March 24th 2020

God's blessing to you all,
For many of us, this is the first day of  "stay at home" (or whatever name it is given)  instructions from our state governor.  The thoughts on the need, the legality, and how Christians should respond are legion. I am sure that there is no shortage of folks re-reading the thirteenth chapter of Romans and weighing in on how exactly we should respond. There are basically three views on Christians and civil authorities which range from keeping separate from  civil authorities to Christians should get involved and influence civil authorities. None of the views advocate rebelling against or refusing to obey government laws unless those laws clearly require us to violate morals standards revealed by God.  Therefore, we must strive to be responsible citizens and responsible Christians.

So, what does being a responsible Christian looks like? This too, may present a plethora of responses and opinions and what I am about to share is by no means the only answer.  As I thought of it, I thought of the ministry of all believers and I thought of the"one another's" in the scriptures.  Depending on the list we choose to view, the "one another's" in the Bible vary. Some lists will only count the "love one another" once while other lists will count each "love one another" every time it is written.  In the list, Ephesians 5:19 reads [addressing one another in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, signing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart What Paul is getting at is that we should be infused with an attitude of joy, thanksgiving to God, and encouragement to others. 

There.] is a lot of talk of critical needs, among those needs is hope. Through our prayers, communications via phone calls, emails, and texts, we can encourage one another, remind each other of the joy found in Christ, and be thankful that we have a church family to weather this through with. Let us never lose sight that whatever decisions our local authorities make; how inconvenient the current situation may become, we are children of God and that our God is very much in control.
Blessings, Vic