Things to ponder and pray about during these long hot summer days.
Nothing has changed – change is everywhere! Moving at an accelerated pace, in good and bad ways.
Nothing has changed! God is the same, yesterday, today and forever! God’s plan is on target. He is working in all things “for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose…to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” That’s more than a cliché, it’s the bottom line to keep in mind as you experience all of the, at times confusing or seemingly conflicting, vicissitudes of life.
Reflect for a moment on each point in Romans 8:28. God is working: I know, so is satan. But who is greater? For the good: I know, it sometimes sure doesn’t feel good. But if the end result He is working toward is for you to be “conformed to the likeness of his Son,” it is worth enduring and enjoying it. Remember, it is “according to his purpose,” not necessarily your purpose. But understand this: it is and will be the ultimate, exclusive outcome for “those who love him.”
That’s right. Don’t let the vicissitudes of life distract you and/or get you off the track of fulfilling the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
How do you do this? John tells us in 1st John 4:19-23, “We love because he (God) first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” If you don’t love your brother and sister in Christ, you’ll have a hard time loving your neighbor, let alone your enemy, who Jesus said you should also love.
In other words, if Christians are to make a difference in our convoluted, confused and corrupt society, we must first recognize that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loved us, me, first. We love him by receiving his free love gift, Jesus Christ. In this new relationship he begins pouring into our life his love, so we can let it flow through us to our Christian brothers and sisters. When watching neighbors see that happen, they might be open to letting God’s love flow through you to them. When that begins to happen those who might be your enemies will take note, and maybe, just maybe they too might be open to let God’s love touch them. That would become what we call REVIVAL. And that alone will ultimately make a difference. So where are you in this emerging process of experiencing and expressing the flow of God’s love in our world? __________________________________________
For prayer:
-That God would curtail the spread of Covid 19.
-That God would sovereignly implement His plan in the midst of the political quagmire in our nation and world (Daniel 2:21 & 4:17).
-That God would awaken us as Christians to be “points of light” (Philippians 2:15-16).
-That God would use
-Lud’s radio ministry to spread the light of God’s Word. On June 28, 2020, BBN signed on WYHA in Grand Rapids, MI. The station broadcasts over 102.9 FM with 50,000 watts of power, covering the greater Grand Rapids area and reaching Muskegon and Grand Haven. The area the station reaches has a population of over 2 million people.
-Lud as he preaches at Fellowship Bible Church on July 26
-Lud as he teaches a seminar in August at FBC on how to study God’s Word.