In Everything Give Thanks...

My heart is full. I cried more over the Word of God today than I have in a very long time. It was a cathartic, soul-cleansing kind of cry. Psalm 69. Deuteronomy 9 and 10. Luke 8-14. It seemed everywhere I turned in the Word of God a sword cut deep, piercing even to the joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intents of my heart. In Psalm 69 I thought of the suffering ones in the hospitals, alone and apart from their families: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.… I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none.” They are alone in their suffering. No visitors allowed.

I thank God for His kindness. If he marked our transgressions who would stand?

I thank God for heroic doctors, nurses, EMS workers, and other public service workers out there helping our friends and neighbors, and all the random strangers in this city. We are palpably needy. Emergency vehicles sound what seems like a perpetual wail of sirens.

I thank God for the good work He is doing in and through our friends Gary and Anne Swartzentruber in Georgia, whose hospital is currently over-run and under-sourced. Gary, a doctor, cares for his patients each day, while Anne, his wife, is organizing a community-wide effort to sew masks.

I thank God for David Wilkerson who, though he is no longer alive, has a prophetic voice that lives on. Someone shared on FB a prophetic message from Mr. Wilkernson: “I see a plague coming on the world, and the bars, churches and government will shut down. The plague will hit New York City and shake it like it has never been shaken. The plague is going to force prayerless believers into radical prayer and into their Bibles, and repentance will be the cry from the man of God in the pulpit. And out of it will come a third Great Awakening that will sweep America and the world.”
-David Wilkerson in 1986 (Can anyone confirm if this is from “Set The Trumpet To Thy Mouth”?)

I thank God for His Kingdom that will never be shaken.

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:25-29)

I thank God for trials and troubles and crazy times that help us to draw near to God, and He to us.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (II Corinthians 4:17-18)

Eternal weight of glory. Ah yes, I knew we were created for something more heavy than temporary amusing fluff, more real than fake news, more deep than these fear-based, mindless conspiracy theories floating, unbidden, all over the web.

I’m in, God. Weigh us down with your glory. Glorify your name in and through your people, who are called by Your name. Put your finger on the places we need to change, and change us, Lord Jesus. Cleanse these jars of clay to be useful for the Master.

​Rich