24 September 2008
1,570,000
In the interest of Truth and Justice, I'm going to go ahead and leave my original posting, here; BUT in the interest of TRUTH and Humility, I've found I need to correct this one! See the notes below for the correction...
ORIGINAL POST:
David has long been hailed as Israel's King. The King from which Messiah descended. The King who sought after God's own heart. The sweet Psalmist of Israel.David was anointed by God, through the Prophet Samuel, to be king. The Spirit Of God came upon him (granted he was not filled with the Spirit, never to be abandoned...).
First Chronicles 21:1 reads: "Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to...".
:::healthy pause:::
If this Man of God, David, author of Scripture (jointly w/Jesus) could be incited by Satan to do anything, how much more should we be on our guard (it feels better to say 'we' than 'I' and 'my')?
David sinned and ONE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOUSAND men died in a three day period because of it! Granted I'm not a King, but it kinda sheds a little light on the whole 'my sin affects you' theory!
It only takes 12 verses for David to come to his senses...
First Chronicles 21:13 reads: "Then David said to Gad, 'I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man."
And there it is. The man after God's own heart knows God is a merciful God. Even for decisions about punishment David runs into the hands of God, and not away from Him.
Oh that we would do the same.
Blessings!
ChaplainChas.
Now here's the correction. David's sin did indeed impact the nation; however according to verse 14 only 70,000 men died due to the pestilence. This is grave, indeed, but not as I had previously listed. My apologies for the over-zealousness in getting the original post posted, and THANKS!
Labels: Chronicles, God, King David, mercy, million, punishment, Satan, Sept 11
11 September 2008
September 11th, 7 years later
Thirty times. I had to fill out a form for the department of health for NYC and the answer I came up with was close to thirty times.
Every six months or less, I get reminders in the mail from NYC of the best worst year of my life. They update us on health for the registry, of all those who served or lived on or near GROUND ZERO, or the MORGUE, or the DUMP... I forget the name of the island... fish something.
In early November of 2001 I spent a week on Manhattan Island with my church. It was my first official soiree as a Chaplain. I wore my dress blues to Memorial Services/ Funerals of Fire Fighters and Police Officers. Over the year I would attend more of these than the rest of my life, combined.
We took day trips and took over night trips. Our teams fed food to the workers at Ground Zero, walked the perimeter giving coffee or hot chocolate and snacks to the PD guarding the site, ministered to families and workers at the Morgue...
I remember a business man in a suit sitting on a statue's base, telling his story of the day Hell came to Manhattan. We cried together and I prayed for him. I spent some time with a particular police man, making sure to visit from time to time, and getting Bibles to him ('God's Word for Peace Officers').
A restaurant nearby was closed to the public, and opened for the workers at Ground Zero, as well as firemen and police. It was a safe haven where we served by cutting up vegetables, lugging boxes, serving the men and women, and praying with them as needed.
Mission NYC, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Calvary Chapel, Samaritan's Purse, Billy Graham Prayer Center, American Red Cross, American Heart Association, Salvation Army, Southern Baptist's... We worked alongside them all.
Some days or nights we'd just walk around as tourists. We'd approach the sad and share hope. I have no idea how many we prayed with. Most, for sure.
There's more, but I'm distracted. There's more, but there's life. There's more, but Jesus will need to bring it out. There's more, but not now.
Because of Who HE is,
Blessings!
ChaplainChas.
Labels: Ground Zero, Jesus, Morgue, never forget, remember, Sept 11
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