What to do with the Heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. NKJV

If you have grown up around the religious traditions in the southern part of the United States the essence of this verse is certainly well known. This verse has become so well known that, in recent years, it has become the subject of much debate. The debate hinges on the question of what to do with the heart.

There has been a long standing tradition that we must PURIFY our hearts. The idea is based on the first part of the verse where we are told that the heart is wicked. The premise is that if we clean the wicked, we will be able to please God and live a happy life.

There is a relatively new movement in Christendom that teaches we should PURSUE our hearts. The idea is based on the fact that if we are redeemed, we now have a new heart that Christ has placed in us, and we need to live from the new heart. If we then by faith follow the new heart we will be able to please God and live a happy life.

So which one is right? While the first approach tends to lead to self-condemnation, the second leans toward self-actualization. The first can lead to a gospel of self-denial, the second a gospel of self-fulfillment. The first may scream legalism while the second seduces with license.

Is there a better way? The answer lies in the text itself. While unstated, it is the obvious solution. This is why biblical meditation is so needful today, in order to unearth that which is obvious. We are to PRESENT our hearts to God. Notice that the text says God searches, test, and repays. In other words, even when we don't know the heart, God does.

It is rather plain that our attempts at purifying and pursuing our hearts without first presenting them will ALWAYS lead us astray. Our venturing from the throne of God does not require conscious awareness that we are venturing, just a lack of dependence on Him as we face life daily.

Our flesh and God's arch foe is delighted when we, even with "Christian" intentions, attempt to purify or pursue our heart. They gloat with us as we apply biblical principles as "how to's" in order to make us socially stable, religiously acceptable and morally responsible. They applaud our efforts and feed our craving (with false fuel) so long as we fail to present ourselves and the central most part of us, our hearts, to God.

Purifying without presenting leaves us with deep dirt unseen by us but at times experienced by others. Pursuing without presenting leaves us with deep dirt unseen by us but at times experienced by others. Both however "feel" right, holy and healthy. Yet nothing is further from the truth but that WHICH IS BLINDED BY A MISAPPLICATION OF IT. Presenting our hearts to God is where the war is waged, the truth is told and the healing unfolds. It is where in naked humility we realize who we are, who He is and to whom we belong. It is here that the Father purges sin, purifies intent, places in us the passion needed to pursue the right things for the right reason so that He might receive Glory in our real living. It is not a one-time-fix-all proposition, it is a continual challenge.

So what shall we do with our hearts? I'll present mine to the Father DAILY, and allow Him to place the right passions in it, passions that will result in my greater pursuit of Him and His Glory. I'll approach the throne of Grace with the blood of the Son and allow the Spirit to apply it to my heart that I might live for God.


Chris Gilliam © 2009

Profiteering or People?
Nehemiah 5:1 And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren.

An interesting dilemma occurs right in the middle of what was a long (70+ years) awaited national restoration. In the midst of progress and momentum comes a complaint. It would, as often the case, be easy for the nobility and the “movers and shakers” of society to make little of the complaint insisting that the people “stop whining”, yet one God fearing man changed all that. He viewed life biblically, ordering his life on God’s declaration and not culturally accepted norms. He insisted on showing the world in both personal integrity and public insistence among God’s leaders, that God’s ways were the right ways, the best way in a sin infested world. Nehemiah was his name.

Now the complaint (found in Neh. 5:1-5) basically showed how the burden of paying interest had placed people in oppression, bondage, dept, which was crippling their ability to survive and creating instability in the much needed restoration. This exploitation via taking of interest from fellow brothers was a much accepted practice of profit making, so accepted that there was no shame in the money makers making money on the national recovery efforts, as depicted in verse 8.

… "As far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!" They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.

Nehemiah tackled the issue of exacting interest from fellow countryman. This is a sticky issue because it strikes right at the core of most people’s drive to possess and acquire in the easiest way possible. It challenges culturally accepted norms, collegiate instruction, and corporate schemes. At the heart of the issue is one’s own personal security without the necessary concern or compassion for others. Exacting interest from fellow brothers was placing profits above people. It happened then, and it happens today.

Nehemiah made a great protest exposing the practice and appealing to the fact that God had a standard and the Jews were to be the standard bearers. (references: Leviticus 25:36; Psalm 15:5; Proverbs 28:8 ; Ezekiel 18: 8, 13, 17; Ezekiel 22: 12)

They were the living declaration of the sovereign God expressed in ordering their lives according to His decrees. This ordering of life would demonstrate to the observing world the reality of God, providing and opportunity to tell of His greatness and goodness to inquiring minds. But not when His standards are reduced to rubbish just like the walls of the city. Nehemiah was building walls that were more than brick and mortar; he was repairing the breach in biblical living among God’s people.

