Christianity is a worldwide faith. Some say over 31% are Christians the world over. Yet, if you rewind history, Christianity began in a small geographic area on the other side of the globe, with just a handful of followers. How in the world did they reach the world!? Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us some good insight from the book of Acts that’ll help us encourage one another in the faith, and reach our world in our time with the love of Christ.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Go to www.joniradio.org today to see pictures of Jareth's precious family

--------

Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible. Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org.

Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

If you have workout equipment in your garage that only collects dust, what good is it? That same principle applies to your Bible—if you don’t use it, you won’t benefit from it. So grab your Bible and follow along with John MacArthur as he looks at crucial details from the Old Testament that can deepen your understanding about your salvation in Christ.

In this message from Matthew 19:1–2, David Platt addresses Christ’s teaching on marriage and singleness.

Explore more content from Radical.

There's a stretch of the Outer Banks of North Carolina that's known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" because hundreds of ships have been lost there over the centuries. So it was there that something called the United States Life-Saving Service was born. They established these white frame buildings called life-saving stations like seven miles apart along the very treacherous parts of the coast. The Life-Saving Service was actually a spawning ground for heroes. In one case, for example, this ship was in distress with four men staying alive by just hanging onto this mast for dear life. Six of the seven men from the closest station went out into a storm that could very well consume them. Before they went out they left a verbal will with the man who was left running the station. Twenty-two hours without food or sleep. Well, they finally brought back those four stranded men, and then they collapsed on the beach in exhaustion. It was incredible heroism. I mean, that was the norm for the men of the life-saving stations.

One interesting observation: never in the history of the Life-Saving Service did the drowning person ever come to the door of their station and ask to be rescued, "Excuse me, I'm drowning. Can you help me?" No, in every single rescue, the rescuers had to leave the safety of the life-saving station, go out into the surf and into the storm to keep someone from dying.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leaving the Life-Saving Station."

It's the nature of rescue isn't it? You have to leave the comfort of the life-saving station to save the people who are dying outside. The life-saving station is a great place to get rescuers strong enough to go out into the storm to bring people in. And it's a great place to bring people after they've been rescued. But if we wait for dying people to come into the life-saving station to get rescued, most of them are going to die without a chance.

That's the nature of spiritual rescue. Over the years it's been known by many names - evangelism, soul-winning, witnessing. But maybe we've lost the urgency of what really is at stake here. Every lost person you know who has never begun a personal relationship with Christ, every lost person within the reach of your church is, in the words of the Bible, "perishing... staggering toward slaughter" (Proverbs 24:11), "without hope and without God" (Ephesians 2:12), and ultimately, someone who will be forever, in the Bible's words, "shut out from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). They are spiritually dying people, and their only hope is rescue by someone who is close enough to save them.

Sadly, we've been waiting for them to come to one of our meetings, our programs, our religious place, our life-saving station. But Jesus said in Luke 19:10, our word for today from the Word of God, that "the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." He said that in the house of a reviled tax collector, where Jesus had been criticized for going. But Jesus shows us that you have to go where the lost people are to rescue them. You have to seek them if you want to save them.

We keep having programs to rescue the dying - often few of them are ever there. The plan of God is for someone like you or me - an everyday follower of Jesus - to be the one to rescue the dying people around you. If we have to go where the lost people are to rescue them, well guess what? You already are where some of them are; you are every day. Don't just let them go on dying. Leave the safe spot, the comfortable spot where you've wanted to stay and take some risks to rescue them. You follow the Man who left the comfort zone of heaven to risk it all, to give it all to rescue you. Now He's asking you to join Him in rescuing some others who will die forever without Him.

There is nothing greater you could do

Unity… how does that come about? There are a lot of theories about this, but can it be that it’s a simple answer we’ve all heard and excused as a cliché? We’ll explore this question today.

Ephesians 2:11-22

Read: Psalm 145:18-19; Romans 8:38-39

“It’s gone!” Abigail exclaimed one morning as she and her older sister walked to the school where they attended day camp. “They just put it up, and now it’s gone!” A huge telescope had recently been installed on a mountain near their town. The girls usually saw it clearly as they walked down their street.

Sophia laughed. “In this fog, lots of things are gone. They’re really just hidden by the fog. I’m sure we’ll be able to see the telescope by the time we walk home this afternoon.”

Sophia was right. As they walked home, the telescope was visible again, but by then Abigail had something else on her mind. “I don’t want to go to camp tomorrow,” she said. “There’s a girl in my craft class who doesn’t like me, and I’m scared of her. She’s mean!”

“Maybe I can stay with you most of the time tomorrow,” Sophia suggested.

“But we’re taking different craft classes—and you’re in a different age group,” Abigail replied. “You can’t stay with me all day.”

Sophia thought for a minute. “No, I can’t—but you know someone who can!”

“I do?” asked Abigail. “Who?”

“Think about the Bible verse we read in our family devotions last week—Jesus is always with us,” Sophia replied.

Abigail rolled her eyes at her sister. “I know that, but I can’t see Jesus!”

Sophia was quiet for a minute. Then she pointed toward the big telescope on the mountain. “We couldn’t see that telescope this morning, but it was there. And even though we can’t see Jesus, He’s there too. He loves us so much that He died for our sins, and He promises to always be with us.”

Abigail sighed. “Okay. You can stay with me until we have to split up for craft classes,” she said. Then she smiled. “And then I’ll remember that Jesus is with me the rest of the time—even though I can’t see Him.”

Sophia smiled at her sister. “Let’s talk to Mom when we get home. She might have more ideas about what to do about this girl who’s been bothering you.”

–Karen R. Locklear

How about you? Do you ever wish you could see Jesus? Perhaps when you have a nightmare or get lost in a store? Even when you face scary things, you can breathe a little easier just by thinking of one thing—the fact that even though you can’t see Him, Jesus is right there with you. He promises to always be with those who trust in Him, and He keeps His promises!

Today’s key verse: I [Jesus] am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20 (NKJV)

Today’s key thought: Jesus is always with you