VIRAL ANXIETY

VIRAL ANXIETY

​It was just a few weeks ago that the World Health Organisation (WHO) described COVID-19 (an acronym for COrona VIrus Disease of 2019) as a ‘pandemic’ (a rapidly spreading global disease). But it was the former Australian Broadcasting Commission’s medical correspondent, Dr. Norman Swan who first referred to COVID-19 as “a plague”. When we read through the Bible it also seems to mass dying events as plagues. These Biblical plagues were often a sign of God’s judgment on wickedness – remember the squabble that Moses had with Pharaoh and the resultant plagues that eventually led to Israel’s deliverance? The Christian response to the current pandemic (A.K.A. “plague”) has ranged from responsible to embarrassing. What is called for is a Biblically-informed, Christ-inspired, God-honouring response from Christians and the churches they comprise.

In that hour He [Jesus] healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind He bestowed sight.
Luke 7:21

“WHERE’S YOUR FAITH?”

I have heard that some Christians have claimed that they are virtually immune from COVID-19 because of their faith in Christ. Maybe they have just cause to believe this because God has actually spoken directly to them about how they will be preserved from this virus. If so, their faith is justified. No Christian can reasonably claim that the Bible itself makes such a promise—after all, none the Bible is written to us (it is written for us though) which is why it would not be faith to believe that such verses as Exodus 15:26 (saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer”) were written to us to take as a promise, it would instead be presumption!

For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
First Samuel 15:23a

RUNNING INTO THE DARKNESS

Molokai, Hawaii, used in the 1800s as a leper colony where Father Jozef Damien was sent to minister to its lepers in Jesus’ Name, until his premature death from Hansen’s disease.

In the 1800s, a Belgian Catholic priest was given an assignment that involved taking up a ministry post in Hawaii. So far so good. But even though this was an Hawaiian island, it was also where Hawaii sent all of its lepers! Father Jozef Damien gladly took up his post and ministered to the hundreds of outcasts who had been exiled to this otherwise picturesque island. Eventually the inevitable happened. He contracted Hansen’s Disease (leprosy). After a protracted deterioration of his health, he succumbed and died at the age of 49. His life and ministry were yet another example of how the Holy Spirit has led faithful followers of Christ to run into the darkness, not away from it.

Christianity has a long tradition of such selfless service for a world cursed by the darkness of evil. Down through the millennia Christians have gone into slums, prisons, leper communities, and concentration camps and given their lives to minister to those in the clutches of evil outcomes. In the second century, it was Christians who went into the forests around the Roman Empire at night to rescue the baby girls that the Romans had abandoned there to “expose” their unwanted baby girls to the elements and the ravenous wolves. When Rome was eventually sacked by the Huns, it was the Church and its leaders who gave moral and civil leadership to reassure and comfort its citizens toward recovery.

In the 20th century, believers like Desmond Doss, served unarmed on the front-line in World War II as a military medic risking his own life to rescue dozens of wounded comrades left for dead from enemy fire. More recently, in the USA, when Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out New Orleans, it was the Christian community across the USA who immediately mobilised to assist in emergency relief and aid. And even more recently, in Nashville Tennessee when they suffered a devastating hurricane a few weeks ago, the generosity of and response from the nearby Christian community led to the disaster relief coordinators announcing that they no longer needed any further government support and that they now had enough help and aid to more than meet the need. Christians have traditionally run into the darkness, not away from it! To be led by the Spirit in times of calamity is to be a light in the darkness and an expression of the love of God to a community in pain.

A NEW AWARENESS OF MORTALITY

Last Sunday, Arend Pîest said to me, “Isn’t it amazing how a something so incredibly tiny [the Corona virus] is changing the world!” He’s right. It’s so tiny you need a reasonably powerful microscope to even see it. Yet, this tiny microbial parasite is bringing the world to a halt and causing some people to face up to their own mortality – perhaps—for the first time—as reports of its spiralling death toll continues to mount. This is causing a massive shift in priorities. Dr. John Sands, who is giving me Launceston’s regular medical response updates, sent me this delight piece by Richard Hendrick –

LOCKDOWN

by Richard Hendrick, March 13th 2020

Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

 

But,

They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise you can HEAR the birds again.

 

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet the

sky is no longer thick with FUMES but blue and clear.

 

They say that in Italy people are SINGING to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may HEAR the sounds of families around them.

They say that in the West of Ireland a young woman is spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood so that the elders may have someone to call on.

All over the world people are SLOWING DOWN and reflecting and looking at their neighbours in a NEW WAY

 

All over the world people are waking up to the reality of how big we really are, to our interconnectedness and to how little control we really have.

