From Richard Roberts:

I read this verse while studying for this week's sermon.  What struck me was the idea of "cleanness."  

Today we are making so many efforts to avoid touch, because of the possibility of contamination, of uncleanness.  You touch somebody with a virus, you become unclean, you get the virus.  

However, what Jesus is telling his disciples here is that His touch works in the opposite.  Rather than our uncleanness making him unclean, His touch is so potent, so pure, so holy, that it purifies us!  His touch cleans us.  It is His touch which cures us of any cause of our shame, whether we feel unclean because of what we have done, or because of what has been done to us by someone else.  The touch of Jesus cleans us, so that there is no need for further cleansing, no more fear of being made unclean, and no stain of shame which is not lifted by His gentle hand.

This is such a freeing thought for those of us who struggle with feelings of being unclean and the assumption that God must be disgusted with us because of what we've touched.  But we must remember that those who have been touched by Jesus are wholly and perfectly clean.  So, you can rest, o weary soul, from your fears and anxieties, your doubts and your shame, because "you are clean" by the touch of the perfectly Pure One.





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From Rich Carroll:

Jack Miller's devotional from the June 3rd entry of a collection called Saving Grace was helpful to me.  Here it is:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are those who are righteous, for they shall be satisfied.”  His whole Sermon on the Mount is about how obedience to the law is not only about behavior, but also about heart orientation.  What God calls us to is not a pharisaic self-righteousness.  The Pharisees were nice, decent people, but they missed the inward and upward and outward relationship of Jesus’s teaching.

If you are a true believer, your response to Jesus’s words should be “Help!”  Those who know their inability to be righteous, and ask for help, will be blessed.  The very idea of eating and drinking is that what you need comes from outside yourself.  You don’t have the righteousness God requires, and, therefore, this is what you long for.  Jesus wants us to have an appetite for, to long for, what we do not have – the righteousness that comes from him.  It is blessed to long for what Jesus wants to give you.  It is blessed to be dissatisfied.  It is blessed to aim for perfection.  You are not going to be perfect in this life, but you aim for it because that’s what Jesus commands.  You work for it, you long for it, and you put off your sins.  That’s what it means to have an appetite for God.





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A Liturgy by Douglas McKelvey and Ned Bustard:

Christ Our King, 
Our world is overtaken by unexpected 
calamity, and by a host of attending fears, 
worries, and insecurities. 
We witness suffering, confusion, and 
hardship multiplied around us, and we find
ourselves swept up in these same anxieties and 
troubles, dismayed by so many uncertainties. 
Now we turn to you, O God, 
in this season of our common distress.
Be merciful, O Christ, to those who suffer, 
to those who worry, to those who grieve, to
those who are threatened or harmed in any 
way by this upheaval. Let your holy compassions 
be active throughout the world even now--
tending the afflicted, comforting the 
brokenhearted, and bringing hope to 
many who are hopeless. 
Use even these hardships to woo our hearts 
nearer to you, O God.
Indeed, O Father, may these days 
of disquiet become a catalyst 
for conviction and repentance,
for the tendering of our affections, 
for the stirring of our sympathies,
for the refining of our love.
We are your people, who are called by you,
We need not be troubled or alarmed.
Indeed, O Lord, let us love now more fearlessly,
remembering that you created us, 
and appointed us 
to live in these very places, 
in the midst of these unsettled times. 
It is no surprise to you that we are here now,
sharing in this turmoil along with the rest of 
our society, for you have called your children 
to live as salt and light among the nations, 
praying and laboring for the flourishing of the 
communities where we dwell, acting as agents of 
your forgiveness, salvation, healing, reconciliation, 
and hope, in the very midst of an often-troubled world.
And in these holy vocations 
you have not left us helpless, O Lord, 
because you have not left us at all. 
Your Spirit remains among us.
Inhabit now your church, O Spirit of the Risen Christ.
Unite and equip your people for the work before them.
Father, empower your children to live as your children. 
In times of distress let us respond, not as those 
who would instinctively entrench for our own 
self-preservation, but rather as those who—in imitation 
of their Lord—would move in humble obedience toward 
the needs and hurts of their neighborhoods and communities.
You were not ashamed to share in our sufferings, Jesus. 
Let us now be willing to share in yours, serving 
as your visible witnesses in this broken world.
Hear now these words, you children of God, 
and be greatly encouraged:
The Lord’s throne in heaven is yet occupied, 
his rule is eternal, and his good purposes 
on earth will be forever accomplished.
So we need never be swayed by the brief and 
passing panics of this age.
You are the King of the Ages, O Christ, 
and history is held in your Father’s hands. 
We, your people, know the good and glorious 
end of this story. Our heavenly hope is secure. 
In this time of widespread suffering then, 
let us rest afresh in the surpassing peace of that 
vision, that your whole church on earth might be 
liberated to love more generously and sacrificially.
Now labor in and through us, O Lord, extending and 
multiplying the many expressions of your mercy.
Amen.





