“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
A few weeks ago our volunteer-led church expansion came to an abrupt halt…put on hold in the aftermath of a break-in to our work trailer resulting in the loss of more than $5,000 in power tools. It’s hard to do construction without nail guns, skil saws and drills. These were taken and much more, leaving us extremely discouraged. Yet, in the aftermath of this crime we saw God’s hand at work. First, we saw it in the fact that I had failed to put away one of the nail guns I’d been using on our Saturday workday. God graciously used my forgetfulness to keep the thieves from getting all of our nail guns and, as a result, we were able to continue siding the very day the loss was realized. But this would only be one of many divine blessings we would witness in the days that followed. I truly believe it was God who put it into my mind to send two emails in the wake of this robbery to local news station tip-lines. Within a few hours, I was being interviewed by a tv station, and before the first news crew had even finished, another showed up. And when I arrived at 8am the next day, another tv station was already at the church, just as I was taking a call from a local radio station. Another radio interview would follow at noon, followed by at least two other radio stations that covered this theft. Yet what is significant is not the news coverage, but the thousands of responses on social media, countless phone calls and a number of visits. Many of these visits came with gifts of cash, ranging from $27 from a guy who was passing by to $5,000 from a fellow church just a half-mile away…Highlands Community. And these are only samplings of the many gracious gifts of money which have poured in these last few weeks, most from complete strangers. One of my favorite gifts came in an envelope and totaled just $19.53—the result of fundraising on behalf of a young granddaughter of one of the members of our congregation. Word has it that her little brother was forced to pay for his waffles one morning in her effort to raise funds because our church was “roberd.” Many of these visits came with gifts of tools, including one nail gun which arrived within 24 hours and a worm drive skil saw dropped off by a couple who had driven all the way from Gig Harbor. But God wasn’t finished yet! Sellen Construction graciously provided more than 2/3’s of the big tools on our list of stolen items. At this point, as a result of this outpouring, in the neighborhood of $15,000 in cash and tools has been donated…three times the amount that was stolen. Certainly, the additional cash helps because this is a volunteer-led construction project. We are doing all that we can to cut costs on what was initially a 1.3-million-dollar project. That amount may seem like peanuts in a region home to ten Fortune 500 companies. But to an average sized church here in the Renton Highlands, it’s a monumental figure. The only way this project became feasible was by cutting that figure in half through the willingness of volunteers to don hard hats and take up hammers, just about every Saturday for more than a year now. This is in addition to a few retired guys who have made this their new, full-time, unpaid job, along with a handful who put in their 8 hours at day jobs and then come give 3 more to building our church. It’s like what you might see in an old western…all the folks in the town coming together for a barn-raising or to build a new school house. Seems like appropriate imagery since our church, founded in 1935, was originally housed in the old one-room Honey Dew School at Sunset and Union. Because this IS a volunteer effort, and since most of the tools that were stolen belonged to these same volunteers, the loss was initially very discouraging. Yet this points to something that has come out of all this even more significant than the donations. To be honest, this project would have continued-on even if no one had responded…our workers would have driven the nails by hand if needed!!! But more than the donations themselves was the generous spirit with which they were given. We have been so encouraged by the generosity of the many, including complete strangers, who have reached out to help right a wrong. It has been truly overwhelming! However, it should not have come as a great surprise. Why? Because this is how our God works. Our God is a God who takes evil and uses it for good (Genesis 50:20); whose plans for us are for good (Jeremiah 29:11); who renews the strength of those who wait on Him (Isaiah 40:31); and who does immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). And maybe most profoundly, at the completion of another rich Easter season, our God is a God who brings peace from chaos, joy from sorrow, life from death. Thank you, Jesus, for your steadfast love! JOIN US THIS SUNDAY MORNING, April 28th, at 10:30, as we worship together and conclude our service by celebrating the last large steel beam to be put into place. Everyone who comes will be invited to sign this beam with a word of thanks or a favorite Bible verse.
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For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
Maybe you’ve heard the greeting and response: “God is good all the time.” “And all the time, God is good!” It’s easy enough to say these words when the sun is shining. After a long, snowy winter, the fact that sun is streaming into my office on this week when we will greet the first day of spring, makes me want to say, “God is good, all the time.” And this is even more true the morning after our church’s annual meeting, a meeting which began with thanksgiving for God’s goodness to our body and concluded with a unanimous affirmative vote. Yes, God is good. Yet, even as the sun shines in, I think of the darkness that has struck New Zealand and fifty lost lives in the wake of domestic terrorism and I am struck anew by the frailty of human life. Even this morning, when I heard the sounds of sirens just two minutes after a family member left the house, my thoughts immediately turned to concern. Of course, my concern was unwarranted. But we all live with this reality…that tragedy can strike without warning…a reality many of us have experienced firsthand. This is the reality with which Habakkuk opens his prophetic book, “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds” (1:2–3). At the heart of Habbakuk’s complaint are the corrupt leaders who oppress their own people. God answers Habakkuk immediately, “Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (Habakkuk 1:5). What is this amazing thing God is going to do? He is going to deal with the corruption in Israel by sending Babylon to mete out justice on an unfaithful people. But this only makes the prophet more upset. How can a righteous God use an even more corrupt nation, a nation that does unthinkable things, to discipline His people Israel? He concludes his question, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (2:1). Yet again, God is gracious to answer. What is God’s answer? It is the quote at the beginning of this post, a promise that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh. In other words, God is faithful and good and will ultimately bring about what is best. So, what should the man and woman of God do in the mean time? “But the righteous will live by his faith” (2:4). In other words, don’t put your trust in earthly idols, put your trust in God. For Yahweh “is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (2:20). In the final chapter, we find a prophet no longer complaining, but embracing a righteousness by faith in God’s goodness. This trust in God undergirds the final chapter’s plea, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2). And he concludes the book with an affirmation of his trust in Yahweh God, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights” (3:17–19). Here is what it means for the righteous to live by faith: Trust that, in the end, God will make everything right. But it is not a trust that is merely philosophical. It is a trust that is deeply relational, that joyfully draws near to “God my Savior”, that revels in His goodness and walks in His truth. Ultimately, it is a faith that looks to the coming Messiah. For, tucked away in the concluding chapter of this book of prophecy written hundreds of years before Christ, is a prediction, “You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one” (3:13). Here, yet again, is the crimson thread which runs through the tapestry of Scripture. The prophet predicts deliverance for God’s people, a deliverance that will be displayed in and through His anointed one, Messiah, Christ. In this season in which we celebrate resurrection, we are reminded of what Messiah’s resurrection means for those who trust in Him: Past, present and future deliverance in and through our resurrected Lord. Yes, darkness is a reality in this present age, but 2,000 years ago a light dawned for mankind. And when Jesus returns, that light…the knowledge of glory of Yahweh, will fill the earth “as the waters cover the sea.” Let us look in faith to our Savior and work by faith to see His glory revealed, knowing that God is good, all the time...and all the time, God is good! |
Dan GannonDan has ministered at Renton Bible Church, with his wife Debbie, since 2003. Archives
June 2022
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