Covid19 And possible Good God is working through it.

Michael Collum said:

Well, the scripture says if you have any encouragement, share it. But, if someone is determined to be depressed, then that's not my problem. God already has it covered . God bless!

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I am just telling you it is not as rosy as you paint it. Should not a person have emotions? Joy isn't always around, was Christ joyous when He was murdered on the Cross? There is a time for everything, A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3:4 This is hardly a time to be heel clicking happy. Evil man have come on the seen and stole things from us all, there is no joy in that.

You should as a Christian be able to Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15 yet you and many others want me to act as if there is nothing to weep about, mocking my pain and my faith as if I have to joyous all the time. I am not joyous, I am angry, sad over all that has happened. At least I thought other Christians wold understand, I guess I can't even count on Christians to understand.

Nothing about this is good. I become intimate with God in the Holy Eucharist, something many here can not understand or just minimize and now through the work of evil and evil man that close intimate relationship with God has been ripped away. I give up there is no hope left and nothing will ever be the same.

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I too hunger deeply for the Eucharist (not to mention the justifying graces of the confessional!). That said, I do think we need to recognize that, while nothing can compare with the reality of the Eucharist in this life, God is still capable of giving us an abundance of graces. There is a long tradition of real grace behind making spiritual communions, for example, that allow us to share in Eucharistic grace even without directly consuming the Host or Chalice. Additionally, from Baptism we learn that he desire for a sacrament can bestow graces analogous to the sacrament itself. Again, this is not to deny the uniqueness of the Blessed Sacrament itself...yet, it does give us hope that the nourishment God provides in the Eucharist is not lost to us when we cannot easily receive it.

I definitely feel for you at the void that the absence of the Eucharist causes, but do not discount the grace of God to reach you even in that absence. As the ancient notion goes: God has bound salvation to the Sacraments, but He Himself is not bound by them.

Knightwolflord said:

I too hunger deeply for the Eucharist (not to mention the justifying graces of the confessional!). That said, I do think we need to recognize that, while nothing can compare with the reality of the Eucharist in this life, God is still capable of giving us an abundance of graces. There is a long tradition of real grace behind making spiritual communions, for example, that allow us to share in Eucharistic grace even without directly consuming the Host or Chalice. Additionally, from Baptism we learn that he desire for a sacrament can bestow graces analogous to the sacrament itself. Again, this is not to deny the uniqueness of the Blessed Sacrament itself...yet, it does give us hope that the nourishment God provides in the Eucharist is not lost to us when we cannot easily receive it.

I definitely feel for you at the void that the absence of the Eucharist causes, but do not discount the grace of God to reach you even in that absence. As the ancient notion goes: God has bound salvation to the Sacraments, but He Himself is not bound by them.

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Thank you. I am blessed because our Bishop has allowed our Priest to bring to us the Holy Eucharist, most likely next week because he ordered special ones so I am really looking toward that time

charsan said:

Thank you. I am blessed because our Bishop has allowed our Priest to bring to us the Holy Eucharist, most likely next week because he ordered special ones so I am really looking toward that time

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If you are able to receive Him at that time, may He give you a double-portion of nourishment and spiritual strength!!

"They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'" (John 6:34)

charsan said:

Look he could learn but most evangelicals won't and don't want to learn. I am not willing to sit by and let him get away with saying the Holy Eucharist is a prop.

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I think most people think they can dictate the terms of another human beings faith, or brush them aside if they don't share the exact sentiment.

I am evangelical (I think?) and don't believe in the real presence (I read Scripture to show it as symbolic) however, that's the issue with faith, faith is inside ones heart and not easily changed regardless of circumstance, and it most certainly won't change just because a government tells you it's not allowed to be practiced, and shut up about your rights.

I don't understand the cavalier attitude toward those who don't think the government should overstep its boundaries. The constitution was set up to protect the natural rights of man that were God given, not to hand them over to man as if they were mere civil rights...

The framers never saw the freedom of religion to be a civil right to be handed out by government, but rather a natural right given by God that government had the job to protect ..

It was good, what the framers believed, and it was good what they set up here. I find it sad to see so many Americans thinking they have the right to tell anyone their faith is not something to be protected.

I think the framers would roll over in their graves, seeing as how they gave their very lives for our freedom to practice our faith according to our own conscious, and not according to the conscious of another man.

You have the right, given by God, to follow your faith how you see as right. And in this country no one should say boo to you about it.

