What does it mean for the word of the Lord to come to us? That is; how does God call people today? Quite probably it is different for everyone who has ever been called of God for special service.

Speaking personally, I could count on one hand the times that I have felt that God challenged me “with a ‘special word’ from the Lord.” No, I’ve never heard an audible voice from heaven, nor have I ever seen any “writing on the wall.” The first occasion was when I was in the hospital following a minor accident on a construction site. I was all stitched up and feeling pretty sore when I turned on my bedside radio and “just happened” to pick up the only religious program on air for that entire day. The moment my radio came on these were the very first words I heard: “If I should stand before the Master tonight, would I empty handed go?”

Wham! It felt like an invisible arrow had pierced my heart. For 2-3 years I had been struggling with “the still small voice within” drawing me towards Christian service and ministry. I just hadn’t recognized it as the call of God. As I look back, however, had God not been calling me, I would never have been struggling with it. But on that hospital bed there was no more doubt in my mind. I “heard” God’s call loud and clear and prayed, “Okay, God, you win. I know what I need to do.” That was the day I made the decision to go back to college to train for Christian service. For some of us God has to hit us over the head with a “4 by 4″ as it were in order to get our attention.

True, God doesn’t call everyone to be a Jonah, a missionary, a pastor, or a specialized Christian worker, but he does call every one of us to be a faithful servant and witness for Jesus.

So, if you should stand before the Master tonight, would you empty handed go? Or would you hear God’s welcome, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord?”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you have called me to be a faithful servant and witness for you. Please help me to be faithful in service and effective in my witness, and please use me in some way to help bring others to you so that when I meet you face to face I will not be empty handed. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Jonah 1:1-2 (NIV).

“Back when Beth and I lived in Altadena, California,” writes Pastor Tod Bolsinger, “just down the street from us was a bakery called ‘Patticakes.’ It was one of those amazing places where everything looks as good as it tastes and virtually every breakfast item included chocolate. But make no mistake, nothing there was cheap. Everything was delicious, beautiful and frightfully expensive.

“I remember sitting there one morning eating a chocolate muffin and drinking a latte while a young couple came in to get a quote for a wedding cake. The owner pulled out a book that featured articles from Bon Appetite praising her wedding cakes, showed them spectacular professional photographs of cakes she had made in the past, and then finally the price sheet.

“I watched this all and smiled. The bride was looking at the groom pleadingly. Her face saying, ‘Honey, wouldn’t this be beautiful? This is exactly the kind of wedding cake I have always wanted.’ He looked like he was choking. Being a guy, I know what he was thinking as he looked at that price sheet, ‘A cake? How about a killer big screen TV? It’s about the same amount of money.’ But he was a smart boy; he kept his mouth shut, even as he tried to calculate how many months’ salary would be gobbled down by people in less than 15 minutes.

“And right at the very moment when the unspoken tension was the highest, the bakery owner appeared with a tray of assorted pieces of wedding cake that they could sample. Two bites later, eyes rolled back in his head in chocolate induced ecstasy, the cheapskate groom was ordering this cake for everyone he had ever met.

“You see the difference was in the tasting. Once we taste what we really want, the cost is not the issue.”²

How equally true this is with God. When we come to him through Jesus Christ, confess our sins to him, and ask for his forgiveness, we can truly taste and see how good God really is.

As David, the Psalmist, wrote, “What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record. I said to myself, ‘I will confess them [my sins] to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.”³

Dear reader, if you have never tasted the goodness of God, I urge you to come to him today, confess your sins to him, ask for his forgiveness, and invite God’s Son, Jesus Christ, into your heart and life. For help, please read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian,” and you, too, can experience the same relief and peace that David tasted. It’s at www.actsweb.org/christian.

Again, as David said, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man [and woman] who takes refuge in him.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for giving your Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in my place so all my sins can be forgiven, and so I can receive your gift of eternal life to be with you in Heaven forever. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Psalm 34:8 (NIV).

2. Tod Bolsinger, Tod Bolsinger’s Blog, “It Takes a Church,” http://bolsinger.blogs.com.

3. Psalm 32:1-2, 5 (TLB)(NLT).

Much of this anti-Christian attitude began with the banning of Bible reading and prayer in the public schools when, in June of 1963, the Supreme Court voted in favor of atheist, Madeline Murray O’Hare, who claimed that such was against the constitution of the United States of America.

