I have not published here since shortly after the August 8 fires on my beloved island home of Maui.
I have not had anything definitive to say. This Substack was originally inspired by my thoughts, as both a physician and pastor’s wife, on the covid crisis. The recent crisis on Maui has given me some additional insight, believe it or not, on the covid crisis.
I see many hard truths about man’s actions in the devastation of the covid crisis and don’t have difficulty accepting them. Conversely, and surprisingly to me, I can see there might be some incredibly hard truths about the Maui crisis that I have profound difficulty accepting. For instance, there is no clarity about the how the Lahina fire started on that day. I understand the unique wind conditions. I understand dangerous conditions that hindsight reveals were a setup for disaster. I understand local governmental incompetence. The potential for that fire to have been intentionally started by anyone is utterly devastating to comprehend. I understand better the psychological barriers to investigating truths that might be too heartbreaking to bear.
The verse, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33) guides my days. I start each day with Bible study and prayer (and I share this with others, through my MD/Pastor’s Wife Corner Substack). I obviously have other daily responsibilities. I love to write, but writing on anything other than my consistent study of the word of God and prayer takes a backseat when life is busy. Life has been busy.
The Lord has been gracious to allow me to combine my loves of Him, His Word, and writing. I teach a weekly women’s Bible study. We started studying the New Testament chronologically about three years before the covid crisis, so had finished our chronological study of the four gospel accounts before March 2020, when we moved on to book of Acts and the epistles. Our chronological study continues to this day. I send out a weekly update of our study. I had compiled, edited, and expanded our chronological study of the four gospel accounts, with the hopes of some day publishing it, when the covid crisis began. When restrictions of activities happened for all of us in March 2020, I thought I’d have time to edit this study. That never happened. I did, however, start publishing my daily Bible reading and prayer, as facilitator of a virtual 24-hour prayer tower that people associated with our church began in response to our new world crisis. This year, I was convicted to begin summarizing the books of the Bible as we read them, my motivation being to inspire others to read and love the Word of God. People often tell me they give up on reading the Bible because they just don’t understand it. Summaries help with context. Context helps with comprehension. On October 1, our chronological reading plan had us start a chronological reading of the New Testament. My two ambitions, editing my chronological study of the Gospels and summarizing my daily Bible readings, met in synchrony.
All of this busyness elsewhere explains my silence here.
The world is increasingly dark. I believe with all of my being that the only remedy is Jesus. I believe our purpose in our temporal life on earth is coming to know Him and then making Him known, so we can enjoy Him forever in our eternal life. We can know Him through His Word. That is what I have prioritized writing about.
It's all about Jesus - 100%. Thank you for all of your studies. Peace.
Thank you. The Lord bless you!!!