Heaven - A New Message from Billy Graham

Happy Birthday Mr Graham - you are a blessing to many and especially to my family!

I would like to encourage everyone to watch this message from Billy Graham, link here :  Heaven - A New Message from Billy Graham

A Devotional from Billy Graham - keep sin out...

The following is a devotional written by Billy Graham. He wrote:


As Christians, we have the Spirit of God in us. But ours is the responsibility to keep sin out of our lives so that the Spirit can produce His fruit in us. Become grounded in the Bible. As Christians, we have only one authority, one compass: the Word of God. Abraham Lincoln in a letter to a friend said, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance upon faith. You will live and die a better man.” Begin the day with the Book; and as the day comes to a close, let the Word speak its wisdom to your soul. Let it be the firm foundation upon which your hope is built. Let it be the Staff of Life upon which your spirit is nourished. Let it be the Sword of the Spirit which cuts away the evil of your life and fashions you in His image and likeness.


Proverbs 13:13  Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

Facing Death

2nd Corinthians 5:7-9  For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.

Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

The following devotional is from Anne Graham Lotz. You can connect to her website link here Anne Graham Lotz 

Anne Graham Lotz is the daughter of the Rev Billy Graham.

Anne Graham Lotz

Facing Death

• November, 24
• Why?

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

Revelation 21:4, NKJV

In the beginning, we were never intended to die. Death was not a part of God's original plan. He created you and me for Himself. He intended us to live with Him and enjoy Him forever in an uninterrupted, permanent, personal, love relationship. But sin came into our lives and broke the very relationship with God for which we were created.

When your loved one dies and your grief is tinged with anger, don't direct it toward God. He's angry too. Direct it toward sin and its devastating consequences. Dedicate yourself to sharing the gospel as often as you can. Pray that through your witness others who face physical death will choose to escape the second death, which is hell, the ultimate separation from God, by placing their faith in Jesus Christ. As we face death, our only hope is in knowing there is genuine, triumphant, permanent victory over it that is available to us in Jesus' Name!

Watch the Billy Graham Special THE CROSS HERE ( Billy Graham's 95th birthday Special )

WATCH THE BILLY GRAHAM 95TH BIRTHDAY SPECIAL -THE CROSS

LINK HERE  BILLY GRAHAM THE CROSS

Questions and Answers from my Church

Sunday March 24, 2013 - Palm Sunday
Sunday Sermon Review ( from my home church that I attend regularly )

During this season of Lent, our Pastors invited the congregation to submit questions and so today was the day where the questions were answered.
The service began with singing "Lead me to the Cross" and How Great Thou Art".

Our Scripture passage was Mark 11:1-11 - the story of Palm Sunday

 And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples,

 And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.

 And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.

 And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him.

 And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt?

 And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go.

 And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.

 And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way.

 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:

 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.

 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

Pastor Ben was our speaker today and here is some of what he said:
Question 1 - What role does repentance play?
Jesus died on the cross for our sin.
He loves us with an unconditional love.
We need to get a definition of the word repentance: it means to choose God, it is a decision that we make. We decide to choose Jesus over ourselves, we choose God above ourselves.
We choose to follow God because He loves us so.
Romans 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Love is action.

( Note from me - please also read a post I wrote on repentance - it is a good indepth study on repentance and what it looks like) link here -    http://livebyfaithonlinebiblestudies.blogspot.ca/2012/10/repentance-psalm-51.html

Question 2 - Why will we have to give an account of our actions and words on judgment day?
In our justice system, a person is judged either guilty or innocent
God's system works a little differently. It is about restoring relationship, repairing damage and fixing things.
In the Old Testament God sent judges. They proclaimed a message of repentance, for the people to change their ways.
We have forgiveness through the cross of Jesus. Jesus took the punishment we deserve.
The question becomes - How should I live since I've been declared innocent through the shed blood of Christ.
At the judgment, there will be rewards for what we have done here on earth.
God sees all that you do - God will reward us for what we do, even if no one else ever has seen it.
Our choices here ripple through eternity!
The judgement will be uncomfortable ( we must give account for every careless word ) but we must remember our Judge loves us. He is on our side!

Question 3 - We are taught to confess our sins to each other, how about confessing our sins to God?
Yes, we must confess our sins to God, name the sin and acknowledge it as sin before God.
Living the Christian life is not a "just me and God" thing - He wants us to do life together.

Question 4 - How do you find an accountability partner?
1) pray about it - God's Spirit lives with you so He will guide and direct
2) Take a risk - talk to someone and ask that person to be your accountability partner
( if someone asks you to be their accountability partner and you feel you cannot do it, then be kind enough to say "no" so they can find someone else who will actually be able to do it.
3) agree on some questions that will be asked - Meet on a set regular basis and ask these questions.

