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“How to have a Quake-Proof Life? Trust your Father!” EARTHQUAKES… The most awesome release of energy on our planet. One quake can rival all atomic weaponry combined. Yet 20,000 times each day the earthquakes somewhere on the planet. . . .
When we lived in California earthquakes became a way of life. Earthquake preparedness was a common topic of schools, employers and news articles.
Buildings were built in a special way to prepare them for quakes.
Amazingly, little by little as quakes came and went, the quake-proof buildings stood and would ride out the shaking and twisting!
The total instability of things counted upon as stable is an earthquake. Life is filled with earthquakes. In a non-geological way, we could say, our lives have tremors, quakes and shocks and aftershocks, don’t they?
How do we prepare for the quakes of life? First of all what are they?
Here are just a few: a job loss, cancer diagnosis, an affair discovered in the mate to whom you have always been faithful, a divorce notice, an unwed but pregnant daughter, a crippling accident, lost savings, a pension failure, cancelled health insurance, and need we add the loss of parents, children or marriage partners to death. There are these and countless other quakes in life. They will come, every day to someone. Does God give us any earthquake preparedness? Yes!
Open your Bibles to I Th. 3. You are opened to Paul’s third emphasis of the life lived in expectancy of Christ: grounded firmly and anchored. There it is “Earthquake Preparedness Training
1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (NIV)
Each of these verses gives a piece of the quake-proof life.
I. My Dad-
A. Arms: carrying me in from the car
B. Hands: strongly oars
C. Shoulders: like a mountain in dark woods
D. Eyes: looking out in the Cardiac Care Unit
II. Our perfect Father:
A. NOTICE YOUR SEEING FATHER: Mt. 6:4,6,18: Our Father in secret = He is watching; He “knows everything and still loves because He is on your side
B. TRUST IN YOUR STRONG FATHER: Heb. 12:9: Father of spirits = He is strong – “big enough for anything”
C. HOPE IN YOUR SECURE FATHER: Js. 1:17: Father of lights = He is changeless/ unfailing, “never let down”
D. DRAW UPON YOUR SUPPLYING FATHER: Second Cor. 1:3: Father of mercy = He loves – “on your side”