This is an email I just put out to some friends, but it's exactly what I want to say about the fires that occured this past week. Blessings to you all!
Thank you all for your prayers and concerns regarding the fires last week. I started sending an update and then all of the sudden my computer froze. I hate when that happens.
I did return home on Friday afternoon/evening and everything looked somewhat normal, but dirty. Our pool is nice and black. There was ash and soot all over the ground outside of our home. The air is still smokey. But the hand of God was merciful. Our subdivision went untouched. I also heard many stories of how He was merciful to the town of ramona. Only the outskirts of town were affected, which still included many homes, but it could've been so much worse.
Bill said that he sent his wife out of town and was going to lock up the house and be right behind her. As he went to 7-eleven to fill up his gas tank, he saw the fires on the outskirts of town and they were headed straight for downtown ramona. As they got to the edge of downtown, he said out of no where he saw a gust of wind come and stop the fires in their tracks which enabled the fire fighters to hold it back from the town.
Marshall (one of my karate students) and Ted also lived on the outskirts of town in one of the trailer parks. Ted (Marshall's father) said that the fire came right up to his property and he watched it split in two and go around either side of his home.
Wanda, who lives in the San pasqual valley, just down the hill from ramona, has this amazing story. A few years ago her pine trees, that stood tall on either side of her house, were infested with beetles and she was so frustrated that they were the only trees in the neighborhood that had this problem. So much so that not too long ago, Wanda and her husband had the trees removed. When the fires came, it destroyed her daughter's car (who is on a mission trip for a year in Turkmenistan), came right up to the front door and stopped. As Wanda says, it was the hand of God that held it back and had those two pine trees still been in their yard, their house would've gone up in smoke. It's amazing how even the smallest thing like beetles, which we may see as destructive, still has a purpose in God's plan for us.
Which brings me to this. I am not totally surprised that people are saying "yes, the Lord spared my home and He blessed my house by not destroying it." Well what then do we say to those whose houses He didn't spare? I think people have a hard time seeing that if God's hand was in the sparing, then His hand was in the destruction as well. These fires didn't take Him by surprise. He knew they were going to happen and He either caused them to happen, or purposefully permitted it. It's easy to trust in His Sovereignty when everything is good and going well, but it's easy to forget His Sovereignty when disasters happen. Instead we chalk it up to "Mother Nature" (and who is she really?). God has a purpose and a plan for all that happened. We have to remember that He is Sovereign and everything that happens passes through His hand. It's easier to look at this fire and know that His hand was somehow in it if we have a true understanding that He is good and that He is LOVE. His very nature is love, it is who He is and everything that happens, whether we see it as good or bad (look again at the beetles) is done in a character of goodness and love for each and everyone of us. If we can see His true character and understand who He is, then there is always hope in Him. If we don't have the understanding that His character is love then we see this destruction as cruel and tormenting. But we can rest at night knowing that He is not a cruel God, but He does everything with the purpose of drawing us to Him. He does everything with an attitude of adoration for each one of us. He does everything to build us more and more into His likeness. He does everything for our good, whether we recognize it or not. We can rest knowing that we love a God who first loved us and has our best in mind. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. He is an awesome God!
Thank you all for your prayers and concerns regarding the fires last week. I started sending an update and then all of the sudden my computer froze. I hate when that happens.
I did return home on Friday afternoon/evening and everything looked somewhat normal, but dirty. Our pool is nice and black. There was ash and soot all over the ground outside of our home. The air is still smokey. But the hand of God was merciful. Our subdivision went untouched. I also heard many stories of how He was merciful to the town of ramona. Only the outskirts of town were affected, which still included many homes, but it could've been so much worse.
Bill said that he sent his wife out of town and was going to lock up the house and be right behind her. As he went to 7-eleven to fill up his gas tank, he saw the fires on the outskirts of town and they were headed straight for downtown ramona. As they got to the edge of downtown, he said out of no where he saw a gust of wind come and stop the fires in their tracks which enabled the fire fighters to hold it back from the town.
Marshall (one of my karate students) and Ted also lived on the outskirts of town in one of the trailer parks. Ted (Marshall's father) said that the fire came right up to his property and he watched it split in two and go around either side of his home.
Wanda, who lives in the San pasqual valley, just down the hill from ramona, has this amazing story. A few years ago her pine trees, that stood tall on either side of her house, were infested with beetles and she was so frustrated that they were the only trees in the neighborhood that had this problem. So much so that not too long ago, Wanda and her husband had the trees removed. When the fires came, it destroyed her daughter's car (who is on a mission trip for a year in Turkmenistan), came right up to the front door and stopped. As Wanda says, it was the hand of God that held it back and had those two pine trees still been in their yard, their house would've gone up in smoke. It's amazing how even the smallest thing like beetles, which we may see as destructive, still has a purpose in God's plan for us.
Which brings me to this. I am not totally surprised that people are saying "yes, the Lord spared my home and He blessed my house by not destroying it." Well what then do we say to those whose houses He didn't spare? I think people have a hard time seeing that if God's hand was in the sparing, then His hand was in the destruction as well. These fires didn't take Him by surprise. He knew they were going to happen and He either caused them to happen, or purposefully permitted it. It's easy to trust in His Sovereignty when everything is good and going well, but it's easy to forget His Sovereignty when disasters happen. Instead we chalk it up to "Mother Nature" (and who is she really?). God has a purpose and a plan for all that happened. We have to remember that He is Sovereign and everything that happens passes through His hand. It's easier to look at this fire and know that His hand was somehow in it if we have a true understanding that He is good and that He is LOVE. His very nature is love, it is who He is and everything that happens, whether we see it as good or bad (look again at the beetles) is done in a character of goodness and love for each and everyone of us. If we can see His true character and understand who He is, then there is always hope in Him. If we don't have the understanding that His character is love then we see this destruction as cruel and tormenting. But we can rest at night knowing that He is not a cruel God, but He does everything with the purpose of drawing us to Him. He does everything with an attitude of adoration for each one of us. He does everything to build us more and more into His likeness. He does everything for our good, whether we recognize it or not. We can rest knowing that we love a God who first loved us and has our best in mind. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. He is an awesome God!
0 comments:
Post a Comment