It Is Written

Where Was God?

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001492A


01:30 ♪[Theme music]♪
01:40 ♪[Theme music]♪
01:48 ♪[Soft music with road noise]♪
01:52 >>John Bradshaw: Thanks for joining me on It Is Written.
01:55 I'm John Bradshaw, and together we are heading somewhere.
02:00 Before we get to our destination,
02:01 let's go back in time a little bit.
02:05 2017 was a very active year for natural disasters.
02:12 Remember the hurricanes?
02:14 What a hurricane season.
02:15 ♪[Dramatic music]♪
02:26 Now, those were the storms.
02:27 There were others besides.
02:29 Then, came the fires.
02:31 [Sound of fire]
02:32 In California, fire season comes every year,
02:35 and there's always a danger of fires.
02:38 Always.
02:38 In northern California,
02:40 a swarm of fires affected about six different counties.
02:44 The worst fire of them all: the Tubbs fire.
02:47 And the Tubbs fire began burning in the direction of Santa Rosa.
02:51 That's where we're going now.
02:53 In Santa Rosa, alone,
02:55 43 people died as a result of the Tubbs fire.
03:00 That's 43 known deaths; there may be more.
03:04 Nine thousand structures were destroyed,
03:07 5,500 of them in Santa Rosa.
03:11 Three thousand homes were destroyed in Santa Rosa.
03:14 Five percent of Santa Rosa's houses were destroyed.
03:19 The destruction was immense.
03:21 We're on our way to Santa Rosa
03:22 to talk to some survivors of the Tubbs fire.
03:27 Some victims of the Tubbs fire, that is,
03:29 people who lost everything.
03:33 And, people who lost nothing.
03:36 And we'll ask an important question.
03:38 And that question: Where was God?
03:42 Where was God when the fires burned?
03:43 Where was God as people suffered?
03:45 Where was God while people were dying?
03:48 Where was God in the midst of the devastation?
03:50 It's a very important question,
03:52 not only in the context of the fires in California,
03:54 the hurricanes that buffeted the United States,
03:56 but our own lives.
03:58 Everybody meets with tragedy,
03:59 disaster, loss.
04:01 And that question is often asked.
04:03 That question is, where was God?
04:07 We're heading to Santa Rosa.
04:09 By the grace of God, we'll find an answer to that question.
04:15 ♪[Soft music]♪
04:25 >>Marc Selivanoff: So it was Sunday night.
04:27 We went to bed, on October 8.
04:29 And uh, about maybe 1:30 in the morning,
04:33 the uh, my wife got a phone call.
04:37 And I could hear the voice on the other end of the line,
04:40 was very, uh, tense, and very intense,
04:44 maybe would be a better word.
04:45 And she was basically screaming,
04:48 "There's a fire; it's massive; it's headed your way.
04:51 You need to get out, and get out now."
04:53 >>John: So you get the warning,
04:55 you get the phone call, and so what do you do?
04:58 >>Marc: So, of course, at 1:30 in the morning,
05:00 you know, I go and I look outside,
05:01 and I could smell the smoke.
05:03 And, uh, so we knew that, based on her phone call,
05:07 this was something serious that we needed to pay attention to.
05:10 So we got up, very groggy, started gathering our pets
05:15 and our few things that we could get,
05:19 um, loaded them into the car.
05:21 And the smoke was very thick at that point,
05:24 and, uh, just headed out and, uh.
05:29 So we ended up at a house that we own that was vacant.
05:33 We, uh, got settled there,
05:36 and then Anthony, my son, said,
05:39 "Hey, Dad, let's go back up and see."
05:40 And I said, "Well, we'll go as far as we can,
05:42 but I don't want to put us in danger."
05:44 >>John: So you came back up here to the house.
05:45 What did you find?
05:46 >>Marc: Um, we came back up, and the fire was,
05:49 was raging, uh, down in the residential community.
05:53 It was on this hill and on this hill as well.
05:56 >>John: But the house?
05:57 >>Marc: The house was still standing at that point.
05:58 So we, uh, we were fighting the fire with the intention of
06:04 obviously saving our home and all of our possessions.
06:07 >>Catherine Hamilton: We got a call at two a.m.
06:08 >>Alvin Hamilton: Monday night, yeah.
06:09 >>Catherine: At midnight, here.
