"…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God"
(1 Corinthians 6:11, NIV)

Do you know how valuable you are to God today? Not only did He pay a precious price in order to have a relationship with you; He cleansed you, set you apart, and made you brand new.

Think of it this way, if you saved your money and purchased a very rare and valuable piece of jewelry, you wouldn't just leave it around the house or office. You probably wouldn't wear it to the gym or to work in the yard. You wouldn't let your children play with it. No, you would set it apart and protect it. You would polish it, keep it clean and show it off on special occasions. You would handle it carefully because it's valuable.

Friend, understand today that you are valuable to Almighty God. He handles you carefully. As a follower of Jesus, He has set you apart for a specific purpose. He is proud of you. You are His most prized treasure. Let that sink down into your heart today. Meditate on His goodness as you realize your worth in Him!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father in heaven, thank You for loving me. Thank You for choosing me and setting me apart for Your glory. I receive Your love today and invite You to have Your way in every area of my life. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Having a clear understanding of your covenant with God is essential because it is the foundation of your life. Since the Bible is a book of covenants between the Father and mankind, your faith cannot become rock-solid until you understand the details of your covenant with Him. Covenant-minded Believers understand why they have a right to salvation, healing, deliverance, divine protection, wealth, and so much more. A covenant is “a solemn promise, pledge or agreement between two or more parties to carry out the terms that have been agreed on.” Covenants were common practices in the Old Testament, and carried greater significance than modern contracts. For example, to Abraham, a covenant was very serious. Therefore, when God entered a blood covenant him (which is the strongest agreement in existence), Abraham had a reason to trust God. As a result of their covenant, Abraham believed God’s promise to bless him. Because you are a born-again Believer, you, too, have a covenant with God that ensures your total life prosperity—no matter what is going on in the world. The Bible refers to you as Abraham’s “seed,” or spiritual offspring, because you are in Christ. More specifically, in God’s eyes, you have a spiritual union with Jesus, which means when He looks at you He sees all that Jesus has done. As a child of God, you can rest in His promises to bless you and your family because He is a covenant-keeping God. In Psalm 89:34-35 He says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie.” God is not a liar. He’ll do exactly what He says He will do concerning you. The covenant between Him and Abraham, which affects you, is branded on His mind. It is time to enjoy your love relationship with God. Begin by changing your spiritual profile from “Christian by Title Only” to “Covenant-minded Christian.” This requires your diligent study of God’s Word concerning the details of your covenant with Him. Meditate on every scripture that refers to covenant until your mind and spirit become saturated with it. Before long, you won’t help but be able to relate to God on the basis of your covenant. Your vocabulary will change, and you’ll begin praying and receiving answers from Heaven because of your understanding of your covenant rights. Problems that once threatened to overwhelm you will seem small because of your enlightenment. Total life prosperity is yours by virtue of your covenant with God. The key is to remember that prosperity of any kind only responds to your understanding and practice of the details of your covenant. Practice obeying God and being loyal to Him. Practice loving others and being a blessing to everyone with whom you come in contact. After all, that’s what covenant-minded people like us do! Scripture References: Galatians 3:26-29 John 1:12 Galatians 4:4-7 Numbers 23:19

In this day and age, many people are filled with worry about their future                                                         

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

"But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favor on me--and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace"

(1 Corinthians 15:10, NLT)

In this day and age, many people are filled with worry about their future. They live stressed out, wondering "What's going to happen if I get laid off?" "How am I going to handle it if my loved one doesn't make it?" Or, "My parents are getting older. How can I take care of them and my own family as well?" Here is the answer: God's grace is going to be there at every stage of your life to help you do whatever you need to do. God's grace is what saves us, but that's not all. His grace is His enabling power. His grace will give you the strength, wisdom and favor to accomplish what you could not normally accomplish on your own. His grace is sufficient for whatever you need in your future.

