02.27.08

William’s Psalm

Posted in Mission, Prayer, News, Theology at 10:42 am by Anthony

This past Monday night, as wild fires were raging across West Texas, another West Texas family also lost their home in a fire.  Only this family wasn’t living in West Texas at the time.  Yancy and Sherry Fariss are translating the Bible in Guinea, West Africa. 

As their house burned, Sherry heard their seven  year old son, William, saying some powerful words that resembled a psalm.  In the chaos of the moment, she was not able to write down the words at the time.  But a couple of days later, he was still saying them, so Sherry wrote the words down as William dictated them to her.  Here is William’s psalm:

Through wind and rain
Through fire and lava
The Lord will never leave you.
Through earthquakes and floods
Through changing sea levels and burning ash
The Lord will never leave you.
If you love Him, He will bless you
and He will give you many things.
Who can change the Lord’s words?
Who can stop the Leviathan?
The Lord, of course.
Who made everything?
Who made the animals?
Who made the dinosaurs?
The Lord, our God.
Who can stop the Lord?
Who can chase a cheetah across the plains of Africa?
The Lord, He can.
Who can stand on Mount Everest?
Who can face a rhinoceros?
The Lord.
The Lord can give you sheep and goats and cows and ducks and chickens and dogs and cats.
The Lord can give you anything He wants to.
Just like David fought Goliath or Daniel lived throughout the lions’ den.
Just like Moses on the mountain, just like the Israelites fought the Jebusites.
The Lord will never stop His power.
Who can face a tyranosaurus rex?
Who knows what kind of animals lived thousands of years ago?
The Lord! He knows.
Stop all the evil, and be kind to one another.
Who can stop the Lord?
Who can face an elephant?
Who is brave enough to face a lion?
The Lord.
Who’s as fast as a horse?
Who can catch a blue whale?
Who is brave enough to face a giant squid?
The Lord.
Just as Jesus died on the cross, so the Lord had done so.
The Lord will never leave His people. The Bible is His word.
The Lord is a good leader.
Just as Moses and Aaron led the Israelites into the desert, so the Lord had done so.
Who can see the dinosaurs? Who can face the behemoth?
The Lord who loves you.
And He will not forsake His people. The end.

To learn how you can help the Farisses, go to the Pioneer Bible Translators web site.

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05.26.07

Faster Than A Weaver’s Shuttle

Posted in Reading, Theology, Lifestyle at 8:06 am by Anthony

I’m slowly reading Interwoven:  A Pioneer Chronicle by Sallie Reynolds Matthews.  This amazing book was originally published in 1936 and records Mrs. Matthew’s memories of growing up on a ranch near Ft. Griffin, Texas.

For the nation’s centennial celebrations in 1876, the family traveled to the new, nearby town of Albany to celebrate Independence Day.  Writing almost sixty years after that event, Mrs. Matthews recalls how much the world had changed.

The next day we went to the Matthews ranch [remember, she was still a Reynolds at this point–abp] where Bennie and I spent the night and drove on home from there.  We always seemed to have plenty of leisure time in those days; boys and girls would visit and spend several days at the two homes.  There never was any great hurry to be going.  Now we have every convenience to make housekeeping easy and light, running water, both hot and cold, gas and electricity, telephones with which to order everything delivered to our doors, automobiles with paved roads to run them over and if we are in a great hurry we can take an airplane, yet we have so little time for visiting.  We rush, rush, rush here and rush there, and I do not see that we accomplish an extraordinary amount.  Do not think for a minute that I am one who thinks the old times are best for I do not.  I think we are living in the “Golden Age” but I do wonder where the time goes; it flies faster than a weaver’s shuttle. (p. 118, emphasis added)

Written between the two great wars, Matthew’s ideas of a “Golden Age” were common to her time.  Few of us today have such a view of our own times.  So we yearn even more deeply for the relationships of “the old times,” yet we adopt lifestyles that make time for long, casual visits almost impossible.

As believers, we know that the “Golden Age” is yet to come–an age when there will be no more “rush, rush, rush,” for time shall be no more.  It will not be our accomplishments, but our relationships, that matter.  Because we know our future, should that not help us set our priorities for the present?  Let us allow that vision to shape our lives now!

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05.05.07

Let God be God

Posted in Reading, Scripture, Theology at 8:07 pm by Anthony

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about doubt. I came across the following story which, though it didn’t end up in the sermon, I thought was worth sharing.

Missionary Gracia Burnham, who was held captive by terrorists in the Philippines for more than a year and whose husband was killed during the rescue, writes:

Sometimes I wonder, Why did Martin die when everyone was praying he wouldn’t? Why does Scripture lead you to believe that if you pray a certain way, you’ll get what you pray for? People all over the world were praying that we’d both get out alive, but we didn’t.

Her questions made her realize it isn’t always easy to comprehend God’s nature:

I used to have this concept of what God is like, and how life’s supposed to be because of that. But in the jungle, I learned I don’t know as much about God as I thought I did. I don’t have him in a theological box anymore. What I do know is that God is God—and I’m not. The world’s in a mess because of sin, not God. Some awful things may happen to me, but God does what is right. And he makes good out of bad situations.

Corrie Cutrer, “Soul Survivor,” Today’s Christian Woman (July/Aug 2003), p. 50

Incidentally, I’ve heard Gracia Burnham speak about how, during t heir capativity, they were greatly encouraged by the broadcasts of World Christian Broadcasting. This is a shortwave ministry sponsored primarily by Churches of Christ. I’ve been able to do some writing for them over the past few years.

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