“From that day to this, not only has prayer been outlawed, God’s very name has been declared anathema to the United States Constitution, and forbidden to be mentioned in any federal, state, county, city or municipal context. Further decrees have revealed the depths of the ouster that initial edict has fostered. Not just prayer is forbidden in the public forum. Display of the cross is forbidden. The Ten Commandments are forbidden. The Bible is forbidden. Nativity plays are forbidden. Even the mere mention of the names, ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’, in schools are forbidden. More than that, anything even suggestive of those names is forbidden.”²

Five months after the American Supreme Court ruled in favor of Madeline Murray O’Hare, John Kennedy, president of the U.S.A. was assassinated. Months later the U.S. was plunged into the Vietnam War where over 200,000 Americans were wounded, maimed or killed. And on Good Friday in April of the following year, “the United States suffered its worst earthquake and tidal wave in recorded history, a 9.2 behemoth that shattered Alaska and sent massive tidal waves roaring across the Pacific coastline….”²

Think, too, of the ever-increasing moral decline that has taken place in the U.S. since June of 1963. Ten years later in 1973 the Roe v. Wade landmark Supreme Court case legalized abortion throughout the U.S. Since then abortion for almost any reason has become, not only acceptable, but legalized—including murderous partial-birth abortion. Gay marriage has been made legal in several states and even approved by some supposed Christian denominations—something that is forbidden in the Word of God.

As the late Chuck Colson so wisely stated, “By rejecting Christianity and its moral framework, Western liberal democracies are in grave peril of collapsing upon themselves. They will no longer be able to preserve human rights and liberties. What comes next is tyranny.”³

Tragically, as a nation, so many have forgotten and/or ignored the fact that, as God’s Word declares, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”⁴

Keep in mind, too, that while this principle, I believe, applies to all nations, it is referring specifically to the nation of Israel, and we now have political leaders here in the U.S.A. who are anti-Israel. I am not justifying everything Israel has done any more than trying to justify everything that the U.S. and my own country of Australia has done, but never let us forget that God promised Abraham, the father of the Israeli nation, saying, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”⁵

Furthermore, the Christian and moral decline in the U.S. has been further attacked by atheists who are also doing all in their power to tear down and destroy the very foundation that made the U.S. for so many years such a great Christian nation—a foundation that was based solidly on the Bible and on Judeo-Christian ethics, standards and principles. What they are doing is blind, irresponsible insanity. Symbolically speaking, as a nation we are cutting off our nose to spite our face.

America wake up … Christians wake up … stand up and be counted and help spread the gospel message of Jesus Christ—the only hope of our sin-sick country and world. For a simple and effective way to do this, please consider joining with ACTS as a People Power for Jesus partner. For more information click on https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power/.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please open the eyes of my understanding to see what is happening, not only in the United States, but in the world in which I live. Today, with your help, I rededicate and re-commit my life to you. I am available, please use me to be a part of your plans and what you are doing in the world today as opposed to do what Satan is doing through his followers—and allowing to be done through apathetic Christian believers who do nothing. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus name, amen.”

Note: If you prayed this prayer and truly meant it, please let us know by filling in the form online at: https://learning.actsweb.org/decision.php.

1. Psalm 14:1 (NKJV) and Proverbs 1:7 (NIV).

2. “The Day America Spurned God,” http://goodnewspirit.com/america-spurnsgod.htm

3. Chuck Colson, BreakPoint, Dec 28, 2011.

4. Psalm 33:12 (NKJV).

5. Genesis 12: 2-3 (NKJV).

Today is Good Friday, the day we remember with profound appreciation that it was for this day that Jesus came to earth … to die in our place on that cruel Roman cross to save us from the terrible consequences of sin—a disease far deadlier than AIDS or any other disease that is a physical death sentence.

Today, we also remember that Jesus Christ was not an ordinary man. True, he was a man but he was and is the Son of the Living God—the Great Creator who became our Savior—the one who laid aside his external garments of deity, stepped out of the Ivory Palaces of Heaven, clothed himself in a garment of human flesh and came to earth to pay the redemption price for our sin. He died on the cross in your place and mine. In so doing he provided the only cure for the deadly disease of sin whose sentence is spiritual and eternal death.

Today, we remember, too, that without Jesus as our Savior, we would be headed for hell from which there is no escape beyond the grave. Wherever and whatever hell is we can be sure of this, it is eternal disconnection from God the author of all love and life—cut off forever from all love and all loving relationships. Such consequences are unthinkable.

And today we need to remember that Jesus died for us because he loved us far more than we can even begin to understand. As another has said, Jesus would rather go to hell for us than to go to heaven without us! This he did when he died on the cross in your place and in mine.

Jesus gave his life that we might live. In thanksgiving to him for his unspeakable gift, may we give our life to live for him—to help spread the gospel so that others might also live. For without Jesus, people are lost forever!

If you have never thanked Jesus for dying on the cross to pay the price for your sins, I urge you to do this today, and accept Jesus as your Savior and receive God’s forgiveness and the assurance of a home in heaven forever. To help you be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian—without having to be religious at: www.actsweb.org/christian and/or “God’s Invitation” at: http://tinyurl.com/gods-invitation.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for loving me enough to give your Son Jesus to die on the cross in my place to pay the penalty for all my sins? And dear Jesus I do thank you from the depths of my heart for what you did for me. Please help me to live a life of thanksgiving to you always in all ways. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV).