"Haiti"
Wednesday 10th February 2010
On the evening of 12 January 2010, a series of earthquakes with magnitude 6.5 to 7.3 struck Haiti in a highly populated area, 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. While these recent events in Haiti are rapidly fading from our news headlines, many are still grappling with the reasons for such a catastrophe.
Prior to the earthquake, Haiti was considered the poorest country in the Western world and is frequently impacted by natural calamities, mostly hurricanes - the most recent being in 2008. However the recent earthquake has left Haitians and indeed the world incredulous at the utter devastation caused. As I write, the projections being made of fatalities are so vast that it is difficult to comprehend the staggering level of this humanitarian catastrophe.
The greatest question to have faced mankind through his painful history is loudly raised again - "Why?"
There is no doubt that often man has been guilty of contributing to his own fate. John Blanchard, in his booklet, 'Where is God When Things Go Wrong? [PDF]' raises probing questions of man when he says,
Although our planet provides enough food to feed all six billion of us, millions die of starvation every year because of our selfish pollution of the atmosphere, our exploitation or mismanagement of the earth's resources and the vicious policies of dictatorial regimes. Can we blame God for these? Is he responsible for diverting disaster funds into the pockets of tyrannical rulers or greedy politicians? Millions are dying of hunger in India while its national religion forbids the use of cows as food. Hinduism has millions of man-made gods; can the country's chronic food problems be blamed on the one it ignores? Suffering is often caused by human error or incompetence. Had the owners of the Titanic not reduced the recommended number of lifeboats to avoid the boat deck looking cluttered, many more, if not all, of the ship's passengers might have been saved. Was God responsible for that executive decision? The International Atomic Enquiry Agency blamed ‘defective safety culture' for the Chernobyl disaster. Can the blame for careless neglect of safety procedures be laid at God's door?
A great deal of human suffering is deliberately self-inflicted. Smokers who ignore health warnings and are crippled by lung cancer or heart disease, heavy drinkers who suffer from cirrhosis of the liver, drug addicts and those dying of AIDS after indiscriminate sex are obvious examples. So are gluttons who dig their graves with knives and forks, workaholics who drive themselves to physical or mental breakdowns, to say nothing of the countless people who suffer from serious illness as a direct result of suppressed hatred, anger, bitterness and envy. Is God to blame for their behaviour?
Whilst the guilt for these self inflicted injuries can fairly and squarely be laid at man's feet, surely Natural Disasters are in a different league? Has the Bible anything to say?
The Bible teaches us that ultimately all suffering is as a result of Adam and Eve's sin which launched their human descendants into this cycle of fallen existence that we all inhabit:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12)
We live in a fallen world - the tragic consequence of original sin.
What this does not explain is why disaster visits one continent, country, or family and not another. Neither does this explain why some suffer to such extremes. Many of these questions are unanswerable. We would need to possess a mind like God's to comprehend these weighty issues. Do not Job's tragic experiences and his subsequent encounter with God teach us that the answers to these mysteries lie deep within God's Sovereignty? Our finite minds could never explain such mystery, nor should we try.
That said, consider this - even these Natural Disasters that we cannot explain, at the very least, are "wake-up calls" to a sleeping world. C.S. Lewis in his book 'The Problem of Pain' wrote,
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Such cataclysmic events should alert us that evil and suffering are real, life is brief and fragile, and death is certain.
One day the Lord Jesus was questioned about certain calamities and His answer shows where our emphasis should be:
...those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:4-5)
Jesus' emphasis is that we all must face our mortality and therefore the great question is: how we will meet our Maker - saved or lost?
One death is as tragic as thousands, but consider that around 151,338 die daily! Most of these have never heard of the Saviour.
As Christians we should help the poor of Haiti and wherever we find those in need, but our primary responsibility is to take and fund the taking of the gospel of Christ to the whole world.
For further thoughts on these issues, don't miss the sermon "Earthquake: Why The Horror In Haiti?"...
"Into The Unknown?"
Thursday 7th January 2010
Generally, when it comes to the future, we obsess about what we don't know, rather than what we do.
The Christian has the Divinely gifted privilege of knowing a lot more about the future than we often appreciate. I believe in prophecy; but that's not what I am speaking of here. I am referring to God's Revealed Will for us personally.
Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law".
Most of God's will for us has been given directly to us in the Scriptures, yet, so often we are preoccupied and distracted by what we don't know.