06:13 >>Alvin: It's, it's like complete hopelessness,
06:16 because you're gone, except that you have God.
06:20 And so the first thing that you do is the only thing
06:22 that you know you can hang onto is God.
06:25 I mean, everything else, as what you physically can do,
06:28 is not there.
06:29 >>Catherine: After I hear fire, I hear, in the background,
06:32 "Get out!
06:33 Get out!
06:34 You're being evacuated.
06:36 The fire is two to four blocks away from your house."
06:38 And I panicked.
06:40 And so I told Alvin, I said,
06:41 "Pray for me. Pray for me.
06:42 Pray for my sanity, and so that I can be able to pray."
06:45 Because my mind, I felt like my mind was just gone.
06:48 >>Alvin: I sought the Lord,
06:50 and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
06:53 >>Catherine: So the minute he prayed for me,
06:55 not for the fire,
06:56 not for anything that was happening,
06:58 I just needed my calmness and my sanity
07:01 to be able to be in tune with God.
07:03 Because I knew that if I had that,
07:05 I had everything else.
07:06 So I said, we started praying, our prayers didn't last long.
07:10 They were desperate, they were, uh,
07:13 they were rushed.
07:14 There was a need, it was urgent, it was very, very urgent.
07:17 I said, "Please save my children."
07:20 >>Alvin: The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them
07:24 that fear Him and delivered them.
07:26 >>Catherine: So immediately after we prayed that,
07:28 and then we couldn't pray anymore,
07:30 and we started saying verses in the Bible.
07:33 And so we grasped, um, Psalms 34 and Psalms 91,
07:37 and we were saying it back and forth,
07:39 back and forth.
07:40 >>Alvin: I will bless the Lord at all times:
07:42 His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
07:45 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.
07:47 The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
07:50 Oh, magnify the Lord of me,
07:52 and let us exalt His name together.
07:54 >>Catherine: So what really was the most amazing miracle
07:57 about this home is that the fire started miles east,
08:02 behind us, and it stopped right at my backyard,
08:06 and do not proceed to any other home beyond us.
08:12 >>Courtney Asker: My mom woke up at 11:45,
08:15 and she smelled smoke.
08:17 So she woke my dad up, and he just pretty much said,
08:20 "you know, you're freaking out;
08:21 go to bed; we're fine."
08:23 And so then she called 911 and they ended up telling her,
08:27 "no, you're fine."
08:29 Like, you have nothing to worry about.
08:30 You don't have to leave.
08:31 There's a fire being contained.
08:33 Then it was at 1:19 a.m. was when her friend texted again
08:38 that Paradise Ridge Winery is on fire,
08:41 and that's right below where we are.
08:44 And so that's when my mom, like, started screaming,
08:48 so that's how I woke up.
08:49 But they still never told me what was going on.
08:52 So then I went in and I helped my mom.
08:55 And she had grabbed, like, our metal box with our passports
08:58 and birth certificates and stuff.
08:59 And then she grabbed a couple photo albums,
09:02 like, her and my dad and my grandpa and stuff.
09:05 And so then I went back to my room and I just,
09:08 like, changed into sweats real quick.
09:11 And I put on a pair of flip flops and then I grabbed
09:14 my school backpack and a stuffed animal and one picture.
09:17 And so, when we were driving down the hill,
09:19 like I just remember seeing, like, red everywhere.
09:22 Then I understood, you know, like, okay,
09:25 it's, like, the mountain's on fire.
09:27 ♪[Ominous music]♪
09:35 >>John: Now, here's a question.
09:36 Can God be trusted?
09:38 Either you've asked that question yourself,
09:40 or you know somebody who has.
09:42 And I've got an answer for you.
09:44 I'd like you to get today's free offer,
09:46 "Can God Be Trusted?"
09:48 To receive it, call 800-253-3000,
09:52 write to the address on your screen,
09:53 or visit us at iiwoffer.com.
09:57 "Can God Be Trusted?"
09:58 I have an answer for you.
10:00 800-253-3000,
10:02 or visit us at iiwoffer.com.
10:05 >>Announcer: Have you ever wondered
10:06 if you're good enough to be saved?
10:08 It's a common question that has discouraged many people.
10:10 But it doesn't have to discourage you.