 

 

Waking up to what really matters, to the power of prayer,  meditation, kindness, caring and love

 

So we pray and remember that while there is fear, there does not have to be hate.

 

 

Yes there is isolation but

there does not have to be loneliness.

 

Yes there is sickness but there does not have to be disease of the soul

 

And yes there is pain, suffering and death but

there can always be a rebirth of community , peace, harmony and love.

 

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live today and now

 

Breathe

 

Listen

 

Pay attention

 

The birds are singing, the

sky is clearing and love

always encompasses us

 

Open the windows of your soul and

though you may not be able to touch across the empty square…

SING and give thanks for your life and all you have.

It is arrogant and conceited to deny one’s mortality (that we will all die, Heb. 9:27). This the Caesars were frequently guilty of. Only GOD is immortal (Rom. 1:23). When someone acknowledges their mortality they soon ask the question, “What happens to me after I die?” This is what happened to Job when his horrible afflictions began.

But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
Job 14:10 

Questions like this are inevitable when people realise their mortality. This is why during a pandemic, the world needs the church! Governments can’t answer this question. Celebrities with a giddilion Instagram followers can’t answer it. Bloggers can’t answer it. Twenty-year-old Life Coaches can’t answer it. But every Christian—the spiritual bricks and mortar of the Church—can! It is in times like this that people begin to wake up to what the Psalmist declared nearly two and a half millennia ago-

Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
Psalm 144:4

THAT VIRAL PEACE MAY ABOUND

Kim and I went to the supermarket this morning after our regular Friday morning coffee date. There were people everywhere. There were empty shelves. There were even security guards. It’s difficult for the Prime Minister to tell Australians that there is no need to panic-buy months worth of essential items such as toilet paper, when you go into the shop to buy one packet of it and there is none. People are anxious, and they now have reason to be. Australia has now closed its borders, and in a necessary and extraordinary move, so will Tasmania from midnight tonight. But Governments do not have all the answers to this crisis. Fortunately though, in Australia we do not have the “Separation of Church and State”, because our society was founded on the “Cooperation of Church and State”. This means that we are free to live what we believe and practice the consequences of what we believe, which involves front-line services in emergency and crisis accommodation; drug rehabilitation; marriage and family counselling; education; emergency aid and relief; and providing certainty in times of uncertainty. And, in addition to all of these outreach services, now is the time for every Christian to know what they believe and why and then demonstrate its consequences. Consider – 

¶ Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 3:5-7

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:27 

Therefore, do not let your hearts be troubled. Believer, I remind you that our hope is not in this world! It is where our ultimate home is! As for me, I have made a commitment to the Lord that He can use wherever He sees fit. If that should mean that I go into dark places in His Name as a light and comfort to the afflicted, so be it. But please be assured that as long as Lord enables me, I will do all I can to pastor, shepherd, feed, reassure, and remind you of what God’s Word says so that we can launch our own virus: a virus of the Lord’s peace! 

Peace be with you.

-Pastor Andrew Corbett

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

¶ Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1

When one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, I wonder if he had been feeling (as many of us have often felt) that our prayers never seem to be answered? This disciple had watched and noticed that everything Jesus prayed for was answered by His heavenly Father. Who wouldn’t want to know how to pray prayers that always get a “Yes!” from God? And what Jesus taught him and his brother disciples was just that: A model prayer for how to always have God say “Yes!” to our prayers. If you want to prayers that are guaranteed to be answered, read on.

BAD THEOLOGY DISTORTS HOW WE PRAY

¶ “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Matthew 6:7-8

Many of Christ’s public prayers were incredibly short. This stood in stark contrast to the religious leaders of His day whom Jesus said of them, “for a pretense [they] make long prayers” (Mark 12:40). The effectiveness of our prayers is therefore not dependent on how long they are or whether or not we use ‘the right words.’ But the effectiveness of our prayers is dependent upon us praying according to the will of God. The model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples explicitly includes the phrase “Your will be done” (Matt. 6:10). If you want your prayers answered, pray that! Ask God for His will to be accomplished in your life. But what Jesus taught about praying this way was much bigger than just about what God wants to do in our lives because that phrase continues, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). This presents two equal and opposite potential dangers. Firstly, there is the danger of understanding Christ’s prayerful words to mean that we should think of earth as our ultimate home. It’s not. God Himself is (for a home is not so much a dwelling, but where we are loved and secure). Secondly, there is the danger of understanding Christ to mean that earth is not our home and therefore we shouldn’t care too much about what happens here (since the focus sounds like it’s on heaven not earth).

