This article was written during the CNY in 2020. At that time, churches were still worshipping as usual and we were still enjoying our Sunday bible class and lunch fellowship. However, some of us had already stopped attending church service due to fear of infection. This article was written to remind us that suffering is God’s test for His people’s faith and obedience. Today we thank God that after two years of SMM it is now safe to gather for worship service, though we still are not allowed to sing aloud. Nonetheless, many Christians have found their worship life rampaged after two years of home-worship. Some have filled the Sunday worship time with other activities. Some have lost their desire to worship and are contented with ‘watching’ service at home. May the Lord use this article to awake all the disciples of Christ in TBC to the reality of spiritual warfare!
Why did God allow His children to be inflicted? The Bible tells us that one of the reasons is to test us. According to Exodus, after the Israelites departed from Egypt, they came to a place called Marah on the third day and were distressed to find that the water was undrinkable. They grumbled against Moses and “And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,” (Ex 15:25)
Not soon after they ran out of food and they grumbled again. God sent manna from heaven and told them, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.” (Ex 16?4)
After they entered the Promised Land, God said to them, “I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.” (Jud 2:21,22)
Christians are not always exempted from suffering in national disasters. But we need not fear for Jesus said He has left the peace that he experienced on the Calvary cross with us (Jn 14:27). Most importantly, suffering is God’s test for us, to see whether we will trust and obey Him, to see how true our love is for Him and how serious we take Him as the God of our worship.
Dear brethren in Truth Baptist Church, all the more we ought to worship God and give Him the glory and praise due Him in time of affliction. The church encourages you to observe all the SMM and return to the church to meet the LORD and serve Him with the blood-washed throng! It pleases God when we gathered in the name of Jesus to worship Him. Do not deceive yourself that watching service on YouTube at home is worship because “worship your Father neither on this mountain or on Jerusalem” (Jn 4:21) If you belong to the high-risk group or you are unwell and need to stay home, we encourage you to join the church’s online service real-time, praising God wholeheartedly, praying truthfully and listening to sermon attentively.
May all of us pass God’s test of Covid-19 and be well accepted by GOD in all we do, “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.” (Ex 15:26)
“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.” (Ex 15:26)
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