A Hymn for Such a Time as This: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and Grandpa Caraway’s Birthday! PLUS: God’s Miracles for Me!
Pastor Dewey Moede
I was reading a post on Facebook that was blaming our government for this pandemic. People love to blame others so much in these days for our difficulties. My Daddy always taught me not to blame others for my problems. Let us look to JESUS in all we do and say. Hear the birds sing today……..peace and good health be with you and yours. Please spend much time in the Word of God and in prayer. We are stronger together. My prayer is that through this difficult time it will bring us all closer to God and each other. The end of hate and division. Today is the birthday of my Grandpa Floyd Caraway, pictured above with my Grandma! I also posted a picture of their farm. Grandpa was born in 1895 in Alden, Iowa and entered heaven in 1989. Grandpa farmed 7 miles south of my hometown Windom, Minnesota. Grandpa went though many hardships as a farmer, but he always kept his eyes on JESUS! AMEN! I learned much from my Grandpa and Grandma Lena, such a very sweet, loving Christian couple! PTL! I pray that you have had and do have people in your life that help you in your walk with JESUS! I have been so super blessed in my life with so many Christian role models! This is one of the main reasons I love to PREACH! I want to give back all the love and care I have received in my 64 years!
God is a God of miracles….God healed me of a severe hip disease, I had to wear a full leg brace for almost 2 years starting out when I was 4 1/2-years-old. The Doctor told Mom and Dad I may never walk or run like the other kids! I am 64 and Lord willing I will be playing softball again this year! I run Daisy almost everyday at the Park!!! The Lord also did another miracle for me, HE healed me of diabetes! I take no medication anymore for it! The Doctor said I no longer have diabetes! I had friends say I would never go off the medicine!!! BUT GOD HAD OTHER PLANS! God told me to change my diet, I did that very moment when the Doctor said I had diabetes! 180 degree change right away! After 11 months NO MORE DIABETES! GOD GAVE ME THE WILL POWER TO CHANGE MY DIET AND DEFEAT DIABETES!!!!
I have many more miracles in my life from our LORD! This is why I preach! What are the miracles you have received from God?
I pray this inspires you to no end! Amen! We love Dr. Jim Denison so very much! We love you all!
When the plague came to Wittenberg
The bubonic plague struck Wittenberg, Germany, in August of 1527. This disease was especially horrific: in just one day, an infected person could show signs of delirium, fever, speech disorders, and loss of consciousness. Soon after, they would break out in large boils that infected the bloodstream and rapidly led to their death.
Martin Luther and his wife Katharina, who was pregnant at the time, were urged to flee the city. However, they chose to stay in order to minister to the sick and dying.
When asked by Christians in another city for advice, Luther wrote a pamphlet that is as remarkable today as when he produced it. Titled “Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague,” it combines realism and faith in a way that is powerfully relevant to our crisis.
Luther counseled his readers to utilize medicine and intelligence “to guard and to take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.” As a result, he stated, “I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it.” He also practiced what we call social distancing: “I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.”
With this caveat: “If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely.” He understood the urgency of sharing the gospel so as to lead the sick to saving faith before they died and to minister to believers in their final days.
“Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die”
As it turned out, Martin and Katharina Luther were spared from the plague. But they did not know this when they chose to stay behind to care for the sick of their community.
They could risk their lives to serve others because they were not afraid to die. Their hope was in proper procedures and medical treatments, but even more, it was in Christ. They trusted their Lord to protect them in life and to bring them to heaven in death, whenever it came.
My point is not that we should refuse the urgent calls to social distancing that are absolutely crucial to slowing the spread of the pandemic. To the contrary, as one primary care physician notes, we must adopt such critical measures immediately.
My point is that choosing to hope in God as the Luthers did sustains us as nothing else can. It reminds us that the worst that can happen to us leads to the best that can happen to us. The moment we close our eyes on this diseased, fallen planet, we open them in God’s perfect paradise. When we take our last breath here, we take our first breath there.
As Jesus said, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).
“He must win the battle”
To help us claim such hope, let’s close by making Martin Luther’s most famous hymn our confession. He wrote “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” two years after the plague and perhaps in response to it. It begins,
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.
He admits,
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same; and he must win the battle.
As a result, Luther concludes,
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever!
Is this hope yours today?
NOTE: As the mental and emotional strain from the COVID-19 pandemic escalates, it is vital that we fight fear with faith. To this end, I will begin writing a second, special-edition Daily Article today. It will be available each weekday afternoon by email and podcast. It will focus on a single news story, responding with one of the 365 “fear not” statements in God’s word. I hope you find it encouraging as we claim our Father’s help and hope together.
