Church here in Nepal this morning: after the April earthquake killed 10,000 people:
'But you have come to Mt. Zion...
 Yet once more I will shake not only earth, but also heaven…
 since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace... (Heb 12:22-28)
 Earthquakes are terrible natural disasters, but also signify changes from old status quo to new order.
Jesus foretold earthquakes (Matt 24:7) ‘in the last days’ = the last days of the Old Covenant Temple
+ when He 'yielded up His spirit, earth quaked + temple veil torn from top to bottom + rocks split’ (Matt 27:50-51)
+ when He rose from the dead 'behold there was a great earthquake’ (Matt 28:2), Earth has never been the same!
All creation + humanity groan amid earth’s turmoils, but through faith in Christ, death throes become birth pangs!
The devil means evil, but God turns even these for good + His Church rises - more than conquerors (Rom 8 22-37)
Acts 16:16-34: Paul + Silas in prison… dungeon… chained… at midnight – couldn’t get any darker!
But they were singing praises + the other prisoners heard them;
Suddenly there was a great earthquake! foundations shaken, doors opened, chains loosed!
The jailer asked, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’
How did he know he needed to ask that question???
*** Paul + Silas had been singing about their Saviour beforehand, now he believed + a new church was birthed! ***
April’s earthquake hit right at the end of Saturday morning services, and a number of believers died also: but the Nepalese Church looked beyond their own suffering and reached flattened villages in decimated mountain areas. They fed people, helped others rebuild + shared the gospel in word + deed.
Whole new churches have sprung up! That’s what Jesus meant,
 ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ (Matt 16:18)
There: that’s the sermon in action from Nepal today!