What I Believe

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"Romans 10:14

Sometimes people ask me why I do what I do. I have a very simple answer to that question, which is that I really do believe the things that we read in the Bible are true.

For example, I really believe what the Bible says about our lives being "a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). I really believe there is an eternity, there is an afterlife, there is a heaven, and there is a hell. I really believe that only those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ will go to heaven. And I also believe that I need to share this message with as many people as possible.

I received the following letter from someone who came to Christ at one of our Harvest Crusades some years ago:

My younger brother went to sleep one night and never woke up. He was 23 years old, and he had just graduated from college. He moved to Philadelphia after he graduated... I found out the Harvest Crusade was coming to Philadelphia, so I took my younger brother with me to hear the gospel. He was not yet a believer. He went forward at the invitation and gave his life to Christ, and God called him home... one month after his commitment to Christ. My brother lives today because of your ministry... he is in the arms of Jesus, and that's where I will meet him again.

That is why I do what I do. That is why I want to get the gospel out. And that is why we were placed on this earth: to come into a relationship with God, to know Him, and to glorify Him with our lives.

By Greg Laurie, taken from "Harvest Daily Devotional"

The Bible reading guides will be taken from Back to the Bible

Worthy Walk

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called." Ephesians 4:1

I remember when both my sons took their first steps. We so desperately wanted to see our kids take them. We were so excited. Then once they started walking, we wished we never would have taught them how to do it. We had to constantly keep an eye on them.

My youngest son Jonathan fell so many times when he was taking his first steps that he had a permanent bruise on his forehead. He would fall. The bruise would start to heal. He would fall again. We didn’t recognize him without that bruise in the middle of his forehead.

Walking spiritually can be like that, especially when you take your first steps as a new believer. You stumble and fall. You get up again. You stumble and fall. It is all part of growing spiritually.

In Ephesians 4, we are encouraged to walk forward spiritually. Walking speaks of effort, of having direction with a destination in mind. And the first thing we are told is “to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (verse 1).

The word “worthy” used in verse 1 could be translated, “balance the scales.” This means that what is on one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side. This word could be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. Paul was saying there needs to be a balance between our belief and our practice. In other words, our doctrine and belief should affect us in the way we live.

We need the balance of having both these areas working together in our lives. That is what it means to walk worthy of the Lord.

By Greg Laurie