"Hacked."

"Hacked."

By:  Pastor Jack Schneider

“”The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will watch over your soul; the Lord will watch over your going out and your coming in, both now and forevermore.”  [Ps.121:7, Heb. literal]

This last week a number of you were shocked to receive an e-mail, purportedly from Pastor Andy in Manila, the Philippines, claiming to have been waylaid and robbed while there on a trip. According to this tale of woe, he needed your financial help; could you come to his rescue via wire and send him money? Thankfully, you were suspicious of such a claim and checked it out with me or called Andy personally, and discovered that, indeed, this was a hoax. In the meantime, I’d had Laura send a blanket e-mail from the church office via “Member Connect” notifying most of you of the same thing: Pastor Andy was fine, and someone had hacked his e-mail account.

Several lessons from this include: 1] don’t EVER wire money to someone claiming to be a relative, friend or such without first verifying through unimpeachable sources that their story is true. In this day and age vast amounts of personal information can be gleaned from public pages and Facebook, so be very careful. 2] Set up trigger/pass words known only to you and your loved ones in the event of emergencies. If someone claiming to be close to you asks for help and does not know this contact info, he/she is a scoundrel looking to rip you off. 3] Don’t ever let someone intimidate you or “heart-string” you into cooperation. Maintain your composure; get contact numbers and take time to get your facts together for a well-thought decision.

Finally, do not forget the promise of God above. Yes, He expects and calls us to be responsible stewards -- harmless as doves but wiser than serpents when it comes to the ways of the world -- and yet He reminds us in the words of the Psalmist that He will never leave our side.  Some translations say He will protect us from “harm” and preserve our life; the Hebrew literally says He will guard our hearts from “evil” and watch over our “soul.” The difference? We will surely have to deal with the scoundrels of this world on a daily basis, but the deeper, eternal dangers can never shake us from the hand of God.

Yes, He will watch over us as we go out and come back each day, whether it’s to Manila…or the grocery store…wherever the Spirit leads us on the Way.

- Jack