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10:26 Or download it from our webstore at
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10:35 ♪[Music]♪
10:45 >>Marc: As the fire came in the morning,
10:46 it basically, once the house caught fire
10:48 there was nothing that we could do at that point.
10:51 >>John: So help me get the picture of this.
10:52 Here's your home, and everything.
10:55 So around here, there was, stuff was on fire.
10:58 >>Marc: The back hill behind our house was on fire,
11:01 and the hill over there behind you was on fire as well.
11:05 And there's actually two houses that were there.
11:07 And while we were here, those exploded and went up.
11:10 Probably a hundred-foot wall of fire right,
11:12 just over there.
11:13 There's two houses over there on that side of the property that,
11:17 while we were here fighting the fire,
11:19 went up in smoke, and you could hear them.
11:21 It was like a 747 just taking off,
11:23 and the popping of windows and whatever else happens
11:26 when a house goes up in flame.
11:28 And my son actually went over
11:29 to make sure that that side of the property was okay.
11:32 So he was over there fighting the fire.
11:34 I was here, and I decided we should be together,
11:36 so I left this and went to be with him.
11:38 But what ended up happening then is that the wind
11:40 brought the fire up from the residential community.
11:43 Um, it overcame, and landed on the house,
11:47 and the house went up in flames.
11:49 And at that point we had to leave as well.
11:51 ♪[Quiet music]♪
11:53 >>Courtney: That Monday,
11:54 we still hadn't known, like, what,
11:58 what anything looked like.
11:59 We didn't know if anything had burnt down.
12:01 I couldn't eat or sleep at all
12:03 because I didn't know if our house was okay.
12:06 And my mom pretty much kept saying,
12:08 like, there's no way that it could have survived.
12:10 I just kept saying, like, no, it has to be there.
12:12 Like, there's no way it can be gone.
12:15 And I think it was about like that evening,
12:18 Monday, I have a friend who was going,
12:21 and driving around and taking videos.
12:24 And so I texted him and I was, like,
12:25 go to this address.
12:26 And so he went there and he took pictures,
12:28 and it was all gone.
12:31 And, like, I just remember, like,
12:33 breaking down completely and, like,
12:34 I couldn't even stand because of it.
12:37 So we didn't find out until, like, that evening,
12:39 the day after the fires.
12:42 >>John: When did you come back?
12:43 How soon could, could you come back,
12:45 to have a look at your place?
12:46 >>Courtney: Um, we didn't come here until,
12:50 like, two weeks after.
12:53 >>John: Tell me what that was like.
12:55 >>Courtney: Um, well, the first time it was only my parents
12:58 who came here, because I was with a friend.
13:00 And then I think maybe a little less than a week after,
13:05 that's when I came here for the first time.
13:08 ‘Cause that's when they were finally, like,
13:10 letting people come up and, like,
13:11 search for things, you know, in their house.
13:14 Since, like, after we had found out about it,
13:16 like, I wasn't necessarily, like, that emotional.
13:21 And so I didn't think that I would, like,
13:24 start crying when we come, when we came up here.
13:26 But when we got here and, like, I actually got out of the car,
13:29 like, that's when I just started sobbing with my dad,
13:33 pretty much.
13:34 And, like, that's the first time I've seen him cry in, like,
13:36 a really long time.
13:38 ♪[Quiet music]♪
13:39 >>John: I hate to ask you this question,
13:40 but if the firetrucks had somehow arrived an hour earlier,
13:43 might your house still be standing?
13:45 >>Marc: It would be standing, but I don't,
13:47 I don't hold that against the firemen.
13:49 >>John: Oh, yeah, sure.
13:50 >>Marc: Yeah, this fire was so large and so, uh,
13:52 out of control, and so hot...
13:55 >>Marc: ...I think the key priority then
13:56 was saving lives and making sure that they could save
14:00 as many people as they could.
14:01 >>John: You were kind of the last...
14:03 >>Marc: The last one.
14:05 Yeah.
14:06 And as we were standing there watching,
14:08 the firetrucks arrived,
14:10 and that's part of the reason why they survived,
14:13 is three firetrucks arrived on the street on the other side,
14:16 and ended up, uh, able to save.
14:18 And the winds, you know, cooperated.
14:20 But the firemen were able to save,
14:22 uh, those houses there.
14:24 Which I'm grateful for.
14:24 I'm happy that they have their home.
