Month: March 2020

The world is watching something unfold that has never happened before. There have been natural disasters and there have been diseases, there have also been pandemics through history. However, what is happening right now is unprecedented in our experience.

The disease that has been unleashed is something that we don’t know. We don’t know what to expect and that is causing so much stress as people wonder what to do.

Industry is grinding to a halt and people are losing their jobs. People are panic buying groceries and other household items. It causes those who don’t buy in such a fashion to have to race around visiting more stores to find what they need. This, at a time when we are being asked to stay indoors.

The news is all about this virus and what is happening in the world. I read today that nurses in Italy have taken their own lives in remorse after being diagnosed. They can’t live with the idea that they may have infected those that they care for.

Parents are working from home and, in many places like where I live, they are being asked to become their children’s teachers with a full curriculum while still trying to get their actual work done. I can’t imagine what parents who have to physically go to work are doing just to have their children watched, let alone try to get their classwork done.

The kind of stress that people are feeling can sometimes be expressed in anger and physical abuse. In a city close to where I live, the police have said that incidents of serious child abuse has escalated dramatically.

I’ve read of younger people in their twenties and thirties blaming older people for all the ills in the world and suggesting that we, as a people, simply let older people die. They say the older individuals are selfish and are leeches on the system without putting anything in. Of course, they are disregarding the fact that the older individuals worked their whole lives and many still work.

Between the stress and the hate and the uncertainty of life, there are two ways to go forward. One is to let hate consume you and to blame others for everything that is wrong.

The second way is to love one another and to reach out and help each other.

The first way leads to death and the second way leads to life.

Christians are called on to love one another. We are called to put our worries, anger, problems and uncertainty in the hands of our Father. We are asked to sacrifice the way that Jesus sacrificed for us. That is, to give without any thought of return. To give to those who hate us.

When you feel like things are spiraling out of control and you are overwhelmed, look first to God and ask for his help. Ask him to send people of God to aid you and call your local church if you have needs. They will be there to help you regardless of whether you are Christians or not.

John 16:31-33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

There is so much fear in the world today. There is a virus that is spreading globally and people are afraid of it. Not much is known about it except that for the vast majority of people, it will not be a hard illness to go through.

However, for segments of society, it can and will be deadly. I’m one of those individuals. I have existing and significant lung damage and my immune system is impaired by the medications I take for the severe allergies that caused the lung damage.

I know that if I catch this virus, it is more than likely that I will not survive it. However, I am not afraid.

I was face-to-face with death just over two years ago when the doctors in the hospital told me that I was not expected to live through the night. At that time, I faced my mortality and, instead of focusing on it, I looked into eternity with God.

My prayer at that time was for those I would leave behind. I knew I would miss my family but that I would meet most of them in heaven in the future. I remember laying back into the bed, closing my eyes, and telling God that I was ready to go.

While I was ready, it was not in his plan for me to die that night. I lived and while I didn’t heal completely, I have a life that has been filled with him and my spirit is healed.

When I see the fear of the people, really the fear of all the nations, I am sad. It seems that even those who have been saved by Jesus Christ are being consumed by fear.

Fear and worry will add nothing positive to your life. You will not be able to change one single thing by either emotion. You will not live longer, you will not stay well. You will not thrive because them.

There are two types of fear spoken of in the Bible. One is the fear of God. That fear means a reverent acknowledgement that God is supreme. He is awe inspiring and we should look at him in amazement.

The other type of fear is not from God. It is an emotion that will wear you down and, if you live with it constantly, it can destroy you. This type of fear is from Satan.

Satan seeks to turn you away from God and to focus only on yourself. Fear does that. You start fearing everyone and everything and, before you know it, hate can emerge. If only this person or that thing was gone, you would be okay. Some people then start to take actions to make it happen.

God tells us over and over again, more than 80 times in the Bible, to not fear. He tells us that he is with us and will protect us.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get sick, we won’t lose our jobs, we won’t have hunger, we won’t have mortality. It means that, if we have accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation, God will protect us from Satan’s horrific plan for humanity. Satan wants us to join him in torment for eternity.

God’s promise of protection is that he will not allow that to happen to those who believe in him. He will give us his strength to get through this and any other trial in the future.

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

In the midst of a crisis is when we see what controls a person’s heart. Do they rely on their own strength? Do they look to their loved ones? Perhaps they expect their doctors to perform miracles. Some even expect their government to save them. Many people live in fear and want someone somewhere to save them.

I don’t believe that any of these are things that can actually save you. I know that God is the one that saves us. He has given knowledge and insight to others and, it is through his help that you can receive help and/or treatment.

