This has been a difficult week. We have two friends that were hospitalized,
one with a brain tumor, the other with a brain aneurism. A high
school friend may be losing her mother to cancer and a sepsis infection.
Besides these personal difficulties, there is the ugliness in the news. It
appears that President Trump spoke of third-world countries in a derogatory
manner and with words that Christians do not repeat. I don’t in-tend
to use this blog to make any political statements. But I will say,
that is not how God tells us to treat others. Section 28 of the Nazarene
Covenant of Christian Character says, “Throughout the Bible and in the
life and example of Jesus, God identifies with and assists the poor, the
oppressed, and those in society who cannot speak for themselves.” Let
us hold to the example of Christ and stand firm as His servants and witnesses
no matter what others might do.
So how, you might ask, do I handle all the personal and public difficulties?
The answer is not easy, but it is simple. I turn to God and His
Word. Habakkuk 3:17-19 says: “Though the fig tree does not bud and
there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the
fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no
cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God
my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like
the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”
In other words, though everything that could go wrong did go wrong,
we can still trust that the Sovereign Lord will give strength and provision.
Just as He created the deer with feet to climb mountains to escape
their predators, He will equip us to make our way through whatever
we face. And because of this, we can rejoice!
Pastor Cindy