Haiti Bible Institute, February 12, 2015

People think a lot about security in Haiti. After hearing news of riots in the streets here last week, I've been thinking a little bit about it myself. It really does not bother me a bit that our building is surrounded with walls and gates and that a trained guard with a sawed-off shotgun greets all visitors (with a helpful smile) at the door. 

But that is not my refuge.


Today my students discussed a different kind of security. I will include a tiny portion of today's text in French and in English.

C'est pourquoi Dieu, voulant montrer avec plus d'évidence aux héritiers de la promesse l'immutabilité de sa résolution, intervint par un serment, afin que, par deux choses immuables, dans lesquelles il est impossible que Dieu mente, nous trouvions un puissant encouragement, nous dont le seul refuge a été de saisir l'espérance qui nous était proposée. Cette espérance, nous la possédons comme une ancre de l'âme, sûre et solide; elle pénètre au delà du voile, là où Jésus est entré pour nous comme précurseur, ayant été fait souverain sacrificateur pour toujours, selon l'ordre de Melchisédek. Hébreux 6:17-20, LSG

In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:17-20, NASB

The big deal I tried to get across is that security lies where your anchor lies. The writer of Hebrews said that our hope is in a person who suffered violence in such a way that rebels like us can have hope anchored in the very presence of God. God can't lie and hope for believers is sure. Is your anchor in earthly treasures that corrode, get stolen or burn?

I know. I'm preaching. But that's what I do.

So when your kingdom shakes like Haiti shook five years ago what will you have left?

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:28, NASB