What I Didn't Say

I was interviewed by Cross Politic yesterday about the letter that I wrote to the civil magistrate. The interview went well and it is slated to drop Sunday night. As sometimes happens in interviews, you get sidetracked in time and forget to say something you wanted to say. In this case, I think I forgot the  most important thing! I suppose I am not very practiced or very good doing interviews.

I am afraid that it sounded like I thought the most important thing right now is to talk to our officials. I don't think that.

That most important thing that I wanted to say is that the Lord is most clearly doing something and we should all pay attention!

Now, I know that is obvious to most of us but it should not go without saying. The interview was about the need to get back to work and worship. It seems to me there is a strong growing frustration with our civic leaders as the shutdown, the lockdown, continues on indefinitely. The frustration is understandable and we should be speaking to our officials and making our voices heard.

But we should also be listening, not just speaking. God is in control of all things. Whatsoever comes to pass is His Divine Providence. We need to really let that sink in. There is some sense in which our civil leaders are controlling our activity, and as time goes and if they overstep their bounds, we should do our civic duty as citizens under our Constitution. But we should do so acknowledging that our God, who is in control of all things, just sent a shock wave of fear and trembling around the entire globe.

Thank Him that He did not unleash a plague of death that destroyed the Earth. It should be obvious in this scare, that He easily could. And we would even deserve it.

Are we heeding Him? Are we repenting of our personal sins? Are we returning to the Scriptures as our only ultimate and infallible authority? Are we facing death without fear because we serve Jesus who is alive and we know that we will live forever in Him?

As we are shut up in our homes, are we talking to our wives, husbands, children, parents? Talking is good. That's a start. Are we talking about important things? About the kingdom of God? About our duty to God and men? About loving God and loving His people?

Now that we are not able to worship together as we once did, do we miss church? Worship? The people? The preaching? Communion? The accountability? The opportunity to love and serve others?

When  this ends, and it will, will we be the same? No, we won't. You cannot stay the same. You are going forward or backward. There is no neutral. After the dust settles, we should be better.

If we love Him rightly, we will. If we still serve ourselves the same way we did before, if we didn't pay attention, if we didn't get the message, if we didn't submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in everything, we will be worse.

But I believe better things for you, things that accompany salvation.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and grant you peace.

That's what I meant to say.

Death is Dead

The power of death is sin. It killed Adam and Eve and by it Cain killed Abel. Death reigned from Adam to Jesus, our Second Adam from above. But the power of death has been crushed. The antidote has been applied. Sin has been dealt with and only the finally enemy, death, has to be completely destroyed in the end, at the last day, in the final Resurrection.

         But even now, we who live in this body of death, are risen with Christ at the right hand of the Father. His death meant our death to sin. His life means our life in Him. And nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are His and He is ours. We live with Him in the heavenly places, now and evermore. Even to depart from the body is to be present with the Lord. And He will give life to our mortal bodies and we shall be like Him for we shall see Him face to face.

Open Economy Now

4/14/2020

Dear Mr. President, Congressmen, Senators, Mayor, and Civic Leaders in the USA and Abroad,

I am writing to you as the Presiding Minister of Council of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), an International Denomination.

We have been praying for you and continue to do so. May the Lord grant you His wisdom as you make decisions in this time of trial.

First of all, thank you for the care and concern you have shown for the citizens who elected you, and for your attempt to do what you believed to be best for the public good in light of the available information at the time. 

It is now apparent that our initial information was incomplete. The pandemic is not what we all thought it was going to be. This is understandable. It was new. We all thought it was a dire threat and we all responded to protect the lives of our citizens, and our congregants, as we should have. It is now clear that the stated rationale for these temporary, emergency actions, “to flatten the curve”, has been achieved, and that these temporary measures are no longer necessary. If we continue on the current course of action of extreme mitigation, things may get much worse, as we fear they most certainly will. 

President Trump was right to say that the cure cannot be worse than the disease. In fact, it is. The pandemic did not justify putting millions of people out of work and locking down businesses and churches for the indefinite future. It is now time to open up for business, return to work and return to the worship of the Triune God. 

While Covid-19 is among us and members of our churches have been harmed by the disease, the much larger damage to our members has been done by cutting off the means of supporting the lives of their families. In our churches, we have few Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations or deaths. However, we have many people whose ability to support the lives of their families has been greatly damaged through the loss of wages and damage to their businesses. For us, the cure has been far worse than the disease.

We encourage you to consider the immense damage that will be caused by continuing down this current path of a closed economy. The lost livelihoods, closed businesses, and the isolation of our congregants, is a tremendous loss to the health and well-being of our society. This damage will only worsen the longer we stay on the present course of sheltering in place and keeping the economy and houses of worship closed. Dangerous social unrest is the likely result of staying on this course.

We have a great concern for the lives and health of our members as well as those in our communities. Many in our churches are elderly or are in a high-risk category for Covid-19. Those individuals and their families, pastors, leaders and physicians, are the ones to make the best decisions about how they should live during the spread of this disease. If this were a great plague, a direct threat to the health and lives of all of our congregants, as many of us initially thought it was, we would be glad to continue to comply with reasonable measures to mitigate the spread. However, it is now clear that it is not the plague and we are not prepared to continue to comply with extreme mitigation efforts. 

Our desire is to be obedient to the civil magistrate. However, we must also do what we believe God expects of us, what is best for our people and our communities, and what our consciences dictate. For our American members, The U.S. Constitution rightly affords us these rights of speech and assembly because they extend to us from God, Himself. 

The citizens of the United States and our congregants are already beginning to strongly feel the need to get back to regular living. While we do not currently have a date after which we will no longer comply with the extreme restrictions, we believe the time is now at hand for our leaders to stand down from the extreme isolation efforts, and the date after which we will no longer comply, is soon approaching, in days or weeks, not months. 

Our response in the churches has been to humble ourselves, confess our sins, the sins of the church and the sins of our citizens and governments. Please join us in humbling yourselves before the Lord Jesus. 

We call upon the grace and mercy of God to give us relief. Death is an enemy, the last enemy that will be destroyed by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We acknowledge this. While we despise death, we do not fear death, because for us, to live is Christ and to die is gain. May God grant us repentance, and as we confess and repent of our many sins, we trust that He will be gracious to us and heal our land.

In the service of King Jesus,

Virgil Hurt

Presiding Minister of Council

Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC)

Endorsed by the Undersigned

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/open-economy-now?fbclid=IwAR3rxwBX_ZNAsRxSNpHLMGGHkatVJ7HZNqXeLTjpMCeHejW4kiISpGwGCPk

Glorious Gospel

We are sinners. Yes, that’s true. We deserve God’s wrath. Yes, that’s true, too. Even pestilence and plague. 

         But hear the Good News. Hear the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot save yourself. You cannot atone for your sins. Your death will not release you from your sin debt. You cannot live long enough to purge yourself of your own sins.

         But thanks be to God that Jesus Christ can save you. He has atoned for your sins. In His death, your debt to sin and death is paid. He has purged you of your sins.

         And the Lord has been raised from the dead and has raised you in Him to an everlasting life. And one day even your body will be raised from the dead to never die again. We do not fear death for in Christ we ever live, both in this world and in the world to come.

Prayer of Praise

O, Lord our God, You who have formed us in our mother’s womb and it is You who have formed us as the people of God. We will not fear, for You have redeemed us and called us by Your name and claim us for Your own. When we pass through the waters, You are with us. When we go through rivers, they will not overwhelm us. When we walk through fire, we will not be burned. The flame shall not consume us, for You, O Lord our God are the Holy One, who saves us by the name of Jesus, in the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.