pray for boston

 

I had planned to post pictures from my Boston mission trip, but tonight I am grieving. This city is so close to my heart and I am aching for all those who have been affected by this tragedy. Because of the time I have spent there, the outreach I have done, and the people I have met, I feel like I have left a piece of me in Boston, and I feel like there will always be a special place in my heart for that city.

Let me tell you about the area that experienced the explosions today. It is called Back Bay, and is a wealthy neighborhood (when we went to do outreach we were told Tom Brady lives there). The explosion was near Trinity Church. It is also a few blocks from Boston Common which is where the Freedom Trail starts. That's what I was going to blog about before today happened. It is a beautiful area.

 

 

On the mission trip last year, our team spent several hours prayer walking through this very neighborhood and placing flyers for a church plant. We cried out to God for the people living in this area, asking for His Spirit to move in their hearts. When I heard where the bombs went off today, I got chills...so much of my heart had been poured out in prayer there. I felt such a burden. I still do. (These are the pictures of that area that I took while I was prayer walking.)

If you know people who are affected by this and need help, please please tell them about these churches. I know the people there and I know they will help.

People are asking why this happened. They wonder what is wrong with this world. How did things get so messed up?

I was immediately reminded of the current sermon series at my church; we are going through the book of Romans. (Listen to podcasts here.) My pastor has explained that chapter one verses 18-32 talk about idolatry and the effects of it. He said that one definition of idolatry is "the suppression of truth." We suppress the truth of Who the Almighty God is and we look for something else that we can define as truth. We take something and turn it into an Ultimate Thing. As a result, moral chaos happens. My pastor stated it this way "To reject God in unbelief is to be handed over to ourselves, which is a present form of God's wrath. God lets people have what they want." When we become idolators, God gives us over to our own self-centered ways and moral chaos ensues.

God has an ordered design for creation, but because mankind has suppressed the truth of Who God is and what His plan is for us, we do things our own way. We make our own priorities. And the ordered design of creation on our earth is thwarted. Until God returns to restore His Kingdom.

I know this passage is long, but please take time to read it and pray for our nation. Pray for the people affected by the bombings in Boston.

Romans 1:18-32
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and Divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slandereres, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them."