file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940717.txt
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OUR DAILY BREAD                      Sunday, July 17, 1994
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READ:  Acts 24:10-26

                      "A BORN ATHEIST?"

                  How shall we escape if we
                 neglect so great a salvation?

                        - Hebrews 2:3


All of us have an innate sense of God's existence (Rom.
1:18-21).  But some may suppress that deep down awareness of
God and may even convince themselves that He is not real -
until a moment of crisis.

Novelist Eric Ambler was making a World War II documentary
in Italy, The Battle of San Pietro, when exploding shells
knocked him to the ground and he thought he might die.  In
his autobiography he wrote, "My unconscious mind chose to
play a nasty trick on me. I heard myself saying, 'Into Thy
hands I commend my spirit.'"  Unhurt, he resolved never to
reveal that momentary abandonment of his unbelief.

Such a flash of insight is a gift of grace that can cause
the long-suppressed truth to become conscious trust in God.
But Ambler refused to let that spark of faith become a
steady flame that would illuninate the darkness of his un-
believing soul with redemptive truth.

Felix, the governor of Judea, put off a decision for Christ
until "a convenient time" (Acts 24:25).  But convenient
times have a way of eluding us.  We all need to commit our-
selves into the hand of God, not just at death but in life.
It starts by accepting the gift of salvation by faith in His
Son.

If you haven't trusted Christ as Savior, do it today.

Author:  Vernon C. Grounds

        Almost persuaded now to believe;
        Almost persuaded Christ to receive;
        Seems now some soul to say, "Go, Spirit, go Thy way,
        Some more convenient day on Thee I'll call." - Bliss

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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You can't repent too soon,
   because you don't know how soon it may be too late.

THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Isaiah 31-33

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