​

From Richard Roberts:

I read a tweet by Herschel York this week, whom I do not know, but it was a tweet to which I immediately related as a pastor and public preacher.  He said,

     “Every time I feel led to tweet, post, or preach anything about racism, I have to mentally and spiritually prepare myself for the pushback, “yeah, buts,” and smug replies I get.  Folks, this shouldn’t even be controversial among the people of God.”

In like fashion Mark Dever also posted,

     “Something I’ve noticed about my posts – some of you seem to appreciate them, except when you seem surprised or offended when I post something about racism.  But racism is blasphemy against the Creator, violating the commands both to love neighbor, and to love God!”

I, too, feel the conflict and trepidation that York notes, knowing that when I post a clear Scriptural principle about the evils of excluding and distinguishing persons based upon the color of their skin, I know that I will get some, “yeah, buts” along with some kind of red herring justification of why such a principle shouldn’t apply in every situation.

But, here’s the thing: any assumption which puts a person into a different category than I place myself, and that category somehow makes them more worthy of suffering or less worthy of dignity than myself, I am not merely being sinful, I am being anti-Christ.

I say this because of what the Spirit teaches us in Ephesians 2:11-16, that it is only the grace of God which brings us near to God as accepted and as friends.  Nothing else.  Not my ability to obey any laws, not my ability to succeed in this world, and surely not any inherent nature in me or any experience within my history.

     Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-- remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Eph. 2:11-16)

The apostle is very clear that Christ came to abolish the distinctions of value that we have placed upon our own moral success and our own genetic profiles.  Literally, He “made one new humanity” out of those who were distinguished by race and by law by being the only means of our reconciliation with God morally and spiritually.  Nothing else gives us any superiority.

In fact, the gospel of the Cross, that Jesus had to die for Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, male and female, rich and poor, all equally and by the same manner, shows us that any sense of superiority or inferiority is essentially dismissive of Him, and therefore of God.  

That’s not a little thing!  It is not a little thing to dismiss Jesus and His Cross!  It’s not a little thing to work against His purposes, and that is exactly what such superiority and inferiority do.

Therefore, all racism and classism must be abolished from the Church.  It must be silenced by the Cross and not justified or excused because of some broken law or some sin on the “other side.”  Such things simply do not excuse such dismissing of the Gospel of grace.

All disdain.  All stereotypical comments, i.e. “those people”.  All feelings of superiority and inferiority are to be expelled, condemned, and judged as anti-Christ.  We cannot allow distinctions of worth to be set upon individuals or families based upon anything other than Jesus’ shed blood and righteousness: not money, now law-abiding, not possessions, not history, not language, NOTHING.

Look at the text.  The issue is law-keeping, isn’t it?  What are the implications of this?  We who know the gospel of Jesus Christ, of the grace of God appearing, of His mercy towards sinners who were, by nature, children of wrath, separated from God, know the implications.  People are not worthwhile because they observe the law.  They are worthwhile because they are made in the image of God and He loves them.  The Son of God was sent for sinners, to seek them, and to save them.  We do not, therefore, make separations between “them” and “us” on the basis of any law, but only on the basis of Christ.

