February 29, 2024
Leadership Notes
On this beautiful day of leaping, I figured the time is ripe for leaping into the beauty of the time in which we live. God is so good to us. He allows us to live out our faith in somewhat challenging, but most generally lovely days. That’s what we’ve been learning, first from Jude, and now, 2 Peter. Whatever we experience or go through in life, we can always trust the sure Word of God.
I was away from my keyboard for lunch and then reading to Mrs. Hilton’s kindergarten class at Tecumseh Acres…how I love the staff and teachers and kids at that school. That is a highlight of my week. Anyway, whilst driving I had the A/C on in the car. It was 72° out, on February 27. How beautiful is that? I don’t know about you, but I’m not a global warming alarmist. I’ll never forget when, back in 2009, John Kerry said we only had ten years to save the planet from global warming, and that the Arctic will be ice-free by 2013. How’s that prediction working out? Fear is a heck of a drug. Climate alarmism is the apocalypticism of secular religion.
There are obvious advantages to warming cycles. Fewer people die from summer heat than from winter chill. Heating bills are lower. More food grows, thus feeding more people, thus saving lives. The give-and-take of weather cycles, whether for decades or centuries, seems to me to be no cause for alarm. How alarming can rising seas be when many of those sounding the alarm own beachfront property? And fly in private jets? I do ask interesting questions. Here’s another one:
“What’s more disconcerting? Right-wing extremism or left-wing
hubris?”
As I’m cogitating, I look out the window and see greater varieties of birds. They’re making their predictable return. Crocuses {croci?} are peeking out of the ground. It also appears some lilies are reaching skyward. What a wonderful thing. And the squirrels continue to frolic about. I never tire of their antics. Just the other day, I saw a picture from somewhere someone took of a huge eagle carrying a small deer in its talons while mid-flight. Poor deer, but amazing sight. There’s a purpose for everything.
All this reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms. Psalm 8:
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
God is in charge. We cannot destroy what God has created. When I look out my office window, I see the glory of God’s mighty power. It will be enjoyed for generations to come. We are blessed beyond measure. Even in the midst of a wicked and fallen world, we will enjoy the blessings of God.
As we move through 2 Peter, I love Chuck Swindoll’s summing up of the letter:
“The message of 2 Peter is simple: Be ready. The Christian life
isn’t easy, but God will equip you to serve Him well.”
- From How to Live in Troubled Times
And now your Moment of Spurgeon:
“Grace in Christ, grace through Christ, and grace with Christ – put
these together, and even then you have not grasped the whole.”
With Much Love and Affection,
Richard