Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Monday, April 3, 2017

"He [Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."¹

If you haven't already read the following "prophetic" statements by leaders of their day, they are fascinating to hear:

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." – Western Union internal memo, 1876

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" – David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." – Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come and work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" – Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." – Drillers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris." – Orville Wright

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." – Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.²

How wrong all these people were. And what opportunities they lost.

When Jesus came to his people as their promised Messiah (Savior), they refused to believe in him. In spite of all the evidence when he healed the sick, made the dumb to speak, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and raised Lazarus from the dead—and rose from the grave himself—they still as a nation wouldn't believe and continued to reject him and his teachings.

Our world today is still filled with skeptics who refuse to believe the evidence they see in that the "heavens declare the glory of God." They also refuse to believe in and accept the teachings of Jesus, and reject the incomparable opportunity to accept God's offer of forgiveness for all their sins and the gift of eternal life in heaven forever.

The price of rejecting God and his offer of salvation is unthinkable.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, open the eyes of my understanding so that I will see the evidence of your presence in all of life. And deliver me from any spiritual blindness so I will see, understand, and accept your full and free pardon for all my sins and receive your gift of eternal life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

For help see the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian

1. John 1:10-12 (NIV).
2. Cited on www.goodquotes.com

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