Three Friends . . . Which One Will You Choose?

By Robert H. Schuller

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." – Luke 16:13

There was a man who had three friends; two he treasured highly; one he didn't care much about; and one he was just too busy to think about. One day, this man received a notice from the king that he was being called into court. Fearfully, he called on his best friend to help. But the best friend told him, "I'm sorry. I can't go with you." He went to the friend he treasured second best and told him of the king's order. "I'm sorry," this friend replied, "I'll go with you to the palace gate, but that's as far as I'll go." The man then went to his third friend, the one he'd ignored and neglected for a long time. This friend said, "I will go with you. I think I can help you." That friend not only went with him, but he also went into the courtroom and stood up and pleaded his friend's case before the king. And the man was relieved of his charges! That king is God. The man is every man. The call to come to court is death. The first friend is money. When you're dying, that friend cannot go with you. So you call on your next most treasured friend. That friend is your family. They will go with you to the palace gate but no further. The third friend is named Faith. That friend says, "Yes, I will go with you." And He walks with you through the gate right up to the King where your "debts" are forgiven and you are received into God's kingdom. Claim the friend of Faith today. Invite Jesus Christ to be your Friend forever. You'll never be sorry!
No "friendship" this world has to offer compares to having Jesus Christ as your forever Friend.
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It's easy to think, O God, that money, family, or a myriad of others things will give me what I'm looking for in life. I know that's not true. Today I choose You. In faith I'm inviting You to come into my life and be my Friend forever.
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Every Day Is Recess

By Robert A. Schuller

"Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall." – 2 Peter 1:10
When kids burst out the doors at a typical grammar school and head for the playground at recess, what do they do? Whatever they want . . . as long as they stay within the bounds of the playground and play according to school rules. Without telling them what to do, some run for the swings, some for the jungle gym, some for the slide, and some for the merry-go-round. Others jump rope, play jacks on the sidewalk, or throw a Frisbee. Still others race for the ball fields to play softball or kickball. Some shoot hoops. Why do they make the choices they do? Because it's what brings them joy at recess and they know they're free to choose how to spend their precious thirty minutes of freedom. Okay, peer pressure and friendships may steer some of the kids one direction or the other, but let's assume they are fulfilling their longings by the activity they choose at recess. I believe this is the way God wants us to think of life. School children have a designated area in which to play and general guidelines of courtesy and safety to follow. Within these two limitations they can do whatever they want. Our playground is planet Earth and our guidelines are God's moral stipulations that are for our own good. Within these boundaries, we are free to do whatever we want! That doesn't negate the idea of God's purpose or calling for our lives. Just as a teacher might come alongside and influence a student to adjust his or her activity, God is perfectly capable of working within our choices to cause us to fulfill the purpose He knows will suit us best. Our challenge is to look at life as our playground and every day as recess – to take off the blinders and dream bigger and farther than we've ever dreamed before.
God loves to creatively work within our "fun" to accomplish His purposes.

The Effectual Prayer of a Church

“Peter therefore was kept in. prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him”. (Acts 12 : 5 )

Why was Peter in prison? Her­od wanted to kill him. Herod kill­ed James. This pleased the Jews very much. He wanted to please the Jews more by killing Peter. The Jews were always carrying evil reports about the Herodian family to Caesar. So Herod want­ed to please the Jews. The Jews felt their religion was in jeopardy because of the disciples of Jesus.
Herod stretched forth his hand to vex the church. His end was near. When a man's end is near, he becomes more active than us­ual against the Kingdom of God . This is one of the signs that that man's end is near.
Peter was not troubled about his condition. The next day was the day of his death, but he was sleeping soundly. Peter wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus told him that he could not follow Him then, but a time would come when he would be able to follow Him even to death. Peter's desire was now being fulfilled. That night, in his mind, he must have willingly died. His faith had grown so strong. Those who continue in the Word, will find their heart's deepest de­sires fulfilled. God is greater than our desires. In fulfilling our desi­res He will far exceed them. Pe­ter had desired this death-daring faith.
Prayer was being made in the church without ceasing. We won­der at the acts of the apostles. But we must know that they took place because the church was pr­aying. The church was one. There was not one person with another mind among them. If there was one man there with a contrary mind, he would have been as a wire that is earthed which disch­arged the circuit. They will be earth-wires. This was a live church and it was praying for the impossible­ for Peter in the Roman prison.
Peter was chained to two soldiers on either hand. There were other soldiers on guard and a fi­nal gate outside. The prayer of the church will release those in prison. Many are bound by evil spirits and evil desires and vani­ty. No one can release them. Some families are bound, they cannot understand the gospel. Fa­ther, mother and children are all in darkness. Every kind of sin will be there and they will be in great misery. How to release th­em? The church has to pray for them.
There are two chains that bind people - sins of commission and sins of omission. Some are releas­ed from one chain, but still bou­nd by the other. Who will save them? The church can save them. Where faithful men gather and where Christ is, that is the chur­ch.
Prayer was being made without ceasing. This was a real church. An angel came and the chains on either side snapped. There may be big churches which cannot break chains. They are not churches.
Peter was asked to put on his sandals. A man who is freed, puts on the sandals of the gospel of peace. Peter crossed the first ward and the second ward. After conversion we have still two wards to cross. We have to be planted together with Him in the likeness of His death and then we have to rise into the newness of the resurrection life. When the church is praying these deliverances will be experienced.
There was still the iron gate to cross. “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22). We cross over into the holy life. There is holiness there.
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9). We have to join the saints in glory. If we are praying great things will happen.
-Late Mr. N. Daniel

