15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
1st Timothy 3 refers to the "church of the living God." Because our Savior is alive and seated at the right hand of God, and Jesus is alive in the hearts of His people, we can be convinced that we are empowered to carry out the mission of the Church. Our purpose, as His representatives, is to reflect the presence of God in the earth, to show to those around us that Christ is alive, that He loves every person, and that He came to redeem fallen humanity.
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God's intent is that His Church would be glorious, with a powerful witness on the earth. We see in Scripture that the husband and wife relationship is a representation of Christ's relationship with His bride - the Church. That is why embracing same-sex marriage is an affront to the message of the gospel, because it perverts God's intent. Ephesians 5 states:
24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Perhaps you have been following the plight of churches in our national neighbor to the north, where Canadian churches have been facing fines and even pastors have been arrested because they have resisted stringent restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One such church is Trinity Bible Chapel located about 80 miles west of Toronto, according to a CBN News article from last year. In February of 2021, the church was charged fines and fees amounting to $83,000. The church was shut down in April and had to pay another round of fines.
The article notes that:
Senior Pastor Jacob Reaume makes no apologies for opening his church's doors to anyone who wants to come. In his blog on the church's website, he noted, too, that their area is at low risk for COVID.
The article also says the pastor wrote: "We do not place our ultimate hope in governments and their plans to keep us safe. Our hope is in Jesus Christ... Our greatest threat is not a virus that 99.937% of Canadians have not died from. Much rather our great threat is the sin in our hearts which leads to hell, an imminent danger to 100% of Canadians."
That describes the spiritual state of one Jennifer Scott. According to CBN.com, she stood before Trinity's congregation recently and declared: "I was a slave to darkness...I grew up going to church, but I wasn’t saved.” The story goes on to say:
Scott’s journey led her into chaos and drug use. She eventually found herself “smoking and shooting 7 grams of cocaine a day,” but life started to change after she agreed to attend a prayer meeting at her son’s request.
“My son asked me to come to a prayer meeting at Trinity,” she said. “In my small ground, I asked for prayer to help me stop.”Jennifer made these statements just before she was baptized in front of the congregation. And, she punctuated her comments with these words: “None of these things would have happened if Trinity closed it doors and was solely online,” adding, “I know for a fact I’d be dead right now if God had not used this church in my life.”
And after Scott posted a comment on a church YouTube video, the pastor reached out and started encouraging her. Eventually, the church helped her secure a bed at a sober-living house — and her life was suddenly transformed.
“I have been clean and sober now for over seven months,” she said. “The body of Christ here at Trinity has helped me with furniture and other things.”
In many ways, the Church has never been "closed" during the COVID pandemic. Some have ceased to meet, and many have launched or augmented online ministries. Others have been so bold as to defy or challenge local restrictions, such as Trinity Bible Chapel and others in Canada, Grace Community Church in California, and others. I hear and read reports of churches that have continued outreach in their communities, and as I reported to you recently, a survey shows that over half of churches identified as "Christian" have started new ministries during the pandemic.
We can be reminded that when there are barriers or perceived barriers to living out our faith, we can depend on the Lord to show us the way forward. The Bible tells us in Galatians 6:9, "...let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." The enemy would want to bring discouragement, but the Holy Spirit will encourage our hearts and equip us to do the work of the Lord, even amidst the challenges.
We can also allow the teachings of Scripture about salvation to motivate us. Jennifer Scott recognized that she might have been dead from substance abuse had she not been invited to a prayer meeting at that Canadian church. The church recognized that the possibility of spending eternity in hell is "an imminent danger to 100% of Canadians." The virus of sin is so pervasive, but the love and power of God provide the 100% effective remedy.
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