Monthly Archives: March 2020

PROVIDENCE

PROVIDENCE

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We live in a world governed by a system of laws, natural or spiritual. But in the back of all law, natural or spiritual, there is One who upholds and controls them all, and uses them for His glory:
“…who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power,” … Hebrews 1:3 NKJV
With so much going on around the world, especially in the United States of America, it is no wonder anxiety is high. Many people are forced to stay home from work because safe distancing has become the new order of the day. Then there are others who must work to keep the rest of us safe. The first responders, emergency medical technicians, police officers, doctors, nurses; they all stand on the front line to thwart the invisible dangers head on. They too, are beginning to fall victim to this ravaging virus that have broken out among us.
I would like to offer another perspective on what appear to be a hopeless situation. I would like to steer your attention to a book that I hold above every other book on the planet. The Bible. In this book there’s a story titled after a woman named Esther. If you ever want to see and understand the Providence of God, how He work behind the scenes and, bring everything to a good and perfect end, this is the book for you. The intelligence and wisdom of Providence is revealed in this book.
A man once said, “Fate is blind. Providence has eyes. Fatalism says, whatever is, must be. Providence says, whatever God ordains must be.”
What’s really peculiar about this book is that the name of God is not found in it. Yet, His fingerprints are everywhere. From the time Esther’s’ name was placed in contention to replace Queen Vashti in the Persian empire God stood at a distance, not showing Himself openly.
This is the distinctive feature of Providence in a broad sense. Providence is secret, mysterious, and even unintelligible until its ends are revealed.
We can be sure that God is working for our good, even if we can’t see it, or understand it we can rest with confidence that:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”. Romans 8:28 NKJV

Nathaniel Stalling Jr
Elder

THIS TOO WILL PASS.

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If there is one thing, we the human race, know to be true, it is we will survive. After all, we are the crown of Gods’ creation. For there to be any other outcome would not prove we failed, but that He (God) did. We know for sure God does not fail.
Let’s look at some examples:
• When we (humans) threaten to use the divine law of unity for evil (Genesis chapter 11) God had to intervene to save us from ourselves. 4They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth”.
• When we (humans) had sank low into immoral depravity and ungodliness during the days of Noah, a preacher of righteousness, God provided safety for eight people to start again. “And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed–man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah remained, and those with him in the ark”. Genesis 7:23
• Persecution of the early church had occurred sporadically and in localized areas since its beginning. The first persecution of Christians organized by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome.
These are only a few instances, out of many, that we as Christians and, as human beings, survived.
This virus that is plaguing the whole world, this Covid-19 virus, will not win. We have faced plagues, floods, famines and persecutions before. None have proven to prevail. I can say with complete confidence that ‘THIS TOO, WILL PASS.

Nathaniel Stalling Jr

When God Speaks In Turbulent Times

WHEN GOD SPEAKS IN TURBULENT TIMES
COVID-19
A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
What does God say about times like this?
Solomon, Israel’s wisest king, wrote this in the book of Ecclesiastes:
“In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider- God has made the one as well as the other So that man will not discover anything that will be after him”. Eccles. 7:14 NASB

Just a few weeks before Easter Sunday the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is giving his daily briefing on the novel coronavirus sweeping through the United States and particularly, through his State or New York.
New York, as governor Cuomo puts it, is the proverbial canary in a coal mine. He lays out the staggering number of cases and deaths that seem to double daily. He seems to make it plain that this isn’t some foreign far away problem. He implies that what you see happening in New York is coming to your neighborhood, soon.
Washington State, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and, Louisiana are beginning to show signs of internal stress on their hospitals/medical systems. All fifty states are under some form of government shelter-in-place order. For the first time in modern history all of the major institutions of worship closed. The Vatican cancels public participation at pope’s Easter events due to Covid-19. These are unprecedented measures in modern times.
There are some that refuse to adhere to such restrictive measures that our scientists, medical professionals and, ministers of faith are suggesting. Instead, some are going about saying that God does not want us to live in fear. I beg to differ. You had better fear. Anything less would leave you and your loved ones vulnerable to a needless death.

Paul, writing to the Christians at Corinth, said:
“I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling…” I Cor. 2:3 NASB
The light and shade in man’s life are equally under God’s ordering and permission.
Fear is not something that we can altogether do away with. It has a place and, a part to play in our lives. It keeps a proper restraint on our, sometimes, abuse of freedoms:
“And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy but with fear, loathing even the clothing spotted and polluted by their shameless immoral freedom”. Jude 22, 23 AMP
My hope and prayer is that you stay safe and not abuse your freedom.

Nathaniel Stalling Jr
Elder