Question 5 - What does it look like to walk with a believer who disagrees with you about a right/wrong issue  especially if the Bible is very clear on this issue?
Ask your self if there is any possibility that you could be wrong.
Ask the person questions about the Scripture passage that this issue is based on/
Don't be condemning or judgmental
we must remember that a Christian is a person who has chosen to live his/her life for God
It does not mean that there will be doctrinal perfection.
We can have conversations with people who disagree with us.

The Holy Spirit's job is to convict of sin.
Billy Graham once said " my task is to bear witness, the Holy Spirit's task is to convict of sin and God the Father is the Judge."

The Holy Spirit is really good at His job!(Note from me - It is important that we remember that the Bible has authority in our lives and we must never back down from the truth found in Scripture. No matter who it is that is challenging us - the Bible will always have the final say in the matter and we will be wise to stand with the Bible and not against it at any time. )  

The reason people do not want to admit to the truth of Scripture is because then they will have to change!

Talk about things that matter - we need to get deeper than the weather and sports etc.
We are God's ambassadors - we challenge, we debate but always in the atmosphere of love and respect!

God has sent you to represent Jesus in your school, home, place of work!!

Don't keep the faith to yourself.....

Sharing the Faith. That is the name of my blog. It seems simple enough because here on my blog I am sharing my faith. But the story goes a little deeper than what you see on the outside.
You see, it relates back to my childhood and growing up years. As I have posted in earlier blog posts .....( link to posts here
http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/coming-to-jesus.html

http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/baptism.html


in my family we are fans of Billy Graham. His teaching throughout the years has been a great blessing to our lives. We used to listen to the Hour of Decision broadcast every Sunday afternoon at 1:30. Oftentimes the message would be by Billy Graham himself,  preaching from a recent crusade but other times he would have other members of the Billy Graham Team bring the message. One of the Team speakers was a man by the name of Leighton Ford. He was a good preacher too. But at the close of his message, he would always end it the same way saying "Don't keep the faith to yourself - Pass it on!" That sounds like great advice, don't you think? Well my Dad didn't think it was worded quite accurately. My Dad would say " Don't keep the faith to yourself - Share it!". So what is the difference here?

I think why my Dad was bothered by the statement to "pass on your faith" is because your faith is a personal thing. None of us can redeem his brother. That is what the Bible says in Psalm 49: 7-8  None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

I cannot give you faith. I can share my faith with you and then it is your decision whether to make it your own or not. An example I think of is a family heirloom - a clock that my mother passed on to me. It is a very old chime clock. See picture of it here.



The clock I inherited


My Mom's Mom  ( that is my Grandmother ) inherited it, then she passed it on to my Mother, and now my Mother has passed it on to me and some day I will pass it on to one of my boys. So in passing down something valuable such as this clock, it is completely the decision of the giver whether or not I receive the gift. I inherited it. While when I share my faith with you, you must be decide whether you will receive what you have heard and whether you will choose to make it your own.

So I kind of like my Dad's idea "Don't keep the faith to yourself - Share it!!"

My Dad passed on to glory in 2004. If you would like to read a post about him link to post here:

http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/my-dad-man-of-god.html

http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/daddy-old-time-preacher-man.html

Franklin Graham Speaks - Warnings to America!

Sometime ago I posted the letter where Billy Graham put out a warning to America - link to post here: http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/07/billy-grahams-letter-to-america.html

Now Billy Graham's son Franklin has put out a letter warning America once again. I believe that the warning is relevant to all people in all the world - we all need to get right before the Lord. Repent before the Lord and seek to follow the Lord with all our heart. Unless we as individuals and as families, as churches and as a nation turn to the Lord once again, the Lord will continue to allow disasters and troubles to plague our land as warnings to repentance.  I want to post the letter from Franklin Graham here. You can also find it at the BGEA website link here: http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?articleid=9127


Franklin Graham writes the following: ( While all of it is highly important to read, I have highlighted some portions that I know are extremely important to consider. )

December 27, 2012 - My hope and prayer is that the Lord will once again move in our land. It can happen, and we are trusting that a fire of revival will ignite as tens of thousands of homes are opened up this year to share the Gospel through My Hope with Billy Graham.

Calling America back from the edge of a spiritual and moral cliff.

Dear Friend,
As we come into the new year, America is facing many challenges. For the past few weeks, the media has been focused on what has been termed as the nation’s “fiscal cliff.”

