God’s Mercy and Hurricane Gustav
August 31, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
I’m sincerely hoping I don’t end up with a “Hurricane Gustav” category like my Hurricane Katrina category. That said, I’m surprisingly calm about it. I live in Jefferson Parish, which is adjacent to Orleans. New Orleans is about ten minutes away. The West Bank of Jefferson parish, which is expected to be hit very hard, is where my mother lives. She’s thinks we’re quite nutty for believing as we do, and the fact that we’re calm now unnerves her a little bit, I believe. She’s with us now, so we can evacuate later today. I’m praying after this is all over she’ll understand us a little better and maybe even join us.
We were fortunate enough to have an abbreviated church service yesterday - still held on Saturdays because our church was destroyed by Katrina, although the new one is nearly completed. Among the songs we sang were Blessed Be The Name, How Good It Is, and I Have A Shelter. (lyrics below the fold) Blessed Be The Name was especially poignant, since we sang it on one memorable occasion right after Katrina - the first time our church reunited for an “official” service. The song fortified us for what is to come, no matter how it all works out. The other choices were especially apropos - I Have A Shelter:
And here’s the sermon, if you’re interested to see how we prepared for all this.
My faith may falter. It’s happened to Mary and to many far better Christians than me. But I’m still looking for the Romans 8:28 in all this, and one thing I know for sure will be a benefit. I wrote, in between Katrina and Rita,
The mercy of Hurricane Katrina is that we were able to see how frail and temporary things down here really are. Considering that life is eternal, the length of time we can expect to spend with these material things is so much shorter, compared to the length of our lives, that they are hardly worth mentioning. I have stubbed my toe hundreds of times in my life, but I can’t remember the details of even one time. It’s a reminder to build our house upon the rock, a reminder that to have our life we must lose it. Rita is drifting northward and I find I’m really not bothered by it. We’ll evacuate, or not. Get hit, or not. Flood, or not. My God is sovereign and I am in His hands.
One of the greatest lessons I learned from Katrina is that, as Brent Detwiler said in a sermon, “pain is a magnet for God’s love.” Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. As Brent said, when trouble came, Paul said, “I delight” not “I renounce” or “I bind” or “I rebuke.” Avoiding pain means avoiding blessings as well. While some people are celebrating this storm, hoping for cheap political gain, I’m accepting it in the full knowledge that God will use it for his glory and for my benefit, just as He did Katrina. As I wrote before, “Our God is sovereign, and we are in His hands. And that is a blessed place to be.”
Blessed Be The Name
Blessed be Your Name in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow, blessed be your Name
Blessed be Your Name when I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be your Name
Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glo - rious Name
Blessed be Your Name when the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all that it should be, blessed be your Name
Blessed be Your Name on the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your Name
Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glo - rious Name
You give and take away, You give and take away
My heart will choose to say, blessed be Your Name
How Good It Is
O God of love I come to You again
Knowing I’ll find mercy
I can’t explain all the things I see
But I’ll trust in You
In every moment You are there
Watching over, You hear my prayer
You go before me, You’re behind me
Nothing’s hidden from You
How good it is to be loved by You
How good it is!
How good it is, to be loved by You
How good it is!
O God of strength, Your hand is on my life
Bringing peace to me
You know my frame
You know how I am made
You planned all my days
Hand of mercy, hand of love
Giving power to overcome
If all beneath me falls away
I know that You are God!
How good it is to be loved by You
How good it is!
How good it is, to be loved by You
How good it is!
Who can stand against us?
In my weakness, You are strong
Your word is everlasting
I will praise You, faithful One
How good it is to be loved by You
How good it is!
How good it is, to be loved by You
How good it is!
I Have A Shelter
I have a shelter in the storm
When troubles pour upon me
Though fears are rising like a flood
My soul can rest securely
O Jesus, I will hide in You
My place of peace and solace
No trial is deeper than Your love
That comforts all my sorrows
I have a shelter in the storm
When all my sins accuse me
Though justice charges me with guilt
Your grace will not refuse me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
Who bore my condemnation
I find my refuge in Your wounds
For there I find salvation
I have a shelter in the storm
When constant winds would break me
For in my weakness, I have learned
Your strength will not forsake me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
The One who bears my burdens
With faithful hands that cannot fail
You’ll bring me home to heaven
If the hurricane is bad, two things will happen:
Negative: The weather will distract some people from the GOP convention.
Positive: The weather will drive many liberals from New Orleans and help the GOP obtain Louisiana’s senate seat.
If the hurricane isn’t particularly bad, neither will happen.
I guess you just have to look on the bright side.
Laura, we are praying for you and everyone else in the area. I know we haven’t moved there yet, but I find myself so much more invested in the interests of those in New Orleans and thereabouts. Our congregation is holding a special prayer meeting this evening to pray specifically for the safety and security of all those in the path of Gustav. We will be thinking of you and praying for you and your home(s) as the storm approaches!
Thanks for your prayers! We got home safely, and amazingly, the power is even back on. Can’t do better than that!
Who sings the song How Good it Is? I love the song and cannot find the music/ artist anywhere. If you could email me, it would be much appreciated. Thankyou!
I was going to be all snarky and link to a google search with the answer, only I found out that having good Google-fu didn’t get me the answer.
I finally had to open my church’s master power point list of all the songs we use in worship, and I found this:
Then I searched on “Fellingham” and found a few things. It turns out the real name of the song is “O God of Love” which is doubtless why it’s hard to find online. This chord chart may be helpful, and here’s the CCLI entry. You can find about any song you want in the CCLI, so that’s a good link to bookmark.