This may be the most important, and yet one of the most difficult tasks before the church today! In the midst of real and manufactured challenges and fears the world has gone mad around us. We see people we thought we knew acting in ways that would have been unimaginable, we hear the reports that are designed to spread fear and discontent. We see government officials and hopefuls attempting to use the situation to advance personal agendas, to feed their pet programs, to assure their own power and even to strike death to the unborn… and all around us we see the hopeless masses who have relied upon their own strength and ability, their own wisdom and resources all seeing their strongholds ravaged and their temples of material and human ability demolished. This whole situation has touched has touched their gods and proven them false. And beloved, be assured, there is no one more vulnerable, unpredictable and even dangerous than one who has been shown that their gods are powerless. It is into this maelstrom that the church is called to speak the gospel. It is into the whirlwind that we are sent, not to attack, but to bring the truth and the message of hope and life. But before we can bring that message we ourselves must cling to it and believe that it is real. Before we can answer the call to proclaim the cross and its power over death, we must entrust our entire confidence into the hands of the God who IS. He alone is our hope in times like these, He alone is our stay, our shield, our strength and our confidence. Before you can speak peace and calm assurance to the lost, you must possess it yourself. Settle your heart in the confidence that God has this situation in complete control, that these days and events were ordained before the foundation of the world and know that whatever this day brings, God is to be trusted with all of it. Once your heart is steady, you will find the voice of God breathing through you and giving your words salt and light, power and life!