Disaster: The Fear of Natural Calamity

Message Description:

From tornadoes to tidal waves, earthquakes to hurricanes, natural disasters come in many forms, each capable of unimaginable death and destruction. Dr. David Jeremiah looks at disaster through the eyes of Job to ponder the question, Where is God when disaster strikes?

• The Devil is still at work
• Dr. Jeremiah’s message – “Disaster: The Fear of Natural Calamity”
• Next Time on Turning Point

1 thing we often overlook when we’re reasoning about god and things that we don’t understand is that the massive deaths that were caused by disaster cannot discredit god any more than a single death can discredit him.
We know who brought death into the world, and it wasn’t god.
And we must remember that every 1 of the people who died in the Haiti earthquake would eventually have died anyway.
And the fact that they died simultaneously is really no more tragic than if their death had been spread out over the next several decades.
It’s just that the sudden and unexpected simultaneous deaths shock us more.
Death is in our world because the devil is the prince of death.
And 1 of these days, he will be gone But right now, he’s still at work. Is he not?
At least the trow Bridges had a place to hide.
It was a neighbor’s cellar, Kelsey, her husband, and their 3 children filed into its cool darkness, huddled beneath a blanket, and listened to the warning sirens howling through a Monday afternoon of May 2013.
The trow Bridges lived in the suburbs of Oklahoma City, and a deadly tornado was on its way.
The family could only sit holding hands and listening as the sirens were drowned out by something louder and far more terrible.
Shrieking winds converged upon the house, and there was a violent pounding on the cellar door.
And then after about 40 minutes, an eerie silence fell upon them, The trow bridges emerged into the light of a world they could not possibly recognize.
The neighborhood was a shambles, Where was their home?
It lay flat into the earth with rows of other houses? Where was the family car?
It was down the street, lifted up, and then thrown on its roof.
Meanwhile, over near Plaza Towers elementary, Stewbert Ernest junior saw and heard things that he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life.
The school was directly hit by the tornado, 7 children lost their lives, and Ernest couldn’t block out the sound of it all.
He heard the voices of those screaming for help, and the equally heart rending screaming of those trying to come to their assistance.
It was a tornado in Oklahoma City, not something that hadn’t happened before, not something new, but something tragic nonetheless.
Every year, the news brings us yet another reminder that the natural forces governing this planet are troubled and unstable.
Yes, nature is gorgeous and inspiring, but it’s also monstrous and inhuman.
In 2004, it was the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230000 people.
In 2005, we encountered Hurricane Katrina, and who can forget 2010, the earthquake in Haiti that cost another 220000 people their lives.
The tsunami in Japan, at least 15000. Natural calamities rage in our world.
Costing us countless billions of dollars and more significantly hundreds of thousands of lives.
We are all familiar with these events, but natural disaster raises many questions.
Questions about the nature of our security, about our fear of the uncontrollable and especially about the character of god.
These questions need answers, but I’d like to open our discussion today By telling you about a biblical character who experienced 2 natural disasters in the space of 24 hours, and his name, of course, is Job.
The first few verses of the book of Job tell us about the man.
Tell us about, first of all, his faith.
Scripture says that he was a man who was blameless and upright and feared god and shunned evil.
He’s also distinguished as a man of great fortune.
The Bible tells us that he had possessions, 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 Yoke of ox and 500 female donkeys, a very large household.
And the Bible says that this man was the greatest of all the people in the east.
Job was also a family man.
The first chapter of Job tells us that he raised sons and daughters who were close knit They held incredible birthday parties every year.
And the Bible tells us that every time they had a birthday party, Job would offer a sacrifice to god on behalf of his children.
Oh, yes, Job was a man who had great faith and fortune, and he was also a great family man.
He was also a man with many friends.
We know about some of his friends because we meet them in the book of Job.
We might not say they were the greatest of friends, but they were Job’s friends as we know.
And what we know about them is that when Job went through some great trials in his life, these friends traveled from many miles away The scripture says they sat with him in silence for 7 straight days out of compassion for his loss and his suffering.
What those friends couldn’t have known and what Job himself didn’t know was what I remember saying when I taught the book of Job, that god had made a deal with the devil.
That doesn’t seem like something you would ever say or even hear, but it’s true.
