Hello Friends from Pastor Chris Pieters
Happy Memorial Day weekend! I think we are all ready for an extended weekend to relax, reflect, and remember. After moving to Zeeland from the Chicago area years ago, I have come to deeply appreciate our city’s annual Memorial Day traditions. Every year we share a powerful moment as large crowds of people fill the streets to stand to honor those who have served, are serving, or gave the ultimate sacrifice while in service to our country. Even though the parade is cancelled this year, I pray we can embrace that same spirit as we this walk through this holiday weekend.
For today’s devotional, I would like to take a moment to remember the life and impact of Ravi Zacharias, who passed away at the age of 74 earlier this week after a battle with sarcoma. He was a modern-day hero who was an articulate and gracious proclaimer of the Christian faith.
Ravi Zacharias: Most Influential Christian Apologist of the 21st Century has Passed Away.
Regarded as one of the foremost defenders of Christianity's intellectual credibility,
Ravi Zacharias is an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian apologist. He is considered one of the great Christian expositors of the 21st century. God has used Ravi to impact millions of people around the globe.
An official statement from RZIM said: "Ravi Zacharias spent the past 48 years commending the Christian faith and addressing life's greatest existential questions of origin, meaning, morality and destiny with eloquence and grace. "Through his founding and leadership of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), Zacharias launched a global team of nearly 100 Christian scholars and authors who continue to speak, resource, train and address the questions of millions around the world."
I am deeply grateful to God for Ravi Zacharias and the impact of his preaching in my life. I have had the privilege to hear Ravi speak several times in person at the annual Passion conferences of thousands of college students in Atlanta. I see in Ravi’s life a powerful combination of keen intellect, eloquent preaching, and a humble personal walk with his Savoir and Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, I have included several quotes below from Ravi that I hope will challenge and encourage each of us in our walk of faith in these times. Have a great weekend.
To hear some of Ravi’s messages or read some of his sermons and articles -
Visit his ministry’s website – Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
www.rzim.org
Quotes from Ravi Zacharias
On Worship:
“Worship is a posture of life that takes as its primary purpose the understanding of what it really means to love and revere God.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
“We are his temple. We do not turn in a certain direction to pray. We are not bound by having to go into a building so that we can commune with God. There are no unique postures and times and limitations that restrict our access to God. My relationship with God is intimate and personal. The Christian does not go to the temple to worship. The Christian takes the temple with him or her. Jesus lifts us beyond the building and pays the human body the highest compliment by making it His dwelling place, the place where He meets with us. Even today He would overturn the tables of those who make it a marketplace for their own lust, greed, and wealth.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
On Jesus
“I came to Him because I did not know which way to turn. I have remained with Him because there is no other way I wish to turn. I came to Him longing for something I did not have. I remain with Him because I have something I will not trade. I came to Him as a stranger. I remain with Him in the most intimate of friendships. I came to Him unsure about the future. I remain with Him certain about my destiny. I came amid the thunderous cries of a culture that has three hundred and thirty million deities. I remain with Him knowing that truth cannot be all-inclusive. Truth by definition excludes.”
-Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
On Struggles and Pain
“So do not fear the struggle; rather, embrace it. Embrace it in the knowledge that the Grand Weaver will take all of your struggles, questions, disappointments, and fears and use them to build your faith and increasingly make you into a man or woman who looks like Jesus Christ.
- Ravi Zacharias, The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives
On Faith
Faith in the biblical sense is substantive, based on the knowledge that the One in whom that faith is placed has proven that He is worthy of that trust. In its essence, faith is a confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
On Faith
“In its essence, faith is a confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is. Faith for the Christian is the response of trust based on who Jesus Christ claimed to be, and it results in a life that brings both mind and heart in a commitment of love to Him.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
On Marriage
“Love is a commitment that will be tested in the most vulnerable areas of spirituality, a commitment that will force you to make some very difficult choices. It is a commitment that demands that you deal with your lust, your greed, your pride, your power, your desire to control, your temper, your patience, and every area of temptation that the Bible clearly talks about. It demands the quality of commitment that Jesus demonstrates in His relationship to us.”
― Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love
Chris Pieters
cpieters@communityreformed.org
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