How do you think God is active in the world?
It was the Sunday after Easter, and I'm learning that I can't/shouldn't preach the week following a major religious holiday. So I spent most of the week lounging around Dolphin Bay in Pranburi Province just outside of 300 Peaks National Park. It's an absolutely serene part of Thailand. Quiet, beautiful and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered for a tired pastor after Easter.
Four full days at Dolphin Bay were spent around the pool and beach with the occasional checking in to see what was going on in Bangkok. Around mid-week, the government declared a State Of Emergency (gives power to the military to clean things up). Everyone knew it was coming. You can't just paralyze the central shopping district (which is what the opposition "redshirts" did) without some response.
From the time the SOE was declared, the only real question was "when?" a violent confrontation would start.
We returned to Bangkok on Friday. Tension was in the air. The violence started in earnest on Saturday around 2pm. That's when soldiers moved in mass on two key protest sites. Current count is 21 dead and over 800 wounded in the clashes. As Christians - what do we make of this? As people who believe in God - how do we (or do we) see God active in our world at times like this.
On Sunday - Andrew Dircks preached a very practical and clear sermon on this question from the book of Daniel. Here is a link to his notes.
Some of the most salient points where...
* God cares about even the seemingly insignificant parts of life (Ref: Daniel refusing to eat anything but vegetables). If you care about it, you can rest assured that God cares about it.
* Your faithfulness makes a big difference. (Ref: when told he had to give up praying to God for a month, Daniel not only refused but threw open the windows of his house so that everyone could see him praying).
* Even when things are going crazy around you and things seem impossible, "there is a God in heaven".
Thanks Andrew for bringing the gospel to us in the morning.
In the evening Mark preached. His was a very different and very personal sermon from Romans 8. Mark emphasized that "nothing can separate us from the love of God" and he illustrated it with some painful and very vulnerable stories from his own life. He challenges us to stretch the way we see God's love. It's not about boundaries, but about closeness.
Thanks Mark for bringing the gospel in the evening. I hope to have Mark's text later in the week.
I'm off from the pulpit for the next two weeks. Will be back in May with a super-exciting, transformative, mindblowing sermon series on Doubt and how to make Doubt into a constructive and authentic part of faith. While I'm away - I will still be doing my Sunday blogging, and probably a little more. For instance, tomorrow I'm going to post something about the wedding I officiated on Saturday. Very unique.
Grace and peace to everyone.
