Letter 9:
My Dear Friends of Sion Baptist Church,
It has been a source of great encouragement and a privilege for me to hear some of what we might call your “lockdown chronicles” over the past couple of months.
Some of you have really been through it, in ways that as yet I can only imagine. There are those in our number who have come back from the brink of the disease the name of which is on everyone’s lips… and can testify to the reality of God’s Presence with and around them. Praise God!
Some of you have had to face the minute-by-minute fear of working as nurses and carers in new and unnerving conditions, of being tested daily in the crucible that corona virus has created. We greatly admire your courage and your calling, and we continue to pray to Our Father for your continued well-being and protection.
There are those among us who have, by their own admission, really struggled under the constraints of enforced social and physical isolation and know now a kind of loneliness which, understandably, is entirely alien to them. There are some who face the challenge of continuing to trust the Lord in the face of reduced economic circumstances. There is, for all of us, the frustration of coping with the reality that our plans are still on hold and that we may not see our plans fulfilled for the foreseeable future.
We pray every day, of course, that a day will come when we can all, literally, “breathe easy”. We don’t know when that day will be. We are told by the government that we are “past the peak “and that we are “coming down the mountain” – and that this part of the journey is fraught with danger. The danger is that we may become complacent and take our eyes off the path that is before us and that we stumble.
For our church as for all of us in this country and elsewhere we must continue to exercise proper caution in our comings and goings. The government might not get everything right and we may prefer the slogan Stay at Home because that’s easier to for us to understand, but few of us would disagree with the need also to Stay Alert which is, after all, a biblical command! We should, of course, be alert to our own health and well-being as well as to the needs of others.
If the LORD puts someone on your heart; if you are concerned about someone phone them and speak to them and pray for them over the phone if you can. Give a word of encouragement. Some of you have done that for Susan and I and we are grateful to them. If you need something or you need some help then be alert to the fact that someone in this church can help you and wants to. If you have a particular request for prayer contact me, or Carol who can put it on the website Message Board…then others can pray, too.
In recent times I have been reading about the Desert Fathers such as Father Antony of Egypt who deliberately sought out solitude in order to be alert to God’s Voice and closer to God. I wouldn’t want a life of total hermitage any more than you would but there are just too many examples from the Word of those who were trained and strengthened and prepared in the wilderness – Jesus Himself, Moses, David, Elijah, John on the Island of Patmos where he wrote Revelation – to name but a few.
We can and should Stay Alert by continuing to listen to God in Prayer and through His Word. I want to express my particular thanks to all the ministers of the gospel (especially in the NWBA) who have stayed alert to the great possibilities afforded to them by this curious Sabbath through their continued preaching and teaching of bible truth. God has not, nor never will be muzzled! I know that they would all agree with me by confirming that there is no situation in life (a life lived in freedom or lockdown); there is no danger that the Bible cannot powerfully and effectually speak to; and, as if to prove the point, the Apostle Peter says:
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honour. 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. (1 Peter 5: 6-9)
Every Blessing, from Mark & Susan (13/05/20)