“If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two, If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do. Oh, I know you’d give your nicest Room to such an honored Guest, And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best, And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have Him there—That serving Him in your home is joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming would you meet Him at the door, With arms outstretched in welcome to your Heavenly Visitor? Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in, Or hide some magazines and put the Bibles where they’d been? Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard, And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud, hasty word? Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out? Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?

And I wonder … if the Savior spent a day or two with you, Would you go right on doing the things you always do? Would you keep right on saying the things you always say? Would life for you continue as it does from day to day? Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace, And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace? Would you sing the songs you always sing and read the books you read, And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed?

Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go? Or would you maybe change your plans for just a day or so? Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends, Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends? Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on, Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone? It might be interesting to know the things that you would do If Jesus came in person to spend some time with you.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to become more and more Like Jesus in every way so that my life, and the way I live, will always reflect his glory. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV).

Dwight Moody told about a friend of his who had been in Eastern lands and saw a shepherd who was trying to get his flock to cross a stream. He went into the water and called his flock, but no, they wouldn’t follow him. So he picked up two lambs and, with one tucked under each arm, he plunged into the stream and crossed it without even looking back.

“When he lifted the lambs the old sheep looked up into his face and began to bleat for them. But when he plunged into the water, the sheep plunged in after him, and the whole flock followed. When they got to the other side he put down the lambs, and they were quickly joined by their mothers.

I recall reading how a visiting speaker to a high school spoke to the student body about the perils of smoking. Afterwards some of the students saw this same man smoking. Undoubtedly, he did more harm by his example than anything he might have said—no matter how true or relevant was what he had to say.

If you and I want to influence others for Jesus, what we have to say at the appropriate time is important, but what we say by the way we live will always carry a lot more weight. According to communication specialists the words we say only carry seven percent of the message we are seeking to communicate. Who we are and what we do speaks the loudest by far.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to so live that my life will model and be a living example of your ways so that people seeing Jesus in me will want you for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Corinthians 4:16-17 (NLT).

Chuck Colson in BreakPoint told how “The Rev. Curt Young in Silver Spring, Maryland, told his flock just before the last presidential election why they needed to vote. Young wanted his congregation to know that the Scriptures have a lot to say about our responsibility to choose leaders.

“Moses told the Israelites: ‘You shall appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes … and they shall judge the people.’

“The term judges and officials covered all government leaders. Besides hearing cases and rendering decisions, they set public policy and could even call out the military in a crisis.

“Given these heavy responsibilities, the criteria for selecting judges were strict. They were to be men who feared God, who were committed to the truth, and who hated dishonest gain. And they were warned: ‘You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe … subverts the cause of the righteous.’

“When Moses commanded the Israelites to appoint God-fearing leaders, he wasn’t just talking to a handful of citizens who felt like getting involved. Young noted that the command was directed to all citizens. And modern Christians are under the same obligation to choose leaders who love justice.

“Ironically, the Scriptures warn that if we value prosperity over justice, we’ll end up losing both. Moses told the Israelites to ‘follow justice and justice alone.’ He follows this command with a promise that they will ‘live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.’ In other words, if you want prosperity, choose leaders committed to justice.

“In the Old Testament, God often sent people to find particular individuals to lead. Today, in our modern democracy, free citizens act as God’s agents for choosing leaders, and we do it by voting. So there’s no excuse for those [in free countries] who don’t take the trouble to vote.”²

Furthermore those of us who live in the free world need to appreciate the fact that we have the freedom to vote and choose our leaders. Multiplied millions of people around the world do not have this privilege.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, for those of us who live in a free country we thank you for the wonderful freedoms we have, including the freedom to choose our leaders. We pray for the upcoming elections in the United States that the citizens will choose leaders who fear [reverence] God, who are committed to truth and justice, who hate bribes [favors for votes], and leaders who ‘do not pervert justice or show partiality.’ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Deuteronomy 16:18-20 (NIV).

2. Chuck Colson, BreakPoint, May 13, 2004, www.breakpoint.org.

John Brokhoff explained how, “When the Statue of Liberty was remodeled, it was discovered that the entire inside support system had to be replaced.

“The outside copper skin of the statue was okay; it only had to be cleaned. Rust and corrosion had ruined the inner iron supports. If repairs had not been made, the statue in 20 years would have fallen over. The iron supports were replaced with stainless steel. Now it can withstand 125 mph (200k) winds.”²

No matter how it appears on the outside, when a nation discards its inner supports of character and moral integrity, sooner or later it will lose its liberty and be bound by and in bondage to its own fallen sinful nature. The same is true in the life of an individual.

At the rate of the moral decline in North America I grieve about what kind of legacy we are leaving for our children and our children’s children. Will someone erect a Statue of Bondage?

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please send a great spiritual awakening to our nation so that we will turn from our wicked ways back to you and rebuild and strengthen our crumbling foundations—foundations that are built solidly on your Word. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 14:34 (NIV).

