1
Peter 2:17
The Voice (VOICE)
Respect everyone. Love the community of believers. Reverence God.
Honor your ruler.
On July 4, 2015, we attended church in Cottonwood, Arizona.
For special music we heard a heart-felt rendition of “I’m Proud to Be an
American,” a popular country and western patriotic song by Lee Greenwood. The
musician followed it with a parallel version, “I’m Proud to Be a Christian,”
that lifts up the life and death of Christ and the salvation He provides us. A
church elder spoke about miracles in the church from Bible times to today. He
sees the hand of God often working through the many triumphs of medical science
and making them even more effective and successful. He bore witness to God’s
part in his own health struggles and how he received two lungs in a transplant
some six years ago. He credits the Lord for his good health today.
After a brief lunch with our friends in the church we drove
up through Navajo and Hopi land toward the quaint town of Cortez in the southwest
corner of Colorado. The trip took us through several hundred miles of beautiful
Arizona desert, enlivened by the monsoon rains. The sky was cloudy with great
thunderstorms on all sides of us. At times we went through an edge of one or
another of these spectacular storms. As we drove the last twenty miles, the
setting sun shone below all of these storms and illuminated everything with a
golden red light. We marveled in this monumental display of God’s fireworks
that couldn’t be duplicated by any manmade fireworks display.
We pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot where we planned to
sleep that night. As we got out of our pickup, we were welcomed with powerful
explosions. Independence Day celebrations were just starting across the street.
We pulled down our tail gate, sat on it, and for the next half-hour turned our
attention to a great series of fireworks. The monsoon clouds overhead dropped
occasional giant raindrops on us while the festive explosions turned the flat
bottoms of these clouds into reds, greens, whites, and blues. What an
unforgettable day to blend our reverence to God with honor for our ruler!
Lord, we thank You for
Your healing hand, Your magnificent power in providing for us, and the
unprecedented freedom we have to live our faith.
[i] https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5295/5535799790_c321372271_b.jpg
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