By Pastor Errol Jacobs
I greet you in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus. As we are all aware by now we are in one of the greatest challenges that not only we are facing, but the world! The Coronavirus has taken the world by storm and has created pandemonium in all our lives. We have all been affected in some form or another. We are living at this very moment in unprecedented times and therefore we are called to unprecedented measures!
It is, however, more important as believers in Christ that we focus on Him as Lord more than on the situation we are faced with. 1 Peter 5:7 says ‘Cast all your care (or anxiety) on Him for he cares for you.’ Let us truly trust Him during this time. Believe Him, honour Him, love Him and have faith in Him! This is no surprise to our God, so why worry? Why be concerned? Yes, I believe this is a test of our faith and our trust in the Lord.
God’s Word also says in Galatians 6:2 that ‘we should carry each other’s burdens.’ It is therefore important that we support each other during this time. Our support should be safe, sensible and still obeying the advice to distance ourselves from physical interaction as far as possible to keep each other safe.
As many of you know, we have moved our services online. You can watch a live stream of the sermon on our Facebook page at 11.00am on Sundays, and the sermons are available later on our YouTube channel. We are also fellowshipping together over Zoom. The details are sent out weekly on our WhatsApp group – please do get in touch if you would like to be added.
Our weekly Life Groups have continued, again via Zoom or Skype. Everyone is welcome to join one – please get in touch with one of the church leaders if you would like to be added to a group. Junior Church has also continued via Zoom with children meeting in their own age groups with a team of Junior Church leaders.
If you or family members are or become infected or are completely in isolation for safety’s sake, please let us know. Inform your Life Group, any member in church, the leadership team and/or (myself) Pastor Errol. This will allow us to pray for you and to see how we can support you in your daily needs. Please also let us know if you are facing financial difficulty – we have donations of food ready and waiting to be delivered to help you through this time.
Maybe God has given us life and an opportunity for a time such as this. Let us therefore use this time to be a blessing to each other, to our community, the world and above all to our Lord. Let us be The People of God! One aspect of this is to be good examples to others by following the government’s advice to stay at home. Let us avoid sharing anything on social media about the virus that may not be true, and instead point people to the NHS website so that we can all follow the guidelines to keep ourselves safe. Let’s keep our distance from each other, cover our mouth and nose when we cough and wash our hands regularly.
I would like to close with a few lines from The Devotional Classics of Charles Spurgeon. He reflects on Psalm 119:15, which says ‘I will meditate on your commandments’. He writes:
There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. . . . Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord.
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