“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!’”
– Luke 6:20-22

A timely reminder from Jesus that if He is your Lord and Savior, then your real treasure, ultimate satisfaction, and unending joy and delight aren’t found here in the things of this brief earthly life but in your eternal life that began when you first put your faith in Christ and will never, ever end.

Regardless of whether you are comfortable or lacking right now, happy or sad, healthy or sick, popular or hated, at peace or afraid of what the next news report will bring, what surrounds you now will one day end. What won’t end is God’s love, care, and pleasure. What won’t end is God’s presence in your life. What won’t end is your eternal reward, your forever delight in His presence, and your comfort in Him. Earthly nations will end, political structures will come and go, plagues will pass, but God’s Kingdom will never end.

Know that if you follow Jesus, you are blessed, each and every day. You are a citizen of God’s Kingdom. You will be satisfied. You will laugh. You will enjoy the friendship and fellowship of God forever and ever.

“Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.”
– Proverbs 8:10-11

We have a unique opportunity at this time when many have been forced, involuntarily, to slow down the pace of life, stay home for extended periods of time, and temporarily quit chasing all the things we usually spend our lives and energy pursuing. We have the opportunity to stop slurping up endless amounts of infuriating information (from the internet, the news, social media) and genuinely seek wisdom.

Wisdom takes more time and effort to gain than information, because information is cheap and ever-present, while wisdom is rare and requires genuinely thoughtful engagement. For once in our frenetic lives, we have the chance to thoughtfully engage. TAKE THAT CHANCE!

Go deeper in your daily Bible reading. If you aren’t reading the Bible for yourself every day, start reading the Bible every day. Use an LRBC reading plan, or just start in Matthew and read a chapter every day. If you’re already reading, go deeper – spend more time thinking about what you read and how it applies to you. Meditate on it. Memorize a verse that really stands out to you.

Listen to great teaching and preaching online.

Join an online Bible study, or get help to start one of your own.

Turn off your social media feed and read actual books (or Kindle ebooks) by some of the great Christian writers of the past or present: Tim Keller, John Piper, A.W. Tozer, C.S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, John Bunyan, John Calvin, or Augustine, just to name a few.

Friends, our current situation is going to last awhile. Specifically, it’s going to last long enough to solidify whatever new habits we form in the days to come. Form the right habits – the habits that fill you with precious wisdom!

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the man who was paralyzed—‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.’” – Luke 5:24

At a time when physical sickness, healing, and protection figure prominently in people’s thoughts, it’s important to realize that wasn’t Jesus’ top priority. Physical healing, wonderful as it is, can only benefit us for at most 70-100 years. That’s less than a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. And so Jesus worked physical healing to point us to His true purpose – spiritual healing.

Jesus came to reconcile mankind with our loving and holy God. He came “to seek and to save the lost”, forgiving sins, and giving us eternal life as an undeserved gift of God’s grace through faith in Him. The greatest work of Jesus isn’t found in remarkable miracles that touched some lives 2000 years ago, it is His sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the dead that made it possible for our sins to be forgiven and our relationship with God restored.

Our spiritual situation and that of our friends, relatives, and neighbors should be our highest priority during this pandemic. Like Jesus, we should lovingly care for the physical needs of those around us, tending to them lovingly, but as a means of pointing people to Jesus who heals their greater spiritual needs.

“Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” – Numbers 12:3

Meekness – to be humble, unassuming, gentle, and unpretentious – is not much celebrated in our culture today. We love and reward relentless self-promotion, hype, ego, aggressively looking out for self, and angrily demanding respect. However, God has a very different opinion about meekness and we need to learn from Him!

If anyone had reason to believe he was special and worthy of public adoration, celebrity, and obedience it was Moses. Leader of a nation. Liberator of a people. Friend of God. The man who spoke to God face-to-face. That was exactly why he was so meek. As we draw nearer and nearer to God, we understand more and more how great He is and how small we are. We understand how holy He is and how unworthy we are. How gracious He is and how unworthy we are. All arrogance, ego, and pretense melt away as we grow in our relationship with the One who is truly worthy of all praise, honor, and glory.

We see this pattern in the great saints of history – as they grew in godliness, leading and serving in extraordinary ways, they were increasingly filled with meekness. Not weakness. Not timidity. Humble, unassuming, gentle, unpretentious service and commitment to glorifying God rather than self. Scripture promises that as we follow Christ more closely we increasingly reveal the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our life which includes meekness (or gentleness depending on your translation, but it’s the same word in Greek).

So, if you want to become like Moses, don’t stress out trying to part the Red Sea. Draw nearer to God and let His Spirit give you the meekness of Moses. After all, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

“And he answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’” – Luke 3:11

As John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, he preached a simple, yet brutally direct message: repent of your selfish, sinful behaviors and then take actions that demonstrate you were truly sorry. When asked what that looked like, this verse is how he responded. He told everyone to be generous with their possessions, sharing with those in need. This is a perfect practical example of what Jesus means by loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:38).

As we stand at the beginning of a crisis that may well last a few months (this isn’t just a blizzard that will melt in a week), I certainly hope that no follower of Jesus was among those grasping and hoarding toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and staples for life. If you were, repent and share! To repent means to be truly sorry, to fully change your mind away from your past behavior and to ask God’s forgiveness. In Christ, He will always forgive (1 John 1:9).

Far more likely is that as this situation stretches on, many around us (and among us) will begin to face genuine hardship. That may include sickness, but for far more people, the threat is financial. As businesses cut back or close down, lay offs rise, and demand for services falls, there will be many who genuinely need help with buying basic essentials of life. Then there are those who are at greater risk from this disease, who must stay isolated or quarantined and may not have the technical skills to order delivery for daily needs. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to be ready to be generous, kind, and helpful, and to do so with dignity and respect. We must be open handed and sacrificial toward neighbors and toward those organizations in our community who serve the most vulnerable among us (e.g. food pantries and services that deliver to seniors).

As followers of Christ we must daily bear fruit – taking actions – that reveal how profoundly Christ’s presence in our lives has changed us. Generous love of neighbors is certainly part of that fruit. As the church, we should be seeking to bless our community so that Christ is revealed and God is glorified powerfully during difficult times.