14:26 ♪[Ominous music]♪
14:39 >>Announcer: In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says,
14:41 "It is Written,
14:42 'Man shall not live by bread alone,
14:44 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
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14:49 is a one-minute, Bible-based daily devotional
14:52 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw,
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15:15 inviting you to join me for "500,"
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15:20 taking you deep into the Reformation.
15:24 This is the 500th anniversary
15:26 of the beginning of the Reformation,
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16:13 ♪[Quiet music]♪
16:16 >>Catherine: I'm not sure what God is trying to tell us,
16:17 but I know that God spoke in Santa Rosa.
16:21 >>Marc: You know, even now
16:22 there's times when I'll be talking on my phone,
16:25 or at the end of the day,
16:26 and I'll just start driving here,
16:29 and realize, wait a second, what am I doing?
16:31 I don't live here [chuckles]; I live over there.
16:34 And so, you know, it's been a challenge,
16:37 and every day there's new emotions and new,
16:39 uh, decisions and new challenges that come up.
16:43 But, you know, we're confident that God
16:46 has not forgotten about us,
16:48 that He has provided for us,
16:50 and that He is walking with us each step of the way.
16:54 >>Courtney: I don't think I ever, like,
16:55 got angry at Him, but I think I was just kind of,
16:59 almost let down, you know.
17:02 When we, when me and my mom were driving down the hill,
17:05 um, so there's like a little pond that's right there.
17:08 You can kind of see it.
17:09 Like a little lake.
17:09 >>John: Yeah.
17:11 >>Courtney: I remember, like, she was just praying,
17:12 like, use that lake.
17:14 You know, just use that tiny little thing just to shield,
17:16 like, our house.
17:18 And, like, I actually thought that it would work.
17:22 You know, I thought that He would,
17:24 like, actually protect, like, all of our houses and stuff.
17:27 So I think, I just felt like, you know,
17:29 kind of let down by Him a bit.
17:32 >>Alvin: I, I felt a heavy load of responsibility that,
17:39 why, God?
17:39 You picked me.
17:41 You picked our home.
17:42 You saved our family.
17:44 I just felt a heavy load.
17:45 Lord, I'm going to have to do a lot more.
17:48 I'm going to have to do a lot better,
17:50 because this is just incredible, you know.
17:53 And, you know, what happened is this home next to us that,
17:57 that burned down was one of the only homes
18:00 that people could actually drive up and see,
18:02 because the military and the police
18:04 had blocked off so many areas.
18:06 So we had car after car driving into our cul-de-sac.
18:10 Some people stopped, and they would come,
18:12 and they would talk to us,
18:13 and we would tell them what God had did for us.
18:16 People would come in and go, like, man,
18:17 you guys were lucky.
18:18 You know, we weren't lucky.
18:20 God did this for us.
18:21 It was outrageous.
18:23 "Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
18:26 but the Lord delivereth him out of them all."
18:29 >>Catherine: So what I learned from it is that
18:31 you can depend on God's words like this.
18:33 It has ears, so it hears when you pray.
18:36 It has hands, so it can stop things from happening.
18:41 It has legs; it can actually move and just do stuff for you.
18:46 So it is really actually actively a life.
18:48 It does stuff.
18:50 >>Alvin: "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good:
18:54 blessed is the man that trusteth in him."
18:57 >>Catherine: So this word, in times of danger,
19:00 in the future,
19:01 I know that I can depend on it.
19:03 I know I can go to it.
19:04 I know I can tell it, ask it.
19:07 I know that it will hear.
19:09 It will see.
19:10 It has a mouth; it can speak.
19:12 It can say "wind, time to turn around.
19:15 Don't touch that house."
19:17 And it actually obeys and does stuff like that.
19:20 It is a miracle!
19:22 "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
19:25 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
19:27 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress:
19:31 my God; in Him will I trust.
19:33 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;
19:35 nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
19:38 nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness;
19:40 nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
19:45 >>John: So let me ask you a question.
19:47 You're a Christian.
19:48 You're a believer.
19:49 You're in it with God, boots and all.
19:53 Where was God in the middle of this?
19:56 Your, your home is being destroyed.
19:59 Your possessions are being obliterated.
20:02 Not everything, the things you hold most precious are safe.
20:05 >>Marc: Yes.
20:06 >>John: All this other stuff, which is precious,
20:08 is going up in smoke literally.
