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Gaze On God, Not the Wicked
News headlines are bleak these days. Factual events are spun as fiction to benefit the guilty. Differing accounts cause confusion and disguise the truth. And just when it seems things can’t get worse, violence breaks out again, communities are displaced, and thousands tragically perish. The marginalized suffer (again) while the wealth of the privileged increases. It can seem like the wicked are winning. We can feel like Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73. 3 For I envied those who are proud, as I observed the prosperity of the wicked.4 For they suffer no pain; their bodies are strong and well fed.5 They are immune to the trouble common to men; they do not suffer as other men…
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Dwell on the Good That God Did in 2020
I have seen an epidemic of regrets on the internet, in blogs, and on social media about the year 2020. Yes, we had an epidemic that infected some of our loved ones and instigated social distancing. Yes, many lost their jobs and their familiar in-person social gatherings. Yes, hardships and challenges and distress abounded in our country and around the world. I am not discounting the pain that happened. Grief is very real because of all that happened in 2020. But, did God hide in a cave all year? Wasn’t He still working in the hearts and lives of everyone who called on Him, and even some who didn’t?! We…
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Noah. Genocide. The Goodness of God.
This week Darren Aronofsky’s Noah will flood theaters (sorry, I couldn’t help it) with a story kind of like Genesis 6-9. It’s definitely a prodigal movie, taking the text and wandering off to a far country, but it does stick to the basic story line: The humans he made have become God-sickeningly corrupt. So he pours out his judgment in a flood, and all flesh “in whose nostrils was the breath of life…died.” In response the highly inflamatory (and proud of it) TV talk s how host Bill Maher says, "It's about a psychotic mass murderer who gets away with it, and his name is God…. Conservatives are always going…
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Car Wrecks and God’s Care
I received quite the birthday present from God this year. My husband was in a car wreck on the way to speak at a church, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he was checked out because his chest hurt. A lot. (Airbags hit your chest at 200 mph!) No broken bones, just a scratch on the forehead, a lot of soreness, and a residual (but slowly subsiding) sense of fragility. When I walked into the exam room, Ray murmured wryly, “Happy Birthday.” And it was, because my beloved husband was all right. God protected him from serious harm, and I am so thankful! That was a wonderful…
