I am writing this as of March 16th. Due to something called coronavirus (Covid-19), our world has changed a great deal in the last few weeks. Evidently, the first person known to have it was a 55-year-old man in Hubei province in China. It is believed by scientists that it may have originated with bats and eventually moved to humans. It ballooned in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Corona has now gone everywhere. It went crazy in places like Italy and Iran and so many places. It is very much in the USA. It is here in Oklahoma. Soon, you will know someone that has it. It may be you or me.
We are told that most people will come out of it just fine, but we need to be very careful concerning our senior adults and those with chronic conditions.
My wife is an ICU nurse. I know it is only a short time until she has her first covid-19 patient. And there will be more. We will see our way through it all. Pray!
It would seem that the next problem is the evident irrational alarm by the people. I, for one, regret not having invested heavily in the toilet paper market. I didn’t see that one coming. I checked; we have about a three-week supply. And why are folks buying up everything in the stores as though the world has ended. It prevents us from being able to make normal purchases as the stores have nothing left to purchase.
Another issue is that we are told to not assemble together. We were first told no larger groups than 500, then 100, next came 25-50. Now we are told to not gather in groups of more than ten people. And CCMH is allowing 1 visitor and only after being checked.
Believe me, I understand. If people don’t come into contact with one another, it will lessen the initial sickness load. This will upfront keep our health care system from being so overloaded.
What should the church do? There are varying ideas. The first thing we should always do is pray. And we should keep praying! Our Lord has eased our busy schedules, our focus is changed. Could it be that He has something to tell us? Pray and listen to Him. Some of us suddenly have free time. And we should open the Book to what He wants us to hear.
The part about the church gathering together has me concerned. If our medical experts/gov’t leaders tell us to avoid assembling in groups, yet we continue to meet as a church body as we always do, then aren’t we contributing to the possible problem? And how does that apply to Hebrews 10:25 and others concerning the church assembling together?
First of all, I believe this will be short-term. And I believe we, the church, can come together in other ways without being in the building. Many of us already have the capability in place to livestream or facebook-live our services. Technology is amazing. The other night, we got together with our kids and grandkids on facebook messenger group video chat all at the same time. It was a multi-split-screen celebration of sorts! And, likewise, there are so many ways the church can function outside of the walls. After all, what is the church here for? The church’s main goal is to reach people for Christ! We are to tell others about the good news that salvation is available to all! Yes, people will die from this virus. People die from the flu. People die from so many things that I won’t list here. But we all have a really big sickness. It’s called sin. And only Jesus can heal. We all need Jesus! I can’t help but believe people will turn to Christ as a result of this sickness. God is good! All the time! Amen? Well, I have to go check the cows.
Choose Jesus, choose life! And find a Bible believin’ church where you “fit in” and know, grow, and follow Christ! Tell others! See y’all at church and keep PRAYIN’ for HIS HARVEST! And y’all KEEP PRAYIN’ for RAIN! Pray for Healin’! Amen