What does this have to do with us who are not Jews? Do we label ourselves as God’s children and yet casually operate our affairs based on culturally acceptable standards? Is our whole system corrupt and we shy away from confronting it because we have conformed to it?

It is easy to site cases of indulgent living in the current housing debacle, yet is the principle of compound complex interest really biblical? Do we fear challenging this one item because we equally get rewarded by it in our 401k’s? Will we go beyond the norm to live biblically based, Christ-like compassionate lives in practice, even if it disrupts our financial life? Walls don’t get rebuilt when we place profit above people.

Chris Gilliam © 2009

What is Deep in You?

"Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?" - St. Augustine

Augustine asks an interesting question. Before you jump to fast to answer let us examine an Old King of Judah, Hezekiah.

Hezekiah had been told by the Lord he was to order his affairs because his earthly departure date had arrived. Grieved by the thought, Hezekiah mourns about his earthly loss as opposed to embracing his eternal gain. God decides (for reasons known only to Him) to reschedule the appointment for 15 years in the future. After this the following statements are made:

2 Chronicles 32:25 But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud…

2 Chronicles 32: 31 And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.

Now to be fair, verse 26 states that he repented and God restrained His wrath for a season, however what was in Hezekiah’s heart was pride that was continually displayed in self-exaltation. Rather than bless the Lord who healed he bragged on the blessings of the kingdom. Rather than showing the Babylonian envoy the sundial and tell how God turned back the hand of time he showed them all the goods God had given him (see 2 Kings 20:13-20 for a fuller explanation). Hezekiah failed the testing. He bragged on the benefits and not the benefactor. The glory of the kingdom was emphasized over the greatness of God.

Perhaps you don’t see the connection, so let me be more specific in reveling a Hezekiah heart in a 21 century way.

When we market, advertise and communicate in print or in person that we are, attend, or represent “the best church” or “the best ministry” we embrace the deep heart of Hezekiah. When the glory of the bride transcends the greatness of the groom, we fail the test. We take God for granted and vainly use His name. We focus and bring others (Babylonians and unbelievers) to focus on lesser things and not Christ alone. The “goods” cause us and others to view God for the goodies and not His greatness. He won’t stand long for that.

So if you are given over to your own self, what would your heart reveal? Would you be found trustworthy or…a traitor?

Chris Gilliam © 2009

What’s Your Priorities?

Priorities. Many books are written about this subject. Books designed to help you accomplish more, enjoy more, produce more, be more and do more if you learn the secret of prioritizing. Most of these books are designed with the goal of success in mind so you can become efficient and effective. Parents, teachers, peers and employers cite the mantra “get your priorities straight.” We learn early the idea behind all the priority teaching; master yourself and you will master your life. Often the target is to maximize things and people so you can maximize you. But is maximizing me the right priority?

There is a better way. Let’s look at a fine example of desire driven priorities in King Jotham.

2 Chronicles 27:6 So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

Let’s unpack this statement.

It is clear that there was a priority, “he ordered his ways.” Some might argue he achieved a goal of becoming mighty simply because he ordered his ways. Becoming great is accomplished by ordering your life. Sound familiar? This kind of teaching is rampant in both secular and Christian literature, but there is an underlying problem. Our western assumptions leave room to substitute the “American dream” for “before the Lord”, with the goal of becoming “mighty” as opposed to knowing God. Unfortunately this happens often.

But what does that little verse mean then if it is not just about making a priority plan in order to achieve greatness? Well, it means the priority is to know God’s word and His ways so one might do his will. Let’s discover it.

“…[H]e ordered his ways”. For a king in the Old Testament the first priority is to hand copy the book of the Law under the direction of God’s priest.

Deuteronomy 17:18 "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

This work would have been tedious and meticulously scrutinized by the scribes. It was not busy work assigned to dull the mind and develop discipline; to the contrary, it was an exercise with intended instruction. As pen and ink intersected life in the temple, opportunity arose to see the ways of God worked out tangibly. Seeing sacrifice, smelling incense, watching priest purification rites, seeing people ministered, to begin to understand sin and atonement. It would create opportunity for the Priest to instruct while the king copied. A place of interchange, dialog, learning what God had said and what God is still saying. A chance to hear the heart beat of God and place his life in rhythm to it.