From my experience, the reason that many believers become disappointed with God and His seeming lack of answers to their prayers, stems from bad theology. Sometimes this bad theology is based on a misunderstanding for how Christ taught His followers the model prayer. For example, I have heard preachers teach that when Christ taught His disciples to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it in heaven, He was teaching that since there is no sickness or pain in heaven, that living in the will of God on earth meant that we could live without sickness or pain if we only had enough faith. But this is not only a misunderstanding of what Jesus taught us to pray it is also puts the focus of God’s will entirely into this life on earth. It is too easy for us to get so wrapped up in this life that we think this life is the main deal. This bad theology creates an unreal perception of our life on earth and also unreasonable expectations of how God treats our prayers. Bad theology becomes a curtain that distorts our view of both the world we live in, and of God Himself.

GOD’S WORD PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN

The Bible pulls back the curtain on this unreal perception of this world and tells us the truth. A distorted view of this world and of God may lead some believers to believe the wrong things such as “It is never God’s will that people die.” Yet the Bible reveals that we will all die (Hebrews 9:27). It is wrong to think that every disappointment and the setbacks you experience is the Devil attacking you. The Bible reveals that all of creation is subject to disappointment and frustration (Romans 8:20). In fact, the Bible reveals that in this world, you will subject to occasions where you experience distress, disease and the death of loved ones (Romans 8:22). While some believers might assume that these things are necessarily the judgment of God and will ask “What have I done to deserve this?” the Bible reveals that even the most godly and holy of believers experienced this. Consider the brief life of John the Baptist and then take a course in Church History from ICI College and note the lives (and the life-spans) of Savonarola, Latimer and Ridley, and Robert M. M’Cheyne. If we can align our understanding of God and our expectations for our lives on earth with what the Bible reveals, we will have a clearer picture of reality rather than the distorted picture that the world and bad theology affords!

This earth is meant to be a shadow of the ultimate reality that awaits us in heaven. Where this shadow of God’s rule is obscured because of the darkness of evil, we need to earnestly pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it in heaven. The Church is also a shadow of this reality that awaits us all. And in an incredibly powerful way (and something I point out to every couple I prepare for marriage) marriage is meant to be one of the clearest foreshadows of heaven. This is why I always tell a couple that I prepare for marriage, or counsel when they are, that marriage can be one of the closest things to heaven on earth that you will ever experience. But this should not cause singles to feel as if they have no potential to appreciate the heaven that awaits each child of God, because the sweetness of heaven is often glimpsed in those acts of pure friendship, love, kindness, and generosity by a brother or sister in Christ.

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4

Every now and then it is good to be reminded of how the believer’s heavenly home is described so that when we pray Christ’s model for us we can do so intelligibly. Heaven the dominion where God rules. There is perfect peace there (note the metaphor of the “glassy sea” around God’s throne, Rev. 4:6). There is absolute justice there because the Ultimate Judge has executed perfect justice (Rev. 20:11-12). The things that the King of Kings has declared good are the only things that are valued and sought after. Those things, such as injustice, wrong-doing, selfishness, falsehood, and immorality (which is the fruit of idolatry) are prohibited in God’s heavenly domain (Rev. 21:27). Except for the faithful heavenly creatures, every other citizen of heaven has been rescued and redeemed and personally adopted by the King Himself (Rev. 21:3). Therefore, when we pray as Jesus instructed for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we should consider these expressions of God’s revealed will.

We should pray that:

• When God’s people gather they do so to glorify God.
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• When God’s people gather they should experience a foretaste of the peace of God that comes from being in His presence.
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• God’s people should seek to promote the will of God in society that all people obey God and His Word.
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• God’s people do all they can to promote the most fundamental aspect of justice—especially for the most vulnerable in our society—the right to live.
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• God’s people exemplify to the world what is good, right, honourable, and virtuous especially when it comes to human sexuality and decency. This must mean that publicly object to such things as slavery, sex-trafficking, pornography, sexual promiscuity, and prostitution—all of which degrade human beings and especially demean women to the status of objects rather than persons who bear the imago dei.
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• All people turn to Christ to be accepted by God and that the lie that all religions lead to God be exposed by the light of the gospel as a Devilish ruse designed to ensnare and delude his victims to a lost eternity.
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This is what we are praying for when we pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And a final note on what happens in the heart and life of any believer when they pray these big prayers: God often uses the pray-er to help answer the prayers they pray. This is why we protest when certain politicians defy the Living God, who is LORD of Heaven AND EARTH, by their wicked schemes to see the vulnerable treated as objects or an expense on a hospital’s financial report. It is why we take a prophetic stand against the devilish evil that views a child in the womb as a mere clump of tissue cells, or why a frail and ill elderly hospital patient is nuisance in an over-crowded hospital ward. It’s why we object when well-meaning but uninformed believers announce that God does not expect the non-believer to obey Him or His Word. Because, we pray with our Lord that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

 

Pastor Andrew Corbett

MAN UP!

