by Mike Benson

For the better part of the past month and a half, our collective conscience has been focused on Florida. The state has been devastated by a series of powerful hurricanes. The cumulative effects of Charles, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne have prompted President Bush to ask Congress for $7.1 billion in repairs and clean-up.

It has been interesting to note all of the religious entities that have also stepped in to help in disaster recovery. Baptists, Methodists, Adventists, Lutherans, and Catholics are just a few of the denominational bodies that have mobilized volunteers to assist. These church-related groups work in concert with the federal government (i.e., FEMA) in an effort to relieve the hurting masses. They donate goods and clothing, provide child care, offer stress-management counseling services, provide temporary shelter, repair housing, set up food kitchens and shower facilities, furnish laundry details, provide hot meals, distribute cleaning supplies, send out chain-saw crews, and render other humanitarian aid.

While we commend those who give of their time, effort and monies to hurricane recovery, I think we need to ask a question: "Where are all of the atheists during this crucial time?" Really. Thousands of humble people pledge their hands and hearts to storm victims, but not the unbelievers. Why not? How many meals do they serve? How many homes do they repair? How do they help carry the financial burden in the storm-stricken south? Where is their organizational structure for lifting the hurting throughout Florida?

You see, according to skeptics, religion is a farce. Faith is a crutch for the weak. Belief in God is a tragic waste of time and energy. Ironically, whenever fellow citizens cry out for support and care, atheists are no where to be found. They look at the ravages of the storm and say, "There is no God," while religionists roll up their sleeves and say, "How can we honor God in service?" (Matthew 25:31-46).

Isn't that fascinating? Unbelief has no redeeming value. It never wipes away a tear, it never rescues the fallen, it never renders kind regard. It never does anything. It is selfish and self-serving. It lacks compassion.

I now think I understand David a little bit better when he said, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1a; cf. 10:4). Atheists can neither give, nor receive; all they can do is suffer and watch others do the same. How sad (1 John 3:17).

by Stan Mitchell

How many stars did God need to make? The sun -- which is our solar system's star -- we need that one! It provides life, energy and warmth. It keeps us in place, preventing us from spinning aimlessly through a universe that is vast beyond analogy.

The others? The naked eye can count only a fraction of the stars a powerful telescope can see. And the most powerful telescope has yet to reach the boundary of the universe. Exactly how many stars are there out there? And if we actually could see them, could we count them?

Go outside tonight and look at the stars. It brings sudden perspective. When a dog gazes at the stars, he's thinking about lunch. When a rabbit gazes at the stars, he probably just became lunch! Which of God's creatures is capable of going out and wondering at the starlit sky? Only man can appreciate how small he is. Only man needs to appreciate how small he is.

"Can you count the stars of evening that are shining in the sky? Can you count the clouds that daily, over all the world go by? God the Lord, who doth not slumber, keepeth all their boundless number. But he careth more for thee, but he careth more for thee" (Johann Hey, 1837)

God told Abraham to "look up at the heavens and count the stars" (Genesis 15:5). That's one command Abraham couldn't have obeyed if he had tried the rest of his life!

Yet, as Gospel preacher Charles Hodge remarks, "in all his positive thinking, man has no plans to build a star" (Gospel Advocate Magazine, August 2002). Man is pretty presumptuous most times, but even he knows better than to build a starry, starry night!

We learn two things from this: First, if this is all an accident, then you'll also believe that Bob Dylan is a war monger, Osama Bin Ladin is a peace activist, and that the Chicago Cubs have a good chance of winning the World Series this year. Second, we learn that though we are vastly, infinitesimally small, we are also very important in God's sight.

"What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8:4).

Better start counting!

by Richard Mansel

The cross of Christ is the essence of the gospel message. Its impact cannot be underestimated. To understand the importance of the cross we must see what it meant to Jesus, on a personal level.

First, for Christ the cross represented an inevitable appointment. From the moment God decided on the plan of salvation, Christ was on a clear path to the cross.

Isaiah 53:6 tells us that God "laid on (Jesus) the iniquity of us all" (NKJV). While God "gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16), Christ gave of himself so that we could have remission of sins (Matthew 20:28; Romans 5:8).

Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane begged that his role in the plan of salvation be removed. While there was never any doubt Jesus would comply, this episode revealed explicitly that Christ had a choice. This made his sacrifice more poignant. We cannot imagine his inner turmoil as he hurtled toward his destiny. The reader can almost hear relief in his cry, "it is finished."

Second, for Christ the cross represented intense pain. Being omniscient, Christ knew the suffering of the cross eons before its existence. It stood as a reminder of his place in the plan. He was the sacrificial lamb who would be offered for the sins of the world (Isaiah 53:7). The anticipation of this moment underscores the bitter turmoil of the Garden.

If we knew the day and circumstances of our death, especially if violent, we would forever be changed. Days and activities would take on a different hue. Christ lived daily with that realization. We wonder how often he contemplated the day of his crucifixion; imagining the sights, sounds and sensations. His keen insight into his own future should give us pause as we realize the depths of his sacrificial love.

We read Jesus saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem...How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34). As Jesus looked at them with intense love, he mourned because soon this same people would be sending him to his death. Imagine Jesus looking into the eyes and souls of his betrayer and murderers years before the event. We would, no doubt, be crushed by such knowledge. Jesus took it in stride.

Third, for Christ the cross represented intolerable separation. In Jesus' prayer in John 17 he says, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You" (John 17:1). Later in the same chapter Jesus tenderly adds, "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You" (17:21).

