French philosopher Voltaire said that the Bible and Christianity would disappear within a hundred years. He died in 1778. The Christian Church marches on.

Friedrich Nietzsche said in 1882. “God is dead” He believed that the dawn of science would be the doom of faith. Science dawned and faith leaps forward.

A Communist dictionary defined the Bible this way. “It is a collection of fantastic legends without any scientific support.” Communism is fast diminishing while the Bible remains the number one seller on every list.

Every person or belief system that has tried to bury the Christian faith has discoverd the same thing as those who tried to bury its Founder…HE WON’T STAY IN THE TOMB! Jesus Christ is alive and well, seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, and at this Easter season we celebrate His Resurrection with joy and victory. And this Living Savior is coming back to gather His church one day. He comes for those who have accepted His offer of a free Salvation. You can’t buy it or earn it…you can’t be good enough to gain it. It is free to all who confess their sins and believe that He is the Son of God and that His death on the cross provided the sacrifice to take away all sins. It really is that simple.

Let us all enjoy Resurrection weekend with the knowledge that we’ve been forgiven and we are now on our way to Heaven! And, let us thank the Lord for that great gift!

Prayer is an amazing adventure. When I take time to pray, I am always blessed and receive much more in return for my time investment.

Early this morning, I gathered with a few people in the sanctuary. We prayed for the Romania team, we prayed for Crossroads services, we prayed for ministries. It was a sweet time in God’s house that I wouldn’t trade for an hour more of sleep.

Ricardo ended our time together with worship songs, just him and his guitar. He has such a beautiful voice! This line of one of the songs got me thinking. “Your love oh, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness stretches to the sky . . .” Our Milky Way galaxy is so minuscule compared to the galaxies beyond. If we could view our galaxy from the furthest distance of the heavens known to man, it would be a small spec in our sight. God’s love and faithfulness to us does not end. It keeps going, just like the sky, and no one truly understands its magnitude.

As I was dwelling on this truth in prayer, God brought me a mental picture of me standing in the vast openness and nothingness of space, and there He was, holding me tight. The picture of God, my Father, holding me so intimately overwhelmed me with comfort and security. In the details of my (one) life, God showed me how important I was. Yes, His love is unfathomable and His faithfulness unending, and yet, He sees me and my relationship with Him is as important to Him as everything and everyone else He takes care of. In the vastness of the universe, there is simply, God and Laurie.

I couldn’t even speak to the Father anymore. The Truth was too much for my heart, too overwhelming, too real. I just cried. All the prayer requests and needs will be taken care of. In the end, there is God, His love and faithfulness, and me and you. His love is real, my friend. Spend time with Him today in prayer. I wonder what adventure in Him awaits you.

Hello from a church in the heart of Targoviste! I am sitting here on a couch in a church that is just about a hundred yards from the capital building of Targoviste. Everyday we walk past the capital building to get to the church. It really is beautiful. The people are great and the team is doing really good.

It is a weird feeling to be a missionary. There is a strong sense of accomplishment coupled with a bizarre understanding that we can never do enough. I look around and think about how much more I could do and I am slapped in the face with the fact that I could never do enough. How true is this of a place like Murrieta? I think the more profound question is how come we don’t see it? Why don’t we look around Murrieta and see the need and be in awe of how much we have done and equally feel the pressure that we could never do enough.

As a “spiritual leader”, I also wonder, “how do I help Christians see all the good we have done but all the more there is to do and not make it a guilt thing?” I have no desire to see people step up and serve the Kingdom out of guilt. Instead, I want to see the family of Christ serve the community they are placed in; to serve them with joy and love and to feel the privilege of ministering in their day to day lives, not just during a special occasion.

Don’t you just love the way Jesus was straightforward with His words? He wasn’t bragging when He said, “I am the light of the world” or when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. He was simply stating the facts. As the Son of God, He had come to bring light and life to our dark world.

I read these words awhile back: “Brush your mind with God’s word…It will help prevent truth decay”. I smiled as I read those words and then got to thinking about it. We live in a world of ‘truth decay’. We’ve replaced hand-shakes with pages of legal protection. Our world lacks trust, which fills many with fear and hopelessness.

The world’s chaos and challenges must drive us to God’s word. We do need to brush our mind, bathe our hearts, and sit and soak in God’s Holy Word. Let’s join the Psalmist and declare: “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forevermore”.

Walking in the Light,

Jim Grams