Our country’s financial problems, however, are nothing compared to the spiritual and moral cliff that is far more destructive to our nation than any economic concerns.

Since the recent election, we’ve seen same-sex couples lining up at courthouses in several states to receive their marriage licenses, and hundreds of people gathering in public places to light up marijuana cigarettes in the states where it has just been decriminalized.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. The moral decline we see on television programs—blatant immorality, senseless violence, media-friendly gay and lesbian behavior—is just a reflection of the moral corruption that has infected our entire nation. These are indeed dark days ... but there is hope.

The Bible says, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3, ESV). No question our country’s foundations are being destroyed, but I am reminded of an era in the Old Testament where the Lord moved in a dramatic way to bring godly change to a spiritually dark and depraved nation like Judah, whose moral foundations had been seriously eroded.
Manasseh was the wickedest king to rule over Judah. Throughout his 55 years of evil reign, the land had been defiled with innocent blood. He led Judah into witchcraft, sorcery, and the worship of false gods and idols, including the fertility goddess Asherah. He even sacrificed his own son in the fires of idolatry.

Not many years later, God worked in an extraordinary and unexpected way to bring national revival.
Josiah, Manasseh’s grandson, became king at age 8. Ten years after becoming king, Josiah asked his high priest, Hilkiah, to collect funds to repair the temple that was in disrepair. As they worked, they uncovered the book of the law (the first five books of the Bible). Apparently it had been lost and neglected for a number of years. When Josiah heard the books read aloud by a scribe, he tore his clothes and said, “Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us” (2 Kings 22:13).

When the Word of God was then read aloud to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, it pierced their souls and the stage was set for national repentance. Idols were smashed, spiritists and mediums forcibly removed, and the worship of the one true God reinstated. Once again, righteousness ruled.

For far too long, as a nation we have neglected—and even rejected—the Word of God and His commands. Yet the Scriptures are mighty, able to penetrate even the most hardened and darkened hearts with convicting, life-giving power. They are God-breathed, and any new season of repentance and revival in America can only come through a renewed focus on the great truths of God’s Word.

Just as the Lord used an 18-year-old king to begin revival in a corrupt nation more than 1,500 years ago, He can use us as we earnestly seek Him, stand for His truths, and pray for America. This is the only cure for a sin-sickened country that is about to slip into a moral abyss, and it is why we must proclaim the Good News.

My hope and prayer is that the Lord will once again move in our land. It can happen, and we are trusting that a fire of revival will ignite as tens of thousands of homes are opened up this year to share the Gospel through My Hope with Billy Graham. It will be a tremendous outreach across our country, the most extensive we have conducted in the history of this ministry, and we need your prayers and financial support as we put this massive evangelistic effort together.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ knows what lies ahead of us in the coming year, but I do know that He promises to be with us every step of the way, “even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Thank you, and God bless you. We appreciate you.

Warmly,

Franklin Graham

Are you Sleeping Brothers & Sisters??

Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Revelation 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Are you sleeping brother /sister?
There is growing concern today about the sleepy and unwatchful state that our Christian community is in. What is content of the messages that we hear on the radio or TV and in our churches?  In the verse from Jeremiah 5, the leaders are turning away from God. They are allowing sin to affect the community of believers and there is no call to repentance from the leaders. In my opinion, that is pretty much what we are seeing today also. We see warnings being put out by well known Bible teachers (such as Irwin Lutzer, Anne Graham Lotz, Billy Graham, Joel Rosenberg, John McTernan) calls of warnings and calls to repentance from them - But no warnings are coming on a local level. I find it  troubling that, generally speaking, no one in the Christian community at a local level is noticing God speak to us through the world events, the riots among Muslims, financial woes, wars looming, the heat and drought and other weather events we've had this summer, or through the homosexual issues that are surfacing in our communities. It is as though God is shouting to us but it is falling on mostly deaf ears. There is never a mention of any of these global warnings from the pulpits of our churches. It seems that though there are good outreaches to the lost going on in some places, in the majority scope of things, Christians are not noticing any of these warnings but are going on blindly wandering within their own "small bubbles" consummed with the things of this world - money, fashion,TV shows, pleasures, music, movies, travel, etc. Matthew 13: 14-16 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
In my opinion, it is time to open our eyes and ears - look up, listen and watch - and encourage one another to prepare for persecution of our faith, to prepare to stand for truth and righteousness. How are Christians going to be prepared to stand in the face of persecution if they do not even know that it is getting very very close? With the outrage over the controversial movie - the " Innocence of Muslims", we can see that there is a closing-in on of  the freedoms of Christians. Proverbs 6:4-5 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
As we see rough times approaching, we need to draw ever closer to our Lord Jesus, go deeper with the Lord and spend more time in the Bible and in prayer. We need to alert one another to what is going on around us and encourage each other in the Lord. We need to hear the warning bells sounding from our church pulpits! and we need to hear words of encouragement to prepare!
Hebrews 10: 23-27 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Billy Graham's letter to America...

