Pray for Turkey and Syria (Earthquake 2023)

 

(Photo: BBC. The article is here: "Turkey earthquake: Where did it hit and why was it so deadly?")

Pray for Turkey and Syria

O Lord of creation, you once made all things good and very good. Your creation, now subject to futility, groans. Creation creaks and crashes, groaning in pains of childbirth, thrusting up and sinking down, writhing in grief (Romans 8:19-22). And once more, earth and mountains, rocks and caverns have ground and bucked in their agony. The devastation has spanned hundreds of kilometers, enfolding multiple regions. Some places still reeling from civil war, others cut off because both Syria and Turkey hold them as enemies. The whole region is racked with ruin!

We implore your mercy on those who have survived, that in their grief and shock they may sense your compassion.

We implore your aid. Draw in alleviation and help, manpower and muscle from many places. Time is of the essence for any presently alive, but buried under the wreckage.

We implore your mental, emotional, and physical assistance for the rescuers, heavy machine operators, and medical personnel as they give and give and give.

We implore your pity, as the region is in the midst of a hard winter with freezing temperatures. For those exposed to the elements and no shelter other than tents, the misery will continue.

We implore your tenderness as mothers and fathers will now be bereft of their children, and children have become instant orphans.

O Lord, with creation we look in hope to that day when "creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:21-23). Oh, hear our groans and grief, for Christ's sake. Amen.

**Note #1: My wife and I were stationed in Turkey from 1981-1983. This is the country where we became Christians. It has always held a warm spot in my heart.

**Note #2: If you are looking for one way to help, please consider The Compassion Fund that has been set up for this catastrophe, with my denomination's Mission to the World. You can click The Compassion Fund. 

Pastor Mike

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more