Does this mean there is no place for corrective discipline?  Of course not!  Does it mean that we are silent when we see sin?  NO!  But we speak correction because we know that sin harms the sinner and diminishes Christ.  In the church, we discipline according to the standard of the law of Christ Jesus.  It is for​ the sake of the sinner that we speak, not simply to judge him as though he were inferior to us.

So, let us look upon the “other” through the person and work of Jesus!  He reconciles both to God!  And this is through the cross. 

The Church, the New Humanity, is completely a creative act of God!  In fact, Paul uses the word “create” here (v15) in evoke the creative act of God (Genesis 14:19) who made Heaven and Earth.  This is HIS work.  John Murry says, “While our death is our fate, his death is his deed.” 

And one doing of His death is the ‘killing of the hostility’ between races.  The cross creates a new community by eliminating the causes of contentions between otherwise distinct enemies, because the only basis that we have for our standing before God and before each other is the blood of Jesus Christ for us all equally.  The Church is the foremost act of God “bringing all things together under Him.”  We ought to be exemplifying reconciliation and sympathetic understanding of our desperation and need, not our distinctions and delinquencies.

Note that Paul tells us that both, the law-keepers and the law-breakers, the religious and the irreligious, every race and culture, needed the preaching of peace.  Regardless of our knowledge or ignorance, our experience or inexperience, our honor or shame, we were all enemies of God who needed peace to be proclaimed from God to us. 

And this is the Good News, right?  That we can approach the Father through the Spirit of Christ alone, on the basis of Christ alone, with equal access and impartial access to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace in our time of need, whatever our peril may be.

Thus, if you can categorize yourself like the Scripture does:  sinners in need of grace, period, then this gospel is good news.  It is good news for failures, for law-breakers, for the law-keepers, for the religious and the irreligious, for the African, the European, the Asian, the American, the man, the woman, the child, the beautiful, the deformed, the poor, the rich…but always to the humble. 

REMEMBER who you were!  You were once separated from God and without hope in the world.  RELATE to others as one who is saved by grace and brought near to God only through the blood of Jesus and nothing else!  REJOICE in Jesus for that grace at His own expense!  RETURN your worship and your joy to the Lord for His wonderful and amazing gift of grace towards sinners like you!






​

From Richard Roberts

Here is a little summary of the fruit of the Spirit, from Galatians 5, and their counterfeits.
​









​
Agape – love
Definition –      A settled disposition of delight in a person and a resolve to serve them for their honor and their thriving life, not for what the person brings you.
Opposite –      Fear, self-protection, and use of people as objects to serve oneself; narcissism
Counterfeit –   Selfish affection. Helping someone but really serving self. Drawn not to the person, but to how this person’s love or affection makes you feel about yourself.  Co-Dependence
 
Chara – joy
Definition –      Delight in God and his salvation for sheer beauty and worth of who he is.
Opposite –      Hopelessness, despair, boredom
Counterfeit –   Elation that comes with blessings not the Blesser! Mood swings based on circumstances.
 
Irene – peace
Definition –      Confidence and rest in the wisdom and sovereignty of God more than your own
Opposite –      Anxiety and worry
Counterfeit –   Indifference, apathy, not caring about something. “It doesn't matter.”
 
Makrothumia – patience
Definition –      Ability to endure suffering without falling apart. To suffer joyfully, slow to anger
Opposite –      Bitterness and irritation toward God and others.
Counterfeit –   Cynicism. Self-righteousness, "I am better than this."; Carelessness, "This is beneath me."
 
Chrestotes – kindness
Definition –      Seeking to benefit others without the need for recognition or appreciation
Opposite –      Envy. Self-seeking.  Unable to rejoice in other’s joy.  Make things all about yourself.
Counterfeit –   Manipulative good deeds. “Right hand knowing what left hand is doing.”  Self-congratulation and self-righteousness.  Humble-brags.
 
