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Lenten devotions 2008

MARCH 20 - TRUST THROUGH ACCIDENTS
By Sheila Yoder, assistant professor of American Sign Language and coordinator of church relations

SCRIPTURE: Acts 10:34-43 (NRSV)
Scroll down for complete Scripture.

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DEVOTIONAL:
The old hymn “It’s so sweet to trust in Jesus…Oh for faith to trust him more” kept running through my head during the 11-hour drive from Pennsylvania back to Indiana. My colleague and I were making the trip with 13 college students in order to attend the conference “Signed Languages around the Globe.” Starting on the road, we prayed together for traveling safety. While driving on roads slick with snow, I couldn’t help but remember a tragic accident last year where several students from a sister Christian college were killed. Had they prayed for traveling safety as we had? Probably, yet the accident still happened. Can I, should I, trust God for safety during this trip? For what can I trust God in this life?

Peter answered my question eloquently in today’s Scripture. Here Peter summarizes the Good News. “You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ -- he is Lord of all” (v. 36). I had tended to think of this “peace” in terms of our world, the absence of conflict. But, I realized in the midst of traveling, I felt peaceful and safe. Not because God would magically keep all accidents away from our van, but a calm sense of divine presence with us.

During his earthly life, Jesus did not demand justice for himself, or a life with no “accidents”. Instead he suffered injustice, pain, humiliation and he offered forgiveness, grace, and then, ultimately, a life with God for eternity. “He is Lord of all.” This is the message and power of Easter. Knowing this, I can trust God through all the “accidents” life might bring my way.

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SCRIPTURE: Acts 10:34-43 (NRSV)
Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ -- he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
Posted at 22:32 #