Right now this Coronavirus scare is a blessing because it's creating an opportunity for people to seek a deeper experience with Yahuah. When you're quarantined, make the most of it. He's giving us extra space. Spend more time in contemplation.

I am more busier now than before all this started. I literally had more free time the 1st of March

charsan said:

I wouldn't and would try to kill myself because my connection was gone. I can not be as evangelicals are

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I understand Real Presence, even if I can't practice it, but this is a bit extreme. What about the presence of God found in the gospel?

Michael Collum said:

Perhaps the church is being given the chance to become more intimate with God.

If there's good to be found in the social/physical distancing.

It's probably that.

It's a common perception to say God sent this (enter disaster name here) to "the world" but what if it was a side effect of something else God actually did, and this side effect was meant to draw us who are called according to His purpose closer to Him.

A passage for theologizing is found in Ezekiel 14. Read the whole passage and imagine the empty church buildings in context of the emptying mentioned in the passage in regards to Job, Noah and Daniel being the only ones left. (if they were indeed there)

If judgment is here, it begins with the house of God, like it is written in 1 Peter 4:17. It's not sent towards the world, just to the church. God chastises those he loves. However, if we are not chastized, then we are bastards and not sons as the scripture says. (Hebrews 12:8)

I think it is backwards to think God will judge the world while we are commissioned to proclaim the good news to the whole world because Romans 2.

God is being patient and all wrath will be released on one day towards the world. However, right now, those who trust Him and live in relationship towards Him through the Holy Spirit will receive judgment.

So I would counsel those saying it is judgment to turn your lense towards the family of God, the local congregation, the church overall - and seek Him to be more intimate with Him.

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All plagues are judgments in the sense that there would be none were it not for the fall. There is no positive value in a virus, it kills cells by using up their life to replicate itself. But when we understand God as Sovereign then we understand Him as managing all things for the good of those who love him , even if they may seem hard to those that are passing through them. I believe God is reconfiguring this world and his church through the action of this virus. Some of us will receive a rebuke, some of us will be removed from this earth and some of us will remain untouched by it.

My uncle recently died with this disease and met his Maker alone without families or friends by his bedside. I have been directed to think of Christ in a different way by the events of this plague. There were times in Christs mission to save us where he was entirely alone abandoned, betrayed or denied by his closest disciples. In Gethsemane he prayed while all others slept. He was alone on the cross to carry the burden of men's sins though his family were able to see that. It was only after his trial, execution , preaching in the tomb that he was resurrected into fellowship and could greet us again with a glorious new hope of resurrected life beyond death itself.

Online services preserve something of our fellowship with each other through these times. But yes we need personal bible study and prayer also and this is a new opportunity to develop new depths and intimacy in our relationship, to reclarify our purpose and calling in God and to prepare for a time when we can again walk in fellowship with one another.

Michael Collum said:

Perhaps the church is being given the chance to become more intimate with God.

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I would hope so.
And also the chance to think about what church really is and how to be church.
I do not miss the meetings, rotas, arguments about property etc, at all. I don't even miss Sunday services; though I miss seeing people.

Michael Collum said:

It's a common perception to say God sent this (enter disaster name here) to "the world" but what if it was a side effect of something else God actually did, and this side effect was meant to draw us who are called according to His purpose closer to Him.

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I don't believe that God sent this or that it is from him - either as judgement or punishment. But he can work for good in ALL things, Romans 8:28. Whatever the devil sends, God can work, and speak, through.

charsan said:

Nothing about this is good.

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The virus isn't good.
Sickness and death aren't good.
Fear and worry aren't good.

The community pulling together to help its weakest members, is good.
Respecting, and being thankful for, what might previously have been described as lowly jobs - bin men, postmen, carers - and appreciating hard working medics, nurses, firefighters, teachers and those working to keep the homeless safe, is good.
Finding new ways to be church is good.
Turning disused/little used buildings into hospitals, homeless shelters or accommodation for exhausted nurses, is good.
High paid football managers giving some of their own money to help nurses and doctors, is good.

charsan said:

I become intimate with God in the Holy Eucharist, something many here can not understand or just minimize and now through the work of evil and evil man that close intimate relationship with God has been ripped away.

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No one can take away a close relationship with God. NOTHING can separate you from his love, Romans 8:38-39.
The devil might tell you that it can - that's what he wants; to spread fear and seek people to fall away from God.

charsan said:

I give up there is no hope left and nothing will ever be the same.

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It's sad you feel like that.
There is always hope. We worship a God of hope. If you believe that hope has gone; what is there?

charsan said:

I wouldn't and would try to kill myself because my connection was gone. I can not be as evangelicals are

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That's really sad.

