Sometimes in the springtime here in Northwest Montana, we experience some flooding if the mountain snowpack melts too quickly due to an early warm rain, especially if the creeks still have ice on them and there is nowhere for the water to go but over the banks.  Such was the case the spring we moved back here from Oregon. Shortly before we arrived the creeks which flow through the town of Libby, Flower Creek and Parmenter Creek, flooded and went through many residential areas. Our home church (of which Kathy’s dad was the first pastor), Faith Bible, was in the direct path of the flood waters and the basement filled with water.  Everything in the basement was ruined–everything, that is, except a big Bible that rested on the communion table. The table floated and the Bible remained dry, symbolic of how, though the material things of life are fleeting and will pass away, God’s Word remains. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isa. 40:8 cf Mt. 5:18).  

     Our neighbors, the Moodys, own a laundromat and beauty salon.  It is also where I teach a men’s Bible study on Thursdays in a room used for EMT training classes.  A couple of years ago they had a fire break out.  The Moodys’ son was inside ready to close up for the night when he discovered the fire and called for help. Providentially it was the night the firemen have their meeting just a few blocks away and they were there within just a few minutes and got the fire out but there was structural damage and everything inside was ruined from either smoke or water damage–everything except a wall painting done by the owner and a Gideon Bible that was sitting on top of the coin change box–again symbolic of the one thing we can count on to endure and can put our hope in–the Word of God (and the “God of the Word”).

     Many attempts have been made throughout history to destroy all the Bibles and eliminate Christianity. So, how has that worked out?  God’s Word still remains the number one selling book and its message is still changing lives as Christ is building His Church just as He promised: “I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Mt. 16:18).   Famous French philosopher and skeptic, Voltaire, stated on his deathbed that, as a result of his teaching and writings, the Bible and Christianity would disappear in 100 years. But, 50 years later, the Geneva Bible Society used Voltaire’s press and home to print and store Bibles and 100 years after his death–to the very day–an ancient manuscript of the Bible was sold in London for more than $10,000  while Voltaire’s own works were getting pennies on the Paris book market!

     “The Bible stands like a rock undaunted ‘Mid the raging storms of time; It’s pages burn with the truth eternal, and they glow with a light sublime

     The Bible stands like a mountain tow’ring far above the works of men; its truth by none ever was refuted, and destroy it they never can.

     The Bible stands and it will forever, when the world has passed away; by inspiration it has been given, and its precepts I will obey.

     The Bible stands every test we give it, for its Author is divine; by grace alone I expect to live it, and to prove and to make it mine.”…….. The Bible stands by Haldor Lillenas

     Another symbol of the hope that we, as believers, have in Jesus Christ is the cross which represents the place where the God-man, the Mediator between God and man, paid the price to redeem us from the penalty of sin. In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he wrote: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…” (I Tim. 2:5,6).  Every time we see a cross, we should be reminded that no matter what our “lot in life” or the conditions of the world in which we live, God loves us and demonstrated that love at the cross, and that we have a glorious hope of a bright future awaiting us.  Paul speaks of the “steadfastness of (our) hope” (I Thes. 1:3).  That hope is based on the fact that both the cross and the tomb empty, for God the Father was satisfied (propitiated…Ro. 3:25) by Christ’s sacrifice and proved that the “Lamb of God” had, once and for all,  taken away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29 cf Heb. 10:10-14), by raising Him from the dead. Jesus was “delivered up because of our transgressions (died for our sins), and was raised because of our justification (Ro. 4:25).  So, when we put our trust in Jesus and His atoning sacrifice and subsequent resurrection, we pass from death to life (Jn. 5:24) and are “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (I Pet. 1:3,4).  We now have “Christ in us, the hope of glory” (Col. 3:27).  

     On Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists crashed airplanes into the Twin Towers in N. Y. City,  As the smoke-filled ashes and dust began to clear, rising out of the destruction at ground zero, silhouetted against the skyline, were two broken fragments of steel girders  fused together into a giant cross. The cross beams from so many thousands of tons of structural steel were blasted apart  by the collapse of those two magnificent gleaming towers, and melted in the fiery inferno of burning aviation gas. But here were two broken girders that were fused into a great cross, again a symbol of the hope we have in Christ in spite of the evil and chaos in this world ruled by Satan. 

     Just recently, an horrific wildfire swept across the beautiful island of Maui and annihilating the iconic Lahaina community, leaving only scenes of total devastation and the loss of many lives. Ron Hutchcraft, in his daily devotional, A Word With You, wrote about the desolation of loss but pointed out that a 150-year-old banyan tree still soared to 60 feet, covering an entire block. “Though badly charred and its future uncertain,” it is still a symbol that there is hope, for, again it reminds us of another “tree” upon which Jesus died and shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross (tree…KJV) that we might die to sin and live to righteousness…” (I Pet. 2:24).  

     “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Ro. 15:13). 

Forever His, 

Pastor Dave