The truth is I never really anticipated writing about COVID-19; I stated that in the last entry and never thought I’d find myself writing about it again. But, here we are again. I felt compelled to write about this because I have heard people in the media using this time as a platform to speak of our current state as a completely hopeless situation. They use this time to say whatever they want and use whatever means necessary to justify themselves. Unfortunately, the instance that really got me going just happened to involve scripture. This person was also claiming to be a prophet who misrepresented God and completely took scripture out of context to justify a bunch of hogwash. Now I understand there’s not much that I can say on my little rinky-dink blog that’s going to change things but I just hope that someone may be comforted by reading this in a time of uncertainty.
The essence of my rage is from the video stems from this: “the Lord is shaking the earth in this time so that we would choose Him; He has gotten off His throne and is crying out that He is so in love with the earth that He wants us to choose Him.”
The person used the following scripture to validate their point:
“6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.”
— Haggai 2:6-8 ESV
One of the issues besides what I’ve already mentioned was that the person chose not to read the next verse in the passage, which pulls together what the passage is truly about. Here it is:
“9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.”
— Haggai 2:9 ESV
So, before I lose you completely, this is what I want to say about this and how it connects to everything else in this post
It doesn’t say that, at all.
Theologians and scholars have long stated that this passage of scripture is not even about the temple itself; yet the shaking and latter glory is foreshadowing the birth of Christ. This scripture should comfort us not that God is shaking the world; but that in a hard time there is something to look to. It tells us that God promised even then an eternal hope hundreds and hundreds of years before He would be born. God used the prophets of old to encourage His people that one day, He would restore us in right relationship through His son. Now, a little over a week before we celebrate His trampling of death for all eternity I find it only fitting to write to encourage anyone who reads that regardless of what some person says, there is hope. Jesus Christ is our hope and He is alive.
The point of all this writing is not to sit and bash people nor try to say that I really know all nor anything about this. Full disclosure is that I believe in the prophetic; it has truly made an extremely positive impact on my own life. However, when you misrepresent God – that irks me, as it should any Christian. God hasn’t left His throne, He never has and never will. COVID-19 did NOT surprise God. Our prayers that we are praying right now in this crisis are not surprising Him. To say that God is pleading that we would choose Him is to say that He is not sovereign and in this time the message we need to hear is that HE IS. HE HAS THIS. HE IS SOVEREIGN. I don’t say that to make light of this situation, I say that to encourage us that God – all powerful, all knowing, has our every fear and need in the palm of His hand.
I truly believe that this will be the church’s finest hour because of our response to bring people together through this hard time. I think it’s amazing to see so many churches doing online services, doing online small groups, and finding ways to help the elderly in need. I know that our church alone had 8,000 unique visitors to our online service last week and we have had church members set up groups on Facebook to help connect the elderly of church’s needs to others who may be able to help. This is setting the stage in a time of fear, uncertainty, and depression, for the greatest response – community.
There is a short booklet by John Piper titled, Don’t Waste Your Cancer. It is available for download through his online ministry, Desiring God. In this he writes on 11 ways that a person with cancer would waste their diagnosis, speaking from his own experience with it. While there is temptation to write on all 11 points, I’m trying to keep this shorter and sweeter. There are 3 of them however that truly resound so much to this current situation our city, state, nation, and world find ourselves in. In respect to his work, I’m not replacing the wording of cancer with COVID to fit what I’m trying to say, rather than let his original writing truly illuminate the current state of our life.
1. We waste our cancer if we let it drive us into solitude instead of deepen our relationships with manifest affection.
Isolation sucks, period. There is no good way to say it isolation breeds loneliness and loneliness breeds a plethora of other feelings not just limited to anxiety, depression, fear, exhaustion. There is just something about being around family and friends that just causes people to have joy. I so miss my brothers and sisters in laws and their kids. We have a very large family with many nieces and nephews and I know if Dominique and I miss them as much as we do, our children miss their cousins even more. My oldest has had a tendency for one reason or another to go to the front door of our house and say “Jake coming daddy? Sammy coming daddy?” The look on his face always grieves me a bit as I have to tell him, sorry buddy, not today but soon. I grieve his missing of his cousins. I grieve his missing of his little buddies at church. I grieve for all those affected by this in their health, finances, and life period. However I am also so thankful for this season. I’m thankful that I’m home – and staying home.