God made a deal with Satan about Job. In fact, the words of it are recorded in the first chapter.
Let me read them for you from the eighth verse.
The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth?
A blameless and upright man 1 who fears god and shuns evil.
So Satan answered the lord, and he said, does Job fear god for nothing?
I mean, have you not made a hedge around him and around his household and around all that he has on every side?
You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased.
But now scratch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.
And the Lord said to Satan, Behold,
all that he has is in your power.
Only do not lay a hand on his person So Satan went out from the presence of the lord armed with god’s permission, Satan went to work, and Job’s ruin came rapidly.
It began during 1 of those birthday feasts that I talked to you about.
With the sons and daughters all gathered together, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
A messenger comes to the family home and approaches Job with disturbing news.
Sabian Raiders have descended upon the estate, hijacked Job’s cattle, killed all of his servants And this messenger is the only 1 left alive so that he could come and tell Job what had happened.
Yet even before he has finished with his account, before Job has taken it all in, the door opens and another messenger stands there.
He is pale. His eyes are wide as he whispers The fire of god fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants.
And the third messenger brings news that the chaldeans have raided and stolen the camels, killing the servants, and yes, only 1 is left to come with the bad news.
While Job is trying to make sense out of this and form some sort of recovery plan, the last shoe drops.
In verse 18 of the first chapter of Job we read, while he was still speaking, another also came and said, your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their older brother’s house, and suddenly a gray wind came from across the wilderness.
Does that sound familiar? A great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the 4 corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead.
And I alone have escaped to tell you.
Can you imagine taking in such news in the course of 1 day.
He was devoted to his children.
He was constantly bringing them before god, But for all of his intercession, they have died in 1 foul blow.
He faces 10 fresh graves and an aching silence from heaven. Why god, why, and there is no answer.
Since bible scholars believe that Job is the old book in the Bible, we now know that the problem of natural calamities has been with us for as long as man has walked upon the earth.
The Bible doesn’t gloss over the tougher questions in life. It doesn’t leave out the difficult stories.
We’re invited to stand with Job in the cemetery, looking down at the ashes of his dreams, and along with him to ask god, why?
The first question that this story and all natural disasters provoke is this.
What do these recurring disasters say about god? Natural disasters, and the reality of god.
Let me say to you this morning, my friends, that if you came thinking that I was gonna answer all your questions about disasters and why they happen.
I cannot do that nor can any other person do that because that would involve looking into the very heart of god and knowing what god knows, and I cannot know that.
But just because I cannot know everything does not mean I shouldn’t take the things I can know and use them to help me comprehend, at least in some way, why these things happen and how we should respond.
So let me tell you some things about god and disasters.
First of all, god cannot be divorced from disasters.
Some people say that the way you handle the questions of disasters and calamities in the world is just to say, god didn’t have anything to do with it.
This explanation goes something like this. God created the world, but he’s not involved in the operation of the world.
If you’ve ever studied theology, you know that this is the doctrine of deism.
Deism believes that we have a creator god and that we have a god who will judge us someday, but the interval between creation and judgment god is silent and inactive and has nothing to do with anything that’s happening in the world.
He is an absentee god. When I was finished with my deal with cancer now almost 20 years ago, uh, my oncologist asked if I would be a part of a debate with a rabbi who had the same disease I had.
I’ll never forget that. And we each got to get up and talk about our cancer and our faith.
He wanted to go first, and so he did.
And he got up, and he said something like this.
People ask me all the time, do I pray to god about my illness And he said, I tell them no.
Since I
know god had nothing whatsoever to
do with my being sick, why should I expect that he would ever have anything to do with my getting well?
I don’t pray to a god like that because my god has nothing to do with going on on this earth.
Then I
got up and told everybody how good god had been to me and how he’d healed me.
All I remember at the end of the event was I was standing there with Donna, and there was a whole line of people waiting to talk to me and out of the corner of my eye,
I looked over, and he was over there all by himself.
Because nobody wants to talk to somebody who doesn’t believe god’s involved in the world today.
What would be the purpose of that?
I could not help but wonder what he talked about in his synagogue from week to week.
But we want to believe that some of us.
We want to believe that there’s these evil things are so evil that god couldn’t be a part of it.
I think a lot of Christians adopt a sort of deism in an attempt to get god off the hook.
