As we continue to travel down the path of adjustment that the current health situation has forced upon us, one question that is heard over and over again is "what can I do?". While the information on the precautionary measures has been widely disseminated, that information only deals with health preventative measures we can take. For those of us who proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the health preventative steps only provides a partial answer. The fuller answer is found in God's words through His prophet Micah when we are told in Micah 6:8 [He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?] Another way of translating this is to say "do right, and love good" The simplest way to explain what we are exhorted to do is to doing righteousness and exercising love. These two embrace all the commandments of the second table. To walk humbly with our God is to walk in fellowship with Him. Such fellowship is a proclamation of our devotion and dependence on Him. In the practice of the prophet's words, our horizontal behavior (our relationship with our fellow man) is a result and expression of our vertical reality (our relationship with God). In practical terms this means we strive to demonstrate God's love in a time when some seem to be behaving like characters in Lord of the Flies instead of Biblical characters who love Christ. How are our neighbors doing? How are the senior members of our church doing? Do we know? Today, make a call, at least one; and remind those of our church family, and your earthly family, that you love them and that we are in God's hands.
What can we do?
As we continue to travel down the path of adjustment that the current health situation has forced upon us, one question that is heard over and over again is "what can I do?". While the information on the precautionary measures has been widely disseminated, that information only deals with health preventative measures we can take. For those of us who proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the health preventative steps only provides a partial answer. The fuller answer is found in God's words through His prophet Micah when we are told in Micah 6:8 [He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?] Another way of translating this is to say "do right, and love good" The simplest way to explain what we are exhorted to do is to doing righteousness and exercising love. These two embrace all the commandments of the second table. To walk humbly with our God is to walk in fellowship with Him. Such fellowship is a proclamation of our devotion and dependence on Him. In the practice of the prophet's words, our horizontal behavior (our relationship with our fellow man) is a result and expression of our vertical reality (our relationship with God). In practical terms this means we strive to demonstrate God's love in a time when some seem to be behaving like characters in Lord of the Flies instead of Biblical characters who love Christ. How are our neighbors doing? How are the senior members of our church doing? Do we know? Today, make a call, at least one; and remind those of our church family, and your earthly family, that you love them and that we are in God's hands. One of the treasures in the church is a collection of Puritan prayers. They had a God given gift for channeling their hearts into words. One prayer that speaks to some of what some of us may be feeling at the moment is the following one: Peril
SOVEREIGN COMMANDER OF THE UNIVERSE I am sadly harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief, In a felt spiritual darkness. My heart is full of evil surmising and disquietude, and I cannot act faith at all. My heavenly pilot has disappeared, and I have lost my hold on the rock of ages; I sink in deep mire beneath storms and waves, in horror and distress unutterable. Help me, O Lord, to throw myself absolutely and wholly on thee, for better, for worse, without comfort, and all but hopeless. Give me peace of soul, confidence, enlargement of mind, morning joy that comes after night heaviness; Water my soul richly with divine blessings; Grand that I may welcome thy humbling in private so that I might enjoy thee in public; Give me a mountain top as high as the valley is low. Thy grace can melt the worst sinner, and I am as vile as he; Yet thou hast made me a monument of mercy, a trophy of redeeming power; In my distress let me not forget this, All-wise God, Thy never-failing providence orders every event, sweetens every fear, reveals evil’s presence lurking in seeming good, brings real good out of seeming evil, makes unsatisfactory what I set my heart upon, to show me what a short-sighted creature I am, and to teach me to live by faith upon thy blessed self. Out of my sorrow and night give me the name Naphtali-“satisfied with favor”- help me to love thee as thy child, and to walk worthy of my heavenly pedigree. As we consider all that is going on around us, let us remember our heavenly pedigree nor that God's love and providence is able to sweeten our fears. We |
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October 2021
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