So why does God say, "No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent?"

That verse from Psalm 91, and others in the Bible seem to be embarrassing impossibilities in light of all the suffering and calamity that Christians go through! So what's up with that?! How dare God say, "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart?" Here's how...it's all true: (This will only take a few minutes, then a few years.....) First, the "shelter" and "refuge" of Psalm 91 is like the eye of a hurricane-Incredible peace on the inside, incredible destruction all around. Next, look at what Jesus promised us in the last days: Luke 21:16-19 "You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives." Note that He says, "not a hair of your head will perish," yet He says, "some of you they will put to death." What?! Believers aren't gonna suffer severely? Tell that to Job, Stephen, all the apostles but John, and millions around the world even now! So what's the solution? It's in the last 2 words of Luke 21:19 above--"your lives." Now look at Col. 3:3--"You have died, and YOUR LIFE is HIDDEN with Christ in God!" Friends, you are not your body nor are you the interests that claim you in this world. Oh, we suffer here, but the true you--the inner man--isn't touched! And because Paul says, "the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension will guard your heart and your mind...."(Phil 4:7), we know we can walk in the eye of the hurricane any time we choose! Satan and our emotions and our eyes and our memory tell us we can't have supernatural peace! But God says it is ours NOW, and in abundance! Jesus said, "MY peace I give to you." Wow. HIS peace! I think Stephen had that peace as the rocks ended his life, while he gazed at Jesus and saw the invisible world for the first time. We can see Him by faith now and enjoy the peace that surpasses all comprehension, even in the midst of the inevitable suffering that comes our way. In the end we WILL say, "Nothing touched me!" I was safe all along. And to the degree that we appropriate his peace now, we can say now, "No harm OVERTAKES me!" Now go let God rock your world, and stay in the eye of the storm! Scott "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."-Psalm 16:11

Shame-spawning Parents

Christian parents can set their Christian kids up for great failure if they imply that falling into sin is virtually unpardonable (they wouldn't SAY this, but...) or that it mars you for life. Kids will hide their sin and get under so much shame, it leads to greater problems. Many parents have never faced how horrific their own flesh is in God's eyes, and so they have THEIR socially acceptable sins and YOUR socially UNacceptable sins. They can't relate to testimonies of people who escaped addictions or other wrecks, yet don't realize that 1) they could easily fall into worse and 2) their own sins in God's eyes are far worse than they could ever imagine! The end result is both kids and parents living inauthentic lives and never knowing true freedom!