Here Today, Still Here Tomorrow

I received this devotion today from www.notreligion.com. It goes well with what some of us have been talking about with religious tolerance and everything. So please read it, it's really good.

----------
Here Today, Still Here Tomorrow

"For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them" (Acts 5:38-39, ESV).

At the beginning of this passage, the apostles were in danger of their lives. The high priests and religious leaders were outraged that these men continued to preach about Jesus and they wanted to kill them to shut them up.

Then Gamaliel, one of the most respected members of their body, spoke up.

Gamaliel's advice sounds like something Solomon said in the Book of Proverbs. "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21, ESV). If God is really working through the apostles, Gamaliel says, then killing them would accomplish nothing.

His words, spoken at just the right time, cooled the tempers of the other council members and saved the lives of the apostles.

But did he save a religion from extinction? No, because Christianity isn't a religion, it's a relationship. As a living Savior, Jesus will always have people who choose to love and follow Him.

Two thousand years later, Gamaliel's wise words have proven true. While the apostles were not killed that day, all of them except John were martyred for their faith. And millions of Christians have died for their beliefs since then. Yet Christianity lives on because Jesus lives.

If you've been considering "finding a religion," don't join a faith whose founder is here today and gone tomorrow. Instead, join a relationship with the living God who loves and lives forever.

www.notreligion.com

God said,the earth shall perish but my word shall stand FOREVER.