MAN UP!

When I was growing up there were a lot movies in cinemas and on TV about rugged cowboys—and even commercials being made that featured other rugged cowboys. Men were presented as manly. Then along came James Bond, who knew how to fly any plane, pilot a car that could be driven off a pier into the sea as his Lotus that turned doubled as a submarine, and ski down the blackest run in the world and parachute (with a Union Jack) off a 5,000 foot cliff back into civilisation in a tuxedo. And, of course, time prevents me from talking about the super-heroes like Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, who lived secretly with their true identities while saving the world each weekday afternoon in under 30 minutes (including commercials). But over time, I came to be a little disturbed with Hollywood’s presentation of what it meant to be a man because each of these men lacked the essential qualities for what it truly means to be a man.

“I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man!“
(The dying King David to his young son, and heir to his throne, Solomon) First Kings 2:2

ESSENTIAL MANHOOD

We are now on the verge of a theological tsunami. A generation is now growing up where the concepts of manhood, husband and father — each Biblical metaphors for God — have been distorted. This might well be the biggest challenge the Church has ever faced in its 2,000 years of existence! And I want us to be a part of the prevention and solution!

While my growing up years were characterised by these rather rugged, solitary, hero-type, men, I must confess that I found something quite charming and even endearing about The Brady Bunch. There was something quite appealing to me about three girls who had lost their dad, and three boys who had lost their mum, have their losses mutually covered by their surviving parents getting married. I found the solution that Mr Brady provided for these three girls and their mum to be a beautiful and very noble idea. It inspired me to also want to have six children of my own when I grew up! Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I took careful note of those parents who stood out to me as a great parents. Even though, at about the age of 6, I hadn’t factored in the necessity of this plan involving one day getting married, I overlooked this gap in my plan and watched how great parents went about fulfilling their roles. What I observed dramatically altered my concept of what it meant to be a man. My new revelation of what essential manhood involved caused me to feel quite inadequate. And this was a problem for me, because as a teenager I could not deny the growing sense of God’s call on my life to be a pastor. But how could ever become a pastor if I was so inadequate? I was so concerned about this, I spoke with my church’s youth group leader, David ( ) Outhred, about what my options were considering my inadequacies. He essentially told me to “Man up!“

¶ “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife”
First Timothy 3:1-2a

BEING A MAN

The parents that I observed who were doing a great job with their kids all had two things in common. Firstly, they parented as a team. Their relationship with each other was the strength of their parenting. They genuinely loved each other. Secondly, they parented intentionally which involved them willingly making certain sacrifices in order to be parents. They genuinely loved their children, but this never meant that their kids were the centre of their lives—God was! They taught their kids, by using a parent’s best friend ~ consistency ~ that when they said “No” they didn’t mean, “If you keep asking I’ll say yes just to shut you up.” Their love for their kids was unconditional, even though their saying “No” at times brought defiance and childish accusations of unfairness. This requires tireless courage on the part of mum and dad. Too often though, I noticed that some dads didn’t work as a team with their soul-mate. It was if they saw raising children as the woman’s job(?). Additionally, some men were easily broken down by their children’s defiance, and became very inconsistent with their parenting. Perhaps without realising it, these dads were undermining the efforts of their wives to teach their children some of life’s most essential and necessary lessons!

Solo-parenting presents a whole other set of difficulties. If you ever get to talk to a single parent and their challenges in parenting, and I’ve talked with many about this, they will tell you that they have twice the workload with half the resources to accomplish it. Single parenting is a tough gig. But so is parenting as a couple! Especially when the man is not playing his part. And too many women, not all of course, are left to become solo-parents because the father of their child/ren has abducted or fled his responsibilities.

Being a dad demands that a man becomes a different man in order to be a husband and a dad. All too often this is too big of a hill for many men to climb, and they run and hide (into their work, into their shed, or into their fishing gear) to avoid the climb. Little wonder then that Hollywood (largely comprised of male film producers!) depicts manly men as playboys with little responsibilities to “tie them down”, and married men—who are fathers—as buffoons! (An example below:)

THE ULTIMATE MAN

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
John 19:5

Consider Jesus (Heb. 3:1). Consider this man, who Pilate presented to Israel as the man (Jn. 19:5).