Just think about it. Every time there is a huge breakthrough of any sort, some individual takes the glory for themselves. It used to be that God would be given glory as well. These days, that doesn’t happen much at all.

If someone actually mentions God, they are derided and are called all sorts of names. They are compared to those who think that the earth is flat.

It’s amazing just how much hate is riled up when the name of God is voiced. Satan is alive and well and is creating so much hate in the hearts of men, it is difficult to live through.

I’m sure that it has always been thus, that Satan and his demons have turned the hearts of man to hatred. It is just so much prevalent and so easily voiced today.

There are all sorts of medium in which to express this hate. There are so many others who agree with it. They come together as one to wage battle against those who truly believe in God.

I say truly because there are charlatans and heretical preachers abounding. Oddly enough, the churches who espouse wrong theology are quite often the ones that seem to grow. Of course, Satan doesn’t target them for abuse because they are speaking false doctrine that will lead individuals astray and not to the forgiving God who loves them.

It is a hard time in which to speak of ones faith but, even so, we are to do so. We can expect backlash and hatred because Jesus warned us that it would happen.

He didn’t say to spread the Gospel when it was convenient, he said to spread it to the entire world. That was and still is, the work that he left for us to accomplish. When it is hard, he will be right there beside us to help us.

That doesn’t mean the path will be made easier, but it does mean that we can take heart that he is there and will give us the strength we need in order to accomplish what we are to do.

When there is a crisis of any sort, whether physical, financial or emotional, he is there. He is holding us up with his strength and will save us. We don’t need to live in fear, we need to live in the knowledge of his great love and faithfulness.

The body is a weak and fleeting vessel but the soul is forever. He is looking at us with forever eyes and wants our souls to be healed and for us to be brought into right-standing with God.

That is the salvation that we should be looking for. It isn’t hard to find. It has been right there waiting for us since Jesus hung on a cross, looked at each of us across eternity and then willingly died for our sins. Salvation is waiting, he is waiting. All we need to is receive him.

While you should always seek help from agencies that are there for that purpose and medical treatment when ill and take the medications that God has given to man in his infinite love and kindness, don’t expect another person to save you. Call on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you will be saved for eternity.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Our lives are racing by. I know that it is something that I think about as I grow older. I look back and think of things that I could have done. Things that I didn’t do because I was allowing myself to get caught up with society and with the worries and the strife of life.

Recently, I was thinking that I was growing too old to be of service to God. I regretted all the wasted years when I could have gotten out and done more to spread the Word of God and to show other people the promise of his Kingdom.

I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. On the contrary, I simply felt that I had wasted much of my life. It seemed like I had missed the opportunity to serve God and to accomplish his purpose in my life. I had acknowledged to myself that, in this sense, I was a failure.

I wasn’t praying about this. I wasn’t talking to anyone about how I felt. I was just living with the heavy burden of not having done what God wanted me to do. I didn’t even know what he had wanted, I just knew that I had not done much of anything at all.

I had started reading the Bible according to a 365 day Bible plan that meshes Old and New Testament readings by subject and history rather than by the way the Books of the Bible are presented. I’m not trying to read it in a year as I have done that before. I’m reading at a pace that allows me to dig deeper, generally one or two chapters a day.

I was in the midst of Exodus and was reading of the time when God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh. The study pointed out that these two men were 80 and 83 years old when God sent them on their most important life’s mission.

It was then when I realized that I had not missed my opportunity. I was right where I was supposed to be and at the time that I was supposed to start writing.

If I had attempted to do so earlier, I would not have had the same life experiences. It was through the failures and successes of my life that God wanted me to write and reach out to others.

While I still have days of feeling kind of old (when the bones stiffen and crack and the muscles ache – which is pretty much every day), I no longer question how God can use someone as old as I am to do his work.

Through the work of Moses and Aaron, God brought the people of Israel out of bondage and created a nation. He set them apart and continued his work in setting up a lineage from which the Savior would be born. That Savior is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.

God didn’t think the two men were too old. They had the right life experiences to be exactly the individuals that he needed to accomplish his work.

If you are thinking you are too old, too young, too smart, too uneducated, too anything to be of use to God, you are mistaken. God takes as we are and uses us with all of our flaws to tell the story of his goodness and power. He uses our imperfectness to show the redemptive power of his son, Jesus.

If we were everything perfect in every way, why would we even need a savior? It is that we are not much in the eyes of the world that makes the word of God that we tell so powerful.

God will use each of us to serve him in different ways. Just look to him and ask for his guidance and then accept it. He will lead you to the job he wants for you to accomplish. It will be something unique that he has set apart for you since before the foundation of the universe was created. What an awesome God we serve!

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”