Growth Requires Patience

By Robert A. Schuller

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." – Psalm 119:105
Learning and growth take time. Insights come here and there, one at a time. "Full perfection" doesn’t come all at once. But how impatient we get. When it comes to getting direction and counsel for our journey, we want the whole loaf every time we sit down at the table instead of drawing our nourishment from the daily bread God provides.

Think of what Psalm 119:105 tells us, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." This verse is almost a cliché in Christian circles today, but it is the truth nonetheless. In the time this verse was written a tiny oil lamp would illuminate only a few feet ahead at best.. The writer had no concept of seeing all the way down the path at once.

But in our day we’re not content with just a few feet; we want to see the starting line and the finish line at the same time. I have a friend who is sixty years old and has been a believer since the age of twenty. During those forty years he has chronicled five specific "Eureka!" periods in his life, all of which led to years of reflection and application before the next one began.

Each "Eureka!" experience in life has been vitally important to him and has shaped his understanding of himself and his relationship with God. But look how slowly they came – on average, one every eight years. And he is convinced there will be more of these experiences as he continues to follow the path God is laying out before him.

Anyone searching for God's path for his or her life must be willing to walk in the light God gives today, confident there will be more when it is needed.
Truth over time is God's way of bringing us to spiritual maturity.
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Lord, give me insight as I read Your Word. Remind me when I get impatient with the process that learning and growth take time. Help me to walk in the light You give me today, and to hold onto the confidence there will be more light when it is needed.
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The Gift of Family

By Robert A. Schuller

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." -Exodus 20:12

Many people live in a personal world of intimate strangers. But God never intended for it to be that way as we see by his second recorded conversation with the first man.

Adam’s first assignment from God was to name all the animals—a task which left him in an unenviable position as the only solitary soul on Planet Earth.

Every other creature on Earth had another face like its own to look at, another pair of eyes to meet in some measure of shared meaning.

But not Adam. So God’s second conversation with His earthly, human gardener was to tell him it wasn’t good for him to be alone. It wasn’t healthy for Adam to be alone. Without a partner he would never have learned to talk, to discuss, to debate, to plan, to compromise, or to give and receive advice, correction, and exhortation.

In short, Adam never would have blossomed or reached his full potential without another human being.

God has given you family and friends to help shape you, encourage you, strengthen you, sharpen you, and draw you out onto the path that is right for you. Family is God’s gift to humankind. Family is God's gift to YOU!
When it comes to family, to love long is to live long.

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Heavenly Father, thank you for understanding my basic human need to feel connected and for giving me family and friends to fill the gap that would otherwise be left empty without them.

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The Hands of Christ

By Robert H. Schuller

"Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God." - Philippians 1:11 (CEV)
Dr. Louis Evans tells of visiting a mission station in Korea with a medical missionary friend who invited him there to witness a major operation. The surgical ward was a crude shop. The heat was stifling. The odors almost overwhelmed the visiting American minister. But the steady missionary doctor kept at his task with untiring skill. After seven hours he stood up, faced Dr. Evans, and announced that the job was done.

They walked back to the missionary's modest office and Dr. Evans asked him, "How much would you have paid for that operation in America?" "Probably, fifty-five hundred dollars," the doctor answered. Evans said, "I'm curious. How much do you get here in Korea in this mission station?" The doctor picked from his desk a dented copper coin and said, "Well, to begin with - this.

[The patient] came into our mission holding this coin and with tears in her eyes asked me, 'Doctor, do you suppose this would pay for an operation?' I looked at her and said, 'I think so!" He went on, "To begin with, just knowing that my hands for a few hours have been the hands of Jesus Christ that have brought healing a sick woman."
God has no hands but yours to do good in this world.
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Dear Jesus, please use my hands to be instruments of your love and grace today, first to my loved ones and then to anyone You bring across my path.
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A Message From Billy Graham

The mighty God of the universe calls Himself I AM. In Exodus 3:14, the Bible says, "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM" (KJV).

Moses had said, "When I go down to Egypt and the people ask me who sent me, what shall I tell them" (Cf. Exodus 3:13). God said, "You tell them that I AM sent you.

"Jesus completed the statement that was given to Moses. Seven times in the Gospel of John He uses the expression, "I am."

First He said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger" (John 6:35). In China I know you have a lot of rice, but you also have bread. Without bread or rice, a meal would not seem like a meal. Jesus fed the physically hungry. But Jesus' greatest concern was for people with spiritual hunger.

A doctor in America said some time ago that more people die of loneliness and guilt and depression and insecurity and heart hunger than die of physical starvation. Bread in the Bible is the symbol of spiritual life.