Many of you reading my blog will know that I am a fan of Billy Graham. It was through Billy's preaching on the Hour of Decision broadcast, that I was able to understand my need of salvation.
I want to post a letter that Billy Graham has written to America. It is clear that Billy Graham can see that the judgements of God are getting ever closer. I believe that it is not only America that is facing the downward spiral that Billy talks about. I see it here in Canada very much the same. May God Bless you as you read Billy Graham's letter posted here.

Here is the letter Billy Graham wrote:   (I will highlite some parts that I find significant: )

July 24, 2012 - In a new prayer letter Billy Graham writes: "My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance."

 

by Billy Graham

Some years ago, my wife, Ruth, was reading the draft of a book I was writing. When she finished a section describing the terrible downward spiral of our nation’s moral standards and the idolatry of worshiping false gods such as technology and sex, she startled me by exclaiming, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
She was probably thinking of a passage in Ezekiel where God tells why He brought those cities to ruin. “Now this was the sin of ... Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Ezekiel 16:49–50, NIV).

I wonder what Ruth would think of America if she were alive today. In the years since she made that remark, millions of babies have been aborted and our nation seems largely unconcerned. Self-centered indulgence, pride, and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle. Just a few weeks ago in a prominent city in the South, Christian chaplains who serve the police department were ordered to no longer mention the Name of Jesus in prayer. It was reported that during a recent police-sponsored event, the only person allowed to pray was someone who addressed “the being in the room.” Similar scenarios are now commonplace in towns across America.Our society strives 
to avoid any possibility of offending anyone—except God.

Yet the farther we get from God, the more the world spirals out of control.
My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the lone world superpower—wealthy, unconcerned, and self-centered. When the Prophet Jonah finally traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s warning, people heard and repented.

I believe the same thing can happen once again, this time in our nation. It’s something I long for, and my son Franklin recently shared a vision for perhaps the greatest challenge in the history of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—to launch an outreach called My Hope with Billy Graham that would bring the Gospel into neighborhoods and homes in every corner of America next year.

BGEA has already taken My Hope to more than 50 nations. We’ve worked in close partnership with local churches across each country, and those churches have reported millions of life-changing decisions for Christ. Carrying out a nationwide American version of this evangelistic outreach will be an enormous undertaking, but in my spirit I know God has called us to do this, and I pray He will stir your heart to join us in prayer and support.

Franklin will share more about the project with you as the planning develops. In the meantime, all this year Franklin and his son Will are preaching “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21, ESV) at Crusade events across North America—from Texas to Canada—and God has blessed the work. Already tens of thousands have heard the Gospel, and many have responded, especially young people.

As I write, I am in the middle of a busy summer enjoying visits with many of my grandchildren and other family members, but also working hard on a new book that addresses some dangerous illusions about eternal salvation that are becoming increasingly accepted in many places. I want to point the world to what the Bible says.
Although age and health restrict my mobility and my stamina, not to mention my eyesight and hearing, I am thankful for the days God has given me, and I am humbled by His continued hand of favor on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The Lord draws people to Himself daily through BGEA’s various evangelistic ministries, and I am so deeply grateful.

The next Crusade event is August 18–19 with Franklin in Green Bay, Wis., followed by two in September, in Buffalo, N.Y., and Ottawa, Ontario. Please join me in praying for the power of the Holy Spirit on the preaching of the Gospel.

