The coronavirus lurched the world in crisis mode in only weeks: countries closing borders, overwhelmed hospitals turning away stroke victims to care for COVID-19 patients, school closures, empty public places, stocks tumbling, and stay-at-home notices enforced. Opinions and fake news abound with finger-pointing in all directions based on fear, anger, and political bias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what is God doing<\/em> in all this? What if we could just ask him\u2014and then, what if we would really listen to his answer? What would he say? What is God telling us?[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But God, I already know this! You have spoken\nthrough your Word:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cO God, remember that my life is but a\nbreath, \u201cYou have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. We typically think tragedy happens to the other guy\u2014not to us. Yet God shows us that we\u2019re so vulnerable that tragedy can strike us even from a virus that someone can breathe on us. Maybe we aren\u2019t the masters of our fate as much as we thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, we thought we knew this too\u2014at least intellectually. People need God, but people also need people. Today is the 90th birthday of the man who raised me, but he is quarantined in his assisted care room where even my mother cannot visit him. The best the family could do was to sing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d up to his second-floor window from the street below as he lay in bed. The pain of his revoked birthday party and flights of loved ones canceled remind us how communal we humans are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Relational distances often hurt missionaries like us. Our three sons and our baby grandson now live across the Pacific. Likewise, my wife tried to be at her Dad\u2019s side for his entrance into heaven in 2005. She really did try\u2014traveling to the USA six times in a year and a half. Yet she bade him farewell by phone moments before his passing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So God, would you help us get creative at loving others? Even in our social distancing from people at church, you are telling us not to hibernate at home. You are giving us new ways to reach out. Even though we long to hug others as we did in the past, help us show your warmth even in the \u201celbow handshakes\u201d and the increased use of our webcam to our family, our church friends, and those we teach. This is because we need flexibility as you teach us to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe LORD replied, Who would have believed that universities around the globe would send their students to their home countries in mid-semester indefinitely? Who could have guessed that the US Congress would vote to give each American $1200 in aid in 2020? Habakkuk could hardly believe that God would raise up the crueler Babylonians to punish wayward Judah. God is also telling us that he knows what he is doing when things are out of our control:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018My thoughts are nothing like your\nthoughts,\u2019 says the LORD. Think of the past. Don\u2019t forget the plagues\nof \u201cbiblical proportions\u201d that killed numerous Egyptians (Gen 12:17; Exod 8\u201312)\nand Israelites (Exod 32:35), where even 14,700 died in one day (Num 16:47-50). Don\u2019t\nforget the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919 that killed about 2% of the world.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same way, while COVID-19 does not\nfulfill Bible prophecy, other diseases will get worse in the days ahead. The\nfourth horseman of the Apocalypse will cause one-fourth of the world to die by \u201csword\nand famine and disease and wild animals\u201d (Rev 6:8). I find it incredible that\nsome think this has already been fulfilled in history\u2014if so, when? As our\npresent times are unprecedented in the global scale of the pandemic, unprecedented\ndays lie ahead. God is giving us a small taste of judgment to come. Are we\nlistening? Are we preparing by placing our trust in him by believing in his\nSon, Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many say that things are falling apart. In reality, things are falling<\/em> together<\/em>. How? The Lord Jesus Christ holds all things together: \u201cHe existed\nbefore anything else, and he holds all creation together\u201d (Col 1:17). <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what should we do? Isaiah lived in a day\nwhen he saw the nation of Israel to his north totally destroyed, as well as 46\ncities of his own land of Judah. His advice is appropriate for our own time as\nwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeek the LORD while you can find him. __________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Posted 19 March 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nLife is fragile.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nand I will never again feel happiness\u201d (Job 7:7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath\u201d (Psalm 39:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\nRelationships matter.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Embrace new realities.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Look around at the nations;
look and be amazed!
For I am doing something in your own day,
something you wouldn\u2019t believe even if someone told you about it\u2019\u201d (Habakkuk 1:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u2018And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
\nFor just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
\nso my ways are higher than your ways
\nand my thoughts higher than your thoughts\u2019\u201d (Isa 55:8-9).<\/p>\n\n\n\nGet ready. It will get worse.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Seek God now.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\nCall on him now while he is near\u201d (Isa 55:6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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