My second birthday is just around the corner. No…I’m way past 2 years old. But I had a birthday that was the day I was born. But then I had a second birthday, which was the day that I was born again. That’s how the Bible describes what happens to you when you ask this Jesus to forgive you and believe in him as your Lord and Savior. I had been in church my whole life and there was never any kind of barrier to faith in my family or community. The problem was that I agreed to everything that someone might have asked me about who God was, why Jesus came and why forgiveness was necessary. The problem was that it was all in my head…and not in my heart. After my freshman year in college, I got to spend a week away from home with a missionary in northeastern Arizona. And God must have been working on me because I watched this guy who was faithfully serving on the Navajo Indian reservation and realized that he was different from me. Not just the job he did and the duties he performed. He was different. I was there for just a week, but on the day before we left, I went out to a deserted place and told God that I wanted him to come and do in me what he did in Thomas, the missionary. It was a pretty sparse prayer…but God honored that. And while I have never forgotten that day, I have never forgotten how that one man’s life influenced me in the span of just one week. It was his life with this Jesus of the Bible that I saw, and I saw it consistently each day I was there. And I’ve never forgotten that while we can say so many words and tell so much truth, the power of the example of a life lived for God is able to be used by him to touch not just the heads, but the hearts of those who experience it. So, if you are a follower of this Jesus of the Bible, remember that you are a walking billboard, and people are watching and listening to what you do and what you say. And for some of them, this great good news will go from the head into the heart where a love relationship with Christ can be born, grow and travel into eternity itself. So go out there and make God look good…because he is good…and people are watching. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Matthew 5:16 BSB In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Remember I’m praying for you!
With love, PJ
Matthew 5:16 BSB In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Remember I’m praying for you!
With love, PJ