A Word of Grace for Your Monday

7/25/11

by Kent Hansen

Dear Friends:

A young woman named Yuri attended a small prayer and Bible study group that I led for many years.

Yuri is Japanese. She grew up in a Buddhist family in Japan.

Student missionaries at a language school introduced her to Christ who she eagerly accepted as her Savior. Her troubles began at that point.

Yuri's Buddhist fiance broke off their engagement with a terse "You love your God more than me." Her family turned on her for her faithfulness to Christ. She was broken-hearted and crushed in spirit, seemingly without a future or a hope.

One night, alone in her room, she stared at the wall in despair. A student missionary had given her a tape-recording of the Christian singer Sandy Patti. Yuri turned on her cassette player and she heard these words:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow Because He lives, All fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives. (Gloria Gaither and William J. Gaither, 1974).

Yuri believed these words. She accepted on faith that they were true. She followed her student missionary friends to the United States where she enrolled at my alma mater, La Sierra University. That's where Yuri met me and joined our small group.

Read more at Adventist Perspective.

A Word of Grace for Your Monday - 8/23/10

Dear Friends:

Thursday morning, I stopped by a friend's office. He was preparing for an important meeting on institutional finances in less than two hours.

The times are stressful. The stacks of spreadsheets and financial statements on his desk tell the story of a community with entrenched, high unemployment. By nightfall the State of California, financially insolvent and in legislative paralysis, will cut off payments to our physicians and hospital for caring for state-insured patients. The specter of cut-backs, lay-offs and reorganization lurk in the muddy, roiling waters of uncertainty. My friend was visibly tense and frustrated with competing demands for data and information while preparing books for an annual audit.

Read more at Adventist Perspective...