Was Katrina Intelligent Disign?

Just a quick post today. I wanted to provide the link to this great article by John Piper, (everything he writes is great!) This is from his website Desiring God:

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2005/090205.html


Also, here are some great verses from one of our pastors, Tim Senn, who preached this past week concerning the truths of God's Sovreignty as well as our responsibility to help the hurting.

How Should We Respond to Disaster

Acknowledge God’s sovereignty.
Isaiah 45:7 ”I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.”
Amos 3:6 “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?”

Revere God’s power.
Psalm 147:18 “He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.”
Psalm 135:6-7 ”Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.”

Take comfort in God.
Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Deuteronomy 32:39 “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”
Job 34:14 “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”

Trust in God’s wisdom
Job 37:5 “God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.”
Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

Increase our knowledge of God
Psalm 148:7-8 “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!”

Be humble
Psalm 8:4 “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
Job 22:29 “For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.”

Receive God’s invitation to grace
Amos 4:6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.

Express compassion and mercy
1 John 3:17 “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Reorient our priorities
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Place hope in God alone
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Desire heaven – what is really valuable
Hebrews 11:10 “For he (Abraham) was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
Romans 8:19 “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”

Remember the sufferings of God’s son
Acts 2:23 “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”