MAKING THE MOST OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Generally speaking, the command to gather is more often emphasized in the Bible (Genesis 2:18, Proverbs 18:1, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Hebrews 10:24-25), but God also has His purposes in solitude and isolation (1 Kings 9:1-9, Matthew2:13, 14:23, Mark 1:35, 6:31 and 46, Luke 5:16, 6:12, Galatians 1:15-18).

Below are two possible purposes of God to consider in this time of isolation:

1. How is your fast from people going?

Now, I know that this time of isolation is not self-imposed, and so it may not technically meet the criteria for a fast, but it seems to me that there is some overlap in the experience. Although our motivation to self-isolate was motivated at first by a desire to save lives that does not mean that you cannot now approach this time in the same spirit as a fast. The point of fasting is to communicate to God that there is something that you crave more than the satisfaction of your appetites. Man has a deep, in-born appetite for friendship and gathering. We are social creatures by design. However, When you want more of God, and you want Him more than anything one way that the Bible prescribes for Christians to demonstrate that is by temporarily refraining from something that is otherwise good. So when believers want more of God, or they want God’s power they fast in order to communicate that they crave those things more than food or friends. This serves to sharpen and focus our prayers with urgency. Often times, in the Bible God’s people would pray and fast when they had some specific challenge in view, and by fasting every rumbling of their empty stomach caused them to turn to God in prayer. The craving hunger that they felt for food was translated into a craving for God and for Him to move in power. So in these days let every longing to gather with your friends draw you into prayer and a deeper communion with God.

Sometimes the presence of people tempts us to perform seeming acts worship for the benefit of a human audience. Consider the possibility that God desires to use this season to draw you into patterns of worship that focus solely on him. For example, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus commands, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” In these words I hear our God saying “Come away with me. Let’s be alone for a while.”

What we believe finds expression in what we do, and what we do reveals what we actually believe. When a person prays in secret, it reveals that their worship is truly focused on God and is not for the benefit of a human audience. If this is an area where you struggle and are feeling convicted, maybe it will help to make this resolution before God--- “I will not pray publicly until I have made a habit of praying privately.”

2. Love the Ones You’re With

For some of us the problem in this season, at least as it relates to isolation and solitude, is not that we are completely deprived of human contact, but that we miss the width and diversity of our varied friendships and we are in too-close quarters with a select few. There is a thin line between feelings of coziness and feeling confined. However, when we read the books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, which Paul wrote under house arrest in Rome while awaiting his trial and eventual execution we see that although the context for Paul’s ministry and calling had changed, his actual ministry and calling had not. If you throw Paul in prison he starts a prison ministry. Scriptures like Philippians 1:12-14 and Ephesians 6:18-20 make it plain that this is exactly what he did. “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard[f] and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” His letters from that period articulate his heartfelt desire to see his friends on the outside, but he does not look on his time in prison as wasted either. Consider the possibility that God is calling you to a time of more focused ministry among a select few. Perhaps your spouse or children are in need of a more concentrated time of ministry focus. I think it is very likely that years from now as your family looks back on this strange season there will be a lot of laughter and even a longing for this span of days when everyone was home and focused on each other.

What do you think are God's purposes in the midst of this time? Let me know in the comments section.

Fellow Christian,

Thanks to the covid-19 pandemic America’s hands have never been cleaner. We give folks a wide berth at the supermarket. We disinfect doorknobs, gas pumps, shopping carts, and…well…basically everything. These days, we are viewing everyone and every surface with suspicion, but I don’t get the sense that most Americans are scrutinizing their inner world with the same energy and concern as external surfaces. Remember when Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence?” (Matthew 23:25)

It is a little absurd to be strict about cleaning one’s hands while remaining cavalier about the sin-sullied condition of our hearts. Maintaining clean hands will matter greatly in the coming weeks, but what about a thousand years from now?

Wash your hands, yes, but remember the words of Jesus, "it's the things that come out of a person that defile him."

JESUS BECAME A MAN, HIS FOLLOWERS BECOME LIKE OTHER KINDS OF MEN

Fellow Christian-

One of the main things that differentiated Christianity from Judaism out of which it emerged, was that the Jews viewed the temple, and Israel as a geographic center and a showpiece demonstration of who God was. As such, Judaism was a come-and-see religion. “Come to Israel. Become circumcised. Observe our dietary laws. See the temple. Become like a Jew and you will experience God.” However, Christianity was not intended to be a come-and-see religion. Christianity is defined by the Great Commission, which, instead of saying come and see, commands us to go and tell. If Judaism said come and be like one of us, Christianity says we will come to you and become like you.

In this Christians follow the example of Jesus. Jesus didn’t just come to us. He actually became one of us (Philippians 2:3-11). So just as Jesus became a man, His followers become like other kinds of men. This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, “To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN PARENTING

Fellow Christian Parents-

The goal for Christian parents is to transfer their children from dependence on them to dependence on the Lord. Sarah and I, like all Christian parents, and like you I am sure, desire Christ for our children more than anything- and although we love them fiercely and would sacrifice ourselves for them (Romans 9:1-4)- it is not our sacrifice that they will need. Ultimately they need the sacrifice of Jesus. Now, to be sure, the many sacrifices that Christian parents make on behalf of their children are important in that they serve as a reflection and a reminder of THE sacrifice that Jesus made for them. Christian parenting at its best should be like that--- our example serves as a living reminder of Jesus to our children. However, our sacrifices are not enough--- they only point to the one sacrifice that is needed above all else.

