Scripture provides an accurate account of the heavenly Father’s character, actions, and purposes. Together, the Old and New Testaments teach us that man’s problem is sin and the only remedy is faith in the Son of God: Jesus Christ. Through the Bible, we learn what happens at the moment of our salvation: our sin’s penalty is reckoned as paid, its power over us is broken, and the Holy Spirit becomes our daily companion.

Through His Word, God has entrusted to us the knowledge of who He is, what He is doing, and how the future will unfold for mankind. The Scriptures were intended to lead us into a growing personal relationship with the Father and to empower us for fruitful service as Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). In this position, we are called to follow Jesus’ example in glorifying God (Matt. 5:16)-our Savior focused not on Himself but on the heavenly Father, whose plan is to reach the entire world with His saving grace.

The Father’s will includes certain tasks for each of His children to accomplish (Eph. 2:10). In meditating on scriptural principles and examples, we’ll be able to discern what He has in mind for us. Just as Jesus’ work was to do His Father’s will, that is our calling as well.

What place does this Book of books-the Bible-have in determining the course of your life? Take time today and every day to listen to the Lord, to partake of His wisdom, and to determine what He is saying to you personally. In so doing, you will orient your mind to His priorities and thinking.(Charles Stanley)

—-the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the baseth of men. Daniel 4:17

Visitors in Washington who tour the White House often notice the beautiful fireplace in the State Dining Room. Carved into this stone mantel, just below a painting of Abraham Lincoln, are the words: “I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.” Those words were originally written in a letter by John Adams to his wife Abigail after they moved into the White House. During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt found them and had them carved into the fireplace.

We pray for honest and wise leaders, and our nation needs godly rulers. Yet the Book of Daniel gives us the example of Nebuchadnezzar, a cruel and egomaniacal man. God humbled him and used him to fulfill Divine Providence. God sometimes raises up leaders for purposes known only to Himself at the time. Yet we can rest assured that His authority is supreme and that His providence works all things together for the fulfilling of His ultimate purposes.(From Turning Point)

It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.
George Washington

In his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John
Newton heard someone recite this text, “By the grace of
God I am what I am.” He remained silent a short time and
then said: “I am not what I ought to be. Ah, how imperfect
and deficient! I am not what I wish to be. I abhor that which
is evil, and I would cleave to that which is good. I am not
what I hope to be. Soon, soon I shall put off mortality,
and with mortality all sin and imperfection.

Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be,
and what I hope to be; yet I can truly say, I am not what
I once was–a slave to sin and Satan! I can heartily join
with the apostle and acknowledge–By the grace of God I
am what I am!”

“The prayer of the upright is His delight”   (Proverbs 15:8).

This is as good as a promise, for it declares a present fact, which will be the same throughout all ages. God takes great pleasure in the prayers of upright men; He even calls them His delight. Our first concern is to be upright. Neither bending this way nor that, continue upright; not crooked with policy, nor prostrate by yielding to evil, be you upright in strict integrity and straightforwardness. If we begin to shuffle and shift, we shall be left to shift for ourselves. If we try crooked ways, we shall find that we cannot pray, and if we pretend to do so, we shall find our prayers shut out of heaven.

Are we acting in a straight line and thus following out the LORD’s revealed will? Then let us pray much and pray in faith. If our prayer is God’s delight, let us not stint (limit) Him in that which gives Him pleasure. He does not consider the grammar of it, nor the metaphysics of it, nor the rhetoric of it; in all these men might despise it. He, as a Father, takes pleasure in the lispings of His own babes, the stammerings of His newborn sons and daughters. Should we not delight in prayer since the LORD delights in it? Let us make errands to the throne. The LORD finds us enough reasons for prayer, and we ought to thank Him that it is so. (From Faith’s Checkbook)

You haven’t done all you can do until you’ve prayed.

Lew Wallce was a famous general and literary genius of the nineteenth century who, along with his friend Robert Ingersoll, decided to write a book that would forever destroy what they called “the myth of Christianity.” For two years, Wallace studied in the libraries of Europe and America, and then he started writing his book. But while writing the second chapter, he found himself on his knees crying out to Jesus Christ in the words of Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” And the book he was writing became the great novel about the times of Christ, Ben Hur.   Bill Murray was a businessman who grew up in a home that had rejected God so completely that his mother once told him, “I don’t care if you become a drug addict or a bank robber or if you bring home a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend. There’s just one thing I don’t want you to do in life-become a Christian.” So Bill grew up sexually promiscuous, moving from one marriage to another, from one sexual partner to another. He began drinking and drugging, and wanting more and more possessions, he worked himself to the point of exhaustion. He collapsed inwardly and found himself praying to the God he had rejected, “Please, get me out of this mess!” Going to an all-night bookstore, he found a Bible buried under a stack of pornographic magazines, and he began reading about Jesus Christ. He was especially drawn to Luke’s Gospel, and as he read it he grew convinced that Jesus was unique in history, matchless in his magnetism, his teachings, his claims, his resurrection and his impact on history.   Bill received Christ as his Savior, and it changed his life. He gave up his drinking and drugging and promiscuous sex and rampant materialism, and he found the inner peace and joy he’d always been looking for. Bill Murray, you may be interested to know, is the oldest son of atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hare, who used him as the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that outlawed prayer in the public classrooms of America.   C. S. Lewis, likewise, came to Christ almost against his will, being convinced by the evidence that Christianity was true. One of the factors was the simple process of deduction. He said that he realized that it was impossible to call Jesus a great mora! teacher but not God. Lewis explained, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”   There are only three logical options. Either he was a liar, a hoax, a deceiver, an imposter-in which case you have to explain how he could also have been the greatest spiritual leader and the most selfless, atoning sacrifice the world has ever known; or he was a lunatic-in which case you have to explain how he could have been the wisest teacher the world has ever seen; or he is the God-Man-which is just who he claimed to be.   Liar, Lunatic, or Lord. The answer, it seems, is obvious.  (From a sermon by Robert Morgan)