This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Family Devotional Reading of Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening podcast. This is Episode #78.

Charles Spurgeon was a prominent English Particular Baptist preacher. He was very influential among the Christians of various denominations during his age and even today, and is commonly called the “Prince of Preachers”. After some time of alternately searching for God and running from God, he had a powerful encounter which led him to give his life to Christ. Spurgeon was only 16 when he preached his first sermon and he began publishing books shortly afterward. At the time of his death, he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations and devotions. Spurgeon said, “encouraging thoughts are like honey to the heart”, and wrote this devotional in hopes that its uplifting messages for each day of the year would bring comfort and refreshment to our walk with God. He was inspired by Isaiah 50:4 which reads, “He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” and Psalm 63:5-6 which says, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.”

Matthew 1:21 reads: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

Many persons, if they are asked what they understand by salvation, will reply, “Being saved from hell and taken to heaven.” This is one result of salvation, but it is not one tithe of what is contained in that boon. It is true our Lord Jesus Christ does redeem all his people from the wrath to come; he saves them from the fearful condemnation which their sins had brought upon them; but his triumph is far more complete than this. He saves his people “from their sins.” Oh! sweet deliverance from our worst foes. Where Christ works a saving work, he casts Satan from his throne, and will not let him be master any longer. No man is a true Christian if sin reigns in his mortal body. Sin will be in us—it will never be utterly expelled till the spirit enters glory; but it will never have dominion. There will be a striving for dominion—a lusting against the new law and the new spirit which God has implanted—but sin will never get the upper hand so as to be absolute monarch of our nature. Christ will be Master of the heart, and sin must be mortified. The Lion of the tribe of Judah shall prevail, and the dragon shall be cast out. Professor! is sin subdued in you? If your life is unholy your heart is unchanged, and if your heart is unchanged you are an unsaved person. If the Saviour has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, he has done nothing in you of a saving character. The grace which does not make a man better than others is a worthless counterfeit. Christ saves his people, not in their sins, but from them. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” If not saved from sin, how shall we hope to be counted among his people. Lord, save me now from all evil, and enable me to honour my Saviour.

PRAY.

Thank you for listening to the Morning and Evening podcast. If you do not know the Lord as your Savior, here is how you can be saved from Hell and walk with the Lord morning and evening until you go to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:8: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now that is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and today I choose to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and I choose to follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, please email me at [email protected] and let us know. There is some free material that we want to send you. If you have a prayer request, please e-mail that to us as well, and we will pray for you until you tell us to stop.

God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.

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It’s a sign of the hardship Americans are experiencing right now that so many have turned to an ancient, little understood and often unappreciated art form in their time of need:

Poetry.

How else to explain the phenomenal success of two widely shared poems by little-known writers that have, appropriately enough for this crisis, gone viral?

“Pandemic” by Lynn Ungar, and “In the Time of Pandemic,” by Kitty O’Meara both initially posted to Facebook, have become sensations online, reposted everywhere. The two poems address how to deal with the anxiety of the coronavirus outbreak and the imposition of stay-at-home orders.

Both address spirituality, if not religion, more broadly:

“What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbath—

the most sacred of times?

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world

different than it is,” begins Ungar’s poem.

Both poems preach slowing down, becoming more mindful, seeking out stillness and finding connection with humankind (without touching).

“And the people stayed home,” writes O’Meara. “And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.”

Kitty O’Meara. Courtesy photo

A 64-year-old retired palliative care chaplain, O’Meara is Catholic and names Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister and Franciscan friar Richard Rohr among her spiritual guides, though she does not attend church.

She lives with her husband, five dogs and three cats on a four-acre plot outside Madison, Wisconsin, that overlooks a river and a bicycle trail. She calls her writing “lit bits” and said the poem came to her without any design or strategy.

“I sat down one day during lunch and posted that on Facebook,” O’Meara said. “I didn’t say it was a poem, an allegory, a fable or an essay. It was just something I posted to my small circle of Facebook friends.”

After getting multiple shares among a growing group of friends, it took off. Three days later, self-help guru Deepak Chopra posted it. So did supermodel Bella Haddid. Oprah’s magazine then came knocking, calling O’Meara “the poet laureate of the pandemic.”

O’Meara said it was news reports that pollution in China’s Hubei Province was lessening as a result of the shutdown that was foremost on her mind when she sat down to write.

But she added, the “Spirit was at least a co-author, if not completely in control, of those words.”

Ungar, 56, has Jewish roots but now serves as a minister in the Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online Unitarian Universalist congregation. She lives in Castro Valley south of Oakland and has published a book of poetry, “Bread and Other Miracles.”

Ungar said she didn’t like the responses she heard to the California stay-at-home orders.

Lynn Ungar. Courtesy photo

“Mostly what we have gotten is either, ‘You should panic,’ or ‘You should not panic, and all is fine,’” she said. “But really, panicking is not a helpful response, and we should not pretend like it’s fine. That’s a bad idea, and it will make things much worse.”

Her poem invokes a third way: “Center down,” an idea that originates in Quaker worship and means to turn one’s attention inward in prayerful silence.

