Truth For a Broken World
Truth for a Broken World
Greetings Church! I am having to type this out as videos for me is not working after several attempts over the past numerous hours. I am a better writer than I am a speaker, so this may be the best option anyhow. Alana, the girls, and I are in sunny Florida. It’s been great here with the weather and nothing is going on with all the COVID commotion. Lots of pool time. We were able to get to a couple places last weekend before the shutdowns started. I am excited to share what is on my heart. I will provide some Scripture in short form that I hope you all follow up on for more reading.
Obviously, COVID-19 has had quite the impact and seems to be that it will continue for some time. All of this should come at no surprise to those of us Believers and studiers of God’s Word. Jesus, Himself, told us in Matthew 24 there will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes that will be the beginning of sorrows. Pestilences, by definition, is a fatal, epidemic disease. Whether Jesus returns today, tomorrow, or in a 1000 years, His Word is true! In times like these, I say, “thank you Lord for being true to Your Word.” If anything, this is a time where man should call on the name of the Lord!
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
This should be a call to prayer against the spirit of fear. II Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us the spirit of fear. Therefore, if the spirit of fear is not from God, then who is it from? This is a rhetorical question as the answer is clearly Satan. Again, none of this should be a surprise if we are studious in the Word of God. In contrast to the spirit of fear, Deuteronomy 6 discusses that we are to fear ONLY God.
I will say this virus does not concern me much. In my job and really all of us on a regular basis are exposed to just as bad of viruses as COVID-19. Where my anxiousness takes hold is providing security to my ladies. I tried talking Alana into driving to Florida, but that got me nowhere. I prefer to drive to be able to “control” supplies and security on our trips, so flying puts me out of my element. At this point, I am trying to determine prudent actions. So, this message is just for me as it is for anyone. My last work shift before we left I went to bed anxious wishing I could have talked Alana into driving, and I opened up my email to a message I hadn’t checked yet from the Joshua Fund. The first thing the email said was “Be anxious for nothing” quoting Philippians 4. In short on that point, we should all be calm and know none of this is outside the hands of our Creator. These are foretold. This is NOT our home. This is a time to show love and peace to those around us and to heed the direction of the authorities as we should render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s.
Now, onto my devotion. As we know, the Old Testament (OT) is prophecy revealed in the coming Messiah: Jesus. The entire OT is preparing the way for Jesus to come, die on the cross, and raise from the dead. In fact, Passover was originally celebrated by Jews as the last “plague” to the Egyptians was the prophetic and now historic death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Passover, again, lines up with Easter this year. It was prophecy revealed which then brings us to prophecy fulfilled: the New Testament (NT). The NT is the revealing of our Messiah to the world: Jesus.
If I was then to have to say what could the one verse from each the OT and NT that could potentially sum up those books and be pivotal, stand-alone truths, it would most certainly have to be this:
Psalm 121:4 “the God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Most assuredly, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is ever present and engaging in the lives of mankind. You should know this as even being prompted to stick with me here is a prompting of the Spirit to know Him. You can look at present-day Israel and emphatically know God is at work. Israel from AD70-1948 were scattered to the nations, brought back together, and have been protected against all odds over the past 72 years. Lots of prophecy hinges on Israel having borders as a nation.
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
In Christ alone is salvation. There is no disputing this or denying unless you want to be on the wrong side of salvation. It is said that all hinges on, “Thy will be done.” Either we make it to judgement by ourselves being humble and declaring in this life to the Lord, “Thy will be done,” or God says to us, “thy will be done” then to be cast away. We are in some crazy times, but we have nothing to fear except the Lord. If He cares about the sparrows, how much more does He care for us. -Michael Gentosi