I really do. I mean, it allows us to affirm the goodness of god in the face of terrible evils just by saying, it’s not god’s fault.
He created a good world, and he shouldn’t be blamed if the good world goes wrong. Another
way, we extricate god from responsibility for disasters is to blame all of
them on Satan. Does Satan have something to do with evil in the world? Absolutely.
But we know from our study of Job that Satan cannot do anything without god’s permission.
And if Satan has to get permission from god to do what he does, then god is still in control, and he reigns in the affairs of men.
People sense that he is involved in these things, because even the secular newscasters called these events acts of god.
If you don’t know that term, read your insurance policy. Yeah.
You know, you all know what I’m talking about.
You know, If god does it, you don’t get any money for it, right? Acts of god.
So for us to say that god is not involved in these cataclysmic events is too simple.
Whether it’s comfortable or not, we discussed this issue with theological clarity, the Bible teaches that god is sovereign, that he reigns in the nice moments and in the moments that aren’t so nice.
Let’s look at some of the reasons why disaster can exist in a world that god controls.
First of all, god employs the elements of nature in the operation of the world.
God didn’t just create the world and then go off and leave it to run by itself The Bible teaches us that the god we serve is a hands on god who’s involved in every detail of life.
In fact, I wanna read to you a passage from the book of Job, where Job describes god’s involvement with the issues of the world.
Here it is, and I’ll put it up on the screen, but I’ll read it to you.
For god says to the snow, fall on the earth.
Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of his strength, by the breath of god ice is given.
And the broad waters are frozen. Also with moisture, he saturates the thick clouds.
He scatters his bright clouds, and they swirl about being turned by his guidance.
That they may do whatever he commands them on the face of the whole earth.
God does that.
God’s involved in the details of every day, in the weather, in the natural things.
We do right to pray to god over those issues.
But not only does god employ the elements of nature in the operation of the world, we all know from our study of the Bible that sometimes He employs the elements of nature in his opposition to evil.
I mean, we’re hardly out of the first few chapters of the book of Genesis when we are introduced to a flood that god sent upon a sin blackened world sparing only Noah and his righteous family.
Later, god sent judgment upon Dathan abiram Korra because of the rejection hint.
I want you to hear the words that the scripture uses to describe what happened to them.
In numbers chapter 16, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and all of their goods.
God did that. God sent fire to destroy sodom and Gamora because of their wickedness.
He sent plagues to punish Egypt.
He crafted a plague that killed 70000 men because of David’s sin in numbering his people.
And he sent a fierce storm to get Jonah’s attention and bring him to repentance so he could go to nineveh and preach the gospel.
Men and women,
I don’t know all the answers to this, but
I wanna tell you when we distance god from responsibility for the things that go on in our world, we are claiming more than we know.
For listen, if god is not in control of the world’s disasters, then how can we depend on him to be in control of our lives and our future.
Either he is involved in all of the world’s operation, or he is not involved in any of the world’s operation.
God cannot be divorced from disasters. Number 2, god cannot be discredited by disasters.
Some people believe the way you deal with these issues is just to say, Well, sure, these things happen.
There is no god. God doesn’t exist. Some people remove god from the equation entirely.
He simply doesn’t exist. They argue and disasters are all the proof that we need.
After the Asian tsunami, a commentator in Scotland’s newspaper, the herald wrote these words in its newspaper.
God, if there is
a god, should be ashamed
of himself. The sheer enormity of the Asian tsunami disaster, the death, the destruction, havoc it wreaked, the scale of misery it has caused must surely test the faith of even the firmest believer.
I hope I am right that there is no god For if there were, then he’d have to shoulder the blame.
In my book, he would be as guilty as sin, and I’d want nothing to do with him.
Wait a minute. You can’t do that.
You can’t say, well, the reason we have all these disasters is because here it is. There’s no god.
As if disasters prove that we don’t have a god. But let me just share with you the
reasoning of 1 man who realized it wasn’t that at all.
It was exactly the opposite. CS Lewis once an atheist himself said disasters became a proof for him of god’s existence.
Here’s his reasoning. Put on your thinking cap. He’s a smart dude.
He said, my argument against god was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.
But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?
A man does not call
a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.
What was I comparing this universe with when called it unjust.