But the lessons learned in that day of spiritual formation were not to be forgotten as a part of climbing the ladder of higher priorities; no, they were a priority to be constantly and consistently upheld. Notice the next verse.

Deuteronomy 17:19 "And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

This Word of God is to be his constant reminder and continual barometer. It is what God has spoken and what God intends. It is learning the depths of the love of God hidden in the crevices of His words. It is to walk in God’s love and display God’s wisdom to make God’s name great in a world that has lost her way.

Further, in the process of “ordering his ways,” the king was to understand equity and justice. He was to remember his position and power were not even the goal but a gift. He was to exercise this gift without partiality among all people.

Deuteronomy 17:20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left; in order that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

“Ordering his ways” is the priority of knowing who God is, loving who God is, learning how God lives, and living as God intends, both now and forever. Not all kings followed this priority, but Jotham did. Leaving one application for us all, how will we prioritize?

Chris Gilliam © 2009

Trumping Role Call

There is an interesting phenomenon that the late Dr. Francis Shaffer demonstrated in his little philosophical book titled Escape from Reason. The phenomenon was displayed in a series of formulaic expressions. These expressions showed how easy it was to allow things, often good and right things, to become more important than they ought and eventually trumping God in the minds and methods of the adherents. Shaffer demonstrated the reality of this through history and art. While Shaffer expressed it sociologically, the scripture time and again tells of it in reality and the consequences. It is interesting that this point seems lost by so many evangelicals. One who is unaware of potential idols will eventually submit to them.

There is an interesting account of a series of events in the book of 2 Chronicles that in essence is history repeating itself and we are living that history. I want to take some major points of the history and relate it to the current status of much of the western church. You can read the full account in 2 Chronicles 26.

2 Chronicles 26:1 Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who [was] sixteen years old, and made him king…4 And he did [what] [was] right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 5 He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper….

Notice a few things that are good and right. First, he was young and inexperienced. This created by default a natural need for dependence. Second, he took that need and determined best at how to fill it: he sought the Lord. Third, He found a Godly man (Demonstrated by his understanding of God’s visions, which also displayed he was steeped in the Word of God.) and submitted to his instruction and to his position. Forth, there was an effect that followed his right cause, God blessed him.

So a right pattern for you and I would be: Recognize our situation and position, seek God wholeheartedly, find a man of God and receive Godly instruction, and keep the focus on seeking the One blessing and not the blessings.

The last one is where there is grave danger in upsetting the apple cart. It was and still is the Achilles heel of fallen pride-filled independent man. Let’s pick up Uzziah’s story.

15 …So his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong….16 But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to [his] destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

His pride led him out of dependence and into self-styled worship and God serving. It deceived him into believing that becoming a friend of God allowed him to trump God’s order and re-align God’s ways. He was fooled into thinking that the favor from God allowed him the right to exalt the favor (the experience of blessing) while disregarding the word of God.
This sin repeats itself often unfortunately.

Today, the modern expression that comes to mind is how leadership and business savvy has come to trump God’s word and ways. It is as the church and her leaders have bowed to the influence of the affluent and not the Bible. That business 401 trumps bible 101 and the mode of operation mimics the values of corporate America and not Christ voice. Status and skills of leadership are more highly prized than a servant who is a student of the text. Where the powerful forget their role as servants and stewards and position their power to influence as leader.

In Uzziah’s day there some men who stood up for truth even when it could have cost them their life. Notice with me...

17 So Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord--valiant men. 18 And they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, "[It] [is] not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You [shall] [have] no honor from the Lord God."

These men of God confronted head on the issue at hand, corrected the error by quoting the text, stopped the progress of the sin and declared the dishonor from the Lord. What might happen today if such Godly men arose from their slumber, studied the text in order to seek God and not just success, and confronted head on men and women of much more power who were trumping their own role call? What if the business followed the bible and not the other way around? We will either confront the trumping of roles or be trampled by them. We can see kings cut off or ourselves. Uzziah’s history is told, what will ours tell?

Chris Gilliam © 2009

What’s in the Mirror?

Looking in the mirror, what do I see?
Reflections of you? Reflections of me?

Are my actions cloaked in Your majesty?
Are they mere demonstrations of fallen humanity?

Do I excuse and deceive my mind to believe,
That my fallen human actions reflect Your Deity?

Have I become encased in some fantasy
That bears no reflection of Jesus’ glory?