If you're in a difficult marriage, if you're raising a child that's hard, if you're facing a sickness, one thing you can count on is that the grace of God will be there. Receive His grace today, by faith, and let Him empower you to walk through that difficulty into a place of supernatural victory in Jesus' name!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father in heaven, thank You for Your grace and mercy upon my life Thank You for empowering me to rise above every obstacle I may face. Thank You for restoring my future and equipping me to move forward into the victory You have for me. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Aug31: If I were to ask a group of people what’s the greatest thing in life, I would probably get as many answers as there were people. Certainly many things contribute to a full and happy life, but I hope all believers would agree that knowing God is absolutely the greatest and most important of all. Without that, everything else loses meaning.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and counting that as “dung.” He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him.

Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. He had traveled the world and been used of God as few men ever had or ever will be. Yet here he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).

Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).

What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just getting saved. Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).

He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it passes knowledge? Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!

All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced. How do we get there?

First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the presence of the Lord. But they don’t know God.

They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because they are lovely.They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster.

Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them. Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him (Hos. 4:6).

Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in Romans 10:17,

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. I would preach that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is “everlasting life.” And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which says,

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we can have right now (John 3:36). The word “know” is used in Scripture to describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a child (example: Gen. 4:1). It is speaking of intimacy. So “knowing God” is speaking of intimacy with Him.

To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of what Jesus provided. Let me put it this way: if you received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where the vast majority of Christians live.

People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t hearing that knowing

God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.

Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know Him through His Word.

The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,

“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them, but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the corruption of this world. What a deal! Knowing the Word is knowing God.

I recently taught a new series that focuses on knowing God, and it expounds on many of the key things I’ve learned about God through the Scriptures. I talk about the real meaning of eternal life, how to see with our hearts clearer than with our physical eyes, and much more.

This is a series that may not sound really interesting on the surface, but it is one of the most important messages I teach. If you ever want to fulfill what God has called you to do, you must know Him personally, and I believe this message will make a huge difference in your relationship with the Lord.

BY Rev: Daniel Mattu

Aug31: If I were to ask a group of people what’s the greatest thing in life, I would probably get as many answers as there were people. Certainly many things contribute to a full and happy life, but I hope all believers would agree that knowing God is absolutely the greatest and most important of all. Without that, everything else loses meaning.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and counting that as “dung.” He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him.

Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. He had traveled the world and been used of God as few men ever had or ever will be. Yet here he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).

Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).

What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just getting saved. Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).

He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it passes knowledge? Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!

All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced. How do we get there?

First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the presence of the Lord. But they don’t know God.

They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because they are lovely.They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster.

Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them. Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him (Hos. 4:6).

Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in Romans 10:17,

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. I would preach that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is “everlasting life.” And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which says,

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we can have right now (John 3:36). The word “know” is used in Scripture to describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a child (example: Gen. 4:1). It is speaking of intimacy. So “knowing God” is speaking of intimacy with Him.

To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of what Jesus provided. Let me put it this way: if you received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where the vast majority of Christians live.

People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t hearing that knowing

God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.

Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know Him through His Word.

The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,

“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them, but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the corruption of this world. What a deal! Knowing the Word is knowing God.

I recently taught a new series that focuses on knowing God, and it expounds on many of the key things I’ve learned about God through the Scriptures. I talk about the real meaning of eternal life, how to see with our hearts clearer than with our physical eyes, and much more.

This is a series that may not sound really interesting on the surface, but it is one of the most important messages I teach. If you ever want to fulfill what God has called you to do, you must know Him personally, and I believe this message will make a huge difference in your relationship with the Lord.

BY Rev: Daniel Mattu

A series of torrential storms dumped nearly fourteen inches of rain on India, Punjab, causing massiveflooding.  People died in the disaster and hundreds of lost their homes. The muddy waters of the River poured into the streets, submerged water treatment plants, closed hotels, and overwhelmed the highways and inter states. One young couple, Dan and sue, was out of town celebrating their 15 wedding anniversary when the flood hit. They had packed a couple of small suitcases that Friday, jumped into Sue’s car, and headed to the safe place. On returning Monday, they learned that the floodwaters had risen to the roofline of their house. All the accumulated possessions of their 15 year of marriage were gone. Dan’s car was underwater. Their house was lost. All they had after 15 year of wedded bliss were the contents of those two small suitcases. But Dan never lost his characteristic smile. “It’s all right,” he said. “We have each other, and I still have my favorite (Bible) God’s Word. I’d packed it in my suitcase for the trip. I’m awfully glad I had that Bible God’s Word with me.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been awfully glad to have my Bible God’s Word with me. In times of loss, sickness, grief, and fear, I’ve been glad to have God’s Word. When the fires raged and the floods rose, I’ve needed my Bible. When trying to uplift others while my own heart was breaking, I’ve leaned on the

Scriptures.

