Dear Friends,
Do you know someone to whom you have witnessed and for whom you have prayed but who you fear now is a hopeless care? Today’s devotional should give you new hope. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• Romans 5:1-11 (ESV)

  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

  6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

“IN JESUS
“I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only Jesus.

My soul is night, my heart is steel —

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to Jesus.

He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads;

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in Jesus.

Though some should sneer, and some should blame,

I’ll go with all my guilt and shame;

I’ll go to Him because His name,

Above all names, is Jesus.”

[James Procter]

“These are the words of a man who had been an avowed atheist for most of his life but who later became a believer in Jesus Christ…. He was raised in an old-fashioned Christian home…. But in his early teens, he began to read the writings of the Free Thinkers and other infidels…. Finally he renounced all interest in the Christian faith and the Bible. He later joined the Free Thinkers’ Society in Manchester, soon becoming its president…. While serving as president of the Free Thinkers’ Society in Manchester, England, James Procter experienced a serious illness. Fearing that the end of his life was at hand, he one day requested his sister to send for a minister of the gospel. A faithful man of God came to his bedside and led Procter to a saving faith in Christ. The illness took a turn for the better, and this hymn was the result. [Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 More Hymn Stories, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1985), p. 143-144]