These are truly unprecedented times for us in this world not just for tragedy, but also for the family unit. When have we ever had the opportunities that we do right now as families to be just that – a family? I was talking to a friend of mine from church and he was sharing about how his family was nearing burn out before this season because of their schedules. Life is hard enough and busy enough on its own, then add a world wide pandemic and it gets worse. However, now we aren’t busy anymore running to this game, that meeting, this event. whatever. This is a divinely appointed season of rest as well for families. For families like mine that are constantly on the move, this a time where we are forced to stay home and be a family. At the beginning, I was even saying holy cow what am I going to do without baseball? No Masters Tournament. The truth is though, we are thriving. These are the times for families to be able to start doing devotions together, to read together, watch movies together, without the distractions of life interfering. I wish my boys were older for this in ways so that we could go through something as a family like, Pilgrim’s Progress, or a C.S. Lewis tale. These are the memories we will end up cherishing 10, 15, years from now.
If all we do is watch Fox News, CNN, WKTV, we miss the bright, glaring, beautiful opportunity to enjoy one another right now, even in the middle of a pandemic. Maybe we can’t physically be together, but I know for a fact I’m thankful for FaceTime, I’m thankful for Zoom, and all of these online platforms providing a smidgeon of community for us in this uncharted territory.
2. We waste our cancer if we grieve as those who have no hope.
One of the things that I feel like our society is dealing with the hardest right now is the unknown, the fear of the unknown specifically. That fear leads to straight up hopelessness. I’ve felt it, I think we all have at moments. For some, the unknown might look like when will I feel better? When will I get another paycheck? When will I get fresh food again? When will I be able to make my national grid payment? What if I don’t get a stimulus check? There’s little to no hope as government officials really have little to say – and with good reason at times. This is hard to understand, it’s hard to predict what will happen. Sometimes, even what they do say is just a possible timeframe of when we MIGHT be able to get back to normal.
Last week, our President took some flack for stating he wanted to have the U.S. back to normal by Easter weekend. Call it what you want – insensitive, irresponsible, whatever. I say thank you to him. At least he was trying to give us some measure of something to look forward to; some form of a return to normalcy. I don’t care what side of the spectrum you lean, wanting to have a bit of hope is something we all need. Obviously, it’s been extended much longer than Easter, and who knows if that will be the “end” of it either.
The issue at hand though is there is only one true place where we have hope. His name is Jesus Christ. Right now, I have been challenged to place all of my attention and affection into Him. I have found myself even feeling discontent at moments of being at home. Our home is not perfect, we are not in our bibles all day long, having perfect devotions at dinner time, I’ve found myself looking for things to spend our possible stimulus check on more than I’d like to admit and it’s rooted in placing my hope and trust in the wrong place. As if a new phone, or new jungle gym for the kids, or a second Apple TV, is truly going to bring hope and peace in this time
.
The truth is, there is only one place that my hope and trust needs to be, and when it is there, every fear is settled.
It wouldn’t be a true post without some musical influence. These lyrics from Never Going Back by United Pursuit have truly been my prayer lately. They encourage me to place my hope in Jesus in this time.
“I’m singing out Your lovely name
I’m giving You everything
You make my soul alive
You put Your love inside
There’s nothing that I have need of
’Cause there’s nothing You haven’t done
You make my soul alive
You put Your love inside”
— Never Going Back by United Pursuit
He is not distant, He is not ignoring all the prayers of His people in this time. He is not far away, He is not hiding from struggling families. He is worthy of all of our praise in this season because He is our only hope and peace. Philippians shows exactly this:
“6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ”
— Philippians 4:6,7 ESV
3. We waste our cancer if we fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
I’m going to let Pastor John handle this one for me:
“Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances:
“They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12–13).
So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don’t waste it. Remember, you are not left alone. You will have the help you need. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).”
— John Piper
Right now, we need not prophets who try and say what God is doing through this time and talk about judgement He may or may not be handing out. We need not prophets who want to try and figure out how and what might cause this to end. We need prophets and leaders who would exhort and comfort His people at this time by reminding them not just of the goodness of God and the love of God, but of the faithfulness of God. To remind us how He has been there, how He is there, and how He will forever be there.
“10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
— Isaiah 41:10 ESV
I’m beyond thankful for our church for so many reasons, but I’m truly so proud to share of the online services and the online community we are encouraging. These are the things that foster peace, comfort, hope, normalcy, and joy in this time; knowing that we are not alone – that we are not suffering through this time alone.
A reminder that we have LIVE online services 3 times over the weekend:
Saturday evening at 6 PM | Sunday morning at 9 AM | Sunday morning at 11 AM
If you have kids our children’s Sunday school service, Uptown has a live service at 11 am on Facebook as well as on their YouTube channel.
Our middle school & high school ministries also have live services on Wednesday night at 7 pm with online small groups following:
Encounter (HS) Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/encounterutica/
Encounter (HS) Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/encounterutica/?hl=en
Launch (MS) Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/launchutica/?hl=en
Connect with us!
God bless you and be well!
BMT
The Fire & The Flood 