Do I believe and conceive that niceness is rightness?

Oh that I would look in the mirror and see Him and not me!
For this is my heart, Lord; make it reality.

Make your reflections shine with authenticity in me
So it is clear to all You are living in me.

Let me bear the marks of this mystery
and not the façade of a fantasy.


Chris Gilliam © 2009

What is Success?
Deut 4: 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Last week we looked at the definition of wicked and discovered that we are wicked every time we forget God or even take Him and His agenda into our consideration and in particular our lives.

I want to look at the word “success” today. It appears for my fellow Americans that this word holds great stock in our way of thinking, eating, living and breathing. We are a nation of winners. Even our entire market driven system and consumer society all point to the one great goal success. One of our great slogans we created from our Declaration of Independence is “The American Dream.” But does the Bible give such great charge to this word, a word whose idea has invaded the church? Let’s consider a few things.

The most common way we think of the word is as follows:
success - a succeeding fully or in accordance with one’s desires
synonyms arrival, well to do, flying colors, go, prosperity, successfulness
related words accomplishment, achievement, attainment; triumph, victory
antonyms failure; nonsuccess, unsuccessfulness

Interesting, the word is only found 19 times in Old Testament; the word does NOT occur in the New Testament!

When the word is used, the context always indicates that the success is God’s and it is of secondary to faithfulness to Him. When God promises success it is accompanied with the strong command of total allegiance to Him and His ways.(see Joshua 1:7-8 for example) Success is only important as it exalts the truth of who God is.
Rather than be preoccupied with success, the disciple of Christ must concern self with the challenge that precedes it, namely, Forget not your faithfulness to God.

Let’s look at the illustration of success and the challenge of fidelity found in the following passage.

Deuteronomy 8: 11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14  when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness,  in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water;  who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you,  to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth,  that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. (NKJV)

Now I know you might protest as say, “Is this not specific to the nation of Israel?” Indeed, and so is the blessing part too. But don’t miss the salient applications to our present situation. Verse 17 would indict us. Yes, we might give lip service to the God for our gain, but if we examined our life practices do they align with God’s practices as found in the totality of the testimony provided to us in the Bible? Need I say the whole book of Jeremiah was proclaimed to a successful people- a people who forgot God?

Perhaps we are addicted to the idol of Success (as we understand it). Again you might protest this but I would ask you a simple question: Do you have more books and conversation about leadership (the means of success) or theology?

So what might be a more biblical definition to the word success? Jesus summed it up like this:

Matt 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

The Pharisees, contrary to many thoughts, were actually persons other people aspired to be prior to Jesus exposing their reality. Jesus indicates their rigor of life (meticulous rule keepers) which lead to their positions of power and success and in the same breath rebuked them for missing the real goal of godliness (justice, mercy, faith). So what is Jesus end goal from this text? Three simple thoughts.

1) Pursue, proclaim and provide Justice. Justice, (Just as God is) to the widows, orphans, strangers and the unfortunate. Often out of personal sacrifice and not for personal gain. (Need I state the whole “lost leader” principle is not in play here!)

2) Pursue, proclaim and provide Mercy. Mercy, (Grace like God gives) to the widows, orphans, strangers and the unfortunate, even though they may not deserve it.

3) Pursue, proclaim and provide Faith. Learning Who God is and trusting him despite what you see tangibly. Then share that with the widows, orphans, strangers and the unfortunate.

Paul’s letter sums up what should be our goal nicely; not that we strive for success but for fidelity to God.

1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

Scripture’s emphasis is not on accomplishing and acquiring, possessing and achieving. No, it emphasizes believing, bowing and reflecting properly who God is. It replaces the term success, with its latent object for self, with fidelity to God. Now that’s biblical success.

Chris Gilliam © 2009

What is Wicked?

The title is an interesting question. Let me ask it in a different way. What image comes to mind when you think of the word “wicked”? Got it? Hold it for a moment.

Let’s see how the dictionary defines it: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th Edition) wick•ed \ˈwi-kəd\ adj - wick•ed•ly adv
1 : morally very bad : evil 2 a: fierce, vicious 〈a wicked dog b: disposed to or marked by mischief : roguish 3 a: disgustingly unpleasant : vile b: causing or likely to cause harm, distress, or trouble 4 : going beyond reasonable or predictable limits : of exceptional quality or degree 〈throws a wicked fastball〉

I suppose your definition and picture of the word most probably fits the dictionary’s categories, does it not?