2. John R. Brokhoff, Preaching the Miracles. Cited on KneEmail http://www.oakhillcoc.org

Robert Munger writes about an American traveling in Syria who became acquainted with a shepherd. Each morning he noticed the shepherd taking food to a sheep that had a broken leg. As he looked at the animal, he asked the shepherd, “How did the sheep break its leg? Did it meet with an accident, fall into a hole, or did some animal break its leg?”

“No,” said the shepherd, “I broke this sheep’s leg myself.”

“You broke it yourself?” queried the surprised traveler.

“Yes, you see, this is a wayward sheep; it would not stay with the flock, but would lead the sheep astray. Then it would not let me near it so I had to break the sheep’s leg so that it would allow me, day by day to feed it. In doing this it will get to know me as its shepherd, trust me as its guide, and keep with the flock.”²

Sometimes, just sometimes, when we insist of going our own stubborn way and leading others astray, the Shepherd of the fold, may have to “break our leg” too for our own good and that of others.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the good sense to not only know what is the right thing to do but the courage to do it, so that I won’t need to experience painful discipline. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Hebrews 12:11 (NIV).

2. Robert Boyd Munger in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan.

“It’s easier to fight for one’s principles,” said Alfred Adler, “than to live up to them.” How true. It’s also easier to talk about losing weight, to think about changing my ways, and to sing about love—than to do these things. But for all who want to do more than talk, there will never be a lack of opportunities especially for all who want to serve God and be a part of his plan.

Jesus started Christianity with twelve ordinary men, was with them for three years, then left the task of spreading the gospel to them. As with Gideon and his tiny band of 300 “warriors,” God seems to work more often than not through individuals and small groups.

He’ll work through you and me and our small groups, too, if we truly want him to. The wonderful thing is that God uses ordinary men and women to do extraordinary things—when they make themselves available to him and ask him to use them as a part of what he is doing in the world today.

Every day I like to pray, “Lord, I’m available again today. Please make me usable and use me to be a part of what you are doing in today’s world. Please help me to be ‘as Christ’ to every life I touch. Today! Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

This is today’s suggested prayer. Can I encourage you to print it out and pray it every day too?

1. Judges 7:4 (NIV).

A Daily Encounter reader rightfully shares how we can’t always get well even though we want to. Healing can be a difficult thing to understand. Some people get healed. Others don’t. Lazarus and Dorcas were raised from the dead, while John the Baptist lost his head and stayed dead.

It is still true, however, that if we want to be made well/whole, it needs to be more than a wish. In life, it’s what we do, not what we say, that speaks the loudest of all. And it’s what we do about what we say we want that makes the difference between a wish and a want.

Nevertheless, there are some burdens that we may need to learn to live with and manage, for we live in a broken and imperfect world. For these issues we need longsuffering, which can help us to grow in faith, patience, and every grace.

However, there are other problems in life that can be resolved. For example, some people are ill because they are harboring a long-standing grudge and refuse to forgive the one/s who hurt them. I know one man whose wife divorced him twenty years ago and who has long since remarried, but he is still clinging to the fantasy that she is going to come back to him. These instances are suffering long. In these there is no benefit to be gained whatsoever—only bitterness, unhappiness, and illness.

This is why the Serenity Prayer, though simple, is so profound. It is today’s suggested prayer: “‘God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV).

As a kid I was in the Boy Scouts. The one thing I remembered above everything else I learned was the Boy Scout motto which said: “Be prepared.”

As an older teen I did my required two-year part-time service in the National Service with the Royal Engineers in the Australian Army. We, too, were taught to always be prepared no matter what the situation was and to always make the best out of what we had.

In life and for doing God’s work opportunities come to those who are prepared—and available. And as an old preacher friend used to say, “It’s better to be prepared and not called than to be called and not prepared.”

Do you want to achieve something worthwhile with your life—regardless of your age? If so, be prepared. Do you want to serve God? Then the better prepared you are the more effective job God can do with your life. When preparation meets opportunity—plus with commitment and hard work—success is all but guaranteed.

In God’s economy, whether you are called to be a “butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker” be thoroughly prepared so you can be the very best “butcher, baker, candlestick maker,” or whatever you can be and do your very best all for the glory of God.

And above all, be prepared for eternity, for as God’s Word says, “Prepare to meet your God,” and also, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”²

If you are not sure that you are ready to meet your Maker, whatever you do, do that today for none of us has any guarantee of tomorrow. God’s Word also says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”³

God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life is available to all. His invitation is: “Whosever will may come.”⁴ To help you be prepared to meet God 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.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you have a purpose for my life. Help me to know exactly what it is and get the training and preparation necessary to be the very best I can be at whatever that might be. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Amos 4:12 (NIV).

2. Hebrews 9:27 (KJV).

3. 2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV).

4. See Revelation 22:17.