If the whole show was bad and senseless from a to z so to speak, why did I who was supposed to be part of the show find myself in violent reaction against it.
Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that god did not exist, In other words, that the whole of reality was senseless.
I found I was forced to assume that 1 part of reality namely my idea of justice was full of sense.
Consequently, atheism turns out to be too simple.
If the whole of the universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.
Just as if there were no light in the universe, Therefore, no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark.
Dark would be without meaning. Everybody go, I told you he was smart.
1 thing we often overlook when we’re reasoning about god and things that we don’t understand is that the massive deaths that were caused by disaster cannot discredit god any more than a single death can discredit him.
We know who brought death into the world, and it wasn’t god.
And we must remember that every 1 of the people who died in the Haiti earthquake would eventually have died anyway.
And the fact that they died simultaneously is really no more tragic than if their death had been spread out over the next several decades.
It’s just that the sudden and unexpected simultaneous deaths shock us more.
Death is in our world because the devil is the prince of death.
And 1 of these days, he will be gone But right now, he’s still at work. Is he not?
God cannot be divorced from disaster. He cannot be discredited by disaster. Notice this 1.
He cannot be defined by disaster. Listen carefully.
In the aftermath of every disaster, we often hear something like this.
Well, I could never believe in a god who would allow such awful things to happen to his creatures.
And those who define god solely by the evil he allows overlook the flip side of their complaint.
Yes. There’s evil in the world, but there’s also an enormous amount of good.
If god is not good as they claim, How do they account for all of the good we experience?
Is it fair to judge him for the evil and not credit him with the good?
In his book, where was God or when Lutzer writes these words, he said, often the same people who asked where god was following a disaster thanklessly refused to worship and honor him for years of peace and calmness.
They disregard god in good times yet think he is obligated to provide help when bad times come.
They believe the god they dishonor when they are well should heal them when they are sick.
They think the god they ignore when they are wealthy should rescue them from impending poverty.
And they believe that the god they refuse to worship when the earth is still should rescue them when it begins to shake.
Isn’t that interesting? There’s no denying that we live in a world where many bad things happen.
And much of it seems undeserved.
1 writer that I read asked this question, why do bad things happen to good people?
And he answered with these words. The Christian answer is that there are no good people.
None of us deserves the life that we have. Which is a gratuitous gift from god.
God is loving and his gifts abound in our world and so does his discipline, and that is why we must refuse to let only 1 side of the equation define god for us.
He’s a good god, and we are all we are all representatives of his goodness.
Number 4, god cannot be defeated by his disasters.
When disasters happen, we are sometimes tempted to think like this. Oops.
God lost it, slipped out of his hands.
He no longer is in control. God tried to do this thing, and it didn’t work.
Now, I mean, you, you don’t have to
go very far to realize that can’t be true because god doesn’t have oops in his vocabulary.
When disasters happen, How should we think about god?
Well, let me let god answer that for himself right out of the scripture from Isaiah 46 verses 9 through 11.
Listen to these words, For I am god, and there is no other.
I am god, and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient time things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
Indeed, I have spoken it I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will do it.
1 reason we fear disasters is that their occurrence makes it seem that god is not in control.
That somehow things have slipped out of his grasp.
And at such times, we must remember that a single thread in the grand tapestry of god’s major weaving cannot be comprehended by someone like you or me.
Our view is way too limited to perceive any ultimate meaning in a calamity.
How our present suffering, for instance, fits into the overall purpose and plan of god.
Yet as Paul tells us, we know that all things work together for good to those who love god.
To those who are the called according to his purpose.
Like every other part of this very difficult subject we’re talking about this morning, This verse is easy to confuse in its meaning.
So listen carefully. As James Montgomery Bois tells us, Paul is not saying that evil things are good.
The text does not teach that sickness and suffering and persecution and grief, or any other such thing, is itself good.
On the contrary, these things are evil. Hate is not love. Death is not life. Grief is not joy.
The world is filled with evil, but what the text teaches is.
That god uses these things evil as they are to affect his own good purposes for his people.
God used the crucifixion of a perfect Christ for wonderful purposes.
In god’s wise and powerful hands, evil events are used by god as tools to work toward good things.
And the clue in Romans 8 is in the ordering of the words.
Listen to how this reads in the Greek text.
We know that for those who love god, he is working. He’s working.
