The Cry of Mortality A PRAYER OF MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
Christ in Crisis, continued fom page 10
grace that is misunderstood to come from the institution of the Church may be despised, but as Christians offer grace individual- ly, it corrects people’s misunderstanding of grace. Tis is a unique- ly gospel truth. Apostle Paul expresses it clearly “Terefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Te old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Te power of redemp- tion and hope is a powerful reality in Christianity.
Hope And, of course, the Church can offer hope. It is not just the
hope of a cure for this particular circumstance, crisis or pandem- ic. Science may yet provide a vaccine (or may have already as you read this) but the hope of Christianity is the promise of God in this life and the next. Jesus offered that hope: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28,). “Te thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundant- ly” (John 10:10).
16 Fellowship Focus, May/June 2020
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
—Psalm 90 English Standard Version Paul, who exuded this hope, added, “And we know that
for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). “So we do not lose heart. Tough our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4: 16-18).
Te Church needs to see this crisis as a new opportunity for
relevance. Te hope of the Gospel is needed in a new context, but we need to be willing to be a “creative minority,” as author Mark Sayers says in his book Disappearing Church, “Even more now, we are not confined by history and tradition nor limited by loca- tion. When the life of Christ is seen in us, it will make a blazing impression.”2
2 Mark Sayers, Disappearing Church, (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2016), p. 49.
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