The Lord blessed us with His very
presence yesterday in His house. It was all celebrative
with lots of laughter and praise, prayer, and thanksgiving. There was a
church-wide fellowship hour with food and sharing of humor and laughter that
lingered for long. There has been a minor change in our travel
plans. We will be traveling to Boston this morning instead of
Sunday. I woke up in the early morning (aka the middle of the night)
to make some official calls to India. I talked some one in the city
of Cuttack, the city in which I spent my college days. It is
mid-summer there, mango season. The schools and colleges are closed
for summer. The temperature will be reaching 107 F. . . my kind of
weather.
We
are witnessing an amazing movement of the Lord in international and global
spheres. The Lord is fermenting His church in the midst of chaos and
confusion, even fears and calamities. The Lord is reminding us, "Be
still and know that I am God". In the history of the ancient
world, the same Babylonians who seemed to be so powerful were
actually defeated without much of a fight. They thought nothing could happen
to them. They were so sure they were safe that they did not even post a
guard on the wall, but while their rulers drank themselves into oblivion, the
Persian army simply diverted the flow of the Euphrates River, which flowed
under the walls and through the great city. Then they marched right into
Babylon on the empty riverbed (Daniel 5). The great kingdom of Babylon
collapsed in a single night. God proved that the people were like grass
and that only He remains.
In
the Book of Isaiah, chapter 40, we read about an everlasting
comfort, and about the everlasting Word of God. When all
other claims to truth have had their say, the Word of God will stand alone in
the end. Everything else changes. Philosophies come and go, but God’s
Word remains the abiding Truth. The lie of the Nazis came to an end and
died. The lie of godless communism came and died. I spent a few
weeks in Far East Russia in the winter of 2003. I was part of a wonderful
group of short term missionaries. I was asked to preach several times,
and each time I was stunned and amazed at the movement of the Lord and His
Holy Spirit. The grandchildren of staunch communists were the
worship leaders and musicians, and were praising the Lord, declaring His
majesty and authority. The system of Marx, Lenin, and the other communist
leaders who had denigrated the Christian faith and the Word of God has fallen,
and in places where young communists were trained on the tenets of atheism,
Christians are worshiping together and being trained in evangelistic
techniques. When I was in graduate school, in the late sixties and the
early seventies, many philosophers and theologians were saying that God
was dead, and predicting the death of the church. Today almost no one can
remember the names of those who made those predictions, let alone the titles of
their books, but the church of Jesus Christ is thriving and God is still very
much alive.
I read this
story about a young musician , who once went to see his old music
teacher. During the visit, his elderly mentor took a tuning fork and
struck it on the end of the table. He said. “That is ‘A.’” From the
floor above them they could hear the voice of a singer rehearsing. “She
sings sharp,” the old teacher said with a smile. He struck the tuning
fork again and paused as he lifted it and said, “She is sharp, but this ‘A’ —
always has been, always will be — 440 vibrations per second. It will
still be ‘A’ 5,000 years from now.” In the same way, this is God’s Word.
It was God’s Word yesterday; it is God’s Word today, and it will be God’s
Word 5000 years from now. Kingdoms will rise and fall. Ideas will come
and go. The values of the world will change, but God’s Word will remain
the one constant in a world of change and confusion.
The
emperor Diocletian tried to revive the old pagan religions of Rome by
persecuting and killing Christians. He set up a stone pillar in his
honor, inscribed with the words that he wanted to describe his legacy: “For
Having Exterminated The Name Christian From the Earth.” If only he knew
how far short of his goal he fell! His monument was more of a tribute to
the endurance of Christianity than it was to him. Another Roman leader made a
coffin, symbolizing his intention “to bury the Galilean” by killing Christ’s
followers. He eventually admitted that he could not put the Master in his
coffin.
In
Isaiah 40, we read of everlasting comfort, and of the everlasting Word of
God, of an everlasting strength. “Do you not know? Have you
not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of
the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one
can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the
weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar
on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not
be faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31). Those who were in exile lost hope, and
because of that they lost their strength and desire to go on. Even the
young were beaten down, weary and defeated. But those who placed their
hope and trust in God did not lose heart, and they did not lose strength —
regardless of their age. Their hearts and minds soared as they thought about
what God was going to do. As new strength and courage entered their
hearts it began to affect their bodies. They gained a new enthusiasm for
life and a new strength to go on. But you never gain that strength unless you
are willing to wait on the Lord. We are destined for the skies. We
are propelled by the Holy Spirit. He is beckoning us
to soar with Him, in and through Him.
In Christ,
Brown