Agathosune – goodness (generosity)
Definition –      Willingness to give to others for their good; self-sacrificial; useful; generosity.
Opposite –      Carelessness; self-glory; greedy.
Counterfeit –   Giving so that others recognize your giving. The act of giving supersedes the value of receiver of the gift. 
 
Pistis – faithfulness
Definition –      Trustworthiness.  Loyalty. Integrity. To be principle-driven, committed, utterly reliable. True to one’s word.
Opposite –      Opportunist. Fair-weather friend. Liar.  Manipulator.
Counterfeit –   Love without truth.  Co-dependent.  Flatterer. Being loyal when you should be willing to confront or challenge.
 
Prautas – gentleness (humility)
Definition –      Self-forgetfulness.  Counting oneself has holding a lower rank or position, but with a deep inner security.
Opposite –      Superiority: self-absorbed self-aggrandizement.  Looking down on others as less important.
Counterfeit –   Inferiority: self-absorbed, self-consciousness, self-pitying.
 
Egkrateia – self-control
Definition –      Ability to choose the important or right thing over the urgent or immediate thing.
Opposite –      An, impulsive, uncontrolled person.
Counterfeit –   Willpower through pride or slow-played manipulation;  perfectionism

​

Listen and Learn Together

Crossway has created a new podcast for families called The Big Picture Bible Story Bible by David R. Helm.
The aim of the podcast is to present the story of the Bible and its Hero, Jesus.  You can subscribe to it via one of the links below.
​
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

From Rich Carroll:

​"...a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head."          - Mark 14:3b

 
In this passage, while Jesus was the dinner guest of Simon the Leper and reclining at the table Mary, the sister of Lazarus, came and without announcement poured a very expensive perfume (a year's wages worth on Jesus' head. There were others there who scolded her harshly for 'wasting' the perfume and not selling it to provide for the poor. 
 
The Lord rebuked them and explained what her gift was actually about- preparing His body for burial. In fact, Jesus explained, her gift was so significant that "wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."  This was the same Mary who at the end of Luke 10 was found at the feet of Jesus listening and being attentive instead of doing good service deeds with her sister Martha.  She couldn't get enough of Jesus' words and presence. 
 
This Mary, here in both accounts, has a deep love and appreciation for her Lord and simply shows it in 'doing what she could', Jesus declared.  Grace had come to Mary and in her gratefulness she gave what she could. This was an extravagant gift.  She didn't announce it. She wasn't trying to proudly catch the attention from others towards her good deed. She was a forgiven woman who longed to see and listen to her Master and do what naturally came out of her gratefulness for His love for her.  
 
May our Master give us the grace to respond as well, out of our simple gratefulness,  for His extravagant gift to us.   

From Richard Roberts:

1 Peter 2:9-10
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
 
What is it that defines the Church?  What does it mean to be the church of God?  Is it to provide a place and a family to which one may belong and be accepted?  Is it to be powerful and confident?  Emotional and passionate?  Studious?  Moral?  Transparent?  Serving others?  I imagine that there are some good descriptions of faithful saints in there (and some questionable ones!).  However, Peter tells us that the fundamental nature of the Church is simply this:  it is God’s own possession.  What defines the Church is that it belongs to God.  It is not its own to be pandered or pampered in our self-interest and stale religiosity.  The Church exists for God and He lives and moves among us as a disturbing, soul-shaking, barrier-breaking, and transforming Triunity. 

This is the fundamental nature of the Church.  He has stamped upon her the choice word: “Mine!”  In the words of Jack Miller, those of the Church are “God-possessed.”  And being God-possessed they are also called a “holy nation” who have been called out of the world as a “different” people because God possesses them. 

