother, Abel (see Genesis 4:4). When Solomon dedicated his temple, he sacrificed 120,000 sheep and 22,000 oxen as a sacrifice for the nation. In the Old Testament Tabernacle, the sacrificial fire was never allowed to go out. The Israelites carried it with them on through the wilderness, and it's estimated that between Gethsemane and Easter, no less than 100,000 lambs died, literally turning the Kidron Stream red.

However, not one drop of all that shed blood could atone for our sins. The sacrifices were simply rolled forward, waiting for a lamb whose sacrifice would end all sacrifices, a priest whose finished work would atone for sin once and for all. And that's what happened when Jesus cried, 'It is finished.' In Hebrew, the phrase literally means, 'Paid in full.' At that moment, the curtain in the temple that separated the people from God was torn from top to bottom. As a result, we can now go at any time where only one man could go one day a year - into the presence of God, knowing we'll be loved, accepted, seen through the blood of Christ and deemed righteous.

With this in mind, 'Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need' (Hebrews 4:16 NKJV).

Just minutes before his final breath, Jesus cried out, 'Tetelestai!' from the cross. In English, it is translated as 'It is finished.' It was the same word that was written on receipts in New Testament times, indicating that a debt had been paid in full. Jesus' death on the cross was the final instalment on sin. The entire debt for every sinner who comes to him for salvation has been paid in full at Calvary.

Paul wrote: 'Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more' (Romans 5:20 NKJV). Did you catch it? 'Much more!' The mercy bank is never closed. And there are never insufficient funds. The supply of grace is always greater than the demand of sin. The split second we confess our sin, a miraculous transaction happens. All our sin is transferred to Jesus' account and paid in full. But as good as that is, it's only half the gospel. There's a second transfer that takes place. All his righteousness is credited to our account, and God says, 'Let's call it even!' Paul explained it this way: 'God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them... God made him who had no sin [Jesus] to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21 NIV). To be 'in Christ' means we stand in his righteousness rather than our own.

So, when we stand before God, we won't have to account for our sin, because it was already accounted for at the cross. The Father will see the righteousness of his Son that has been credited to our account.