DT: Monday afternoon…9/17/01

FR: Wes Roberts

RE: What we have all experienced in the past week…

Hello…

Dozens of emails have reached this computer in the past week detailing pain, anger, fear, bewilderment, hope, concern, amazement, cynicism. Those have been some of my feelings too.

Many emails have been sincerely eloquent…some even poetic expressions of what’s going on inside the individual. There have been so many necessary requests for prayer and intercession. Most of what we have received has come from good places in people’s hearts. We have read every one…some several times.

Yesterday, while in church, and being impacted one more time by God’s Word, the Bible, through Matt Heard, Senior Pastor of Woodman Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs, the entire congregation was moved, even jolted a bit, when he read the following words.

These are not Matt’s words. These are God’s words from His Word…the Bible. Jesus is speaking…not only to His disciples and followers then…but to us now. Ponder carefully… (…I quote from The Message, John 16…even though what was read in church was from the New International Version Bible [NIV]…)

“I’ve told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead. They are going to throw you out of the meeting places. There will even come a time when anyone who kills you will think he is doing God a favor. They will do these things because they never really understood the Father. I’ve told you these things so that when the time comes and they start in on you, you’ll be well-warned and ready for them.” (John 16:1-5)

“I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.” (John 16:33)

And then these words from the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Christians in Rome were read… (…again I quote from The Message. It is also good to read in the NIV, or whatever other Bible you may have…)

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, (…ed. Well, you may need to read afresh all of Romans 8…) how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would even dare to point a finger? The One who died for us–who was raised to life for us!–is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge begween us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, nor homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

‘They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.’

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing–nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable–absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way Jesus our Master has embraced us.” (…from Romans 8…)

Oh…truth be known, we are fazed in some ways by the tragedy deep down in our hearts. A wonderful couple we know and love lost their sister-in-law in the first plane to hit the WTC. A beloved nephew came close to losing his life because he lived across the street from the WTC. The stories are rampant of how many people we know who have known someone who has died.

On April 23 of 1997 I underlined these words in my copy of The Message. It had been a very hard missions trip to Europe…exhausting to the max. Judy and I had experienced significangt blessing and joy on that trip. Finally, I was headed for home on one flight, with Judy on another. Evil and fear had also been experienced and faced in a most unusual way. When my eyes fell on these words, I must have read and re-read them several dozen times on that long flight home. I could not get enough of them.

I leave them with you now…for there are no better words than those our Lord has given us. (…from The Message in Psalm 62…one of King David’s songs…)

“My help and glory are in God –granite-strength and safe-harbor-God– So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him. God is a safe place to be.

God said this once and for all; how many times Have I heard it repeatede? Strength comes Straight from God.”