Like the hymnist said, “In times like these we need the God’s Word Bible.” We need the Bible because it’s the only book that tells us about the things we cannot lose. Try this mental experiment. Imagine taking an inventory of every single thing you own. List each item on a two-columned ledger. The left columnis titled: THINGS WE CANNOT KEEP. The other side is headed:

THINGS WE CANNOT LOSE.

Most people spend their lives accumulating things they can lose and give little thought to storing up the things they cannot lose—and that’s what is wrong with our society. But Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26a). Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things He possesses” (Luke 12:15). The Lord then went on to tell about a man who accumulated a vast fortune

On earth but died suddenly, leaving it all, without being prepared to meet God. Jesus ended the story in Luke 12:21 by saying, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” The first thing we need to remember when we face “times like these” is the biblical truth about things eternal, about those things that abide forever. In these days, we need a Savior, an anchor, a rock, a Bible God’s Word.

We Cannot Lose God’s Presence

Even in perilous times we can never lose the presence of God if we are in Christ. He lives and abides forever, and He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Psalm 46 tells us that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Notice the progression of those words. He is a help in trouble. He is a present help in trouble. He is a very present help in trouble. He is a very present help in trouble. In 1947, missionaries Dick and Margaret Hillis settled with their four children by the Mule River in the Honan province of China. Nearby, a mission church swelled with nearly a thousand Chinese every Sunday. It would have been a happy time but for the conflict between Chiang Kai-shek and the forces of Mao Tse-tung. One terrible night, the little family found themselves in the middle of a war zone. The house next door was hit by a shell, killing all the inhabitants. The Hillis family huddled in the corner as another shell exploded, sending dirt, glass, and bricks through windows and walls. The house quaked. The children screamed, momentarily deafened. The family prepared for death. But the fighting died down, and by and by Dick tucked each child into bed. As he knelt beside Margaret Anne, he noticed a dirty scrap of paper stuffed under her pillow. On it was printed in big, childlike letters these words: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in

Trouble.”1

We may never find ourselves in a war zone, but we’re living in troubled times, and in times like these we need the Lord—His presence, His promises, and His peace. Those are eternal possessions we can never lose when our Rock is Jesus. We Cannot Lose the Joy of Our Salvation Nor can we lose the joy He imparts. One of the greatest verses about joy in the Bible is John 16:22, which Jesus spoke to His disciples on the night of His arrest: “You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” We must respond to difficult times spiritually, not just emotionally. We can’t give in to fear. We can’t give in to depression or discouragement. We’ve got to respond spiritually with the joy of the Lord as our strength. The prophet Habakkuk said, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior”

We Cannot Lose the Work God Gives Us

We’re also called to an eternal work, and our lives have long-lasting influence. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16a). in times like these we need the Lord—His presence, His promises, and His peace.  I believe that every good deed, every word of witness, every presentation of the Gospel, and act of kindness is part of a chain-reaction of ministry that will continue until Christ comes again. None of our labor is lost. None of our influence evaporates. We’re here today because of prior generations who