May God bless you,

Billy Graham

Baptism

Baptism was an important step for me as a Christian. It is something that I wanted to do even though it was  somewhat nerve racking on many levels. It meant going public with my decision to become a Christian and live for Christ for the rest of my days. In the church that I attended with my parents and family, there were some steps that were followed in the process of preparing for the day of baptism. So the first thing I had to do was to ask my Dad to be my first witness and that he give my name to the clergy as a candidate. I also needed to get a second person to stand as a witness for me in my decision and so I asked  Mr Wieler to do that for me.  My church required that we study the Catechism to get a general picture of living as a person of faith. The church I attended with my family was very small so I decided to proceed with the process of preparing for baptism in a church of the same denomination as ours but was about an hour's drive away from our home church, where there were some thirty other persons also preparing to be baptized. So for several Sundays prior to Baptism Sunday we would go forward together as a group during the morning worship service and the preacher lead us through a study of the Catechism. The Catechism is a book of questions and answers based on the Bible. Finally the day of baptism arrived and it was June 1, 1980.
There were a few questions that were asked, basically allowing us to proclaim faith in Jesus as individuals there. One question that was asked that I remember in a significant way was from the story of Lazarus getting raised from the dead, based on John 11: 19 -28 ... ¹⁹And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
 ²⁰Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.
 ²¹Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
 ²²But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
 ²³Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
 ²⁴Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
 ²⁵Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
 ²⁶And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
 ²⁷She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
  The Bishop quoted Jesus'  question to Martha from verses 25 and 26  where it says .. ²⁵Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
 ²⁶And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?  .......and he specifically asked the question -" Do you also believe this?  and to  which I was able to answer -Yes.  And so I was baptized on the confession of my faith ( that Jesus died for me and is my Savior ) with Bishop John A Friesen pouring water on me in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 

Galatians 2:20  - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Coming to Jesus!

In  an earlier post I wrote a bit about the beginning points of my journey of faith. During my childhood I did have some level of faith and sense of the presence of God with me. Sometimes I would pretend that Jesus was holding my hand and we would run around together as I played outside. I would pray to Jesus and ask Him for help at school. But in my early teen years I began to feel the urge inside my to get the matter of faith settled. I knew that there is heaven and there is hell and that when we die we will be in either one of those two places depnding on what we have done with Jesus here on earth.  I wanted to be sure that heaven would be my home. My best school friend Nettie was from the Pentecostal church and would often talk of how she couldn't wait to be raptured and to be with Jesus.  I knew that I wasn't in as close a relationship with Jesus as she was but I wanted to be. My parents did a great job in exposing our family to the Bible. On Sundays we would go to church and then in the afternoon they would tune in for the Hour of Decision program with Billy Graham on the radio and on Wednesday evenings we would always listen to Dr Manfred George Gutzke.  Every evening my Dad would read to us from the Bible. So it is plain to see that I have been very blessed to have had all these opportunities to hear the gospel. When my sister started reading her Bible, I also decided to read my Bible simply because she did. I remember one particular Sunday riding with my parents in their 1976 blue chevy pick-up truck and of course my Dad again turned on the radio to listen to a Christian program. The topic of discussion was about putting off the old self and putting on the new as found in Colossians 3:9 - Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;  and Colossians 3:10 -And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. I found that stuck in my mind though I did not understand it much. And so it went on for a while, the Holy Spirit was nudging me from various sources. Every Sunday Billy Graham would say " are you sure that if you died tonight you would go to Heaven, you can be sure".  Billy would say that even if I had been the only person in the world that needed saving, Jesus still would have went to the cross and died just for me. That is an amazing love. John 3:16 says : 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. I understood that Jesus took my sins, my judgement and the hell that I deserve and he bore it all for me on the cross and died for me. I wanted to be sure that Jesus is my Savior and that I would be in Heaven when I die so I prayed and asked Jesus to be my personal Savior and Lord.  He has come into my heart and I am happy to say that I belong to Jesus!
To be continued .... with my Baptism

Background thoughts and Hagar

My faith story is really quite simple. I came to personal faith in Jesus as my Savior in my early teen years largely due to the preaching of Billy Graham on the Hour of Decison radio program. But it all started in  a small country church where everyone knew everyone.  I went to Sundayschool there and we would hear the Bible stories told simply. We'd learn a memory verse and sing some songs. The memory verse that has stuck with me for all my years is from Genesis 16: 13  which I learned when I was about 4 or 5 years old - "..Thou God seest me.." spoken by Hagar.
In the story of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar is their servant girl. When Sarah is unable to bear children, she decides to use Hagar to bear a child for them and therefore gives her to Abraham as a wife also. After Hagar becomes pregnant Sarah begins to treat her harshly and Hagar runs away. This is where the angel of God finds her, confronts her for running away, and so the angel comforts her in verse 11 where the angel says " the LORD hath heard thy affliction".
This is actually a very interesting story because we see that  God cares for ordinary people. Hagar is not a celebrity or popular in any way - She is a servant girl. And when life becomes difficult for her God comes to find her, I believe it shows Hagar that she does matter to God. In God's eyes she is special and loved. This experience will also help her later in her life when Abraham and Sarah send her and her young son Ishmael away.
So we also can take comfort in our own situations. To the LORD God our Heavenly Father we do matter and He does love us and care for us. It matters not who you are - God sees you, He knows your situation, He comes to you to care for you.  " Thou God seest me"
Like the song says" His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me"