Abiding in Christ in the Midst of COVID-19

By Dr. Sanejo Leonard

The past few weeks I have been meditating and practicing lectio divina on a familiar passage in Luke 13, the one where Jesus cries over Jerusalem in his desire to draw the city and its people back to himself. In reflecting upon that scripture, I was drawn to the start of the passage where Pharisees come to him and urge him to leave because Herod wants to kill him. Luke, ever the detailed writer, tips us off in dramatic fashion to the urgency in the narrative by writing “At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you [italics added]” (Lk. 13:31, NRSV).

Whether the Pharisees were trying to help Jesus, or this was a ploy to get him out of their city (probably the latter), the sense of urgency would cause any normal person to react: someone is trying to kill you, do something about it! Yet, Jesus was no “normal” person. While Jesus was both human and divine and struggled with many of the same human emotions we deal with, there was also a sense of calm deep within him, showing his ability to remain at peace despite the fear and anxiety that swirled around him (e.g., remember the story of Jesus asleep on the boat in the midst of the storm in Luke 8:23-25). Jesus’ frequent time spent with the Father in prayer (Lk. 5:16) seems to have contributed to his ability to respond to life’s challenges with a sense of calm rather than the temptation to react. Knee-jerk reactions often reflect ingrained habits, habits and parts of our character that have yet to be transformed into Christ’s likeness and Christ’s character.

Instead of reacting to the Pharisees and their attempt to cause fear, Jesus brings the focus back around to his mission and to others. It is from there that Jesus proceeds to express his sorrow over Jerusalem, desiring to gather her children together in a protective manner (Lk. 13:34), and as such, letting everyone know that his life was not his own; his life was meant to be lived and to die for others.

Jesus’ example shows us that our ability to weather our current storm of a global crisis is in our daily and frequent connection with God our loving Father, and the deep and abiding peace we will find from that relationship. As we grow in our ability to remain or abide in Jesus and his love, the fruit from that abiding will be our ability to love others (Jn. 15:5-12). The fruit will be our ability to respond from a well of peace rather than react from a shallow point of fear and anxiety. Our fruit will be responding with hope that only comes from a God who is bigger than our current crisis than a trust in human ability alone to fight this crisis. It is only when we learn to abide in Christ that our reactions change to thoughtful and peaceful responses because we are deeply rooted in Christ and his love (Eph. 3:17-18). Being the self-proclaimed “fraidy-cat” that I am, I need to remind myself of this practice as much as anyone.

May we this day, this week, and in this crisis learn to abide in Christ and find peace and calm there, and in turn, love and care for others to bring God’s light in the midst of this darkness.

Amen.

DESTINY OVER DESERT

By Pastor John Francis

Numbers 14:24 English Standard Version (ESV)

24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

You are prepared for destiny and promise.

As we consider a new way of life during this time of uncertainty, let’s reflect upon Caleb.  There are many things that Caleb must have used to guard his heart.  He was able to have a different spirit after years of walking in the wilderness with those who walked in a negative way.  I am sure Caleb learned what not to do and how not to act by observing the unhealthy lifestyles of those journeying with him.

Yet, God stated that Caleb had fully followed Him.  God saw Caleb’s desire to walk interconnected with Him, and the virtues of God’s heart became the rhythm of his own heartbeat.  The results would be to lead Caleb into the land Promised Land.  The lifestyle that Caleb lived would be the pathway  to bring His descendants to their inheritance.

Let us all be reminded by Caleb of how to walk in difficult times, with difficult people, with uncertainty before us and maintain a focus on the destiny ahead.  Caleb wanted the promiseland.  His desire for the greater thing that was ahead of him, pulled him out of the desert he was in.  During a similar time of having to rethink about how to do life, we must allow God to make the necessary adjustments within our hearts.  Things have changed, and  we are unaware of what will remain and what will be a part of the way of life as it used to be.  We are unaware of what the new normal may look like.

However, we can remember the example we have in Caleb in this season of transition.  We can allow the Holy Spirit to drop creatively into our hearts the desires and concerns of the Father’s heart. There is nothing that God cannot lead us through as He showed through His relationship with Caleb.  We may discover new strengths that God is forming inside us, and we should look for something of His Divine nature that we can focus on that will stabilize us during transitional times.  He will be the source of our strength;  He will be the source of our joy.  He will be that brother that sticks closer than a friend.  He will be our rock, our healer, and our victory.  He will be our focus when things are out of focus.  He will be the calm in the storm. He will also be our comforter.  He has prepared each of us for this moment and He will prepare us for the next.  If we align ourselves with His Spirit, He will always lead us to Himself.  He will lead us to experience Him in ways we never have before.  He has empowered us!

POWER OF TESTIMONY

During a difficult season of ministry that I did not ask for in 2009, I experienced the life of Christ that I would not have chosen for myself.  This is the time when the economy crashed.  Melanie and I pastored a congregation that had just moved into a brand new multi-million dollar building.  Our previous lead pastor retired prior to the crash and we were asked to serve as    lead pastors. When this crisis hit everything and everyone was affected.  I had to pastor a church through a storm that I did not create nor did I ask for.  The pressures were extreme for us and our young family.  During that season of what seemed to be an unraveling in our lives, we later discovered the inner strength that God had forged in us.  He was building stronger foundations of His nature within us that would mark our lives.

