To give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow dark as death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace – Luke 1:79 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Jesus tells us: I have lovingly created a path for your life. Nothing is by accident. Every twist, every turn, is a part of My plan. Don’t try to see what is up ahead on your path. And don’t keep turning around and looking at the past. Here-and-Now is the only place you can live. When you are constantly looking at the past or the future, today slips through your fingers, half-lived. Don’t worry about whether or not you’ll get invited to that party next week. Letting go of past and future worries frees you up to enjoy the Here-and-Now.
Jesus concludes: Today is the day that is filled with My glorious Presence. Today is the day I have filled with blessings. Today is the day I give you My Peace.
Luke 1:79; Luke 12:25-26; Jude; 24-25 Study Notes
Footnotes Luke 1:79 The divine love seeks out what is poorer and weaker to fill it and make it great.
Prepare for the Messiah with change, revision and repentance in order to experience the forgiveness of sins, the breaking down of the barriers of evil that has taken root in your heart.
Passage Luke 12:25-26 25Can any of you, however much you worry, add a single cubit to your span of life? 26If a very small thing is beyond your powers, why worry about the rest?
Footnotes Luke 12:25-26 God even cares about ravens, which are unclean birds. So why do you get anxious about things that are so much less important than life?
Passage Jude 24-25 24To him who can keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and joyful, 25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, authority and power, before all ages, now and forever. Amen.
Footnotes Jude 24-25 Only He is able to make possible the realization of the final goal as he protects and guards believers from any possibility of falling in the face of situations of difficulty and danger to which they are exposed and which can cause their faith to waver. Only He gives man the possibility of sharing in His essence in the condition of blamelessness due to a life concretely lived in holiness and full joy as a consequence of His love.
THE WORLD…we see history
BILLY GRAHAM HELPED MAKE THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY
The Greatest Period of Christian Evangelization
Since Saint Paul Set Out on Foot
The late Ruth Graham once said that her husband “wanted to please God more than any man I’d ever met.” Hundreds of thousands of others who have been in the presence of Billy Graham or heard him in radio and television broadcasts would agree with her assessment. Graham is possessed of a powerful charisma and a tangible sincerity. It is clear he believes profoundly in the message he conveys. Born into the Presbyterian faith in North Carolina, as a young man Graham was told by Bob Jones Sr., founder of the Christian university that bears his name, “You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily.” Graham began preaching while still in college, began his radio ministry in 1944, and found his calling as an evangelist when hired to be the traveling preacher for Youth for Christ International. In the Autumn of 1949, he had a breakthrough with an eight-week series of revival meetings in Los Angeles.
The WORD…we see Jesus, His Story!
It could be said that in the subsequent six decades he became what President George H.W. Bush once called him: America’s pastor. Professor Harold Bloom of Yale University, literary critic and author of The American Religion, among other books, wrote in Time magazine in 2000 that “Graham has ministered to a particular American need: the public testimony of faith. He is the recognized leader of what continues to call itself American evangelical Protestantism, and his life and activities have sustained the self-respect of that vast entity. If there is an indigenous American religion—and I think there is, quite distinct from European Protestantism—then Graham remains its prime emblem.” Graham does so in an era that includes such powerful evangelical figures as Rick Warren and Pat Robertson, and he does so around the globe. Billy Graham helped make the second half of the 20th century the greatest period of Christian evangelization since Saint Paul set out on foot.