The Church, by nature of belonging to the holy God, is involved in His holiness as well.  Johannes Blauw says that by the means of being God-possessed those belonging to God “have separated themselves from the others, the disobedient, and now stand in a positive relationship to God.”  So, says Miller, “the God-possessed are the God-separated, consecrated to Him and distinguished from the world.”  The nature of the Church is not to serve itself, or even primarily to serve the world, but rather to serve the One to whom it belongs:  our reason for existence is to know and serve God.  All of our desires and purpose must never lose this identity!  May we not confuse our purpose with our traditions or our expectations.  And certainly not with the expectations of the world.  God is our owner.  It is for Him that we are made and live and have our being.
    
But what is the reason for all of this?  For sure, one could say God’s love or His kindness, but there is a far deeper purpose which Peter directly states for becoming the God-possessed.  We exist to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  This is our purpose as the God-possessed and God-separated and God-accepted!  We have been called to directly confront the darkness of the world with the good news of the marvelous light of God in the gospel! 

In other words, our changed identity and its ensuing changed affections, values, and behaviors should be the aroma of God’s mercy and reveal our holy God to a world whose deeds instead reek of “debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.” 

Our deeds, done by faith in the work of Christ and in His powerful transformation of the heart, exalt His holy work of redemption!  Our obedience to Christ and our humble proclamation of His kindness towards us and for us by His grace shines into the world as a light which exposes the beauty of God.  This is our purpose.
 
Do we really believe that the gospel can transform anybody?  Is there any personal brokenness that the gospel cannot reach, where experts must instead intervene?  Is there any shame which cannot be mended by the honor of being owned by God?  Is there any fear which is not comforted in this?  Any deep desire which does not find its satisfaction?

You see, our calling as the God-possessed is not to make life easier or better for the world, but rather to disclose to them the One True God who possesses us.  Our passion to proclaim Him is based upon His worthiness, His beauty, and His glory.  This is what spurs the hearts of the redeemed, not merely a love for the lost. 
 
Am I saying that we don't love the lost?  No!!  However, when our "love" for the lost functionally supersedes our desire for God's praise then we tend to bow to the fear of man’s approval.  We end up watering down the gospel in order to make it palatable to people, rather than revealing God in Truth.  In reality, the Cross is foolishness (1 Cor 1:17-21), death (2 Cor 2:15-16), and a stumbling block (1 Pet 2:6-10) to some.  But to the one who believes it is the power of salvation, life, joy, and hope. 
 
The key to obedient proclamation of God's glory is in seeing God as big as He really is.  Where a small view of God exists, praise of God doesn't.  Do we really believe that God is that beautiful?  That God is that big?  That is that caring?  That God is that kind?  As Dan Flynn says, “God can and God cares.”  I like that.
 
Remember, you who are owned by God, who are united to Jesus by faith in Him.  He possesses you because He wants to.  There is nothing that can take you away from Him.  No suffering.  No threat.  No loss.  Not even death. 

​You are His, and He can.  You are His, and He cares.
 

From Gary Paulsen:

​One of my favorite preachers from long ago is Edward Payson. He taught in Portland, Maine from 1811-1830. I found this small excerpt from one of his sermons helpful this week. I hope you are encouraged too.
 
"The Christian enjoys communion with God in all the dispensations of his providence. He not only acknowledges, but feels and rejoices, that the Lord reigns, that all events are at his disposal, and that not a hair can fall from his head, or a sparrow to the ground, without him. He does not rest in second causes, nor ascribe the events which befall him to luck and chance, as mankind are naturally prone to do; but refers them at once to the great First Cause, and last end of all things.

With the eye of faith, he looks up and beholds his God, his Father, and his friend, seated on the throne of the universe, working all things according to the counsel of his own will, and causing them to work together for his own glory and the good of his people. If he is chastised, he looks not at the rod, but at the hand that holds it, knows that in faithfulness and mercy he is afflicted, and that though his afflictions for the present are not joyous, they shall, in the end produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and work out for him an eternal weight of glory.

