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Almighty God “Hear Our Prayer”
Has your prayer life increased these past few weeks? Perhaps you are praying for things you have never prayed for in the past. Maybe you have been praying for a hedge of protection, a spirit of hope, a heart filled with peace, a mind filled with God’s Word, an attitude of trust, the list goes on and on if you are like me. Our faith has been stretched and our lives have been turned upside down. Many of us have had circumstances in our own lives that have rocked us to the core, but most can say that they have never experienced a rocking quite like this during their lifetime. It is during…
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Believing and Living
The Revised Common Lectionary for Sunday, March 29th, spotlights Jesus’ restoration of Lazarus to life. This amazing account, as recorded in John 11, offers believers timely hope amid an ongoing global pandemic. As Jesus’ prospect of suffering and death grew closer, He returned to the area of Jerusalem. Though the religious establishment spurned Him (10:39), His closest followers loved Him. Even rejection and scorn could not dim the glory of the Messiah as displayed through the restoration of Lazarus to life, a miracle that likely occurred in the winter of AD 29. The record of the above incident is important, for it serves as an undisputed, confirming sign of the…
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God What in the World Are You Up To?
Like many of you, my family had church yesterday in our pajamas. The kids got a kick out of worshiping barefoot, however it was a bit unsettling to think this may be our new normal as we “shelter in place” due to Covid-19. I’ve got about one thousand questions about this new normal: Can I survive my children for 4 weeks in our house? When did I run out of topics to discuss with my husband? How do I keep from eating all of my quarantine supplies in one day? But among the surface-level questions, there is a deeper one brewing. I can’t be alone in asking, “God what in…
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God’s shepherding love
Psalm 23 is part of the lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent on March 22nd. It is a fitting passage of Scripture to spotlight, especially given our current circumstance of national and global crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the 150 songs in the psalter, Psalm 23 is perhaps both the simplest and the best loved. On the one hand, the poem was written by David from the perspective of a shepherd. On the other hand, the ode represents the prayer and meditation of a person with a mature spirit. From an historical perspective, David’s confession of faith, hope, and trust in the Lord as the…
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Loving Your Neighbor from Six Feet Away: Serving Others during COVID-19
The recent COVID-19 recommendations from government and health officials have most of us hunkered down in our homes, only venturing out for the occasional walk or necessary errand. Though the times have necessarily dictated a drastic change in our daily routines and social norms, how can the church continue to connect and serve our communities well…from a distance? Below are some ideas, many of them crowd-sourced from Facebook. If you are able, pick one or two and better yet, make it a communal event by asking your family/friends/Bible Study/small group/etc. to join you. Donate to food banks and homeless shelters. Roughly 18% of American children live in “food insecure” homes;…
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Responding to COVID-19: God Already Had It Figured Out
As America grinds almost to a halt as we try to suppress the spread of the Corona Virus, governments are closing things up and shutting things down. As we are instructed to stay in our homes and keep our distance from other people, we are also being encouraged about how to think about these restrictions. We’re hearing pleas to younger people, especially, not to gather in bars and restaurants, because it speeds up the transmission of the virus. This will help protect the physically vulnerable—older folks [um, *wince*—somehow that now includes me] and those with compromised immunity. What strikes me about the messages we are receiving is that God came…
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Corona Virus and the Good, Loving Sovereignty of God
As I write this there’s a chance that Jack and I have been exposed to Covid-19. We were already starting to wind down non-essential outings, but when friends asked us to meet them for lunch last Wednesday, we agreed. They mentioned that their son had just returned from the Caribbean where he worked with a water purification project for a local ministry. When he left here there were no recorded cases in the Caribbean basin. Last Wednesday the country where he had visited reported their first five cases. A few days later our friends texted us from the hospital where they had taken their very sick son. He tested negative…
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A prayer to the Creator in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak
May our sons in their youth flourish like well-nurtured plants. May our daughters be like stately corner pillars that are carved to adorn a palace. May our granaries be filled with every kind of produce. May our sheep increase by the thousands, and by the tens of thousands in our open fields. May our oxen pull heavy loads of produce from the harvest. May there be no enemy breaking through our walls. May there be no one exiled into captivity. May there be no cries of distress heard in our public squares. How blessed are the people for whom these realities are true! How blessed are the people whose God…
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Trusting God or Toilet Paper
Business Insider commented today about people’s response to COVID-19. In a series of tweets they described the panic buying of toilet paper and other household goods. In Hong Kong, panic-buying of toilet paper began last month. A fight broke out in Australia over toilet paper and in California a crowd grew unruly in Costco when they learned the store was out of toilet paper and other basic items. The BBC speculated that perhaps the most horrible thing we can imagine is being stranded with only one square left on the “loo roll.” Why in the world has Charmin become so important to us? It doesn’t cure any viruses. But when…