When everything’s upside down and you can’t figure it out, you can know 1 thing. God’s working. He’s at work.
And you know the word all things work together in that text is the word, uh, from the Greek language, from which we get our word synergism.
God is synergistically working all things.
And synergism is a word that means a lot of different elements that are a part of something that when you put them together, they become greater than the independent value of each of the parts.
And sometimes they become something totally different than what the parts would dictate they might become.
The Bible says that when things happen in our lives, then we don’t
know what’s going on, and we can’t figure it out,
and we’re looking around thinking, what was that? God is working.
We don’t know what he’s doing.
We may not find out in this life, but you can be be sure of it. He is working.
He is working. He is ceaselessly energetically purposefully active in our behalf. He is involved.
He is busy creating something greater than the disaster could ever be.
That’s what I know about disaster and god.
It’s not everything I wish I knew, not everything that answers all my questions, But these points of light help me comprehend what I should think about when disaster happens.
Now, Let me turn the page as we come, uh, around the circle here.
We’ve talked about disasters and the responsibilities of god.
Now I want to talk about natural disasters and the responsibilities of man.
In the midst of pain and grief, how should we respond?
What does a disaster say to me? What does this say to you?
When we see these things happening around our world, what do these disasters say?
Well, we can pick up some clues from
the scripture if we look carefully. First thing that disaster should do is teach us to repent of our sin.
In the book of Luke, in the thirteenth chapter, there’s a little story, and Jesus is talking, and he’s talking to his disciples, and he’s saying to them, I wanna ask you
a question. Do you know these people that were killed when did something and a bunch of
innocent people were killed, and, and, yeah, and you remember when the tower of Salem fell and a bunch of innocent people were killed and 18 people, I think, were killed when the tower fell.
Jesus then asked him the question, and he said this,
were the people who were killed more sinful than the people who survived.
In other words, did the tower fall and did pilot kill all those people because they were more sinful than the people who survived.
And then Jesus answered his own question. He said, no. No. That’s not true.
But then he went on to say, we all perish unless we repent.
In other words, he said, quit arguing about what happened and ask yourself this question, if I had been the result of that accident, would I be okay today?
Am I ready to meet god? Have I repented?
That’s what he said we should learn from disasters.
I know when you read about people losing their lives and fires and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes and and tsunamis, do you ever wonder when you hear about them if they were prepared to meet their god.
Does the question cause you ever to examine your own readiness?
I mean, god uses disasters and tragedies to accomplish his perfect will in us and through us, and sometimes he uses tragedies to bring us to himself in the first place.
Sometimes god uses difficulties to bring us to Christ.
He may be working on some of you here today just like that.
Disasters drive some people away from god, but they drive some people toward god.
So disasters teach us to repent of our sin, and they also teach us to reflect on god’s goodness.
You say, how can a disaster help you reflect on god’s goodness? Hang with me here.
When I watch reports of the natural disasters as they are instantaneously delivered to us by the media.
My first thoughts are the many lives lost and the many families torn apart.
But I have also found myself experiencing a sense of gratitude that my family and people I know were not touched by these events, and I have to tell you sometimes I feel guilty about that.
Sometimes I think, well, that’s not right.
I shouldn’t feel good about that, but I have come to understand that it is proper to be grateful that I have been saved even while I mourn for those who have been lost.
If we wait until there are no losses before we are grateful to god for what he does for us, we will never be grateful 1 minute in our lives.
And sometimes when you see the possibility of tragedy and disaster, and tsunamis and hurricanes and floods and all of that, and you realize that didn’t touch me.
That didn’t touch my family. It didn’t touch my kids.
It didn’t touch the people I love around me didn’t touch the people in the church. I pastor.
It’s okay for you to give praise to the lord for that.
And to thank him for his grace and goodness that the disaster did not come upon you.
God’s blessings abound, my friends, and they are the norm, and it’s proper to be grateful for them at all times.
Regardless of what the circumstances might be.
Number 3, disasters teach us to respond to the hurting. Listen carefully.
When disasters happen, we should not be so concerned about the answers as to why.
We should be asking god how can we help.
I need to tell you that in the disasters that have dotted our landscape here in America over the last several years, were it not for Christians intervening?
The disasters would have had a far more tragic impact You ask the people around the world, where has the help come from, and they will tell you in 1 breath it has come from the people of god.