When he is favored with peace and prosperity, and his cup is made to overflow with blessings, he rests not in the streams, but follows them up to the fountain of goodness, from which they flow; and every temporal mercy which he receives, is rendered doubly sweet by the consideration that it comes from his Father’s hand, and is new proof of his Father’s love.

Thus he enjoys communion with God, in all the common mercies and events of life; his heart, like a fertile field, which the Lord has blessed, brings forth in return fruit to the glory of God and eternal life, while its grateful language is, What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits?"

      Edward Payson
 

The Rabbit Room blog has a very good article on the nature of humanity's desire to be near beauty and to be beautiful.  This is portrayed in the hit show Tiger King, but with the twist of Adam's sinful nature, turning beauty in upon itself in destruction, rather than enjoying such beauty in the ways that God has given it and intended it.

You can read the blog post by Steve Guthrie here.

អរគុណ! Thank you!
 
We are excited to begin producing the Animated Jesus Storybook Bible in Khmer! Thank you to all of you who shared, gave and prayed for this!

Blessings,
The Jesus Storybook Bible in Khmer Team

From Richard Roberts:

​I know that there is a lot of frustration out there after over two months of not gathering together physically.  I have heard a number of our brothers and sisters express frustration and even some who have expressed the idea that EBF defy the government restrictions and gather anyway because we are told “not to neglect gathering together” in Hebrews 10:25.

So, I wanted to take a moment to evaluate whether or not the command to “not neglect gathering together” in Hebrews 10:25 is properly applied in a defiance of our current government’s restrictions on all public gatherings for all its citizens (which I recognize is an oversimplification of the State’s position). 

The full statement in which this particular command in Hebrews actually begins in verse 19.  The argument is that since Jesus has created a way into the Holy Place through giving His own body, removing the veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies by His own blood, and since he stands as a priest over all of us in the household of God, then we should respond in a set of particular ways.  These ways are laid out by a series of three subjunctive verbs which operate as proposals, or as commands.  Those three responses to the access provided to us by Jesus are:  let us draw near (v22), let us hold fast (v23), and let us consider (v24).  Each of these is followed by clarifying phrases which help us understand how we are to draw near (to God), “with a sincere heart in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (v22); and we hold fast “the confession of our hope without wavering, because the One who promised is faithful” (v23); and we are to consider “how to spur one another on to love and good works” (v24).

Now, it is this last proposal, in v24, in which the command not to neglect gathering together is given.  But, the verb in v25, “not neglecting”, is not actually the command, but a participle which explains the manner of the command “to consider how to spur one another on to love and good works.”  Therefore, the primary command is to encourage one another to love one another and to do good.

Now, the Scripture tells us how to do this.  We do it in a positive and in a negative way.  The positive way, which is listed second, helps us understand the negative.  We are to be “encouraging one another.”  This is that wonderful word used to describe the Holy Spirit, given by Jesus in John 14-16, “the Helper” or “the Comforter.”  It means to come alongside others and help them carry their packs.  That is the manner of the command.  That is the means of our spurring one another on to love and good works.

Now, the negative participle is what is now being used to question our decision to submit to our governing authorities and not meet physically.  Yet, the word is actually “abandon.”  It is not merely not to gather together for a time, but to abandon, or leave behind permanently, the gathering.  This makes sense in the light of the governing command, “to consider how to spur one another on to love and good works.”  For, if you abandon the community, how could you do this?  How could you encourage one another, if you have given up the very community which you are intended to encourage. 

Therefore, I do not believe that this verse is properly applied in our current situation.  I believe for three primary reasons. 

First, we are not abandoning the household of God, the people of whom we are family.  This current physical distancing is neither permanent, and thus not an abandoning, nor is it without the primary command to spur one another on to love and good works.  For this to be true, the church leadership would have to conclude that our social governing authorities were demanding the permanent closure of our worship gatherings, which we do not believe.  In fact, the current stay-at-home orders are applied to all citizens, not just religious citizens. 