20:10 >>Marc: Yeah.
20:11 >>John: And, and the loss is astronomical.
20:13 Where is God?
20:14 >>Marc: You know, that's a fair question,
20:15 and it's something I think you do wrestle with.
20:18 Because we know that God could prevent this.
20:22 >>John: Sure.
20:23 >>Marc: And, you know, it says in scripture that
20:25 "before you call, I will answer."
20:27 And in our case,
20:29 what gave me hope and encouragement,
20:31 and a confidence that God was with us
20:34 in spite of what just happened to us,
20:36 was we had, uh, been, uh, had acquired a property.
20:43 So we had picked this up back in April.
20:45 And, uh, the plan was just simply to fix it and flip it.
20:49 But we made a decision around July
20:51 that maybe we should keep it as a rental.
20:53 And that turned out to be a very important decision.
20:57 And we were literally two days away
21:00 from renting it when the fire happened.
21:02 And so for us, the blessing was that we had a place to go.
21:07 It had just been rehabbed.
21:08 No one had ever lived there.
21:10 And we were able, at two in the morning when we left here,
21:12 all in a panic, we were able to go there
21:15 to a place of safety and a place of quiet.
21:17 And so for me, when I feel overwhelmed about that,
21:20 I, I know without a doubt that God had prepared a place for us,
21:25 and that He was watching out for us,
21:27 and that we would be okay.
21:30 >>Courtney: Before the fires and I was meeting
21:32 with my youth pastor, um, when I told her that I was,
21:35 like, okay, I'm ready.
21:37 Like, I want to do it.
21:38 I want to get baptized.
21:39 It was about a week and a half before the fires,
21:41 and that's when she had told me.
21:43 And she had said that Satan is pretty much going to test me.
21:49 She said, "It doesn't happen to everyone
21:51 who's going to get baptized, but I have had situations where,
21:55 you know, I've had kids who have had stuff happen to them
21:59 right before they get baptized.
22:01 And that makes them lose a little bit of faith in God,
22:04 or not trust Him, or, you know, get angry at Him or whatever."
22:08 And so she said, you know, "Just be aware."
22:11 Like, there's probably going to be something happen.
22:14 And then a week and a half later,
22:15 that's when the fires happened.
22:17 >>John: So you weren't tempted just to give up on God?
22:19 >>Courtney: Umh-umm.
22:21 >>John: Good for you.
22:29 >>John: You know, it really does make you wonder.
22:33 If you've not been through a loss like this,
22:37 the vast majority of us have not,
22:41 it's kind of hard to put yourself
22:42 into somebody else's shoes.
22:44 What must it be like to go through?
22:47 Well, of course, while not everybody has had their home
22:51 burn or been through Hurricane Irma or some such thing,
22:56 we all suffer loss on some level.
23:01 And it tends to shake our faith somehow.
23:06 Sometimes its a seismic shake, sometimes a little small shake.
23:12 But that question comes to you: where was God?
23:16 Where was God when my child got desperately ill?
23:20 Where was God when my spouse ruined the marriage?
23:26 Where was God when the fire burned?
23:29 You know.
23:30 Where was God?
23:33 The place you find answers to that sort of question
23:36 is the Bible,
23:37 the only reliable place that you can find an answer.
23:40 So let me read to you from 2 Corinthians,
23:43 chapter 4, from verse 16.
23:46 Here's what the Bible says:
23:49 "Therefore, we do not lose heart.
23:51 Even though our outward man is perishing,
23:54 yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
23:58 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
24:01 is working for us a far more exceeding
24:04 and eternal weight of glory,
24:06 while we do not look not at the things which are seen,
24:09 but at the things which are not seen.
24:12 For the things which are seen are temporary,
24:16 but the things which are not seen are eternal."
24:20 So, how about that?
24:21 The Bible talks about our light affliction.
24:24 Yeah, I don't want to meet any of these householders
24:27 and tell them, "You lost everything.
24:28 That's a 'light affliction.'"
24:30 But if you look for God in the flames,
24:33 there's a chance you might not be able to see Him.
24:35 But if you keep on looking, God will come into view.
24:37 He'll come into focus.
24:38 If you're trying to hear the voice of God
24:40 while the fire engines are wailing,
24:42 it might be right
24:43 then you can't discern the voice of God.
24:44 It may be that you can.