While God and Jesus are different, they are also one. They are bound together in a relationship we can neither comprehend nor transcend. Accordingly we hear the pain of Jesus when he cries out on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). At that moment Jesus knew the greatest loneliness he would ever feel. For the first time in all eternity, Jesus was alone. Alone with his pain and his mission.

As humans we think of our selves first. Instead, we must take a step back and see what the cross meant for our Savior. Christ's mixture of deity and humanity never seemed more palpable than when he hung between heaven and earth, dying for the sins of every one of us.

by J. Randal Matheny

"Awesome!" has become a modern catchword for any small bit of news that makes the hearer glad. But it once took grandeur and majesty to inspire awe.

The Christian rejects the jaded, cynical turn that finds everything awesome and nothing awe-some. For he thinks on "whatever is honorable" (Philippians 4:8).

The quality of honorable has to do with the royal and the divine. What is majestic, grandiose, serious. What has dignity and respectability. What would inspire our awe, as a royal cortege or palace.

But to concentrate on the honorable, a Christian first has to get over these cultural hurdles:

• Superficiality. Not only is beauty skin deep, and showing more of it, but the newsbite has swallowed the pondered meditation.

• Levity. Nobody knows how to get serious anymore. Even the movies are satire and not comedy. Irreverence is a virtue. The phrase of the century: "I was just kidding!"

• Informality. Today, it's the tennis shoe or the flip-flop, not the dress shoe. Informal, laid-back attitudes indicate a lack of seriousness. Clothes don't make the man, but they give a good indication of his spirit.

• Brutishness or, in its wider sense, bestiality. Perhaps from the influence of evolution theory, man takes the level of the animal. Some years ago, a commercial in Brazil touted the prowess of a soccer player by calling him "animal." A light-hearted address common today in Brazil is to call someone "beast." It seems the beauty has not tamed the beast; rather, the beast has coarsened the beauty.

Our word "honorable" in Philippians 4:8 occurs in adjective or noun form in 1 Timothy (2:2; 3:4, 8, 11) and Titus (2:3, 7). It characterizes life in Christ, as good citizens who pray for effective government so they may live in dedication to God, as bishops who rule well their children, as deacons and wives, older women and young evangelists, who show by their demeanor the reverence, respect, dignity of the Christ and of the Sovereign of the Universe.

Such seriousness is shown by the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who in nobility of spirit search the Scriptures daily to verify the message they were hearing. Though the word "noble" here is different than our word in Philippians 4:8, the idea is the same. They showed a superior attitude than the Thessalonians. Their seriousness caught Luke's attention and garnered his praise.

Watch how a royal person bears himself. Usually, the quiet dignity of his position demonstrates the seriousness with which he takes his responsibilities. He speaks conscious of the weight of his words. His every action is measured, his passions restrained not only by careful instruction, but by an awareness of belonging to a great line of blue-blooded forebears.

If I have idealized human royalty, I may be excused for already thinking of the children of God, who reign with their heavenly Father, share his divine nature, and think constantly of his many qualities that constitute everything that is honorable.

For when we think of the only true and living God, we are most certainly considering all that is honorable.

By Michael E. Brooks

"Give unto the Lord O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty ... The Lord sat enthroned at the flood, and the Lord sits as King forever. The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace" (Psalm 29:1-4,10,11).

Storms are awe-inspiring. In southern Bangladesh we have for the past five days been in the path of a low-pressure system coming up from the Bay of Bengal. We have had almost constant rain and several days of strong winds. At times there has been lightening and thunder. We have surely heard "the voice of the Lord." Our experience here pales however beside that of the witnesses of hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan in the southeastern United States and the islands of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Winds up to 150 miles per hour, rainfall measured in feet, and billions of dollars in damage are evidence of the power of such storms.

During this same season, other parts of the world have also experienced hurricanes or typhoons. Japan was hard hit, and other parts of Asia have also been struck. No doubt there were storms elsewhere that did not receive the same attention. Constant in all these occurrences is the tremendous power of the forces of nature, and the wonder with which we observe them.

In Psalm 29 David is describing the glory of God as revealed not in destructive storm, but in the life-giving rainfall which Israel receives coming out of the Mediterranean Sea. First there are the clouds and the lightening and thunder over the Sea (vv. 3,4). Then comes the wind, blowing the trees along the coastal ridges (vv. 5-7). Finally there is the rain itself falling on the interior, accompanied by wind and the sound of thunder (vv 8,9). Evident in each of these is the power and glory of God. The rain is his gift. Nature is His domain.

This conviction is not without problems. It is easy and uplifting to credit God with the blessed gift of rain which enables our crops and gardens to prosper. His "smile" in the beauty of the sunrise, and his warm embrace in the golden glow of a spring afternoon are pleasant affirmations of faith. But if God is credited with the blessings of Nature's bounty, is he also to be blamed for the destruction of nature's wrath? Scores of people have died in these recent storms. Thousands of homes have been destroyed. Is this to God's glory? Does it compel our praise?

These are not easy questions with which to wrestle. God's role in human suffering has always been one of the greatest philosophical and theological problems known to us. There are no pat answers.

Perhaps we need to recognize that God's nature is as infinite and complex as the manifestations of nature in the world of his creation. There is gentle life-giving rain, and there is destructive, hurricane. So too, God is love, and yet he is also the God of wrath and everlasting destruction. These concepts are not easy to reconcile. Yet they are repeatedly and clearly affirmed in Scripture. It seems to me that they are just as clearly affirmed in the revelation of nature. God's love is seen in the gentle rain, his wrath in the storm. Does that mean that every victim of storm is an intended recipient of judgment? No, but it is a demonstration of the complexity and infinitude of the nature of our God. And it is motive for our worship and our awe.