Like O’Meara’s poem, Ungar’s took off almost as soon as she posted it to her Facebook page where she has posted several other poems related to the outbreak.

Since then, she has been compared to the late poet Mary Oliver, and her poem has been shared by the likes of writer and historian Rebecca Solnit and written about in the Chicago Tribune.

She was most touched, she said, when a friend in Tacoma, Washington, sent her a photo of a box outside a private house, where the homeowners had stacked copies of her poem for anyone to pick up.

Ungar said there are similarities between religion and poetry: They are both portals for seeing the world differently and responding differently, she said.

She said her life has changed in the wake of the pandemic. A part-time dog trainer and an enthusiastic contra-dancer, she said she can do neither now. Instead she’s listening to a lot of music, playing with her two Australian shepherds, connecting with friends on the phone and writing more poetry.

“We don’t think of poetry as something we need,” Ungar said. “So for people to be saying, ‘This is what I needed. This helped’ is both gratifying and interesting.”

Source: Religion News Service

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For Menaka Kannan, it was bad enough when she heard that a fellow member of New York City’s Baha’i community had contracted the novel coronavirus. But she was not emotionally prepared for the news that came roughly a week later: He had succumbed to the infection and died.

“The news of his passing, of course, is very shocking,” she said.

As the community grappled with the grief, a lingering question arose: How do you conduct a funeral in the midst of a global pandemic, when a healing hug is now seen as a potential death sentence?

It’s a conundrum facing spiritual leaders the world over as the death toll from the coronavirus mounts, leaving the faithful in the U.S., Italy and elsewhere struggling to amend ancient burial practices to abide by government recommendations that advise against gatherings of more than 10 people or, in some cases, ban funerals altogether.

For Kannan and other members of her community’s “burial task force,” preparing for a funeral required balancing a desire to offer spiritual comfort to the grieving with the need to shield others against infection.

Preparations for burial quickly took on complex dimensions. Baha’is often shroud their dead in white cloth strips crafted by volunteers, but to observe social distancing, the traditionally group-oriented activity became a more solitary affair: Only two people were allowed in the city’s Baha’i center at a time to prepare burial materials, and those who participated were required to be 6 feet apart from each other throughout the process.

“It’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to do a proper, well-attended service, but it’s also really heartwarming to see that you can still have a burial,” she said.

Kannan said she was initially concerned about how they would navigate the process with the funeral home but found that it already had systems in place to handle victims of COVID-19.

“They take all the right precautions: They use gloves and masks and whatever they need to and they even will meet you outside to sign a paperwork so that there’s a no-contact handoff,” she said.

This March 18, 2020, photo shows a funeral that was affected by new rules put in place due to the coronavirus outbreak in Milwaukee. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers restricted gatherings to fewer than 10 people the day before. The coronavirus that has changed everything about our lives has dramatically changed the way we grieve for the dead, too. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

Kannan’s community, which numbers only around 1,000 spread across New York City, also leaned on digital tools that members had developed to stay in touch over the past few years. As news of the death spread, her fellow faithful convened Zoom video conference calls to mourn and share spiritual community with each other.

“It was tough, because by the end we had all shared prayers, we were singing songs and it still felt spiritually uplifting, although maybe a little bit less than it would have if we were in the same space,” she said. “There was a moment at the end where we all kind of got really teary-eyed because it was bittersweet. We were recognizing the resilience of our communities to find connection no matter what happens, but we also just miss people, you know?”

Faith groups in other states are attempting to grapple with the issue of funerals by instituting new policies designed to offer some semblance of comfort for the bereaved while keeping others safe from infection.

On Tuesday (March 24), the Massachusetts Council of Churches released guidelines for Christian communities wanting to hold funerals amid the epidemic. The guidelines — which were reviewed by local public health officials — outline a number of recommendations, such as planning funerals remotely, working with the bereaved to make a list of 10 people who could feasibly attend a burial, livestreaming services, cautioning against in-person wakes, using gestures instead of physical hugs and delaying some or all rituals indefinitely.

“We were very clear in these guidelines that pastors acknowledge the pain — not just of the death, but of the grief of the family upset by the prospect of a funeral that is not likely as they imagined,” said the Rev. Laura Everett, MCC’s executive director. “It is a profound act of devotion to a grieving family to stay away — but it’s unbelievably hard.”

Meanwhile, for faith leaders such as the Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell, pastor of Queen Anne Baptist Church in Seattle, any funeral is out of the question. State officials recently banned funerals in the region for the foreseeable future, leaving religious leaders scrambling to develop strategies for how to care for the grieving.

No one in Welton-Mitchell’s congregation has died during the pandemic, but she has already had to delay her own mourning process. When her stepfather died in late February, her family buried him quickly and planned a larger memorial service in Alaska for this coming Saturday. But in light of sweeping new measures instituted by the governor — such as a requirement that all visitors to Alaska self-quarantine for 18 days after arriving in state airports — the service has been postponed indefinitely.

“Now we’re grieving a second time — grieving that we can’t gather together like we thought we were going to,” she said.

