The moon has been bright these nights, and the morning walk is nice and cool. What can be better?
Well, it’s Fall, and I do miss those colors. Every Fall the St. Louis papers would run a color special, and always featured was Christ Lutheran Church in Augusta, Mo, because it was set on the bottom of a hill that served as a colorful background for the display of color. The white church served as the front piece. But I read this morning that there are several canyons in Texas that have much Fall color as well. They are so situated that the change in temperature causes this.
But what shall we say about the other news, the tragic affair in Ft. Hood. The article says the man, a psychiatrist wanted out. But did he need to destroy thirteen others, and maim many more, to do so? I know there will be many words to try to understand, to grasp the meaning, to find the cause, and they will be spoken by learned people after much thought and debate. I wish them success in their endeavor to explain or understand. I offer a simple word, sin.
If this happens at a place like Ft. Hood, where is one safe?
Fortunately, the Psalm offers us security. Listen to Psalm 125,
“Those who trust in God are like Mt. Zion; nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain you can always depend on”. Vv. 1.2. Being a Christian is not easy today, never is or was, but we depend on a God who never changes. Jerusalem was set in a saucer of hills, to form a natural fortress. Living in those times wasn’t easy, but the Psalmist points out the Christian lives in a secure fortress. "God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present help in Trouble” writes Psalm 46,1.
“God encircles His people.” What more do we really need than the prayer our Lord prayed. Remember it, in John 17,11.15. “Holy Father, guard them. . .I’m not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You guard them from the Evil one.”
Israel’s history was up and down. One day they march dry-shod through a sea and see their enemy destroyed; the next they are grumbling in the desert because they long for the steak and potatoes of an Egyptian supper. One day they are blowing trumpets and see Jericho’s walls fall, the next they lose an easy battle because Achan sinned. One day they are sitting with Jesus eating a final supper, then next they are standing in a courtyard swearing they didn’t know him.
As I am writing this news comes about a shooting in an Orlando office building. Things happen, bad things, things we dislike and that make us nervous. And the psalm says, “The fist of the wicked will never violate what is due the righteous, provoking wrongful violence.” The key is the word “violate", to cancel God’s purpose that are being worked out. Israel had more than its share of such a “fist". Pharaoh, the Philistines, the Assyrians and Babylonians, and Caesar. As do we. But “He remains faithful”, so that Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, knowing how timid we are, said three times, “Do not be anxious.” Our life with God is a sure thing.
So the psalm assures us,” Those who trust in God are like Mt. Zion”.
GPD 11/6/09
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment