As I write this blog, the whole world has found itself in the midst of a global pandemic. In a matter of weeks, life as we know it ceased to exist. Children were sent home from schools, employees started working from home, or worse, lost their jobs, sporting events were cancelled, and the list goes on and on. We have literally been sent home to save lives. How did we get here and what will come of all this? Those are the questions that have invaded my mind, night after night, for the past two weeks. If you will allow me a moment, I would like to share my. thoughts. These are not highly theological thoughts, but rather just my simple observations that excite me to my core, and if I'm being honest scare me a little bit too. I hope you will find them as uplifting as I do....
Right at the same moment this pandemic started escalating, I had just finished reading the Bible in its entirety for the first time in my life. I have read the New Testament many times over, but just couldn't get through the Old Testament. It felt irrelevant to me and could not keep my wavering attention. However, this time I read it to get to know Jesus. You can't really love someone and commit your whole life to them if you don't really know them, so that was my sole purpose in reading the Bible in this particular season of my life; to know and to fall more in love with Jesus. I think I will forever be changed after seeing God's story of redemption from the beginning to the end. I have always believed in God, but I have not always thought He loved me. I thought of Him as this powerful person that knew every bad thing I ever did, and was constantly punishing me. If something in my life didn't go right, then it was because I had done something that didn't please God, and I could think of only a few possible incidents that God would have been pleased with me. After a time of thinking this way, I became angry and rebellious, spiraling down into a pit of shame and guilt. I don't know how I could have misunderstood God so badly. However, right before this global shutdown, I had been thinking for a while now, how badly a lot of people are misunderstanding God. In my 55 years on this earth, I have never seen such irreverence to the God of the Universe, the Creator of Mankind, the Savior of Our Souls. If you start surfing through the channels, you will see on almost every station people blaspheming God, rebelling against His Word, thumbing their noses at His commands, and saying vile and horrible things aimed at belittling His Glory and Splendor. I'm not just talking about nonbelievers either, I've heard some pretty shocking statements from believers as well. For instance, Oprah saying any path leads to God, or a friend saying that Jesus was just a good teacher like Muhammad or Buddha. People I love consulting Hindu counselors or students I adore dabbling in witchcraft. Society as a whole has rewritten God's holy standards for our lives to fit their way of living; redefining marriage, saying it's ok to kill a baby, not just in the womb, but out of the womb as well, and now letting kids decide their gender! People have become their own gods, deciding their own truth, everything is fluid and relevant, nothing is secure and absolute, and yet it is! There is absolute truth and it is a person. It is Jesus. He is a holy and just God. He is also a very jealous God. I used to think that sounded kind of bad, like I thought we aren't suppose to be jealous. However, after finishing the Bible, I realized He is jealous for us because He knows He is what is best for us; His way is what makes us happy and whole and bound for eternity to live in perfect union with Him forever! Forever!! That huge whole in our heart that we try to fill with relationships, drugs, alcohol, sex, food, sports, power, beauty, money can only be filled with His love. I am not saying all this to sound super pious, because I am as guilty as the next guy. I am saying these things because I love you and I want you to find Jesus and to truly know Him (not a man made version of HIM) I am also not judging, I have pursued many of those things most of my life when I thought I was pursuing Jesus, and still struggle with total surrender, but I know God wants our whole hearts, and won't settle for anything less.
The Israelites in the Old Testament were rescued by God out of slavery in Egypt through Moses. He provided for their every need. He directed their paths with a cloud by day and fire by night. They were on their way to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. YET, it wasn't enough! The parting of the Red Sea, the annihilation of their enemies, being God's chosen people, they had it all, but they griped and grumbled and wanted more. They turned to idolatry. They wanted their own way and in their own timing. Even though they were God's chosen people, He gave them what they wanted, and they ended up wandering around in the wilderness for forty years! All through the Old Testament, when the people turned to God and put Him in His rightful place as God, they enjoyed protection and good days. They did not live in cowering fear, for they knew they were God's and He was their Father. Then would things would be at their best, they would get greedy and impatient, and start consulting and worshipping other gods of their time, man made, useless gods, and they would fall, whole societies wiped out. God was patient and kind, and would forgive them over and over as they repented and turned back to Him. As I read the Old Testament, I was astounded how many times He would forgive them. This cycle repeated itself over and over and over.
After Adam and Eve first sinned, and caused the downfall of mankind, a blood sacrifice would always be required for God's forgiveness and redemption. This would be a foreshadowing all through the Bible of the final blood sacrifice that would ultimately be required for our sins, our idolatry, our greediness, our pride. God in his foreknowledge knew this all along, and because He loved us, He made a plan of redemption from before the beginning of time. When Abraham was asked to sacrifice his one and only son, God provided him with a lamb for the sacrifice instead. This would be the first foreshadowing of God's ultimate sacrifice of His one and only Son to atone for our sins. He made a way for us to enjoy a perfect union with the Most Holy God. In the temple, to enter the Most Holy of Holies, a priest would have to purify himself and make sacrifices before he could enter and be with God, and now, God made a way for Christ to live in us. We can talk to Him any time we want. God sent His only Son to become flesh and dwell among us. He endured the same temptations we endure, so He knows what it is like. He was despised, shamed, beaten, nailed to a cross, and took on the guilt and shame of the WORLD so that we could be covered by His blood and be found righteous before His father. NO OTHER GODS OR PERSON DID THAT FOR YOU OR ME, NOBODY LOVES YOU LIKE THAT! Nobody and Nothing! No other God!! He is the way, the truth, and the life, NO ONE comes to the FATHER, but by HIM. All He requires is our everything; our hearts, our lives, our obedience. Not because He is greedy, but because He knows once we are His, we are covered. Our sins are covered, we have the one true God living in us, and for us. The corona virus may cause us to be sick or even kill us, but it cannot take our soul, if we are God's. Once you are a Christian, to die is gain, and we have nothing left to fear. Becoming God's child does not mean we won't have heart ache and tribulation on this earth, this earth is broken, but it does mean God is with us and for us, and that He will redeem us from it all. The only thing that keeps me up at night, is my fear for my family, loved ones, and friends, and even my enemies, that do not know Christ yet. I eagerly await Christ's return, but not until I know the people I love are right with God. I ask God to forgive me because I was not a good role model for my own family. Just like the Israelites, when God had given me everything I ever wanted, a husband, a wonderful career, two precious boys, I started chasing idols again. Things that looked good; pleasing other people, encouraging my kids to pursue things more than I wanted them to pursue God, sleeping in on Sundays instead of church, and the list goes on and on. It would take not one, but two, near death experiences, the loss of my beautiful mother-in-law, struggles with anxiety within our family, struggles in my career, my mom's accident and death, the death of my father-in-law, and many more personal things within my family to bring me back to God. Just like the world right now, I was very guilty of putting other things and people before God. My prayers are full of repentance and a turning back to the One who is worthy of my worship, and when I pursue righteousness, all these things will be added unto me. The world can do the same. We can repent, fall on our faces before a Mighty God, ask for the blood of Jesus to cover our sins, humble ourselves and obey... Then He will heal our land.
As I said in the beginning of this blog, two questions were running through my mind when this pandemic hit. How did we get here, and what will happen as the result of all this? The first question is answered... We got here by our pride and sinfulness, thinking we could be our own gods. Greediness for more and more, not being satisfied with God's bountiful provisions. All our idols are on shutdown. We did this to ourselves. It's not just because somebody ate a bat! God no longer pours out His wrath on His People, only because of Jesus, the Jesus we mock every day, but what He does do is allow us to experience the consequences of our sins, not to be mean, but to call us back to Him. Our sins have consequences, believe me, I know. What happens now is up to us. Will this humble us or make us more rebellious? Will we allow this pandemic to draw us back to God, or will we continue to be our own pitiful mini gods? Medicine and science may save us from this pandemic, God willing, but will we be quick to forget like we did after 9/11? Or we will take this time to allow Christ to change our hearts and minds. I pray for a great revival to sweep across this world, and that we will honor Christ as the ONE TRUE GOD. I pray mostly that I would keep God in his rightful place in my life for the rest of my days. This is what excites me to my core, the hope of a nation turning back to God. But like I said earlier, this is also what scares me too. Unlike 9/11, I don't see society as a whole being humbled by this pandemic. People are still being horrible on TV, fighting in their own families, hoarding toilet paper, or is that just what the media is showing us? Hopefully, we are being humbled by this. That is my prayer, and I hope it is yours too.
