Daily Devotional – May 12, 2020

Well, good afternoon, we have officially passed the half -century mark more than 50 days in this semi lockdown condition

So does that does that seem a little like bit like eternity to you or?

Does this feel more like time has just flown by I wonder how you're approaching and feeling with the time

Factor in this lockdown. Now. I was reading an interesting article yesterday about how we're perceiving time through this pandemic

And the title of the article was why time feels so weird right now it pointed out that March was 30 years long and April was 30 minutes long

What gives with that was the question? Is that how you felt to that the first half of March?

just seemed to go like a long time and then Sped on by and you got into April and before you knew it you were turning the calendar page to May well, you know we pastors live with a sense that Sunday is always coming wake up Monday morning and you realize huh

Sunday is coming It's gonna be here before you know it, but it honestly it seemed to me in these last few weeks that It just before I know it.

I'm getting ready for that next online service on Sunday morning

Well this time warp stuff has created some rather interesting challenges for us

Hasn't it one of my friends noted, you know, some days I really amaze myself with how on top of it

All I am other days. I'm Looking for my phone while I'm talking on it.

Have you ever done that? well That's probably due to information load.

By the way, one of the factors that article I was reading pointed out that contributes to this strange feeling of time is just the overwhelming amount of information that we have to take in or that we are taking in all related to this

This pandemic Well, there's just so much information to sort through isn't there?

and in fact, I don't know about your phone, but my cell phone is so full of Information on this virus that it doesn't vibrate and it doesn't ring anymore.

It just it just coughs well I hope that's the only thing that coughs in my household.

Well, we've been allowing 112th Psalm these last few days to encourage us and I want to wrap up our time in this psalm looking at one more of the blessings that we can count on in spite of the

Panic -demic that is we who fear the Lord and delight in his word Just a reminder that the the psalm was written during some kind of darkness some kind of period of crisis

We don't know what the crisis was but the psalmist speaks of light shining in the darkness and Whatever that crisis was it certainly wasn't identical to the one we're going through But the psalm nevertheless offers some pretty timely encouragement

We've already looked at two of the blessings promised to the person who fears the Lord and delights in his word

One of them was Illumination as I mentioned verse 4 says light dawns in darkness for the upright

So in the midst of all the darkness that's going on in our world right now

There is a promise of light for those who fear the Lord I suggested there are three rays of light that can help us as we make try to make sense of what's going on in our world and try to navigate through the

Panic -demic one of those rays is that evil people exist at all levels of society

We're seeing this in the political arena right now, aren't we with? Who knows where all of this?

Investigation into the the Russia spy gate thing is going to take take us

I have no idea but I but what's clear in it is That it doesn't matter what level of society you look at evil people are there and and that may end up proving to be true

Before all is said and done in this pandemic the second ray of light is that God rules

Everything there's nothing outside of his control and the third ray of light is that ultimately?

Truth is going to prevail and God wins So that was the first ray of light illumination the second ray of light or the second blessing for those who fear the

Lord the upright is Stability and legacy we read of this in verse 6 verse 6 says for the righteous will never be moved

He will be remembered forever So by God's grace in a crisis like this

You're not you're not moved off of your life's foundation What you know and hold to be true now, there's a lot that can jostle you there's a lot that can try to shake you but Verses 7 and 8 go on to say he is not afraid of bad news

His heart is firm trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady.

He will not be afraid. I Trust that's your Experience right now that as you're trusting in the

Lord you find that your heart is firm. It's Established it's steadfast

Well, that's the stability half of the blessing. The other half comes later I mean, maybe even after your lifetime you'll leave behind a legacy

Verse 6 says he will be remembered forever Verse 9 says his righteousness endures forever.

His horn is exalted in honor Now, by the way, I read just this morning about the legacy of some ministers in Washington DC in the context of the

Spanish flu epidemic that broke out a hundred years ago in our country and at that time just like in our time

Churches had been closed. They'd been closed for four weeks. And finally after that month -long closure during the epidemic

Churches were allowed to reopen again and the first Sunday back the this article profiled three different pastors an

Episcopal minister a Baptist minister and a Presbyterian minister that almost sounds like one of those jokes, right?

You know these three. Yeah anyway So on the first Sunday back the Episcopal minister in his sermon

Railed on the government for treating churches as non -essential just railed on him.

He had a harsh and angry tone the Baptist minister had the same criticism, but he just wasn't quite so harsh and Then the

Presbyterian minister now again we're talking about the legacy the and the article gave the names of these pastors and their churches and and You could look back and this is the legacy they left behind from that experience the

Presbyterian minister He actually spoke pretty favorably of the the cautious Judicious approach to closing all public gatherings in order to mitigate the spread, but then he said this

He said God knows what he is doing His work is not going to suffer.

It will rather be a help to it in the end out of it I believe great good is coming all the churches as well as the community at large are going to be

Stronger and better for this season of distress through which we have been passing I find that I find that a very

Very encouraging response to that. I mean here a hundred years later. We can say the same thing

How could he say such a thing his theology informed him his faith? Informed his response and because of his faith that gave him that response

He was able to make such a statement that actually proved to be quite true

What a legacy to leave behind anyway So the blessings the blessing of illumination the blessing of stability and legacy and then lastly the blessing of ultimate victory

Listen to these couple of verses from Psalm 112 verse 8 says his heart is steady

He will not be afraid now get this part until he looks in triumph

On his adversaries and then verse 10 says the wicked man sees it.

That is the exaltation of the righteous Spoken of in verse 9 the wicked man sees that exaltation of the righteous and is angry

He gnashes his teeth and melts away The desire of the wicked will perish

Okay, so here's the thing even though there are evil people at all levels of society and And even though this

Panic -demic may be rooted may may be rooted in evil intent from somewhere, you know from communist

China from some secret group of people, you know, whatever even though this pandemic may be rooted in evil intent and Even though the wicked one

Satan wants to use this crisis and the various responses to it to further his cause conquering and dividing and conquering people and Even though he may want to cause harm to Christ's Church and his people listen

The righteous will ultimately look in triumph on his adversaries the desire of the wicked will perish

All right, so listen take some encouragement from Psalm 112 written during a time of crisis a time of darkness and Glean from this

Psalm these three blessings and I trust that you'll find them to be yours to illumination stability and legacy and ultimate ultimate victory well as we

Carry on through this time and just wait for Wait for things to return to some semblance of normalcy.

Let's keep our faith strong and firm let's keep our heart established on our

God and his truth and Ultimately, we'll find he prevails

He will and so will the righteous So our Father in our God we thank you today for the encouragement of Psalm 112

I pray that this would in this would strengthen us and give us the courage and confidence to move forward

With faith and strength and stability in this world in these days

This we pray in Jesus name. Amen All right. Well, you have a good rest of your

Tuesday beautiful day outside again Let me encourage you get that vitamin D. Enjoy some sunshine today