Living in the Spirit
September 23, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side   —let Israel now say—
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
the raging waters….

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth. –Psalm 124:1-5, 8

President Lincoln made a significant remark to a clergyman in the early days of the War.

 “Let us have faith, Mr. President,” said the minister, “that the Lord is on our side in this great struggle.”

 Mr. Lincoln quietly answered: “I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side.”*

Our Psalm today is written in retrospect after an apparently calamitous flood had struck the land. We do need to thank God for God’s loving presence in all aspects of our lives. I fear though we are too often in these days hearing of loss of property, loss of both wildlife and domestic animals and deaths of humans due to what are termed “natural” disasters. What we may have failed to comprehend is the part we may have played in such events and the part that still awaits us to prevent them from happening. We are having a swarm of earthquakes related to wastewater drilling associated with the drilling of oil wells here in Oklahoma. For years we denied the connection. We are just now accepting the science that has been there all along.

What would have prevented the Civil War? How would our world be different today had our ancestors figured out preventing that war before it was too late? Do we not learn from our previous disasters?

What are we leaving for our descendants to clean up after we are gone because we chose to take the expedient way rather than God’s way? God gave us this great earth to supply are needs with the understanding that we must treat it responsibility. Just as God created all the peoples of the earth who share in common the work of God’s hands.

Prayer: Lord, cleanse us of the enmities that divide us and help us comprehend more particularly your ways and make them our own. Amen.

*http://www.aboutabrahamlincoln.com/anecdotes/anecdotes__on_the.html

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.