5/26/13- The Ultimate Shelter

Hear my cry, O God;

    listen to my prayer.

2 

From the ends of the earth I call to you,

    I call as my heart grows faint;

    lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 

For you have been my refuge,

    a strong tower against the foe.

4 

I long to dwell in your tent forever

    and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. (Psalm 61:1-4)

Thoughts: The shelter of God's wings shield us from the elements, the sun, the heat, the rain, the cold.  Jesus looked on Jerusalem and said how he would like to gather Jerusalem under his wings as a mother hen would gather his chicks- but they would not come (Mt. 23:37).
    God is the ultimate shelter.  He is called in scripture "the shelterer" or the "one who provides shelter" ten times, and inferred many more times.   He covers us with the pinions of his wings.  He is the ultimate shelter in life and in death.  In fact, He is the only shelter in death that promises to lead us through to more life.  

      Human shelters provide temporary shelter but not the ultimate shelter.  In the tornadoes in Moore, OK May 20, 2013, those who had shelters survived.  But in the end nothing on earth can shelter us from death.  There is an illusion that we can protect ourselves.  So Sadaam Hussein's Yugoslavian engineers promised that his bunkers were impenetrable- until the bunker busting bombs destroyed them.  So today Doomsday Preppers think they can get enough dehydrated food to ride out the end of the world (however they define that).  They deceive themselves.  Only God is the ultimate shelter and refuge.  

     If there were an attack on our land, and we knew where to find shelter, and people were inviting us to come, would we go the other way?  Yet many turn away from the shelter of the Almighty in order to go their own way.  

Prayer: Lord, shelter me in the midst of the storms of life.  I come to you in life and in death- I am yours. 

5/23/13- God as a Safe Room

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. (Psalm 27:5)

I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest.
⁷ I would flee far away and stay in the desert; 8  I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.” (Psalm 55)

Thoughts:  Twenty two people were saved in the F-5 tornado in Moore Oklahoma when they locked themselves in Tinker Federal Credit Union vault.  Vaults and safe rooms saved many people.
    The terrible, horrible and shocking tragedy at Moore Oklahoma is a symbol of  what happens to all of us.  We think we will go on forever in a peaceful status quo and our ideal is smashed by some kind of storm.  Everyone of us faces the loss of everything we have one day- not by storm but by death.  Death is the great leveler- and it is a part of life.  Where can we find a shelter from death?  Some say there is none.  But God is described as a shelter in a storm.  It is true in life and is true in death.  Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me, though they were dead, yet shall they live."  

Prayer: Lord, help me to rest in you, my shelter.