(A Message from Billy Graham)
Some of you have been stunned by the sudden passing of a consecrated person, a godly pastor, a devout missionary or a saintly mother. You have stood at the open grave with hot tears coursing down your cheeks and have asked in utter bewilderment, “Why, O God, why?”
Allow me to assure you that the death of the righteous is no accident. Do you think that the God whose watchful vigil notes the sparrow’s fall and who knows the number of hairs on our heads would turn His back on one of His children in the hour of peril? With Him there are no accidents, no tragedies and no catastrophes as far as His children are concerned.
The Apostle Paul, who lived most of his Christian life on the brink of death, expressed triumphant certainty about life beyond this realm of time and space. His rugged, disciplined soul took trouble, persecution, injustice, pain, thwarted plans and broken dreams in stride.
He never bristled with questioning cynicism. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that his life was being fashioned into the image and likeness of his blessed Redeemer.
When things didn’t work out according to Paul’s plan, and when those about him began to murmur and question, he said, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
When his tired, bruised body began to weaken under the load, he said in triumph, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
Read the rest @
BGEA: Our Ministries: "Decision" Magazine
Some of you have been stunned by the sudden passing of a consecrated person, a godly pastor, a devout missionary or a saintly mother. You have stood at the open grave with hot tears coursing down your cheeks and have asked in utter bewilderment, “Why, O God, why?”
Allow me to assure you that the death of the righteous is no accident. Do you think that the God whose watchful vigil notes the sparrow’s fall and who knows the number of hairs on our heads would turn His back on one of His children in the hour of peril? With Him there are no accidents, no tragedies and no catastrophes as far as His children are concerned.
The Apostle Paul, who lived most of his Christian life on the brink of death, expressed triumphant certainty about life beyond this realm of time and space. His rugged, disciplined soul took trouble, persecution, injustice, pain, thwarted plans and broken dreams in stride.
He never bristled with questioning cynicism. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that his life was being fashioned into the image and likeness of his blessed Redeemer.
When things didn’t work out according to Paul’s plan, and when those about him began to murmur and question, he said, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
When his tired, bruised body began to weaken under the load, he said in triumph, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
Read the rest @
BGEA: Our Ministries: "Decision" Magazine