Are you saying that if there was no bread and wine, and no priest to perform Mass, God would be absent? Or that God is not IN his people, he is only IN bread and wine?

Michael Collum said:

Perhaps the church is being given the chance to become more intimate with God.

If there's good to be found in the social/physical distancing.

It's probably that.

It's a common perception to say God sent this (enter disaster name here) to "the world" but what if it was a side effect of something else God actually did, and this side effect was meant to draw us who are called according to His purpose closer to Him.

A passage for theologizing is found in Ezekiel 14. Read the whole passage and imagine the empty church buildings in context of the emptying mentioned in the passage in regards to Job, Noah and Daniel being the only ones left. (if they were indeed there)

If judgment is here, it begins with the house of God, like it is written in 1 Peter 4:17. It's not sent towards the world, just to the church. God chastises those he loves. However, if we are not chastized, then we are bastards and not sons as the scripture says. (Hebrews 12:8)

I think it is backwards to think God will judge the world while we are commissioned to proclaim the good news to the whole world because Romans 2.

God is being patient and all wrath will be released on one day towards the world. However, right now, those who trust Him and live in relationship towards Him through the Holy Spirit will receive judgment.

So I would counsel those saying it is judgment to turn your lense towards the family of God, the local congregation, the church overall - and seek Him to be more intimate with Him.

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negative impact on a post-covid culture will probably be a more reclusive and stronger reactions to seasonal mild sicknesses. We will be more dependant on social networking sites like Facebook and less interested in face to face interactions and more "online" options. Alternative to hand shaking may begin to emerge and new regulations on travel increasing the over costs. None of these things are wrong but the church needs to adapt to these changes.

mindlight said:

My uncle recently died with this disease and met his Maker alone without families or friends by his bedside.

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I'm sorry to hear about your uncle.

Michael Collum said:

Perhaps the church is being given the chance to become more intimate with God.

If there's good to be found in the social/physical distancing.

It's probably that.

It's a common perception to say God sent this (enter disaster name here) to "the world" but what if it was a side effect of something else God actually did, and this side effect was meant to draw us who are called according to His purpose closer to Him.

A passage for theologizing is found in Ezekiel 14. Read the whole passage and imagine the empty church buildings in context of the emptying mentioned in the passage in regards to Job, Noah and Daniel being the only ones left. (if they were indeed there)

If judgment is here, it begins with the house of God, like it is written in 1 Peter 4:17. It's not sent towards the world, just to the church. God chastises those he loves. However, if we are not chastized, then we are bastards and not sons as the scripture says. (Hebrews 12:8)

I think it is backwards to think God will judge the world while we are commissioned to proclaim the good news to the whole world because Romans 2.

God is being patient and all wrath will be released on one day towards the world. However, right now, those who trust Him and live in relationship towards Him through the Holy Spirit will receive judgment.

So I would counsel those saying it is judgment to turn your lense towards the family of God, the local congregation, the church overall - and seek Him to be more intimate with Him.

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I believe that this virus has the ability to get both his people, and the world to look more closely at their standing with God eternally. It was said during one of the wars that "there are no atheists in the trenches", why was this? People were faced with death daily. The virus has bough death before our eyes. It causes the sinner to consider their end. So for this reason I say it is a good thing.

The west has been living in an affluent kind of spiritual slumber, with no care for God's word:

Deu 8:13-14 And when your herds and your flocks are increased, and your stores of silver and gold, and you have wealth of every sort; Take care that your hearts are not lifted up in pride, giving no thought to the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house;

The fear of death, and potential loss, can speak to man's heart, warning them of future judgement if they do not turn from sin.

Some reports of people contacting church for prayer and a poll showed an increase in folks reading their Bibles. Also, some believers are evaluating their relationship with God.

"Nothing about this is good."
I certainly agree with this.

Only thing I know for sure is to rely on God and His word.

Meant to encourage you -
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Rom 8:28

"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." kjv I Peter 5:7 "Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you." TPT

"The rhief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!" John 10:10

Michael Collum said:

Perhaps the church is being given the chance to become more intimate with God.

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Amen! The church is being purified. Have you noticed that some of the self appointed apostles, prophets and leaders in the church have nothing to say?

Mega church Pastors, many of the prosperity and faith healing Tel-evanglists, they didn't see this coming. They have no answer to it. They have no authority over it. Hopefully the Lord will open the eyes of the duped to these wolves in sheep's clothing.

God Bless