So, over the years as our children mature, growing less and less dependent on us they should seamlessly grow more and more dependent on God. Ironically, as our children grow in stature--- as they mature and separate from their parents--- they will hopefully become more and more like a little child, joined in complete dependence on God in their relationship with Him. That time of transferal is most typically the messy teenage years when parental control gives way to influence and everything seems to be hanging in the balance.

Freedom is inherently dangerous, isn’t it? Freedom can be used in self-destructive ways or in ways that hurt others. Freedom can be used to become addicted to drugs, or to commit horrible sins with serious, long-lasting consequences, or scariest of all freedom can be used to reject Christ and eternally walk away from our deepest hopes for our child. That’s the scary side of freedom, and we might wonder why God would allow something so scary and potentially damaging as freedom were it not for the fact that freedom is also wonderfully full of potential because it is only in freedom that a person can truly turn to Christ for themselves.

More than wanting my children to go to church with me, I want them TO WANT to go to church. A parent can force the former, but not the latter. That’s the real difficulty we face as Christian parents. We can command the forms of worship but not the attitude. How can we give our children a desire for the things of God? The simple answer is that we cannot. Only God can do that, and we were simply not designed to carry that load. We should pray for them, and make visible our own cherishing and treasuring of Christ, but what we can bring to their ears only God can bring to their heart. Don’t saddle yourself with such a crushing weight. Enjoy your God, and pray that He would give your child the capacity to treasure Him also.

THEY DIDN'T READ THE BILL

Fellow Christian-

First of all, let me put you at ease, I am not going to make a political point here. Now, let me make you uneasy again, this may still bother you.

Do you remember back when the Congress was debating Obamacare? That was a controversial time and there were strong opinions on both sides of the debate. Of course, the controversy continues today. My point is not to argue one way or the other the merits of the affordable care act (ACA), but to point out the amazing fact that most, if not all, of those who voted on it never actually read it. Nancy Pelosi, who was then Speaker of the House, was lobbying hard for the passage of the bill, but she had to confess when pressed by a reporter that she had never read the entire bill. She famously said, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it....” In fact, most of congress was in the same boat. Some voted against it, some voted for it, but very few, if any, appeared to have even read it. Later when the constitutionality of the ACA was brought into question before the Supreme Court the Justices also apparently didn’t read it. In fact Justice Stephen Breyer said to a lawyer arguing against the law, "So what do you propose that we do other than spend a year reading all this?" Justice Antonin Scalia went a step further. He erupted at a lawyer who suggested that the justices read the ACA by asking, “What happened to the Eighth Amendment?” The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Even Max Baucus, widely considered as the lead author of the bill, confessed that he had not read the entire thing. Some citizens were disappointed that our lawmakers voted on such an important piece of legislation without apparently reading it.

(I get why they didn't it read it. Some people saw the length of this post and didn't even get this far! If you're still reading congratulations!)

Once again, I am not trying to make a political point, but I start with the debate surrounding Obamacare because of the passions and inflamed opinions that seem to surround this issue even among my Christian friends. I've been in groups of Christians before where you mention Jesus and they yawn, but if you mention this or that hot button topic from the days headlines and suddenly everyone is tripping over themselves to share their opinions. The Kingdom bores them. It's the republic that captures their imagination and commands their passions.

This reminds me of the first day of my Systematic Theology Course. The professor shared a startling statistic that showed a large percentage of pastors in the United State have never read the Bible all the way through. He challenged us, if we had not already read the Bible to set out to do that as a matter of first importance. “If you are going to be teachers of the Bible,” he said, “you should, at a minimum, have read the Bible.” Makes sense, right? Well, to my shame I had to confess that, at that time, I had never read the 66 books of the Bible in their entirety, but I decided to fix that. (WARNING: Many a well-intentioned effort to read through the Bible has died in the book of Leviticus. I’m just preparing you…Leviticus will test your resolve.)

In America, the average household has 4.4 Bibles, but according to studies conducted by the American Bible Society and Barna Research Group a sizeable majority of Americans read from their Bibles only four times a year or less. In fact, most Christians give their lives to Jesus, and stake eternity too, based on the teachings of a book they have not read for themselves. Christians shouldn’t point out the speck in Congress’s eye without first acknowledging the log in their own. And there are bigger issues at stake in the Bible than in the affordable care act. Thankfully, the Bible is much shorter and much, much more interesting than the Affordable Care Act. It’s actually a pretty good read. Obamacare and its attached regulations are 1,527,165 words long. The Bible is only half that length 783,137 words. Some of you aren’t readers, and that’s okay. In Jesus’ day most folks were not able to read at all, but they delighted to listen to Jesus, and today we can do that too through such technology as smart phones and I-pads that allow us to listen to the Bible. (In fact, that’s how I first got through Leviticus.)