A bible verse for the victims and their families?

[jmarie]

Is there a certain scripture that you feel would give anyone affected by this tragedy some sense of comfort?
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but nor forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; " ll Corinthians 4; 8, 9

[mom_of_two]

I know this is long, but it always seems to give me peace and comfort. As a matter of fact, I have a picture in my children's room of a rather large and formidable (male) angel with wings spread looking over sleeping children, with verse 11: "For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways"

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;
His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling--even the Lord, whom is my refuge--
then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

May God bless us all.

Lorie

[beejayw1]

'I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.'

And the end of the 8th chapter of Romans:

'Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature can come between us and the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.'

And finally, the 139th psalm (I think - I turn to it when I'm feeling weak. The quote is a paraphrase:)

'Where can I go from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there..if I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your right hand shall uphold me.'

[mom_of_two]

Psalm 46:

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the seas,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make
glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shield with fire.
Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

[mom_of_two]

I always seem to go back to the Psalms, but they are so strong and so comforting.

Psalm 27: 1-3, 13-14

The Lord is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Lorie

[Mbart]

This is a weekly newsletter put out by my church. It always discusses scripture, and this week it was in relation to dealing with the NYC disaster:

"They will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse"
(Psalm 25:3).

When treachery stares you in the face, what do you do? I am not in
the FBI, so I cannot chase down terrorists. I don't live near New
York City or Washington, D.C., so I cannot help with crisis needs.
The puny pint of blood I donated Tuesday night seems so little. So
what should we, what can we, do?

Tuesday morning I was in my daughter's school cafeteria for a
meeting when someone came in and said, "a plane has hit the World
Trade Center." The conversation around our table stopped for a
moment, then continued, and I thought to myself: that must mean a
small airplane accidentally clipped the building. This couldn't
possibly be an intentional act of violence. That is unthinkable.
Unthinkable.

The unthinkable has happened.

One day Jesus left the temple in Jerusalem and was walking away
when his disciples came up to him, drawing his attention to the
impressive buildings around them. The disciples, who were Galilean
country folk, probably swiveled their heads around whenever they
were in the great city of Jerusalem. Look at those buildings! Look
at the temple! Clean, flat stones rising up in symmetry.
Magnificent doors, great courtyard. A building more important than
any other. The symbol of national pride. A house for God's own
purposes. They looked up with much more pride and fascination than
any of us who have walked the streets of New York City and have
admired the Empire State Building, and the World Trade Center--when
it still stood.

Then Jesus said to them: "Do you see all these things? I tell you
the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one
will be thrown down."

What did he say? That couldn't be. Unthinkable. Unspeakable.

Yet about forty years later, that is exactly what happened. A Roman
army rolled across Judea. It struck at and struck down these most
important symbols of national identity. The shining temple became a
pile of rubble on that flat hill that had originally been the
threshing floor of Araunah a thousand years earlier in King David's
time.

David knew about treachery. He was terrorized by his enemies, and
wrote Psalm 25, a prayer that any of us who are in pain and anguish
today could pray:

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let
my enemies triumph over me.
No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they
will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.

We too have seen "treachery without excuse." But what can we do
about it?

The first thing we can do now that we have come face to face with
this treachery that has incinerated human lives and seared our
consciousness is to refuse to be ashamed or defeated. We can assert
a firm moral clarity and say of those who have wantonly destroyed
innocent people: shame on you! Shame on you! "They will be put to
shame who are treacherous without excuse."

We must turn to God. We pray "To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul"
because there is no one else to whom we can lift up our souls.
There is no one else who is "good and upright" (vs. 8), "loving and
faithful" (vs. 10)." Only God can "rescue"; he is our only "refuge"
(vs. 20).

We must ask God to guide us ("guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long," vs.
5). And this is a good time to God for forgiveness ("remember not
the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love
remember me, for you are good, O LORD," vs.7).

What? Why pray for forgiveness? David was a victim, wasn't he? He
was being chased down by vicious and shameful enemies. Why should a
beaten-up man pray for forgiveness? David did so because he was a
wise man. He knew that--even when he was face to face with
treachery--he needed to keep praying a humble prayer of forgiveness
because that is the only way not to become bitter, or vengeful, or
self-righteous, or (worst of all), treacherous.

Treachery is not just an issue of international conflicts and
terrorist attacks. Treachery happens in our own streets every day.
It happens behind the closed doors of homes that seem peaceful, but
are the scenes of unreported crimes and other cruelties.

Many people are wondering now what to do with their anger over the
brutal assaults of Tuesday. There are things we can do. Anger is an
inbuilt instinct designed to move us to action in the face of
danger and injustice. It produces a hot energy. Many people are not
going to know what to do with their anger. It may turn into an
anxiety that renders them sleepless or irritable, or mean-spirited.
But there is an alternative.

What we can do is to turn that energy into resolve.

If ever there was a time to say, "I resolve to stand against
treachery in the streets of my city," it is now.

If ever there was a time to say, "I resolve to advocate civil
justice, and to be a citizen of principle," it is now.

If ever there was a time to say, "I resolve to be an honest and
loving spouse and parent," it is now.

If ever there was a time to say, "I resolve to watch out for my
neighbor," it is now.

If ever there was a time to say, "I resolve to be more impassioned
to give than to take," it is now.

If ever there was a time to say, "I resolve to seek God with all my
heart," it is now.

If ever there was a time to say, "I need to find a deeper and true
faith in God," it is now.

True faith is an issue for today. We live in an age when people
say, "it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you are
sincere." But let's consider this chilling fact: the suicide
radicals who worked deliberately for months on a plan to fly
jetliners full of people into buildings packed with people, were
acting out of a belief system. They sincerely believed that God
would send them straight to heaven at the moment of their
treachery.

There is true faith, and there is false faith.

The true God is Love and Truth and Justice. Everything about the
true God stands against treachery in any form. We can go far beyond
the shrieks of prayer picked up by video cameras at the scene of
the tragedy: "Oh my God! Oh my God!" We can pray: "Dear God, show
me who you are Truth. Be my refuge."

The Bible says: "We know also that the Son of God has come and has
given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we
are in him who is true - even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the
true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).

We can pray more of the words of Psalm 25:

All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep
the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it
is great.
Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in
the way chosen for him.
He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will
inherit the land.
The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant
known to them.
My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from
the snare.
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

Amen.


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copyright (c) Mel Lawrenz, 2001

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