On Good Friday, 1964, an 8.0 earthquake left its mark on Anchorage, Alaska. The city of Anchorage left a rubbled area and named it "Earthquake Park." When Ken and I lived in Anchorage in 1968-69 and visited this “park”, we found it hard to comprehend the power that caused such contortion of the once flat, solid dirt. More recently, think of Hurricane Katrina ... the power of the wind and water… the destructive power. And yet, such events of nature do not even hold a candle to the voice of the Lord!
Psalm 29 says the voice of the Lord...
1. THUNDERS over the mighty sea
2. SPLITS might cedars
3. SHATTERS the cedars of Lebanon (trees 120 feet tall and 30 feet in circumference!)
4. makes mountains SKIP & LEAP like a calf
5. STRIKES with lightning bolts
6. makes the desert QUAKE & SHAKE
7. TWISTS mighty oaks
8. STRIPS the forest bare
All the power we've seen, or will ever see, in nature – including our current economic condition – does not compare to the POWER of the voice of the Lord! Not Hoover Dam, not Niagara Falls, not earthquakes, not Katrina, not anything!
Romans 8:11 (NLT) says, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as He raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this SAME Spirit living in you." The power of the voice of the Lord -- the Spirit of God – that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us and gives life to every area of our mortal life … spirit, soul, and body.
The same power that controls creation and raised Christ from the dead is available to you ... to me ... to help us with our daily problems. BUT we have to choose to believe the Word of God and speak the Word of God by faith to the areas of our mortal life that need to be raised from the dead! What is the financial crisis in our life and country or the health issue or the relationship problem compared to the power of the voice of the Lord!?!
We can trust God to give us peace and strength to go through the storms of life. When we feel weak and limited, let’s remember and tap into the power of God and His Spirit and His Word within us.
2 comments:
That is so good, Pastor Arlene. God is so much bigger, more powerful, greater, stronger, etc than anything we could be going through. I'm encouraged by this Psalm this morning! Speaking of earthquakes and hurricanes, what a great analogy. The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit described as a "mighty rushing wind"---certainly even more mighty and rushing than Katrina. Isn't it interesting that God blows blessing and presence of God on us even more powerfully than that? Do I really recognize His blessing blowing on me every day? That He rains down on us even more rains than Katrina? That He floods our life? The Bible also talks about God shaking things....it says in Hebrews that He shakes created things so that what cannot be shaken will remain (our faith among other things) and "since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God with reverence and awe". We are citizens of His Kingdom before we are Americans, and we operate on His economy, not ours. We are part of eternity, not just in the "now". We can just worship and thank Him through any circumstance b/c He is bigger and we will not be shaken if we stand on Him, even in a circumstance that feels like we are living on the san Fernando fault line in 1906. God is more powerful than the strongest earthquake, and no matter what He shakes, we are left standing and strong and provided for because His Kingdom will not be shaken. That is so good. I love the last verse in Psalm 29 "the Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace." No matter what we go through, He gives us strength to get through it by His grace and trusting in Him. And, even better, we can walk through it with peace. We don't need to be all anxious and uptight...and if we are maybe we aren' totally trusting God. I know that happens in my life. It's easy to get caught up in worries or the "how" God will do it, but when it comes down to it, if I feel that way maybe I'm not really accessing the peace He has for me to walk out that circumstance. If I feel that way, am I really trusting Him? Probably not. God is awesome and He will never let us down.
The end of verse 9 sorta caught me up with a reminder of how i should respond in the midst of circumstances that seem devastating or, at the least, challenging and hard: "God's thunder sets the oak trees dancing a wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches. We fall to our knees—we call out, 'Glory!'" Verses 1 & 2 also speak of observing God's glory, pairing up with this verse 6 to sandwhich between them the display of God's power across our earth -- some of which is pictured in those environmental catastrophies. What a great reminder to me cast aside fearful words, instead to call out "Glory!" That will place my focus on God and His power -- which, as has been mentioned on today's blog -- is more than enough to see me through anything, full of his peace and strength!
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