This week Lori and I just happened to be in the same town where Bebe and Cece Winans were singing for a corporate meeting (the largest corporation in the world). We ran into a local pastor whose family worked for that corporation and they told us Bebe and Cece were going to be in town the next day. We were able to meet them and what a wonderful visit we had! We recounted the days when they, as teenagers, began their music ministry on our television show. What a joy to be with old friends!
One of the number one things you will need more than anything else in the days to come, the days the Bible calls the “Last Days”, is a good friend, or I should say many good friends. The Church that Jesus said He would build will withstand the gates of Hell! The Church is going to take care of those within its gates. There is a big difference between Church members and the true Body of Christ – those who are truly born again!
Jesus calls us friends and when we are born again into the family of God, we become family. We are not just an earthly family but a family that does not walk away in bad times, but one that never gives up on each other! Here is what the Bible says in Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” That’s the kind of family I want to be a part of, one that does not walk away in bad times. Some earthly families fight all the time. I want to be in that family of God that loves each other at all times!
I always say Lori is my best friend and yet she is my wife and Mother of our children. How can this be family and friend? Jesus calls us friends in John Chapter 15. Read with me verses 12-17: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.”
When I was in prison, Franklin Graham came to visit me often and told me one day he wanted to be my sponsor to help me meet the requirements to get out of prison. I told him he did not need to do that, it might hurt him and the Graham name to be associated with me, a former inmate! He told me “Jim, you were my friend before prison and you are my friend now, and if anyone does not like it I am looking for a fight!”
God is the one who never gives up on you and He will fight your battles for and with you! Hebrews 13:5 says: “God says I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” That is real friendship! Abraham was called the “Friend of God” in James 2:23, and you are God’s friend if you have been born again into the family of God! If you have not been born again, ask Him into your heart today and you will become a Friend of God!
