ALTADENA, CALIF. — “A religion that isn’t examined can’t be a religion in any respect.”
That’s what minister Rodney Davis informed us as we considered the aftermath of devastating wildfires within the Los Angeles space.
It’s definitely a biblical message.
Associated: Whereas mourning fireplace losses, California church helps neighbors and trusts God
The latest inferno worn out total neighborhood blocks on this Southern California group, northeast of Los Angeles.
But Christians who escaped the flames with their lives — and solely their lives — preserve leaning on God.
Their religion has been examined, nevertheless it has not wavered. Reward the Lord!
Christians serving to with the catastrophe reduction effort of the Lincoln Avenue Church of Christ in Pasadena, Calif., collect in a circle to wish.
As a substitute, these believers look to Scriptures equivalent to James 1:2-3 for energy: “Think about it pure pleasure, my brothers and sisters, everytime you face trials of many sorts, as a result of you understand that the testing of religion produces perseverance.”
The Altadena home that Kevin Anderson shared together with his older brother, Warner, burned lower than a month after their sister, Beverly Patterson, died.
Anderson’s response?
He factors to an Outdated Testomony man of God.“Job, he went by way of quite a bit,” mentioned Anderson, a member of the Lincoln Avenue Church of Christ, the congregation the place Davis preaches in close by Pasadena. “He didn’t do something fallacious, however he went by way of quite a bit. We’re all going to undergo these Job moments … so we simply should have some persistence.”
Kevin Anderson and Keith Gibbs, pictured on the Lincoln Avenue Church of Christ, each misplaced houses within the wildfire that devastated Altadena, Calif.
The hearth destroyed Beverly Clay’s residence in addition to the assembly place of the Altadena Church of Christ, her residence congregation. The constructing of the close by Pasadena Church of Christ — also called the Kinneola congregation — additionally burned.
Nonetheless, Clay trusts wholeheartedly in God.
“The Lord is the one who’s in cost,” Clay mentioned, echoing fellow Christians. “The righteous, they will endure proper together with those that will not be.
“The Lord is the one who’s in cost. The righteous, they will endure proper together with those that will not be.”
“I settle for him, and I consider him, and I’ve religion,” she confused. “I’m not down. I’m not depressed. I’m simply grateful that he spared our lives.”
As we famous in our associated information story, Keith Gibbs, a retired U.S. Marine Corps workers sergeant, grew to become emotional as he recounted fleeing his burning home together with his spouse, Jenifer, and three younger grandchildren.
But he, too, praises his Savior and counts his blessings, equivalent to having insurance coverage that may permit him to rebuild.
“Lots of people didn’t have insurance coverage,” he mentioned. “Lots of people misplaced their lives. So I’m in a greater place than an entire lot of individuals. In order that’s how I need to have a look at it. God has blessed me.”
He’s grateful, too, to have the ability to lean on fellow Christians going by way of the identical circumstances.
“We’re capable of give one another religious assist and steerage,” Gibbs mentioned, “as a result of that is onerous.”
The surface partitions of the Pasadena Church of Christ are all that’s left standing after the hearth.
It’s most positively onerous.
The tears and the choked voices of our brothers and sisters struggling to get well testify to that heart-wrenching actuality.
But their religion — certainly their perseverance — conjures up us.
So, too, does the devotion and onerous work of different Christians, who stepped as much as present meals, clothes and emergency provides to fellow believers and immediately needy neighbors.
“A religion that isn’t examined can’t be a religion in any respect.”
“A religion that isn’t examined can’t be a religion in any respect.”
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Southern California to cowl the hearth aftermath. Attain him at [email protected].
