Daily Devotional – June 25, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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I trust you're doing well. Your week is going pretty good so far. You've got three days behind you in your work week and a couple left to go, and the weekend is coming.

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Thank the Lord. Looking forward to the Lord's Day together on Sunday. Well, do you know who

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Daniel Burnham is? Daniel Burnham was the chief architect that designed the 1893

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World's Columbia Exposition in Chicago, that great World's Fair. And I don't know if you're familiar with the background of that fair or not.

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It was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering the new world.

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But anyway, the fair was intended to be a really kind of a rival to the previous

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World's Fair, which was held in Paris, France. And at that fair, the world was wowed by the construction of the

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Eiffel Tower, a huge thing that still exists to this day and as a tourist attraction has been for 140 years.

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Well anyway, Burnham, as the architect for the Chicago Exposition, wanted something that could rival the

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Eiffel Tower, some kind of spectacular focal point, an attraction that would rival the

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Eiffel Tower. So he sent out invitations to engineers all over the country, all over the

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United States, and invited them, please send us your ideas. And all kinds of crazy, crazy ideas came in.

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And this one came in from an engineer by the name of George Ferris.

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And his idea, initially, Burnham got it and he just dismissed it.

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He said, this thing is ridiculous, it's absolutely impossible. Well, nearly four months later,

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Ferris resubmitted his proposal and said, it's not preposterous, this thing can be done.

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And finally, Daniel Burnham gave in and gave the project to George Ferris to build his invention.

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And so Ferris went to work on his invention. His invention was to be a huge wheel that reached 264 feet into the air and attached to that wheel would be 36 gondolas and each gondola would hold up to 60 people.

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So nearly 2 ,000 people could ride on this wheel, this huge wheel at one time, 2 ,000 people one time.

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And they'd charge 50 cents a piece to go on that ride. Well, to get that design and get that wheel from the design stage on paper to a thrilling and safe ride at the exposition, it took a lot of time.

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And it also took some very rigorous testing. So before the first gondola was attached, all of the steam engine components were thoroughly tested.

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And then the gears were activated to make sure that that wheel would actually turn on the axis and would turn a full revolution.

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And then a few cars or gondolas were installed. And it was again tested to see if there was any wobbling or if the thing would hold up with the new weight of the gondolas.

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And finally, all of the gondolas were attached. And then a few people were allowed in a couple of the gondolas just to see, is it going to handle people?

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Are the gondolas going to rotate as they should on the gears or on the bearings and so forth as the wheel goes around?

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And then finally, a whole bunch of volunteers were asked to go on a maiden ride.

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And hundreds rode, filled up the gondolas and rode. And the question, of course, with the weight of 200 plus or three or four or 500 people, would the wheel actually turn?

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Would this monstrous wheel actually be able to handle it? So Ferris's wheel was subjected to a whole battery of really stringent tests to prove whether or not it was safe and reliable.

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And the thing passed with flying colors. And it was the highlight attraction of the 1893

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World's Columbian Exposition. Now I share this story to illustrate an important truth that's found in 1

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Peter 1, verses 6 and 7. Peter writes this. He says,

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In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that, and here's the key phrase, the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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You know, right now in our nation's history, we're going through an unprecedented time.

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At least it hasn't been anything like this since the Civil War. And I'm sure that you feel the pressure, don't you?

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It's an intense pressure, and it's coming from even within our own country, from those who hate our country, who hate conservatism, who hate biblical moral values, and who hate any form of lawful authority, and who instead seem to love violence and insurrection and anarchy and perversion of all kinds.

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On a national scale, this is a time of testing. What's the true character of the

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USA? What's the true character of our elected officials, of the vast majority of the citizenry of this nation?

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Well, I think the time of testing will tell. But it's also a time of individual testing, and that of the follower of Jesus.

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So much of what biblical Christianity stands for is under assault in this time, isn't it?

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With even a very vocal, radical Black Lives Matter anarchist calling for the destruction of statues of Jesus and churches that might depict

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Jesus as being white. But what is the true character of those who claim to be followers of Jesus?

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This time of testing will tell. Well, what can we say of this time? This passage in 1

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Peter 1 helps us out. Besides it being a time of testing or examination that reveals the true character of a thing,

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Peter says it's a time of heaviness. He says, you have been grieved.

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You've been grieved. And the word there communicates the idea of that which elicits sorrow or sadness or distress.

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How do you feel when you see monuments of heroes of the past in our nation, you see these monuments destroyed?

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I saw a picture the other day of the tomb of the unknown soldier of the

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American Revolution in Philadelphia, and it had been defaced. And some anarchist scrawled on the face of this monument, claiming that Washington, quote, committed genocide, committed genocide.

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How do you feel when you see the attacks on police officers?

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How do you feel when you see the anarchy in the streets? Doesn't it sadden you?

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Doesn't it give you great sorrow? Doesn't it cause you a certain measure of distress?

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Yeah, it's a time of heaviness. It's also a time of present experience.

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Peter says, even though you are now going through this time of distress or heaviness now, it's our present experience.

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I read some history books, and I've read of plenty of atrocities in history, and those things can be chilling, and they can be rather sobering, but that doesn't distress me, not as if I were going through it.

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And what we're going through is a present experience that causes distress.

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Somebody reading of this time 150 years from now, for example, isn't going to feel what we feel.

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This is a present experience. But then I also want you to notice that Peter says it's a time of relative brevity.

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He says, though, now for a little while you're going through this.

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Well, honestly, it doesn't feel like it's a little while when we're going through it, does it? We're going through it right now, and we can't see a good outcome.

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We can't see an end. We can't see how this can resolve itself in a way that's going to be positive.

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It's very difficult to do that, isn't it? And we have no idea what tomorrow could bring.

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I mean, did you really think four or five weeks ago that you would be seeing what you're seeing on the news?

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Did you have any inkling whatsoever that there would be a bunch of rebellious anarchists pulling statues of some of our nation's heroes, pulling them over and defacing them and destroying them, and then even finding or hearing of those responsible for those statues?

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Like the New York Museum that is agreeing to take down the statue of Teddy Roosevelt.

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Did you ever think that you would see such a thing? No, we don't have any idea what tomorrow will bring, but here's what we know.

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It's a time of relative brevity. Now for a little while.

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Now for a little while. So though we don't have any idea what tomorrow will bring, let's allow this divinely inspired word to encourage us.

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We're being put to the test now, but for a little while this too shall pass.

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In the meantime, what's coming out? What's the examination revealing to you?

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What's it revealing to you about you? See, that's the question, isn't it?

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Well, let's pray and ask our God to use this time of testing in our lives, and may it prove to show faith, strong, viable faith.

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Our Father and our God, we thank you that in times of testing, though difficult and hard, distressing, one of the things that comes out is the reality of a vibrant faith.

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May that be evident in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well you have a good rest of your day today, and I hope you'll be back tomorrow,

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Friday. I'm going to look at this same passage tomorrow and look at some ways we ought to be thinking during this time.