Remember, this is temporary.  Therefore, we are still obeying the proposals of Hebrews 10, because we have a High Priest who has plowed the way into the Holy of Holies on our behalf.  We live in the light of that now, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in the stores in which we shop.  That is our hope to which we encourage one another in love and good works.
 
Second, there is the spurring of one another on to love and good works happening now, in spite of our inability to physically gather.  The church in the days when Hebrews was written did not have the opportunities to communicate such encouragement like we do.  We have telephones and video-communications, emails and texting, things which were not possible for them are now possible for us.  Therefore, encouragement and spurring one another on is happening now, even without physical intimacy of the gathering at a home or church building.  Is this ideal?  Of course not!  But, neither does it somehow neglect the commands of Hebrews 10.

Third, we are commanded to submit to the governing authorities in Romans 13 because they are put in their place by God, and for our good.  Paul even refers to them (and probably Nero at his writing!) as “servants of God.”  Their social authority is a service of God, whether they acknowledge it or not.   Therefore, since their current laws are not commanding us to sin, and since they are applied to all citizens equally, I think that it would be an arrogant defiance which would bring unnecessary dishonor upon the name of Christ in the eyes of the world to do defiantly gather. 

And since we are still free to spur one another on to love and good works, to encourage one another daily as we see The Day approaching, to proclaim the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, then we ought to honor our authorities with our submission and continue to encourage one another in all the ways which we are able to put our hope in God, to see with the eyes of eternity, to proclaim that The Day is coming (Heb 10:25) in which all people will be judged by God in His holiness.  There is a greater judgment coming upon the world than this virus and the economic fallout of the actions taken to protect against its virulence.  "The Day" is coming when there will be no escape from such a wrath of God.  Do we consider this when we look upon those who disagree with us about such temporal things?  Do we see our neighbor in the light of "The Day."  Have we placed our hope in that Day, or are we placing our hope in today's sustenance?  

What are we “considering” in our thoughts, our values, our words and our works?  That is the greater issue, the priority of our obedience and our aims and our goals.  Are we considering how to spur one another on to love and good works?  Are we reminding one another of Hebrews 10:19-24, too?  May the gracious words of our eternal hope fill our mouths and compel our loving deeds today, even as we pray for the better times of our gatherings to return.

From Richard Roberts:

As the frustration from the separation from another sets in, due to this pandemic and the necessary cautions which it dictates, I have found it necessary to often step back and look at the big picture, the eternal picture, of what God is doing.

For, though it feels like everything has changed, the truth is that nothing has ultimately changed.  God’s redemptive plan, His judicial oversight, His purposes and calling to us is exactly what it was before our society slowed down and our social interactions were physically distanced.

Therefore, it is imperative, for the sake of one another, to “guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”, as Paul instructed the Philippians, by recounting the gospel of God’s peace towards us (4:7), and remembering “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, whatever is excellent or praiseworthy.” (4:8)

As we continue to read and listen and discuss with our leaders, our coworkers, our families, what we believe to the be wisest course of action in the face of the plethora of information available to us, much of which is contradictory to other information and therefore dangerously tempts us to confirmation bias, we need to be on guard for what we ultimately are resting in for peace and hope and joy.

Are we banking on a return to our “normal” for peace in our souls?   Is this how we are guarding our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus?  Does our union with Jesus, in this moment, right now, the controlling reality by which we interpret the world around us?  These are basic questions of what we believe to be ultimately true.

There are good arguments to be made for being cautious in the face of what we do know about germs and the spread of disease today.  There are also good arguments to be made about the devastation of economic stasis and its effects upon the human soul, too.  There are good arguments to be made about submitting to governing authorities (Romans 13) and for our longing and striving to be together (Psalm 133; 1 Thess 2:17) face to face.

