I
was thinking about my parents and my growing up this morning. Church was not a
part of our lives. It's not that my parents were in opposition or anything like
that, but they early on had just simply drifted away.
When
as kids we wanted to go with a friend that was fine, and they even encouraged
it. As a teen when I became a Christian and started attending regularly they
were in favor. But neither church or seeking after God in a daily relationship
with Him was a part of their lives.
Then
as my dad was approaching thirty years serving in the US Navy he was offered an
opportunity to retire and go to work for a major engineering firm that was
building a city in Saudi Arabia from the sewers up including a desalination
plant and the whole works. So, he my mom and my two youngest sisters headed off
to Saudi Arabia where my parents lived for ten years.
One
thing about living there is that what they could have freely chosen to do in
attending church here in the United States was something forbidden for them to
do in Saudi Arabia. Amazingly enough, after returning to the States and
settling in Grants Pass, Oregon going to church and growing in their
relationship with God became something important to them.
In
this time of being told what we cannot do, though for a different reason, I
have been wondering what people will first choose to do when the restrictions
are lifted.
Where
are you in this life picture of my parents? Has there been a drift in your
relationship with God? Maybe, you've not even stopped to think about Him, you,
and what might happen if this pandemic was much worse and the death toll much
higher.
Man
has been separated from God for a long time, and its not because God went
anywhere. In fact, He has spent the entirety of our time reaching into us and
through His Son, Jesus Christ we have been given free admittance into a
relationship with Him here and now and the certainty of His presence for
eternity. This is real hope. The hope that doesn't fade away when the situation
of the moment does or on the other side when things become so big that we are
tempted to give up, crawl in a hole, and hide.
When
I first learned about God in this way I had invited myself to church and the
pastor was speaking on Psalm 139.
Here
are the words of that psalm. Why don't you think about them for you,
particularly in this context of our disease imposed isolation.
Psalm
139. "For the choir director. A Psalm of David. (1) O Lord, You have
searched me and known me. (2) You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You
understand my thought from afar. (3) You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. (4) Even before there is a word
on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. (5) You have enclosed me behind
and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
(6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to
it.
(7)
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? (8) If
I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are
there. (9) If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of
the sea, (10) Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay
hold of me. (11) If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the
light around me will be night,” (12) Even the darkness is not dark to You, And
the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
(13)
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. (14) I will
give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your
works, And my soul knows it very well. (15) My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
(16) Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all
written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of
them.
(17)
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
(18) If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am
still with You.
(19)
O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of
bloodshed. (20) For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your
name in vain. (21) Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not
loathe those who rise up against You? (22) I hate them with the utmost hatred;
They have become my enemies.
(23)
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; (24)
And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”
(Psalm 139, NASB95)
That
was forty-six years ago, and this simple truth that I had heard years before
made all of the difference in coming to Him.
"For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NASB95)
[After
making the post I was thinking about verses 19-22. Maybe we don't have enemies
in this sense that are foremost in our minds and lives, but this season of the
flu reminds us that there are always things that challenge us and from which we
desire deliverance.]
