My thoughts today are around the change Coronavirus has made in our personal lives. The single biggest change for us is that we are saving money. We’re not buying gas for the vehicles, we are not eating out because our schedules allow us to be home, and we are in need of nothing. I’m not sure that we have bought any more groceries than we normally do and we can’t buy toilet paper and paper towels because they are always wiped out (no pun intended). Further, we are enjoying the family time as we always have, we just have more time to enjoy now.
There are other things this virus has drastically changed for us like church services. There has never been a time in the past 30 years of church attendance that I have missed 4 Sundays in a row of church. And as a pastor this is really strange. However, I am able to stay in constant contact with the church through the telephone and social media. We are still having church business meetings through Zoom as well as having Bible Studies. The views on our Sunday messages have more than quadrupled with new people every week coming to hear what the Bible has to say about this situation. The people who tithed and gave as the Bible instructs us to do before this virus hit have continued to tithe and give and some new people have begun to give as well. This doesn’t mean that we are doing as well financially. The fact that people are being laid off from their jobs and some businesses closing has had an impact for less giving.
What does all of this mean? The truth is we will not know what it means for any of us ultimately until things get back to some form of normalcy and I say some form because I don’t things will go back the same as before this social distancing began. Life is going to be different. There are some huge questions. What will happen to the tourism industry? What will happen to the automobile and housing industries? What will happen in sports, leisure, camping, and a multitude of other things? We simply don’t know. All of these things could bounce right back and we could resume business as usual, but I really don’t believe that will happen. I just feel it in my spirit. Things will be different.
But here is what I am thinking, in all honesty and this isn’t going to be popular with anyone. I believe we will come out of this with a better understanding that God was right all along. God told us in His Word that we should put Him first in our lives, that we shouldn’t get to the place of being so blessed that we forget about the one who blessed us. But we have forgotten God. We have put emphasis on the blessing rather than on God. When is the last time you told someone about Jesus? When is the last time you impacted someone for Christ because of your giving? When was someone impacted for Christ because you lived a life that demonstrates that things aren’t important but people are?
I’m not perfect, I’m not casting any stones, I’m simply stating where our world has been living for the past many years. We now live in a society that says the Bible isn’t important and has no authority. The Bible says not to take a life and our society says a fetus isn’t a life, our own governor in my state says a baby can be born and left to die while being made comfortable. God’s Word says that sexual relationships are to be between one man and one woman and we can’t turn on the television now without seeing same sex couples kissing. But let me make myself clear, those who claim the name of Christ for years have decided that God didn’t really mean what He said in regard to sex outside of marriage. You know I’m right! You get what you tolerate and in the church for many years we have tolerated sex outside of marriage. To most people, it’s no big deal. Well let me be the millionth person to tell you, It is a big deal to God. These are just two of the hot button issues that quite frankly the church has been pretty silent about. There is so much more, sin is sin and we live in a world that has found a way to tolerate almost any sin someone wants to commit.
It’s time for the people of God to repent and seek His face. Revival happens in the church, in our personal lives, and then it spreads to a community and beyond. This has always been the case. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Deuteronomy 8 (NLT)
A Call to Remember and Obey
8 “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
6 “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills. 8 It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey. 9 It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. 10 When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. 12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! 14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
19 “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. 20 Just as the Lord has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the Lord your God.‘
We either change our ways and repent or we will continue to reap the harvest of sin sown.
Ronnie