Daily Devotional – May 13, 2020

Well, good afternoon and happy hump day. So here we are halfway through half of week eight of the

Sort of lockdown day 53 by my calculations. I think that's right

Hard to keep track of the days though sometimes, isn't it? well, anyway, just a couple of reminders one to the

To the church family the faith Baptist Church family the midweek service tonight at seven o 'clock

Time of some Bible study in a prayer time that that is accessible at The church home page faith

Baptist sterling .com and then also for the church family Just a reminder about the wedding on Saturday afternoon at two o 'clock.

You should have received an email with instructions for viewing the wedding If you did not get that information

Please call or text or email Chris and we'll get that to you as soon as possible

Did you happen to see dr. Fauci's comments yesterday about the possibility of school starting in the fall or not?

opening in the fall I Heard one news commentator say parents all over the country let out a huge collective groan

You know, it struck me that 60 years ago if something like this had happened when

I was a kid Here we go. The old guys they say when I was a kid Well when

I was a kid seriously, though about 60 years ago the whole thing about The schooling issue would not have been quite the ordeal that it is today

I mean surely the workload and stress level on my mom would have increased greatly, but You got to remember in 1960 only a little more than a third of the women were in the workforce and even fewer than that a smaller

Percentage of moms were in the workforce Whereas today it's closer to 60 %

So that's that's pretty significant So today with both parents having jobs and then all of a sudden no school

Wow, that's that's that makes the stress level exponentially greater trying to figure out what in the world to do some of you may be dealing with that and My heart goes out to you and I know a lot of parents are struggling with this whole homeschooling thing

You realize I mean we've only been in this for about two months, right? And already a whole bunch of studies are being conducted and one study was conducted to find and discovered that parents can do relatively easy one -third of their child's math

But they have a very difficult time with the other three -fourths Now if you didn't get that then please don't be teaching your kids math.

Okay? Well one couple wondered at what stage of this homeschooling thing they can send a letter to the school asking for donations for raffles and cake sales and Kleenex Yeah, well the kids are struggling too one mom posted that her kid called her on her cell phone from his room and Told her that he missed the bus and he wouldn't be into school today.

Oh Kids can be creative Well over the last several weeks I've seen some

Christians grappling with what seems to be a Pandemic promise in Psalm 91 verses 9 and 10 say this

Says because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge and here's the part

No evil shall be allowed to befall you No plague come near your tent

Because you've made the Lord your dwelling place. No plague can come near your tent

Well, that kind of raises the question doesn't it and no the question is not do

I need to go out and get a tent the question is Can Christians claim?

divine protection from kovat 19 Isn't this verse promising that the virus won't hit our households?

well for starters if this passage promises that Then why limit it to kovat 19

Isn't cancer a plague and a pretty evil one at that how about heart disease or Diabetes or Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and on and on we could go, right?

Well, there are some in the so -called word of faith segment of Christianity who apparently point to the first couple of verses of Psalm 91

To reconcile the obvious problem and the obvious problem is that well Christians suffer from all of these things including kovat in kovat 19

So they point to the first couple of verses which says this he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the

Almighty. I will say to the Lord my refuge and my fortress My God in whom

I trust Well, they read that and then they read the promise about no plague coming near your tent

And so their conclusion has to go along the lines of something like this well If you haven't been protected from the plague then obviously you haven't been

Sheltering under the wings of the Almighty or you haven't been trusting

God enough Hmm Does that does that square with what you know about?

People who suffered in the Bible How about Job? You know, honestly,

I have never met anyone who has suffered Nearly as much as Job and yet what's

God's own testimony about Job? God said to Satan when

Satan came and tried to to Present himself before God God said to Satan have you considered my servant

Job that there is none like him on the earth? a blameless and an upright man who fears

God and turns away from evil and Yet man, what's suffering that guy endured?

Well, how about Timothy in the New Testament Paul told Timothy? No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments

Was Timothy a guy who wasn't trusting in God and dwelling in the shelter of the Almighty?

Well Paul too for that matter in recounting his ministry among the Galatians The Christians in the in Galatia at the church there

He wrote, you know It was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first and though my condition was a trial to you

You did not scorn or despise me. I Read that and I wondered

Would the word of faith crowd would they be so patient and generous with Paul or would they have been chiding him to say you're

You're you're dealing with this physical infirmity because you're just not trusting God enough well

Paul made what to a faith healer must have been a rather startling admission as well

He said I left Trophimus sick at Miletus. I Left Trophimus sick at Miletus Well, how could you do such a thing

Paul? Shouldn't you have you know, shouldn't you have exercised faith and healed him?

Well, okay one more remember Epaphroditus Paul told the believers at Philippi that Epaphroditus Has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill

Indeed Paul says he was ill near to death But God had mercy on him.

So the word of faith interpretation of Psalm 91 doesn't seem to square with what we see in biblical biblical accounts of people

God's people God's trusting people who Who suffered illness?

Nor does it square with thousands a couple thousand years of church history either does it if some of God's choicest servants true gifts to the church

Also suffered greatly physically from physical infirmity just for one example take

Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards Considered to be the greatest theologian on American soil

You know how he died He died of smallpox But notice

It wasn't that he just contracted smallpox as it was going around in the community

No, he he got it from an inoculation. He took an inoculation a vaccination and That thing went viral in his body and it ended up killing him was was that God's punishment on him for a lack of faith to trust him and Took and he failed to trust because he took the inoculation.

Yeah, I don't think so Well, it also doesn't line up with your own experience I think about some of the dear saints in our own church who've passed away since I came here almost 18 years ago

One died of leukemia a couple of least of cancer

Another one or two from Alzheimer's Alzheimer's one from Parkinson's disease

Okay So clearly Psalm 91 verse 10 cannot mean that we claim absolute divine protection from kovat 19 can't mean that Then what does it mean?

well You have to wait till tomorrow come back. We'll pick that up and consider that from this

Psalm Psalm 91 Well, I hope the rest of your day You have a good day.

It's a beautiful midweek midweek day outside so far and Just trust you'll get outside.

Enjoy some sunshine get fresh air all those things. They're so good for us at this time and If you can tune in tonight at seven o 'clock for the midweek service look forward to having you join us then

Let's have a word of prayer Our Father in our God, I pray that we would trust you we would shelter in your wings and That's regardless of the physical affliction or infirmity that we may suffer by your divine providence give us

Grace and faith to trust you more this we pray in Jesus name. Amen All right.