CREDIT: Photo anieto2k, via Flickr.

There are so many things that make us weary and burdened.

Maybe you’re weighed down by poor health, difficult relationships, or financial stress.

Maybe your biggest burden is spiritual?

Perhaps you’re worried that when God judges you after you die that you might not have done enough to please him.

The great news is that Jesus offers relief from that burden because Jesus is rest.

Before Jesus came, God promised his people rest from all their enemies so that they would live in safety.

Then, after Jesus came, God’s people realised that this ‘rest’ was actually talking about Heaven.

But many people thought it was only possible to gain this heavenly rest through hard work.

They were told that they needed to do all sorts of religious acts and good works in order to get into heaven and enjoy a hard-earned rest.

But Jesus turned that upside down when he told them that he is the only one who can give someone that rest.

He told them, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

Then he told them how to take hold of that rest: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)

Jesus offers to swap his light and easy load for our heavy burden, and in turn, give us true rest.

It all is possible because when Jesus died, he swapped our sin for his perfection, and he became guilty so that we might become innocent in God’s sight.

Wouldn’t you love to have rest for your soul, now and in eternity?

Jodie McNeill.

We give thanks to God for the life of Billy Graham who died this Wednesday.

Many of you will know the impact of his ministry personally. It was through his preaching that God called you back. If not you personally, then you have seen his impact on your friends, on your spouse, indeed on a generation in Australia.

I am of a generation that came after his great crusades in Australia. And yet for us to understand the Australian Christian landscape we need to understand what God did through Billy Graham.

In any Christian gathering I have ever been in where the question is asked ‘who was converted at a Crusade?’, there has always been many hands that have gone up. And this legacy has had a multiplying effect on Christianity in Australia.

I’m sure each member of my generation has had at least one significant mentor or preacher who was converted through Billy Graham. For me it was one of my university leaders. He was the one who encouraged me into ministry through his passion for reaching the lost. And it was Billy Graham who spoke the Gospel to him. It wouldn’t take long for each one of us to find these connections with his ministry.

The clarity in which he preached was astounding – the way he could explain so clearly the tenets of the Gospel and call people to repentance. I was listening to the radio once where the presenter had one of his talks running in the background. He would fade him in and out at random.

The amazing thing is that each and every sentence of Billy Graham was a self contained piece of brilliance, it felt like the most compelling thing about Jesus you could hear.

While his preaching is what we remember him for, it was his personal integrity and godliness that has safeguarded his ministry.

He resisted the temptations of money and power that came with his position, and while the media made it a sport to uncover the scandals of American evangelists, there was never a hint of that in his ministry. His life and his words were all motivated by God’s love:

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Simon Chaplin.