People all over the world are the same; they have an inborn hunger for something, and that something is Christ. People cannot be satisfied with anything less than Christ.

Jesus said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven" (Cf. John 6:33). "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51).How do you receive this living bread?

In America in years past, we had a terrible disease called polio. It left people crippled for life. Many people died from it. Then a vaccine was discovered, and polio was almost wiped out. When I took a vaccination for polio, they gave me a little white wafer. They put a little bit of medicine on it, and I ate it and swallowed it. That was the vaccination.

It seemed so simple, such a painless act.To receive Christ into your heart seems so simple. You just open your heart and say, "Lord Jesus, come in. I'm willing to turn from my sins and receive You as my Lord and Savior." Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger" (John 6:35). This bread satisfies the inner longings and hungers of the human heart. Have you taken of that bread? You must repent of your sins, change your mind, turn your back on sin and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Second, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).

Scientists say they do not know what light is. We know the effects of the sun, but we don't exactly know all about it. We know that no plant or animal or human life on this earth can live without light.God put the sun a precise distance from the earth.

If the sun were a few kilometers closer to us, we would all be burned up. If it were farther from us, we would freeze to death.What the sun is to the earth, Jesus Christ is to the human heart. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (John 8:12).

As I've traveled around the world, I've seen the light of thousands of Christian hospitals and Christian educational institutions; I see this light shining across the world, extending our Christian hand of compassion to a needy world. But more than helping the body, I see it coming into the souls of people.

You have a body. But the Bible also says you have a soul, a spirit living inside of you. When you die, your body goes to the grave. But the spirit, the real you, lives on forever. Jesus said if you come to Him, you will live with Him.

In America many people are stumbling like blind people, going through life searching for something that they don't have. Oh, they have money. They have television sets. They may have an automobile. They have all those things, but they're not happy. Peace is not in their heart. Why? Because they don't know Christ. Jesus Christ is the One that brings peace in our hearts. He turns His light on in our hearts.

Third, Jesus said, "I am the door" (John 10:9). Every building I've ever been in has an entrance somewhere. The Kingdom of God also has an entrance. It is Jesus Christ.

Jesus was probably familiar with doors because He was the son of a carpenter. He had probably made many doors. Now, a building may have many doors. But God has only one door to His Kingdom, and that door is Jesus Christ.

Fourth, Jesus said, "I am the true vine" (John 15:1). It was close to the time when He was to die, and He was having a last meal with His disciples. He said some wonderful things to them. He said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit" (John 15:5).

When you receive Christ, He gives you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit produces fruit in your life. What kind of fruit? Love. He gives you supernatural power to love even people you don't like. Joy is another fruit. Joy in the midst of all kinds of problems and suffering. There's peace. You have peace in your heart. And then you have patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. These are produced by the Holy Spirit. And you can live that kind of life with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Fifth, Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep" (John 10:11). Sheep could not exist without a shepherd. The wolves and the wild dogs and the thieves would get them. And they would wander off, because sheep cannot see very far.

The Bible says, "All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6). Man is like sheep. We wander around blind; we get lost. We're lost from God. We've strayed from God. My family and I live in a mountain log cabin in the southern part of the United States.

We have a lawn and a pasture, so we decided we were going to get three sheep to help chew the grass. We put up a fence, hoping they wouldn't get lost, but sometimes they got out and couldn't find their way back.Jesus tells a story of a lost sheep. This farmer had 99 sheep that were safe, but one had wandered away. He was lost. So this shepherd decided that he was going to go after the one lost sheep. After much searching, he found the sheep. And he called all of his friends together, and they rejoiced because he had found the sheep (Luke 15:4-6).Are you that one lost sheep? Jesus Christ would have died on the cross if no one had been lost but you. God loves you and He's searching for you.The shepherd lives with his sheep. He gives them food and protection and security. Jesus said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). Whatever happens, however sick you may get—you may lose a child, you may lose a father or a mother—Jesus is with you. You're the sheep; He's the shepherd. He loves you, and He gave His life for you. When He died on the cross, God took all of our sins and laid them on Him.

Sixth, Jesus said in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life." He offers us eternal life. One day one of Jesus' friends died, and Jesus raised him from the dead. He said to Lazarus, "Lazarus, come forth!" And Lazarus came out of the grave (John 11:11-44).

This is an example of what Jesus can do for us spiritually. We can become new creatures. Jesus said we can be born again, and we don't have to enter our mother's womb to be born again (John 3:3-7). We are born again spiritually.

That could happen to you. It could start tonight.

Seventh, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). In John 6:44, He says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." This is how we come to God. The Holy Spirit will use an incident in your life to speak to you.

It may be when you're quietly meditating or thinking. Or it may be when you're walking down the street with thousands of people. In the midst of all those people God can speak to you. He uses the Holy Spirit to convict people of their need of God. He draws us. He urges us to receive His Son, Jesus Christ, as the fulfillment of our life, the One who can forgive our sins, the One who can give us eternal life. Will you make that commitment?