Global Pan(dem)ic & a Sound Faith (Part 3): A 5-Day Security CheckSample

About 300 years ago, two young German Lutherans brought the good news to Southern India. My forefather, a fanner in the king’s court and a Hindu temple priest, embraced the gospel. This faith continued across generations. We often sang Martin Luther’s hymn based on Psalm 46, “A Mighty Fortress,” at home and in church. The psalm and hymn became our quiet anthem as a minority in a majority culture that viewed Christians as followers of a foreign faith. Believers were considered betrayers of the motherland. False motives of following Jesus for the sake of earthly gain were freely attributed, since many new Christians were economically poor. Survival and security were threatened by catastrophes of drought, flood and genocidal killings of neighbors. All this to say, Christians have always lived in uncertain and insecure times. And their solitary comfort has been their God, whom they trust because of His Son’s victory over death through His resurrection and current intercession at the right hand of the Father. After you study Psalm 46, I want you to learn from Luther’s hymn. Look up the lyrics. What do you think is the “one little word” in the last line of stanza two? An epic statement of the apostle Paul emphasizes the soundness of our Christian Faith in view of natural disaster. It also substantiates the security a believer finds in God’s indestructible love. Notice Paul’s repetition: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39, NASB, emphasis added).