‘As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God’. (Psalm 42:1)
This week the landmark report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the global warming limit will be hit within 20 years. Without ‘immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions’ the report forecasts that there will be more frequent and more intense heatwaves, flooding and droughts. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres described the findings as a ‘code red for humanity.’
Whatever your view on climate change, the report makes grim reading and adds to the human misery the world has experienced over the last 18 months.
Around 2,000 years ago, there was another code red for humanity. While human beings were gripped in the misery of sin and death, were enemies of God and hostile to him, Jesus Christ died on an instrument of torture. He shed his blood and, in the process, saved us out of this misery and reconciled us to God (Romans 5:6-11).
In a world of uncertainty and dire predictions, Jesus’s shed blood is the code red for humanity. He is the ultimate source of our security and salvation. So, with all that’s going on in the world around us, let’s turn to Jesus and keep our eyes focussed on him.
Have a good week looking to Jesus.
Pastor Barry
