I wanted to send this update out a few weeks ago, but in addition to all else going on in our land and the world these days my computer ran into difficulties, so I was without a computer. I kept up to date watching TV and checking things out on my mobile phone. Yesterday I got my computer back. So here goes…How have you been coping these days?
Mur and I have been doing well. We have food to eat. We’ve slept well most nights. We try to get out for a walk each day. I’ve been doing some heavy cleanup work in the yard and some repairs in the house. Mur’s been house cleaning, reading and updating photo albums. We are on overload watching the news, or should I say, reporter’s and authorities’ opinions – It sometimes gets so convoluted and conflicted it’s hard to grasp what’s really going on. We desperately need to become sons and daughters of Issachar “who understood the times and knew what should be done” (1st Chronicles 12:32).
Psalm 1:1-3 gives us guidance on how to live that way: As you try to be informed be wary of worldly sources and give priority to Divine revelation. You will be blessed and be a blessing to others if you delight in meditating on God’s Word. You will be “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
The prophet Jeremiah lived that way. He tried his best to call his people to repent or else face God’s judgment. They repeatedly resisted his divine warning and listened to self-affirming, worldly suggestions. When unintended consequences came they hardened their resistance until Babylon devastated Jerusalem. What did Jeremiah do? He lamented what happened, describing it with tears, but then shared his victorious coping strategy in Lamentations 3:2126, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
In closing, let me encourage you to pray for Christ’s church, our country and the world, and also for our ministry to people and especially for the tens of thousands who listen to my program daily.