During our recent prayer walk through Biltmore village a year after Hurricane Helene, the Word of the Lord came to Amanda Newcomb.
While Biltmore village had become a destination for the wealthy over the last century, the worldliness and riches of this earth could not protect it from the flood waters. Amanda writes, “On our prayer walk, at the old train depot, I knew He had created this place of beauty and grandeur so long ago, and it has been corrupted and perverted over all these years. I heard Him say that He is going to restore it and cleanse it and get rid of all the dirt and brokenness. He brought to my mind verse 12 from Isaiah 58: ‘Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.’
Then I knew without a doubt why God had spared our little church from the devastation of Helene. We are a small church, But we can pray and we can praise! We can keep the lines of communication open with our Great God, and remind Him like the persistent widow that the Asheville area is still not okay. That it needs Him more than ever. I believe that is why He put us next to Sweeten Creek and Biltmore Village. When I got home I looked up the verse from Isaiah that the Lord had spoken to me on the walk, I read verse 11, ‘If you take the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.’
God is calling Church of the Resurrection and the CEC to stand out for good, to not join in with the current culture of “pointing the finger and speaking wickedness”. We are to speak kindness with compassion, helping the hungry and afflicted souls that we meet. We are to be Christ’s light in these dark places, allowing the Lord to guide us as we go. He will provide for us and sustain us. The water He gives will not be a flood that drowns and destroys but water that quenches thirst and cleanses and never fails. He is all we need.”