It has come from organizations like Franklin Graham leads, Samaritan’s purse, where they just pick up everything and send trucks and people and volunteers and they go in, and they minister to those who are hurting.
When someone turns to us and says to us why?
We should say at that moment, I’d love to sit down with you over coffee and help you work out those questions, but right now, I’m here to help you.
What can I do to make your load lighter?
Surely, 1 of the things that should happen, when disaster happens is we should reach out to the hurting.
If the body of Christ doesn’t do that, then pray tell who will?
Number 4, disasters teach us to remember god’s promise.
God has given us a spectacular all encompassing promise that provides the ultimate cure for our fear of disaster.
I’m gonna read it to you and then make a few comments about it.
Revelation 21, 3, and 4, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold the tabernacle of god is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
God himself will be with them and be their god. And god will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying.
There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away.
Disaster remind us that god didn’t never intended for this world to be our final home.
In fact, these disasters put within us a hunger and a longing for a place where there are no disasters, where there is no death where pain and suffering and crying is a matter of history, not a present experience.
It’s like the old spiritual that we used to sing says, this world is not my home.
I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The calamities we experience are only temporary phenomena.
Each disaster reminds us that a disaster free eternity awaits us and it inspires our heart.
To long for it. Disaster teach us to remember god’s promise.
And finally, disasters teach us to rely on god’s presence and his power.
We began this message by telling the story of Job. Job got through that.
It was, you know, if you read the book, it’s a long arduous process.
But along the way, Job has his moments of strength. And power.
Along the way, Job can cry out in victory like he does in Job 13 15.
Though he slay me, yet I will trust him.
Later on, in the nineteenth chapter of Job, we hear him speaking.
These words I know that my redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth.
And after my skin is destroyed, this, I know that in my flesh, I shall see god whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another how my heart yearns within me.
And finally, you get all the way to the end of the book of Job in the 40 second chapter.
Job says this. I have heard of you god by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job said before all these things happened to me,
I could hear you god,
but when these things happened to me, now I can see you.
How many of you know that often when you go through difficult times and times of suffering and pressure, you have a view of god you could never have had before.
He draws close to you. You don’t just know about him, now you know him.
He becomes your present helper in the midst of the distress.
And out of it, you grow to be somebody you couldn’t have been without it.
All of us know that. We’re shaking our heads up and down.
Several years ago, Don and I were reminded of an example of this message when we were visiting Israel.
We were in Jerusalem.
I need to tell you, we happen to make, uh, serious mistake if you’re a bread lover.
Don’t go to Israel during the Passover. Because there ain’t no bread in Israel during the Passover.
And, you know, I,
I don’t eat bread now, but back then I used to love bread, and I went for about 5 days without any bread.
And I said, man, is there any place in this city that’s got bread?
And my friend Steve Dick said, yeah, there’s a there’s an American restaurant called uh, the American Colony Hotel restaurant.
Let’s go over there to eat.
So we did, and and we got there to lunch, and we sat down to eat, and We were getting settled and kinda looking at the menu, and the Mader D came in and handed us all a
small brochure that told the story of the hotel and its restaurant.
I was shocked to discover that the hotel we were eating belonged to the family of Horatio Spafford.
Horatio Spafford is the man who wrote the words to my favorite gospel hymn.
It is well with my soul.
I’ve often told the story of how that song was written, but when I read the brochure that they handed me, it was filled with facts I had never before heard.
So I thought I would tell you that story in conclusion today.
In 18 71, Horatio Spafford lived in the Lakeview suburb of Chicago.
He was a young lawyer and his wife, Anna, and he had 4 little girls.
In October of that year, the whole center of the city of Chicago was devastated by a fire.
No 1 knew who started it, but it killed hundreds of people and destroyed whole sections of the city.
All across town people were wandering homeless and hungry and the Spaffords were deeply involved in doing what they could do to help families in distress, but it was no short term ministry.
And 2 years later, are living like that every day, they were totally exhausted from their work.
And so they plan to go to Europe for a time of vacation and rest.
At the last minute, business kept horatio in town, but he took his wife, Anna, and the 4 girls to the ship, they boarded, and they left harbor.
Late 1 night, during the voyage, another ship rammed into theirs, and their ship sunk within 20 minutes.
