Over the course of the last two months, ministry took us to Houston then to Lubbock, then to Wichita, then to Viroqua, and then back to Dubuque again. I was able to do plenty of preaching and teaching and evangelism and home bible studies….. but as a result of all this exposure to people…. we ended up with the dreaded coronavirus…. We thank the Lord that it wasn't actually so dreadful…. more like a 2 day flu. I know that this virus affects different people in different ways and we are grateful that it wasn't too serious for us. We quarantined, so as to not infect others, but that didn't stop us from “zooming” through it :) …. While “coronafied” I had the privilege of preaching through zoom in several meetings around the USA and Canada.
I know that how we deal with COVID is a touchy subject and there are many differing points of view. At the risk of offending some people, I'll go out on a limb and share this quote by A.W Tozer: “In every denomination, missionary society, local church or individual Christian this law operates- God works as long as His people live daringly; He ceases when they no longer need His aid.”
Obviously you can apply this statement to many different contexts but lets just think about those words in relation to our present situation with the coronavirus… I myself, have felt the temptation to give in to the fear and to “refuse to live daringly”… So many of us have stopped meeting at our churches. We’ve stopped having home Bible studies. We have stopped doing evangelism. We have even stopped going out of our houses. When you think about it, we've really just stopped trusting God. Coronavirus and the issues that come with it provide us with so many parallels to spiritual truths its amazing.
You might have tested positive for coronavirus, but have you tested positive for faith in God? You may have kept your distance from corona-infected people but have you kept your distance from sin in your own life? You may wash your hands regularly and put a face-mask on in order to stay healthy but do you regularly wash your soul with God’s word and put on His armor in order to stand firm against the schemes of the devil? You may have isolated yourself from all sickness but have you isolated yourself from fear?
As Christians, we supposedly look forward to being with Christ for all of eternity. We long to be free from this sin nature and free from this body of death. But you know…. for a people that are longing so much for heaven, we sure are doing everything possible to not go there.
C.H Spurgeon said this during the “corona” pandemic of his day: “Fear to die? Thank God I do not. The Cholera may come again next summer- Pray it may not. But if it does, it matters not to me. I will toil and visit the sick by night and by day until I drop. And if it takes me, sudden death is sudden glory.”
Micah for the Tuttle’s