• He gladly spent time with children (Matt. 18:2-5; watch)
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• He protected vulnerable and at-risk women (John 8:10-11)
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• He endorsed and gave support to parents (Lk. 8:41-42)
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• He honoured marriage between a man and a woman (John 2:1-11; watch; Matt. 19:4-6)
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Consider also how Jesus presented a radical view of God. While Israel had had a concept of Yahweh (God) as their Father (Isaiah 63:16), it was not until Jesus that anyone thought of Yahweh as my Father. In what must have sounded like a shocking way to speak of Yahweh, Jesus used a very intimate Aramaic word for father when speaking of God – Abba (Mk 13:36). The epistle writers regarded this Aramaic word for God The Father as so precious, they often transliterated it directly into Greek rather than using the Greek word (‘pater’). 

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by Whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Galatians 4:6

This Aramaic word, Abba, is best translated into English as ‘Daddy‘ or ‘Daddy dear‘. It is an incredibly affectionate term of endearment. This is how the disciples heard Jesus pray to His Father.

THREE THINGS MEN CAN LEARN FROM THE ULTIMATE MAN

When it comes to saving the world, Jesus was greater than any made-up super-hero. When comes to fulfilling a mission, Jesus was greater than fictional British playboy spy. Jesus was also the greatest lover of women ever — and yet, He never had sex. Jesus was the strongest, smartest, wisest, most ethical, sinless, purest, courageous, virtuous, determined, man ever. He didn’t see children as nuisances. He didn’t treat women as objects. He didn’t use vicious humour to belittle. He protected the weak. He looked after the poor. He ate with the marginalised. He assisted foreigners. He blessed struggling small-business operators. He gave of Himself to soldiers who were oppressors and invaders of his nation. There is much for men to emulate from the example of Jesus The Christ. Here’s three things every man, who will one day be—or is—a husband and father:

1. Love your wife. Treat her with unfair kindness (grace). Christ does for His (Ephesians 5:25). Get to know her. Find out what her favourites are. Discover what all of her likes and dislikes are. Learn how to apologise to her. Date her regularly. Notice her (be particularly alert to new hairstyles!). Write her a love poem – at least once a year (see Mick Dadson for tips on how to do this). Listen to her point of view and prove to her that you understand it. Remember, the strength of relationship with her determines the strength of your parenting and the level of security that your children will enjoy.
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2. Play with your kids. Teach your children what true and real love is. Teach your children the stories of the Bible. Teach your children who God is and what He is like. And play with your children. Let them see and experience how man who is much bigger, much stronger, and much smarter than them, can restrain each of these attributes to help them to enjoy their time with dad and have happy memories of their children where they laughed a lot (Ephesians 6:4). Remember that your holidays together are going to be some of the fondest memories your children will ever have. Start saving now for your next family holiday.
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3. Don’t make your wife or your kids the centre of your life – it will ruin them. When someone lives with anyone other than God as the centre of their life, the calls this idolatry (1Cor. 10:14). The centre of Christ’s world was His Abba, not His disciples, and not even His Church. But because of His love for His Father, He could love His disciples, His followers, and those He interacted with even though some of them were considered His enemies. Your love for God as a husband and a father strengthens your number one mission in life for your wife and children: to help bring them closer to God. This is why things like family devotions, or dinner time prayers, or bedside Bible stories, are so important for fathers who love their children. It is also why attending church as a family is critically important because it helps to keep God as the Centre of our lives. 
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THE THEOLOGICAL TSUNAMI

The reason I state this this is potentially a theological tsunami that will make our mission even more difficult, is that our presentation of God is the one that Christ gave us to deliver to the world – that God is our Heavenly Father, our Abba. Because of the perception that many of this generation are getting of what a man and father is, there ability to know God as their Heavenly Father is impeded. For those of us who know God as our Abba, we know that there are times when He says “No” to our prayer requests. Good, loving, kind, fathers must, at times, say “No” to their children. But a generation that has been drawn into the devil’s sticky web of deception and beguiled into the lie that are entitled to have whatever they want — in fact, they have a right to whatever they want, are going to struggle with a God who says “No” but still unconditionally loves them. Unless, of course, we provide them of counter-examples of loving, kind, considerate, generous, manhood and fatherhood that reflects who God the Father really is. If we can do that, at least in our island state, we might just have a chance of staving off this looming theologically incorrect tsunami.

 Pastor Andrew.