Monday
Aug172009
Monday, August 17, 2009 « Are Plagues Upon Us? »
Forest Fires, Pine Beetles, Gypsy Moths
and More
Derrick Hamre
God does not deal with His children or this world in the same ways He did in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was a dispensation of law, judgement, cursing and blessings while the New Testament is a dispensation of grace.
[Hebrews 7:18-19]
Mission to Rwanda with Marty & Margit Mittelstaedt (2.6MB MP3)
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Reader Comments (1)
I am unable to attend in person but a give thanks to our LVRD for your on-line Sunday sermons. I listen to them every week. This sermon touch me deeply because I was there that day and witnessed first hand the fires that rage across the highway. I was unable to get home to Peachland. There is such a sense of helplessness but I took comfort in my Faith and spent time in prayer.
As in the case with my personal journals of my walk with the LVRD I compose a prayer or poem in helping me understand my relationship with GVD, the Church, fellow believers and humanity.
The following prayer/poem is one of those understandings with attached explaination in relation to scripture.
This is based on Deuteronmy 6:20-25, Hebrews 7:22 and 13:5-6
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And when our children ask
Why do we believe?
The GVSPL of the LVRD
We will say to them
We were once slaves to sin
The LVRD brought us out of our bondage
He brought us out to bring us in
By His mighty Right Hand
Before our eyes He performed
Miraculous signs and wonders
Through his only begotten Son
He gave us the promise of Hope
In Faith and Trust in the GVSPL
He has commanded us through ChRYST
To Love our neighbours and enemies
To Love Him, our LVRD GVD as Father
With all our hearts, minds and strength
So we believe, so we may understand
So we might prosper and be kept alive
In Him who has redeemed us
Who has given us the Power of the Cross
In which we are Justified
And considered Righteous
To walk before our Father in Heaven
Who’s Kingdom has come
And whose will is done
In the Earth as it is in Heaven
Through us his Children of Light
As many Sons of the Living GVD
As is the case Today
To Him be the Honour and the GVRY
Both Today and Forever
The Grace and Peace
Of Our LVRD be with You
HaLLV HV AMeN
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This phrase “And when our children ask” can also be substituted with “And when they (unbelievers) ask”
This prayer/poem is based on Deuteronomy 6:20-25 and put into a personal perspective as a Christian and his relationship with the Father who is in Heaven through Faith and Trust in YShVS. It came to me to go to this part of Scripture after listening to Pastor Derrick Hamre’s Sunday sermon on “Are Plagues Upon Us”.
I considered what is their (plagues) relation to the current situations in the Okanogan valley and the World. Are these situations the judgment of Father GVD upon us as some have considered? It struck me as True that we are in the New Covenant of Grace and Love and not in the Old Covenant of Fear; a covenant based on keeping of the Law through fear of the LVRD. As explained Hebrews 7:22 YShVS is the guarantee of a better covenant as a result of the Oath that Father GVD has made. How then could I explain this better covenant to my children and those who I know who do not believe in this better covenant? How could I explain to them the assurance and comfort that I have in YShVS and this New Covenant; a dispensation of grace and love, a Covenant that dispenses Blessings not Curses?
As Pastor Derrick explained this New Covenant is based on Love and Grace not Fear. This is a promise of a Life (Zoë) in ChRYST, one that is eternal and a gift of Grace to us from the Father. We have been adopted and have the assurance of the promise of the Blessing of our Father in Heaven. Derrick is right when he said we should see the fire as pointing us towards our Faith and Trust in GVD who has given us the blessed assurance of a Life of abundance in ChRYST. We should convey this confidence and assurance we have not only to our children but to the world as well. It is this confidence in a filial Loving environment that will give us comfort in the times of storms, plagues, and troubles.
We live in a land of promise and prosperity and education of our religious beliefs are made stronger when they are life oriented. We can use these circumstances to teach us about GVD and Pastor Derrick has shown us this in his sermon. He has shown us how to see the New Covenant with GVD in our daily lives.
The circumstances of the fire in West Kelowna were a way of GVD to show us not to be so smug in our self-sufficient prosperity; that our material prosperity can be gone in an instance. That prosperity can dull our spiritual senses so we seek more of the material world than the prosperity that comes with Faith in GVD.
The fires and plagues of the world can make us more sensitive to our need for GVD to preserve us rather than our own personal self-preservation. This New Covenant of Love and prosperity does not mean we will be free from adversity, suffering, poverty or the like but what it will do for us and our families is put us in a right relationship with GVD by loving him with all we are.
We can take comfort in that, for GVD has said: “Never will I leave you, Never will I forsake you” and then we can say with confidence as did the authour of Hebrews and Isaiah; “the Lord is my helper: I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
The phrase of praise; “HaLLV HV AMeN” is translated as; “Praise be to Him who is the Amen” which is a reference to one of the names of YShVS in Revelations [Rev 3:14].