24:47 But if you hang in there, God's leading will become clear.
24:50 And whatever you're going through right now,
24:52 whatever you have faced or will face,
24:54 you can know that God is right there with you too.
24:58 [Ominous music]
25:06 >>John: Now, here's a question.
25:08 Can God be trusted?
25:10 Either you've asked that question yourself,
25:12 or you know somebody who has.
25:14 And I've got an answer for you.
25:15 I'd like you to get today's free offer,
25:18 "Can God Be Trusted?"
25:20 To receive it, call 800-253-3000,
25:23 write to the address on your screen,
25:25 or visit us at iiwoffer.com.
25:29 "Can God Be Trusted?"
25:30 I have an answer for you.
25:31 800-253-3000,
25:33 or visit us at iiwoffer.com.
25:36 >>John: Thank you for remembering that It Is Written
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25:49 You can send your tax-deductible gift
25:51 to the address on your screen,
25:52 or you can visit us online at itiswritten.com.
25:56 Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support.
25:59 Our number again is 800-253-3000.
26:03 Or you can visit us online at itiswritten.com.
26:07 ♪[Piano music]♪
26:17 ♪[Piano music]♪
26:26 >>John: The chainsaws are whirring in the background.
26:28 The construction, or maybe the destruction equipment
26:31 is working behind us, because great tragedy has taken place.
26:35 Real loss.
26:37 Where was God?
26:39 Let Jesus tell you.
26:40 We're going to settle it right now.
26:42 Matthew, chapter 28, and the second part of verse 20.
26:46 Jesus said, "...and lo, I am with you always,
26:51 even to the end of the age."
26:54 And then Matthew wrote, "Amen."
26:57 So that settles it.
26:58 Where was God?
26:59 He was with those who were suffering.
27:02 Where was God?
27:03 He was with you in your own personal hell.
27:06 Where was God?
27:08 He was walking beside you.
27:09 You know what He was doing?
27:10 He was carrying you.
27:12 Because it's the grace of God that enables us
27:15 to accomplish or do or endure anything at all.
27:19 If we look at circumstances, our faith might be shaken.
27:22 If you'll look at the Word of God,
27:24 look to the cross on which Jesus died for you.
27:28 If you look to God's promises,
27:29 you will know and you will be certain.
27:31 He never leaves you;
27:33 He's always with you, no matter what.
27:38 And best of all,
27:40 one day soon Jesus will return and gather us together,
27:43 and take us home,
27:45 to a land where there'll be no loss,
27:48 no death,
27:49 no devastation,
27:51 no disaster.
27:52 We'll never wonder, "where was God?"
27:54 For we will be there in God's presence forever.
27:56 You want to be there?
27:58 I know you do.
28:00 Let's pray together now.
28:02 Father in Heaven,
28:03 we thank You for the assurance that You are with us.
28:06 You never abandon us.
28:08 In our darkest moments You are there.
28:10 In our struggles, You are there.
28:12 In times of loss,
28:13 grief,
28:14 despair,
28:14 difficulty,
28:15 You are there.
28:17 And in times of joy and celebration,
28:20 in times of gladness, You are there.
28:23 Lord, we thank You today.
28:24 Though we don't always understand what You allow
28:27 we understand enough of you to know that You are good,
28:30 that You are God.
28:32 We look forward to the day when Jesus returns,
28:35 and the sadnesses and the sufferings of this earth
28:37 will be gone forever.
28:38 Let that day come soon.
28:39 Friend, you want to be ready then.
28:41 You want to be ready now.
28:43 Would you open your heart to God now and say,
28:45 "Lord, I want you to be my Lord.
28:48 I want the God of Heaven to be my God.
28:50 I want Jesus to be my Savior."
28:52 If that's your prayer,
28:53 pray it in your heart now.
28:55 Lord, hear the cry of our heart.
28:58 We look forward to seeing Jesus soon
28:59 and spending eternity with You.
29:01 We thank you for it, and we pray,
29:04 and we trust, in Jesus' name.
29:08 Amen.
29:09 >>John: Thanks so much for joining me today.
29:10 I'm looking forward to seeing you again next time.
29:13 Until then, remember:
29:15 "It is written:
29:17 'Man shall not live by bread alone,
29:19 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
29:24 ♪[Theme music]♪


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Revised 2018-02-13