Words of Fire Blog

Wednesday's Word: SAFE!

4/24/2013

"'God, you're my refuge. I trust in you and I'm
safe!' That's right-He rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards."
Psalms 91:2-3 (The Message)

It had just turned 2 a.m. I know this because I heard the Mission: Impossible! theme on the TV. I had laid down in my basement for a quick nap in the midst of an all-nighter. I had more on my plate than hours in the day. My faithful four-legged creature was barking, loudly, in the kitchen upstairs. I remember being annoyed that he wouldn't quiet down to let me catch a few more z's. Annoyed, I called for him to stop. He wouldn't. So, even more annoyed, I got up from my couch and started up the stairs to scold my dog for disturbing me. As my foot hit the first step, I heard a crack, followed by the full collapse of my basement ceiling--right on the couch where I had been trying to take my nap.

The contractor who surveyed the damage the next day said that I would have been killed. Others have called me "lucky"--I don't believe in luck.

I know that I'm kept and I know that, because of God, my refuge, I am safe!

Wednesday's Word: Terrifying Life

4/17/2013

We have all seen the horrifying photographs of the carnage in Boston. Athletes and spectators with torn limbs and scarred lives.

We have wept with the families of the lost and wondered about the depth of evil that would imagine and then carry out such horrors.

There are no answers. There are no explanations. Evil does not fit into logical boxes or rational thought. Dachau, Rwanda, Bosnia, slave ships on the mid-Atlantic: every age seems to find new ways to torture, to terrify, and to make others' lives a waking nightmare.

Yet in every age there is joy, there is hope and there is a reason to face another day. The gentle yet firm ministry of a Mother Theresa; the clarion voice of a Martin Luther King, Jr., the long suffering dignity of a Nelson Mandela; the dogged persistence of a William Wilberforce.

May it be said of us that we refused to be terrified by the evil in this life, but instead stood with giants; fought against the darkness, and embraced the wounded.

Wednesday's Word: When Is Easter?

4/3/2013

I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store last Wednesday. The lady in front of me had all the trimmings for a Harvey-sized Easter basket. The young checkout clerk looked curiously at the basket, yellow plastic grass and mounds of candy, and asked "When is Easter, anyway?"

"Easter Day showed that God was alive, well and caring...the resurrection is like the first day of a new creation." Alistair McGrath

Isn't Easter the most imporant day of the Christian calendar? Have we done such a poor job of telling His story that the world has forgotten?

"The end is life. His life and our lives through Him, in Him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord is risen indeed." Frederick Buechner

Perhaps we are so immune to the pain all around us that we forget that the hurting the helpless and the hopeless need to see the scarred hands and feet of the risen Christ. Perhaps we need to remind the world to dream the greatest dream of all: that life is possible; that living is not optional, and that death is not the end of the story.

"From the resurrection of Christ...a new and purifying wind can blow through our present world...To live in the light of the resurrection, that is what Easter means." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When is Easter? Easter should be every day that we proclaim the hope and life of the Resurrected Christ to a dark and dying world.

Wednesday's Word: SAFE!

Wednesday's Word: Terrifying Life

Wednesday's Word: When Is Easter?

Categories

Archives