God Is Calm Comfort, Crises Offer Opportunities To Demonstrate God’s Love…

Crises like the COVID-19 gives us all the oppor­tu­ni­ty to demon­strate to our fel­low man the human­i­ty with­in us.
This is cer­tain­ly not a time for tak­ing, it is a time for giv­ing, it is in all of us to look deep with­in our­selves and find the spir­it of God in us, not just to find him with­in us but to act upon his qui­et voice. Some refer to it as con­science, me, I call it the voice of the holy spir­it.
It does not mat­ter if you are the­ist, agnos­tic or even an athe­ist, there is a cer­tain joy that comes from giv­ing.
Whether we give tan­gi­ble things at this time, or we give of our time it is cru­cial­ly impor­tant that we look out for each oth­er in what­ev­er we do..

It is under­stand­able that you may say, “but how can I do what you are ask­ing when the author­i­ties are say­ing we should all engage in social dis­tanc­ing”?
Scripture com­mands in Roman 13:1 Let every per­son be sub­ject to the gov­ern­ing author­i­ties. For there is no author­i­ty except God, and those that exist have been insti­tut­ed by God.
There is no mutu­al exclu­siv­i­ty between obey­ing the com­mands of earth­ly author­i­ties and doing what Yeshua com­man­deth, both are doable at the same time.
Civil author­i­ties say stay at home as best as you can, but peo­ple are allowed to go to the super­mar­ket, to the phar­ma­cy, to get gas for their cars, to pick up food from restau­rants and so on.
We can take the time to drop off some food for an elder­ly per­son in need of food. We can find out if an elder­ly wid­ow­er or wid­ow is able to get their med­ica­tion?
We can ask if they have food, or if they have an errand they would like us to run for them.
Of equal impor­tance, we may give them a few dol­lars, just a few extra dol­lars to peo­ple who are on fixed incomes are extreme­ly impor­tant to them.

Matthew 25:35 For I was hun­gry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you wel­comed me.
James 2:14 – 18 What good is it, my broth­ers, if some­one says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a broth­er or sis­ter is poor­ly clothed and lack­ing in dai­ly food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” with­out giv­ing them the things need­ed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But some­one will say, “You have faith and I have worked.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Proverbs 28:27 Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
1 John 3: 17 – 18 But if any­one has the world’s goods and sees his broth­er in need, yet clos­es his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little chil­dren, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Let us remem­ber at this time that the church is not in any build­ing, it is in our hearts.
In times of cri­sis, the inter­est of God’s work is not served by dress­ing up and going to wor­ship in a build­ing, it is demon­strat­ing to the unsaved what God is all about.
He is calm in a time of uncer­tain­ty, a refuge in a time of tur­moil, a port in a storm.
People see the work of God in what we do not in what we say.

As broth­ers and sis­ters, cousins aunts and uncles, moth­ers and fathers, friends and neigh­bors we have a duty to look out for each oth­er. To look after each oth­er.
As Christians, we have a high­er call­ing, a greater duty, not just to preach how much we care, not just to preach how much God cares, but to let our light shine so that the unsaved may see how much we care, just how much God cares, through our actions.
They must see God in us in times of tur­moil, but they can also see the fraud in us.
The forces of dark­ness are busy at work, telling you that you should look at what the church­es are doing.
They are telling you that the church is silent in this your hour of need. They are telling you that the church was always a fraud. That all they care about is tak­ing mon­ey from you.
They are telling you that this is a sem­i­nal moment for you to walk away from the con­cept of God for­ev­er.
That is what the ene­my wants you to believe, it is what the ene­my wants you to do.
Sadly, some of us with­in the body of Christ is doing exact­ly what they are accus­ing us of doing.
Matthew 5: 14 – 16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill can­not be hid­den. Nor do peo­ple light a lamp and put it under a bas­ket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before oth­ers, so that they may see your good works and give glo­ry to your Father who is in heav­en.
Someone joked that the great­est prob­lem for Christianity is Christians. If we think about it a lit­tle bit, it does make sense.
Us Christians are judge­men­tal, greedy, rapa­cious, self ‑right­eous, preachy, holi­er-than-though, and we do every­thing we should­n’t do.
We do every­thing except the things Yeshua says we should do, vis­it the sick, look after the wid­ow, vis­it the incar­cer­at­ed, look out for the poor.
This too shall pass.