One of the temptations which is crouching at our door today is to use our words to tear others down, rather than to build them up.  To speak with disdain and hopelessness and corruption towards those who differ in their approach to these evil times.  Those who are more cautious, who isolate themselves more than others, who believe that love for one’s neighbor means wearing protective equipment like masks at all times when there are others present, within 6 feet or not, and who are hesitant to return to social gatherings, are tempted to look upon those who do not feel this way or behave in such ways as “foolish” or “ignorant” or “dangers to all of us.”  Those at the other extreme, who refuse to wear protective gear, who refuse to physically distance themselves, who reject the idea that such measures do any real or lasting good in the face of the disease, may be tempted to look upon those cautious brothers as “fearful” or “faithless” or deceived by a manipulative media or government.

Such name-calling, expressed in such ways or not, is not fitting the household of God.  Paul reminded us all, as he wrote to the Ephesian church, that “no corrupting speech should come out of our mouths, but only such as is good for building up the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear it.” (Eph 4:29)

“Corrupt” speech means “rotting” or “decomposing” words.  I like that word, “decompose,” because it really breaks down what such words do.  They “take apart” or dis-integrate brothers.  They break another person down to nothingness.  And we are not to let “any” of it come out of our mouths.  Not a single word which destroys or tears down to rottenness, to uselessness.  Now, this does not mean that we may not wound a friend for their benefit (Pr 27:6) or that our words, spoken in love (Eph 4:15), may not hurt our brother’s pride or cause him pain.  The same drug that heals an illness can also destroy if applied wrongly.  The same fire that cooks your food can consume your house.  But we are to bring out words which are for the building up of our brothers and sisters, to compose them, to integrate their souls, rather than decompose them.

Therefore, as we debate, and we should, and as we discuss our thoughts and reasoning and evaluations, as we should, let us use our mouths for the composing of others and the decomposing of others, whether they be close friends, distant friends, or even enemies. 

Such words are to be attended with grace, seasoned with grace, so that they leave behind a gift for the one who hears them.  A gift of grace to do them good, to build them up, to compose their souls upon the eternal bedrock of Christ Jesus, of His victory over sin and death, of His great compassion towards the suffering and the fearful and the anxious, and of His promise that he will “always be with us, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28)

We must extend grace towards those who are viewing the measures taken to deal with these evil times differently, especially in regards to how the church functions and begins to gather again.  Respect your brothers and sisters, however they may be choosing to love their neighbors and entrust themselves to God.  Show them the beauty of Christ Jesus, the security of His kingdom, where moth and rust and germ cannot do harm, no matter what their position on the wisest course of actions to take.

And pray for one another.  Pray for the peace that passes understanding and the faith which hopes in God and loves our neighbors.

And pray for your elders.  We are beginning discussions on how to begin meeting again.  We need the wisdom and patience and gentleness of God to love and care for His flock in the manner and to the end which He has ordained. 

We will keep you all updated on our plans to return to gathering together, in whatever numbers that we deem to be wise and in whatever ways which we conclude to be loving to all.  In the meantime, remember your Master’s grace towards you, who built you up when you disagreed with Him, patiently, compassionately, and with great love.  Do the same for one another.  “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God, in Christ, has forgiven you.” (Eph 4:32)

An anonymous Puritan prayer shared by Tim Hunt:

​O fountain of all good,
Destroy in me every lofty thought, break pride to pieces and scatter it to the wind.
Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness, implant in me true lowliness of spirit.
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,
Open in me a fount of penitential tears. Brake me, then bind me up.
Then will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God.
Then can the Father take up his abode in me, then can my blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch. Then can your Spirit descend in sanctifying grace.
O Holy trinity, three persons and one God, inhabit me, a temple consecrated to your glory.
When you are present, evil cannot abide. In your fellowship is fullness of joy. Beneath your smile is peace of conscience, by your side no fears disturb, no apprehensions banish rest of mind.
With you my heart shall bloom with fragrance. Make me suitable through repentance for your indwelling.
Nothing exceeds your power, nothing is too great for you to do, nothing too good for you to give, infinite is your might, boundless your love, limitless your grace, glorious your saving name.
Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals returning and restored, Satan’s captives released, blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up, the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped, the formalist driven from a refuge of lies, the ignorant enlightened, and saints built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God..