Only 47 people were rescued from the ship.
Anna was pulled from the water unconscious she’d been found floating on a piece of debris, but the 4 spafford girls all perished and died.
Anna got to the shore. She sent a telegram from Paris to her husband.
Here was the telegram. Saved alone. What should I do?
She remarked to another passenger that god had given her 4 daughters, and he had taken them away.
And that perhaps someday she would understand why.
Haratia was on his way to find his wife and bring her home.
And the ship’s path on which he was traveling crossed the very point where his daughters had been lost.
The captain called him to his cabin and told him so and Horatio deeply moved, found a piece of paper from the hotel in which he had stayed before the voyage, and he jotted down the words to It is well with my soul, which has now become 1 of the world’s most famous hymns, while I was at the hotel, They gave me a a copy of that, that piece of stationery.
There it is on the screen.
You can’t read the words But that’s an actual copy of the page on which, uh, were handwritten the words to it as well with my soul.
It’s 1 of my great treasure in my study.
Well, Harisho got his wife, and they went home.
Back in Chicago, they tried to start all over again. A son was born to
them, and then another beautiful daughter, maybe the worst was over.
But then another tragedy, their 4 year old boy died of scarlet fever.
In explicably, the family’s church took the view that these tragedies were surely the punishment of a wrathful god upon this family for some unspecified sin that they had apparently committed.
Harratio Spafford was an elder in the church.
He had helped build this church, and rather than being comforted by a healing community, He and his family were asked to leave the church because they perceive them to be evil.
Of all the things in that story, that’s the 1 that I could not comprehend.
How could a church be that cruel to someone who needed them?
Well, in 18 81, they decided that they would leave America and begin a new life in Jerusalem.
So they rented a house in the old city, and their goal was to imitate the lives of first century Christians as closely as possible.
And soon the family was widely known for their love and their service to the needy, as well as for their devotion to the scriptures.
And today, the Spafford Children Center serves Jerusalem and the West Bank by providing health care and educational support to as many as 30000 children every year under the leadership of the Spafford’s descendants.
Out of the ashes of their tragedy almighty God raised up a work that we could not possibly comprehend.
Does that take away the sorrow of the lost children? No.
But it shows you that even in the midst of the most difficult things that happen, he is working.
He is working. Anurachio Spafford suffered these testings of their faith, but they did not blame god for their suffering.
They knew he was in control of all things, and because he could not be defeated neither could they?
So their faith allowed them to learn through their testings and to use their pain to bless others.
And further the gospel. And god is the same god today as he was then.
What happens in these tragedies, if you watch carefully and listen and look, here and there will be something that comes out of them.
That is for god in his glory.
I do not mean to be insensitive to the hurt and loss of those who experience this, nor do I have any ability to tell you all the reasoning behind why it was allowed to happen?
I do know this. We serve a good god.
We are limited in our ability to understand his heart, but 1 day, when we’re seated around the throne, we shall ask him this question.
And I’m sure his answer will be better than mine has been.
But I want you to read with me the scripture verse for today Let’s all stand to our feet.
Here’s a verse of scripture to put
in your little notebook, and remember this verse when somebody asks you, this is what we know for sure.
We don’t know a lot of things for sure, but we know this for sure.
Let’s read it out loud. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with it’s swelling.
If your world is shaken by disaster, The first thing you’ll likely seek is shelter.
It’s a natural human response. The same is true on a spiritual level.
Isn’t it comforting to know that we have a refuge in god himself?
Think of the peace and security we can joy in the arms of our creator.
Of course, god gives us more than refuge.
He invites us to have a personal relationship with him through his son Jesus Christ.
And it is my deepest hope that you have entered to that relationship.
To help you know god and grow in Him, I’d love to send you 2 free A booklet called your greatest turning point, and our monthly devotional magazine, turning points.
We’ll gladly send them both to you at no garge, if you will contact us here at turning point.
Next time on turning point.
Prairie changes things, not just us, but prayer changes things, prayer changed things for hezekiah when he prayed.
And that ought to remind us that there’s a lot that we can do, but there’s nothing we can ever do that’s more powerful or more important than to pray.
Thank you for being with us today. Join doctor Jeremiah next time for his message.
Disease, the fear of serious illness.
Here on turning point.