A Moment With Pastor Fred

I never thought I would see what I saw this past week in the US Capital. It was shocking – it was grieving. Regardless of who was to blame the bottom line is how are we as believers to respond. My thoughts as I watched the news took me back to our spring/summer series in Daniel. You remember mighty Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem. Daniel and his friends were taken. CNN or Fox News would have said the forces of hell had prevailed against Israel. But we are not at the mercy of fate or karma. Our hope is found in those first few verses in Dan 1.  And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into [Nebuchadnezzar’s] hand. Daniel hammers this truth home 3 times in this chapter, vs. 2, 9 and 17.  

Dear child of God, our lives are under the watchful hand of a Sovereign God, who is also our loving heavenly Father. Regardless of the events of 2020 or this past week, he hasn’t left his throne. Dan 4:17, So that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men. Empires, nations, kings and presidents rise and fall but the kingdom of God will endure. God is working out his plan. I don’t always like it or understand it, but I am committed to submitting to it. What must we do? Ac 14:22, … strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. This world is not our home. Our hope as believers is in a kingdom that cannot be shaken, Heb 11:28-29. We are strangers and exiles who seek a better country – a heavenly one, Heb 11:13-16. God is preparing us a city – and its not Washington DC but the New Jerusalem.