Thursday, May 1, 2014
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I should have saved my DVRs of the Winter Olympics. I liked the news from Russia a lot better when it was about the Olympics. As soon as the fireworks in Sochi ended, the fireworks in Ukraine began. And suddenly part of Ukraine is part of Russia. Hello? And with Russia flexing its expansionist muscles on the world's stage again, I'm hearing those two words again that I haven't heard for a long time - Cold War.
See, the standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine, well that's maybe just a beginning. It feels uncomfortably familiar and potentially explosive. It doesn't help that a Russian anchorman (who reportedly is President Putin's "favorite") was on State-controlled TV recently with a mushroom cloud as his backdrop. He was announcing, literally, Russia is the only country capable of turning the U.S. into (in his words) "radioactive ash." That's not what you want to watch right before bedtime.
I'm Ron Hutchraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cold War, Missing Plane - How to Find an Anchor."
Some of this feels like the opening act of a world that's growing even more unstable and more dangerous as time goes by. You know when that Malaysian jetliner went missing, that didn't help. The longer it was "unfindable," the more troubling suspicions grew.
More and more people were calling this kind of a grim reminder of one of the realities of the new terrorism, where airplanes become weapons. Overall, It's a disturbing time in the world.
There's new talk of a Cold War standoff with a resurgent Russia; rekindled fears of a terrorism that seared our souls not very long ago. And then the growing prospect of weapons of mass destruction in some pretty scary hands. Increasingly, it feels like one little spark could send things spinning out of control; our control anyway. So I turned off the news and I reached for my Bible.
I read where David, the revered Jewish king, asked this question, "What can we do when the foundations are being destroyed?" Well I'll tell you, with so many "foundations" shaking these days, that's a good question right now.
Here's our word for today from the Word of God. The answer in Psalm 11:3-4, "The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne." At first, that didn't sound like it answered the questions. But then I realized I was reading about the one unmoving anchor when everything else is up for grabs.
Things might be out of our control. Yeah, they are. But they're never out of God's control. Nations may fall. Evil men can plot and even succeed. The doctor may stun us with bad news. The finances may seem impossible. The funeral may seem like the end. Our family may look hopeless. But God has not vacated the throne from which the universe is governed. Proverbs 19:21 says, "It is the Lord's purpose that prevails"
You know, I was scared to death when I was on my first big roller coaster as a kid. And pretty sure I was going to die at the age of nine. I was jerking every which-way. We were defying gravity. It seemed like we were out of control. But not out of control, because the whole time that car was flying all over, it was attached to the tracks and headed for a safe destination.
I'm not at the mercy of a roller coaster world. I am loved by the God who rules the galaxies; whose plans can't be derailed. I'm not afraid. However wild the ride, things are still on track.
The Bible says in the greatest insurance policy in the universe, "Who will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Which causes me to ask you to consider today what unloseable source of security do you have that is divorce-proof, terror-proof, recession-proof, unemployment-proof, death-proof? The Bible says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." And this man who loved you enough to die for your sins was powerful enough to walk out of His grave, is the one sure thing in a rapidly changing and deteriorating world.
If you do not belong to Him...if you're not sure you do, get that settled today. Our website's there to actually help you do that. And I'm just going to invite you to check it out today ANewStory.com. Because "He's got the whole world in His hands."