Let me give you three certainties concerning God's will for you this New Year, if you are a born again child of God:
- It is God's will to presence Himself with you:
Deuteronomy 31:8, "And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed". - It is God's will to make you a stronger and more mature believer:
Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" - It is God's will to make you Holy:
1 Thessalonians 4:3, 5:23 "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification,...And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ".
These are only three examples from thousands of Scriptures that reveal what God wants for us. Get searching and start realising God's plan for your life.
May God help us, by faith, to claim these declarations of God's will for us, that we might enter into the blessings He has promised and prepared for us to enjoy!
Have a Happy and Holy New Year in the "good, acceptable and perfect will of God"!
"Immanuel: God With Us!"
Tuesday 1st December 2009
Yes, we all know what Immanuel means, and, if we have forgotten, this month we are sure to be reminded. However, how many of us are experiencing Immanuel: 'God with us'?
Not only did God come to be with us in the Incarnation of the Son, but, God has come to indwell us by the impartation of the Spirit. Now, post-Pentecost, God can be with us because He can be in us. But how much of this are we experiencing in our lives and in our churches? Paul desired that the Ephesians would be "filled with all the fullness of God" and of course he later speaks about the Fullness of the Holy Spirit. How does our experience measure up to such teaching?
Many Christians are not experiencing a sense of God with them because they have never allowed God to fill them.
When a man or woman is filled by God's Spirit, others will be heard to remark: "Truly God is with him/her". When churches are empowered by the Spirit, even unbelievers will be heard to exclaim, falling on their faces "God is truly among you" (1 Corinthians 14:25).
There is a distinct absence of a sense of the presence of God in our individual lives and in our churches. The good news is that with repentance and faith we can rediscover it again to the glory of God and our benefit.
The Revival Conferences in Dublin and Wales were both an exercise in assessing how great the need is to rediscover the presence of God with us. Also these Conferences were an exercise in discovering how deep the desire is to experience God's presence again. Both conferences were a blessing and there is a great hunger for God's presence among some people. The Conference in Loughor, Wales, however, proved to be an exceptional blessing as, in a measure, we encountered the presence of God, and felt His holy dealings in our lives. In many respects I think some of us 'turned a corner' in Wales as God truly was affirming, confirming and reaffirming many burdens in the hearts of those who long for genuine Revival. May whatever God did in our lives in Wales not be lost, but remain, and increase, bearing fruit to the glory of God and the good of mankind in future days.
We rejoice in droplets of blessing in all aspects of ministry and we always are encouraged and overjoyed when hearing of souls saved. A married couple who we requested prayer for at Ballyclare have been saved and a young woman in Lurgan trusted Christ. God is at work and yet we know He can and He wants to do more. May we experience it soon – for how the Church and our lands need Jesus.
"A Sigh of Relief"
Monday 2nd November 2009
"We finish our years like a sigh" - Psalm 90:9b
As you approach the end of this year and maybe you think of all your plans still outstanding, or you consider the things that didn't turn out according to plan, perhaps you 'sigh'. I think for many the year often ends with a sigh, even if only one of exhaustion! For others the sigh is more tragic and despairing. The famous playwright Samuel Beckett conveyed this attitude to life in his play 'Breath'. The play lasts 30 seconds and there are no actors or conversation. The whole script is the sigh of human life from a baby's cry to a man's last breath before he dies. Such despair is everywhere today.
Isn't it wonderful to know that though we, as God's children, might know the sighs of life and death, they are all couched (as this verse is in this Psalm) in the Sovereign Providence of our Great God!: "LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God" - Psalm 90:1-3.
Faith views all our 'sighs' in the context of the character of our Good, Kind and All-Provident God.
As a family, in all matters, we continue to rejoice in, and testify to, the faithfulness of our All-Provident Father.
Lydia and Noah are settling well into their schools in Portadown and are starting to make friends. We are gradually getting our new house into 'ship-shape'.
We enjoyed a great Evangelistic Mission in Ballyclare in September and praise the Lord for His moving in the lives of both unbelievers and believers. Do continue to pray for a number of unbelievers who were counselled and are seriously considering trusting the Lord. At Ballyclare I was very encouraged and excited about the hunger that the believers had to experience reality in their Christian lives, to be more effective in their outreach and to go deeper in their relationship with the Lord. I pray they will find the "waters to swim in"!
As you can see from the itinerary, the remainder of the year is very busy with all kinds of events. I am especially looking forward to the Revival Conferences (see previous blog post) – how the British Isles needs revival and wouldn't it be wonderful if it started in the Republic of Ireland!