September 5, 2019 – Click here to listen
I returned home from mandatory evacuation yesterday. My wife and I drove straight through from Atlanta and it was a long grueling trip. Today I have to get my hurricane shutters removed and try to get things back in order. When driving up to Atlanta to evacuate I saw convoy after convoy of ambulances, electric power company trucks, and fuel trucks heading south getting ready to assist. Yesterday I saw convoy after convoy heading north; I assume toward the Carolinas to assist due to the fact that their services are no longer needed down here, and the danger has passed for us.
In our case Dorian was a non-event. We had no damage and a few palm fronds laying around the yard and that was the extent of it. Just 60 miles east of us Grand Bahama Island got completely wiped out and the entire island was under 30 feet of water. How I wish those relief trucks could drive across the Gulf Stream and help those poor people. I want to help, but don’t know what to do.
I began my daily Bible study in 2 Timothy chapter 1 this morning. Most believe this was the last letter Paul wrote. At the time of the writing he was chained up and imprisoned in an old abandoned cistern converted to a jail located ten feet below the surface and it was cold, dank, and dirty. Paul’s letter to his spiritual son in faith, Timothy, was not intended to detail the deplorable treatment he was receiving as he awaited execution by beheading ordered by Christian hater Nero. In fact, he didn’t even mention his own problems but instead provided encouragement for young Timothy as he assumed leadership of the large Ephesus church.
Paul wrote what I consider to be one of the greatest verses in the Bible from his prison cell: 2 Tim. 7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. As I read this and read it again and again I thought of those in the path of the hurricane and of those whose lives have been devastated by it. Though we might lose our possessions, our health, and/or as with Paul our very lives, we need not fear as a child of God. Hurricanes are frightening experiences, but so was Paul’s situation. Paul did not rely on his own strong will, but entirely on his faith that the Lord would get him through each day.
The most encouraging promise to Christians all over the world is that our Lord and Savior will never abandon us, thus we have no need of fear and we must not live in fear, but in the power and love and sound mind provided by the Holy Spirit for just such a time as this. Remember there is always calm after a storm and glorious peace. I saw this sunrise this morning and it reinforced what I already knew, God will never allow us to be separated from Him and after the storm we can rest in glorious peace.
If you are facing storms in your life fear not, for the Lord of hope has you in the tender palm of His hand. Amen!
Deuteronomy 31:8
The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”