Yesterday we observed the tenth anniversary of the events of 9\/11\/01. Like every American over the age of fifteen I remember exactly where I was and my reaction when the first news came. I also remember the questions of that day \u2013 Why, where was God, why didn\u2019t God prevent this, what happens now? And I remember the haunting question asked the next day in my Seminary class. \u201cDr. Crawford, would you comment on Romans 8:28 in light of yesterday\u2019s events?\u201d In times of crisis, Romans 8:28 is an oft quoted and sometimes mis-quoted verse, even more often mis-applied. The verse, \u201cAnd we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose\u201d does not say that all things work together for good for all people. Nor does it say that all things are good. And it certainly does not say that all things are God\u2019s will. In a world of God-given choice, in order to have God\u2019s will, there must be a not-God\u2019s-will. A violation of God\u2019s law can never be transferred into God\u2019s will. Murder is a violation of God\u2019s law; it is not God\u2019s will. To those who love God and who are called according to His purpose, the verse says, things work together for good. Not our definition of good, which usually has to do with finances, health, education, etc. But God\u2019s good \u2013 the good of all of God\u2019s family. The next verse says God meets us in the midst of our tragedies and uses \u201call things\u201d both \u201cgood\u201d and bad to conform us into the image of our older brother, Jesus Christ. So what have we learned from 9\/11 or other crises of the past ten years? Simply this: Continue to allow God to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ and when crisis comes, small or great, trust God whose truth is relevant in all situations, whether we understand it or not.<\/p>\n
Join me this week in remembering the following global prayer concerns:
\n\u2022 Pray for Origin Church at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and Pastor Craig as they launch their new church on Sept. 18.
\n\u2022 Pray for Trey and Elise as they readjust from Central Europe to life in the States.
\n\u2022 Pray for children of missionaries who begin school this week.
\n\u2022 Pray for Cathie and Chris\u2019 little girl Caytlin who developed a massive chest infection after surgery. She is on breathing treatments every 4 hours, steroids and antibiotics.
\n\u2022 Pray for the Cross-Cultural Missions Congress in Lima, Peru on September 22-24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday we observed the tenth anniversary of the events of 9\/11\/01. Like every American over the age of fifteen I remember exactly where I was and my reaction when the first news came. I also remember the questions of that day \u2013 Why, where was God, why didn\u2019t God prevent this, what happens now? And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}