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Responding to Calamities

Responding to Calamities. Saturday Service 29 Mar 2014 Cecil Ang. Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts ,  neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord .

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Responding to Calamities

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  1. Responding to Calamities Saturday Service 29 Mar 2014 Cecil Ang

  2. Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

  3. Calamitous Events Calamity is defined as a great misfortune or disaster bringing grievous affliction Examples • 2001: 9/11 • 2003: SARS • 2004: Boxing Day South Asian tsunami • 2011: Mar 11 earthquake-cum-tsunami in Japan • 2014: Mar 8 disappearance of MH370

  4. Truths • Evil originates in the heart of man. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Jas 1:13-15 NIV

  5. Evil activities will increase God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; … Rom 1:28-30 NIV

  6. Truths • Believers are not spared from the effects of evil. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword.

  7. Believers are not exempt from evil They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Heb11:35-40 NIV

  8. Luke 13:1-5 NIV Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

  9. Truths • The tragic suffering or untimely death of people is not due to the fact that they were worse sinners. “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plowevil and those who sow trouble reap it.At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.” Job 4:7-9 NIV

  10. Truths • God can use natural disasters or sicknesses to be His instruments of judgment. As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. Num 16:31-33 NIV

  11. Wicked did not repent The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts. Rev 9:20-21 NASB

  12. Luke 7:11-15 NKJV Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. 12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.

  13. Truths • Death does not have the final word in life. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep … For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 1 Cor 15:20,22-23 NIV

  14. Job 1:6-22 NIV 6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

  15. Job 1:6-22 NIV 9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

  16. Job 1:6-22 NIV 13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” 16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

  17. Job 1:6-22 NIV 17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” 18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

  18. Job 1:6-22 NIV 20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,    and naked I will depart.The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;    may the name of the Lord be praised.” 22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

  19. Truths • God allows Satan to work his diabolical plans through His permissive will. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 1 Jn 5:19 NIV The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.” Luke 4:5-6 NIV

  20. Pray for Protection And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Mt 6:13 NIV My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. Jn17:15 NIV

  21. Truths • Satan is constantly accusing us before God but Christ is always making intercession on our behalf. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” Rev 12:10 NIV Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Heb 7:25 NIV

  22. Christ’s intercession for Peter “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Lk 22:31-32 NIV

  23. Truths • God will not allow us to be tempted (by Satan) beyond our ability to bear it. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 Cor 10:13 NIV

  24. Truths (Summary) • Evil originates in the heart of man. • Believers are not spared from the effects of evil. • The tragic suffering or untimely death of people is not due to the fact that they were worse sinners. • God can use natural disasters or sicknesses to be His instruments of judgment. • Death does not have the final word in life. • God allows Satan to work his diabolical plans through His permissive will. • Satan is constantly accusing us before God but Christ is always making intercession on our behalf. • God will not allow us to be tempted (by Satan) beyond our ability to bear it.

  25. Problem of pain and suffering For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Phil 1:29 NIV “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C. S. Lewis The Problem of Pain

  26. How should we respond to calamity? • Repentance: change of life’s direction; towards God rather than away from Him • Compassion: reaching out to those afflicted with kindness and love • Worship: acknowledging God as our Sovereign Creator despite the circumstances of life

  27. Rom 8:35, 37–39 NASB 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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