“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

Christians prioritize worship. That Christians worship and prioritize worship on the Sabbath day is normal.

Christians serve, give, and tithe. Christians do these things because Jesus told his followers to do so. Serving, giving, tithing is normal for Christians.

Christians obey and submit to God’s word. Christians submit to God’s word and God’s authority because God is God and we are not. Obedience and submission is normal for Christians.

Christians stand for truth with grace even when the culture around them denies those truths. Christians stand for Biblical truth because that’s what their Lord and Savior proclaims. That Christians are different than the people who do not know God is normal.

Christians go through hardship and suffering with grace. It doesn’t mean Christians don’t feel pain or loss. It just means that Christians trust that God knows best, that God wants what is best for them, so they trust God in hardship and suffering.

These are things that the average Christians do because these are things God calls Christians to do.

If these things sound radical it is because the modern church has become so accustomed to nominal Christianity that doing what is normal as a Christian seems radical.

If Jesus said it, Christians do it. That’s normal.

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Every single person who was healed by God eventually died. No one lived forever.

Think about that. If they were going to die anyway, why did God heal them? What was the point of healing? What does this tell us?

Just as our verse of the day tells us, everyone is destined to die. No one is to live forever on this side of heaven. What is normal for this side of heaven is for everyone to die.

And when they die, what will happen?

Just as everyone is destined to die, everyone is destined to face judgment.

Could it be that God heals people, that God gives people more days because God wants to give them the opportunity to better prepare for the inevitable judgment that is to come? And if that is the case for when people are healed, doesn’t it make sense then that those who are healthy now are given our health and vitality so that we too might live to be prepared to face judgment?

How do we do that? What’s the key? Jesus. Get to know Jesus. Be about the business of Jesus. Live for Jesus. Serve for Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.

The following is written by Billy Graham.

I know little about nuclear fission or uranium and other elements used in making nuclear explosives. But I believe in the atomic bomb, and so do you. But how can we believe that it exists, if we don’t understand it or have any scientific knowledge about the way it works?

The answer is obvious. Others understand nuclear fission even if we don’t. And others have been what happens when a nuclear reaction takes place even if we haven’t. We read what they say, and we accept it as the testimony of reliable people.

I spend much of my time perusing the pages of a certain book – the Bible. In it I discover that centuries ago God acted and spoke, and reliable witnesses recorded it all. God even guided them as they wrote, so now I read the very words of God himself.

I may not understand everything there is to know about God, but I know him and trust him because of what I read of him in the Bible. Most of all, I know he came down to earth in the person of his Son, and “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

• Billy Graham