faced fires, floods, and floggings; and they remained faithful to Christ. The Book of Revelation says that those who die for their faith will rest from their labors and their works will follow them. In Galatians we’re told that we will reap a harvest if we do not faint. First Corinthians chapter 15 promises that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. We can’t take our money with us, but our ministry will help populate heaven and will have eternal significance. And even in heaven we’ll still be busy, for His servants shall serve Him (Revelation 22:3). We Cannot Lose Our Heavenly Home That brings us to heaven. When we’re in Christ, we must remember that even in times like these we have no fear of losing our heavenly homes. The apostle Peter assures us that we have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade reserved in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4). Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” I can tell you on good authority that the Celestial City is indestructible and eternal. The Crystal River running through New Jerusalem will never flood. The mansions of glory will never catch fire. The foundations will never crumble. The death angel will never visit. Moths cannot destroy there, nor will thieves break in and steal. Here we have no enduring city, no permanent homes. But there we have a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God. There will be our friends and loved ones in Christ, and so shall we ever be together forever with the Lord. Here’s the bottom line: We can never lose Jesus Christ; and when we have Jesus we have everything we need. Whatever things are gain for us, we consider them loss for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Whatever times you are in, your times are in His hand. Whatever storm you are facing, your anchor will hold when it’s gripping the Solid Rock.

Last spring, a series of torrential storms dumped nearly fourteen inches of rain on Nashville, Tennessee, causing massive flooding. Twenty people died in the disaster that weekend and hundreds lost their homes. The muddy waters of the Cumberland River poured into the far-famed Grand Ole Osprey House, covered downtown streets, submerged water treatment plants, closed hotels, and overwhelmed the highways and interstates. One young couple, Nehemiah and Emily Hernandez, was out of town

Celebrating their first wedding anniversary when the flood hit they had packed a couple of small suitcases that Friday, jumped into Emily’s car, and headed to the mountains. On returning Monday, they learned that the floodwaters had risen to the roofline of their house. All the accumulated

Possessions of their first year of marriage were gone. Nehemiah’s car was underwater. Their house was lost. All they had after twelve months of wedded bliss were the contents of those two small suitcases.

But Nehemiah never lost his characteristic smile. “It’s all right,” he said. “We have each other, and I still have my favorite Bible. I’d packed it in my suitcase for the trip. I’m awfully glad I had that Bible with me.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been awfully glad to have my Bible with me. In times of loss, sickness, grief, and fear, I’ve been glad to have God’s Word. When the fires raged and the floods rose, I’ve needed my Bible. When trying to uplift others while my own heart was breaking, I’ve leaned on the

Scriptures.

Like the hymnist said, “In times like these we need the Bible.” We need the Bible because it’s the only book that tells us about the things we cannot lose. Try this mental experiment. Imagine taking an inventory of every single thing you own. List each item on a two-columned ledger. The left column

Is titled: THINGS WE CANNOT KEEP The other side is headed: THINGS WE CANNOT LOSE.

Most people spend their lives accumulating things they can lose and give little thought to storing up the things they cannot lose—and that’s what is wrong with our society. But Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26a). Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things He possesses” (Luke 12:15). The Lord then went on to tell about a man who accumulated a vast fortune on earth but died suddenly, leaving it all, without being prepared to meet God. Jesus ended the story in Luke 12:21 by saying, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” The first thing we need to remember when we face “times like these” is the biblical truth about things eternal, about those things that abide forever. In these days, we need a Savior, an anchor, a rock, a Bible. We Cannot Lose God’s Presence Even in perilous times we can never lose the presence of God if we are in Christ. He lives and abides forever, and He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed,

for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Psalm 46 tells us that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Notice the progression of those words. He is a help in trouble. He is a present help in trouble. He is a very present help in trouble. He is a very present help in trouble. In 1947, missionaries Dick and Margaret Hill is settled with their four children by the Mule River in the Honan province of China. Nearby, a mission church swelled with nearly a thousand Chinese every Sunday. It would have been a happy time but for the conflict between Chiang Kai-shek and the forces of Mao Tse- tung. One terrible night, the little family found themselves in the middle of a war zone. The house next door was hit by a shell, killing all the inhabitants. The Hill is family huddled in the corner as another shell exploded, sending dirt, glass, and bricks through windows and walls. The 12 house quaked. The children screamed, momentarily deafened. The family prepared for death. But the fighting died down, and by and by Dick tucked each child into bed. As he knelt beside Margaret Anne, he noticed a dirty scrap of paper stuffed under her pillow. On it was printed in big, childlike letters these words: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”1 We may never find ourselves in a war zone, but we’re living in troubled times, and in times like these we need the Lord—His presence, His promises, and His peace. Those are eternal possessions we can never lose when our Rock is Jesus.