He is the maker of our destiny. As we submit ourselves to Jesus, He lives boldly within us. As He was with Caleb and with Melanie and I, He will lead and carry you through!

Virtual Pastoring in a Multi-Generational Rural Church

By Dr. Danny Davis

Well, our world turned upside down! The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of discernment and decisions. Thankfully I am not walking through this alone. I have a wonderful small team of elders helping me pray and do what is best for our congregation.

Not being able to gather on Sundays has reminded me of Paul’s heartfelt words to the Philippians: “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:8). As a pastor, I miss my people and want to see them again.

I pastor a small, rural, multi-generational church. The oldest member is 89 and the youngest is four. Some of them have the internet, some don’t. Some have flip phones, while others have iPhones. Some are connected to Facebook (a surprising number actually), but many do not (and will not connect even if they could).

While other churches were talking about “going online” like it was some kind of easy thing, we were wondering how to shepherd the digitally connected and unconnected. Here is what we’ve decided to do.

A Weekly Paper Newsletter. Each Sunday I write a short devotional and outline our plan for the next week. I print them. I print address labels. Then I put everything on a table in the church office. On Monday a team member comes and stuffs, labels, and stamps the envelopes then drops them at the drive-thru post box.

A Weekly Phone Call from an Elder. We’ve taken our church member directory, divided it into thirds, and assigned each third to an elder. On Sunday afternoons, the elders make phone calls, check on our people, listen for prayer requests, answer questions, and generally be a voice of positivity.

A Weekly Conference Call. We have subscribed to a conference call service to help us gather together. On Wednesday evenings (starting March 25, 2020) our folks can dial in on any phone. I will teach a short lesson from Scripture, take prayer requests, and have a time of prayer.

A Daily Encouraging Text. Our church already used a texting service to make announcements and keep people up-to-date. Each day a text with Scriptural encouragement is sent to those in our database.

A Weekly Virtual Gathering. My church already live-streamed our Sunday gatherings on Facebook live. We are expanding that to other platforms that do not require people to have an FB account to watch. The videos of the services are posted on our Youtube channel as always.

This strategy is in its infancy and we will make changes along the way. However, I believe we are doing our best to shepherd people in the most unusual circumstances.

Controlled Chaos

By Dr. Sanejo Leonard

I have never been able to run or run for very long. I’ve always wanted to be able to run, but in the past when I have tried to run, I usually stop after a few seconds, quite winded, wondering why I wanted to run in the first place.

For the past couple of years, I have been challenging myself to incorporate even a light jog for a minute or so into my walking to help build up endurance. And over the past few months I have been able to work up from one minute to over 20 minutes of jogging, which is quite an accomplishment; a big feat, until I tried to run outside. All this time I have been walking and jogging mostly inside, on a treadmill, in a climate-controlled room. I controlled my speed and the temperature, and I would prop up my tablet and watch Netflix shows. All in all, I found that jogging wasn’t so hard.

But lately I have had to jog outside now that all gyms and the fitness center at my complex are closed during the current COVID-19 crisis. I have dismayed to learn that jogging outside is a whole other challenge. I can’t control the weather, the road and its condition, or the wild turkeys that seem to get in my way and slow me down. I can’t control where and when the hills are, and I can’t control others who are out jogging and who seem to want to jog a little too close to me. In choosing to be outside, I am at the mercy of the conditions around me and I have to learn to adjust. The road feels harder on my body than that soft treadmill and the air feels as cold as the Artic. The hills seem more steep and the turkeys and other creatures more scary as one never can predict how animals will respond to humans. In my journey outside, I am reminded of how much I am no longer in control.

We as humans like and need some semblance of control, some form of order to our often chaotic lives. Yet, it is humbling to realize how little control we have over most things. In our current global crisis, much is out of our control. Life and death, our need for human contact and relationship, and even the basic necessities of food, shelter, and medical services all seem out of our control (who knew that toilet paper could become so rare and valuable!).

In Genesis 1:1-2, the beginning of everything, it reminds us of who is in control: “In the beginning God….” That phrase alone is enough to reassure that despite everything else, God has always been and is firmly in control. Verses 1 and 2 continue by saying that God “created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (NIV).

The words “formless and empty” that are used to describe earth in verse 2 come from the Hebrew tohu and bohu. Tohu means formless and bohu is believed by scholars to mean the opposite of order, or chaos; out of control (sound familiar?). In the beginning of everything, God brought order and control to chaos and those things that were unformed. His Spirit hovered over or controlled the waters, and out of the chaos, the darkness, and the unformed mass, God brought creation. God made the impossible possible because He is God. God brought order to chaos, and God was and still is ultimately in control.

Problems and life’s disruptions of our sense of order help us realize that there is very little we can control: our actions and reactions to others, our care for ourselves and others, and our love of God—these are the things that are in our control; everything else is tohu and bohu.

Yet, it is in this moment of fear that we need to be reminded of who God is. In this time of desperation, we remember who the source of all life is. In this time of chaos, we can surrender control to the one who is.