This week I have been reading the story of king of Israel and I was powerfully struck. This king was politically powerful, secularly successful, religiously passionate, relationally collaborative and militarily mighty. He could actually become a case study for successful living, being a reflective example of much of the activity of modern man. But the Bible declared him as wicked. Here lies the problem; perhaps we have too narrow of a definition of the word “wicked” as portrayed biblically. Perhaps we think of the term only in the most egregious acts, never associating them term with the successful.

I combed the scripture, looking first to the kings and then to a fuller view for a clearer understanding, I posed the question above. Here is the definition based on usage that I concluded:

Wicked: to live and act as if God does not exist.

That narrows the playing field. Every time we forget God, we are being wicked. Ouch! Even great deeds and massive achievements cannot shroud wickedness. They, deeds and achievements, can deceive us into thinking that we are not so wicked, and this too is a problem.

Let me summarize the first three commandments in a single statement to demonstrate what I’m saying.

Remember God, Respect God, Reflect God. Do you see the progression? If we think of God and think on God we will begin to reflect His life in our living. The opposite it true. If we fail to think of God and on God we will fail to reflect and represent Him too.

I pray with Jeremiah,
O Jerusalem,[ place your name here] wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you? Jer 4:14

Chris Gilliam © 2009

Enjoying life…Ignoring God
Luke 17:26-36

What thing(s) in this life do you value?

Ponder this. Make a list.

Your life is filled with blessing; is it not?

For most of us we have seen blessings heaped upon blessing and thus life is peaceful to a large degree. (If you insist to disagree, just be reminded, we no longer have to wash bed pans or travel to the outhouse! ;^)) We can survey history and see the rise and fall of nations and cultures and we can deduce that life was fullest when the nations were blessed. We can take it a step further and see that when nations adhered to religion and morality, there was a sense of the “good life.” Drilling a little closer to home, we would say we have been blessed because our nation is under the banner “In God we Trust”, and if we get back there we will experience blessing and abundance once again.
Yet in the text above I make an interesting observation. All these people were enjoying life to a degree. Words such as “eating”, “drinking”, “marrying”, “buying and selling”, “planting and building” tell of the pleasure of life. Even the illustrations from the text of storing up goods, working together, and resting together paint the picture of a life well lived. In spite of all that, some people were left out of God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus is speaking to religious people who would have quickly said they valued God, yet there was little real evidence in their thinking and living. They simply ignored Him. In other words, they enjoyed all the pleasures of life without ever thinking to give thanks to the God who gave them. Consistently taking for granted their life’s pursuits as their greatest achievements, while ignoring the Life-Giver. Living life to their definition of the fullness yet being pathetically faithless. Does this (if we dare to examine closely) speak of us? Will we enjoy life and ignore God? Or will we enjoy God and allow these fleeting pleasures to be points of praise to His greatness?
Ponder this.

Chris Gilliam © 2009

On Culture

Many thoughts collide today as I am thinking. The recent book from George Barna, “Seven Faith Tribes”, the Emerging/Emergent philosophies of witnessing and worship, the Reveal report on Willow Creek and Granger Community, the whole Saddleback community, the growing lack of discernment about biblical truth, Ecumenism and “The Shack”, superficiality, indulgence, success, winning, …and the Bible. Not enough lines could succinctly state the churn in my mind, so perhaps a short poem will bring to light what is and what ought to be.


Would Jesus need a PR guy if he were to return today?
Would he need a focus group to determine what to say?
Would he need a stylist to help him dress for crowds to sway?
Would Jesus need a PR guy if he returned to earth today?

Would Jesus need a marketer to tell us what he’d do?
Would he need some national hype from a media guru?
Would he need pizzazz and flair to get his message across to you?
Would Jesus need a marketer to tell us what he’d do?

Would Jesus need an add agency to connect his message visually?
Would he need the greatest film guys to broadcast him on TV?
Would he need airbrushed photos and breathtaking imagery?
Would Jesus need an add agency to connect his message visually?

Would pragmatism lead us to the way?
Would research define the goal?
Would he capitulate to the “needs” of men;
So his name they would extol?

Or… If we paid attention…

Would his message be so impactful it would drive us to our knees?
Would it cut us to the core and expose our idolatry?
Would it cause many pundits to accuse him of blasphemy?

Would his word prick our hearts and cause us misery?
Would they in turn open eyes blinded by sin indeed?
Would his message direct our minds back to Calvary?
Would we live transformed lives here and now and in eternity?


Chris Gilliam © 2009