An employee of the San Giuseppe funeral agency closes the mortuary van containing the coffin of Concetta Schifano, a 73-year-old who died with coronavirus, at the Multimedica hospital morgue in Milan on March 21, 2020. The coffin was to be carried to the cemetery of Caravaggio. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Funeral homes have worked to develop policies to protect the health and well-being of others. Randy Anderson, president-elect of the National Funeral Directors Association, said his group has encouraged funeral homes throughout the country to abide by local restrictions on gatherings.

In Alabama, where Anderson runs Radney Funeral Home in Alexander City, this has meant working with faith leaders to limit funerals to 25 people and push them to each stand 6 feet apart, per state guidelines. The funeral home has also limited visitations to 10 people at a time (and then only three minutes with the family) and supplied an option for livestreaming.

“It’s very important to remember the value of a funeral socially, physically — and as religious people that is something that we value,” he said. “Every life is worth remembering.”

In Washington, where funerals are banned, the Co-op Funeral Home of People’s Memorial — which operates out of Welton-Mitchell’s church — has developed more stringent practices. Nora Menkin, executive director of the funeral home, said it is not conducting any services with clergy or family present in order to help prevent infection, and while it offers livestreamed burials, no one has chosen to use it.

Instead, people are opting for virtual mourning outside of traditional services.

“While there are virtual options for services, most folks just don’t seem comfortable or don’t see it as something to give them comfort in the same way as being physically present with people is,” Menkin told Religion News Service in an email. “I am a member of the Jewish community and I have seen Zoom minyans popping up to allow mourners to say kaddish.”

U.S. clergy and spiritual leaders say they are worried that an onslaught of deaths could overrun religious infrastructures. When Everett reviewed funeral guidelines with local public health officials, one expert left an ominous statement on the margins: “Be aware of the potential that there may be an increase in the number and frequency of deaths that exceeds the capacity for pastoral care.”

Everett included the warning in the final draft of the recommendations.

“The church has been here before, so we have practices and models and stories to tell,” she said, pointing to ministers who tended to the sick during past epidemics and during the AIDS crisis. “But one of the things that is so hard is that so many of the stories we fall back on are about drawing close and touching as a sign of love and compassion, and we need to tell different stories right now.”

Anderson said the NFDA is bracing for a potential uptick in deaths as well. The association’s representative has been in “constant contact” with officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since the onset of the novel coronavirus and has long been involved in what Anderson called “mass fatality planning.”

A moment of a funeral service without relatives in the cemetery of Zogno, near Bergamo, northern Italy, on March 21, 2020. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

The nightmare scenario of mass deaths is already part of daily life in Italy, where the novel coronavirus had killed more than 7,500 people as of Wednesday and infected more than 74,000.

Most casualties have been concentrated in the northern sections of Italy such as Bergamo, where Italians watched in horror Saturday as army trucks lined up in the early morning hours to carry the bodies of the hundreds who died due to COVID-19. Adding to the grief: Loved ones would not have a chance to mourn the deceased at a funeral, which are currently banned in the country.

The deaths have put tremendous strain on local funeral homes that can no longer keep up with the high demand, forcing the military to transport bodies to funeral homes in the south.

“Funerals are definitely an aspect that has gone missing,” said the Rev. Tullio Proserpio, a Catholic chaplain at the National Institute for Tumors in Milan, in a phone interview with RNS on Tuesday.

Funerals and weddings were among the first public events to be banned when the Italian government enacted harsh measures throughout the country to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Proserpio described the story of a close friend who could not attend the funeral of her relative who died due to the coronavirus.

The priest noted that funerals, especially today, are an opportunity to say goodbye to someone you loved. “But you can’t do it,” he added, “because you risk being legally prosecuted.”

For another priest, the Rev. Francesco Pesce, who lives in the northern Italian town of Treviso, not being able to assist the sick and tend to the dying is among the greatest suffering that the pandemic has brought into the country.

Even so, for Pesce and other faith leaders across the globe, their spiritual obligation to others remains — coronavirus or no.

“I look with admiration to all the priests who have been working hard in these times,” Pesce said. “It begs the question: Am I doing enough?”

Source: Religion News Service

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Ravi Zacharias, a well-known Christian author and apologist, recently made it public that he is about to undergo chemo after discovering that he has a rare form of cancer. The announcement came amidst the national panic over the COVID-19 pandemic, but Zacharias will still be able to make the move from Atlanta to Houston so he can receive treatment at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Zacharias said the Lord “did a miracle” by allowing him to undergo treatment. According to Faithwire, Zacharias said in an email, “Our doctors in Atlanta were concerned I couldn’t start treatment until fully healing from the back surgery. However, since then we have been able to consult with doctors at the renowned M.D. Anderson [Cancer Center] in Houston, TX. Truly God did a miracle in getting me here, literally a day or two before they had to close to treating any patients outside of Texas.”

Zacharias shared his diagnosis last month after undergoing surgery to repair his back. He said that he faced excruciating pain for weeks after the surgery and assumed that it was part of the recovery from surgery. However, he learned a few weeks later that a biopsy taken by doctors during the surgery indicated the presence of a malignant tumor on his sacrum. It is a rare form of cancer called Sarcoma.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Apologist Ravi Zacharias shared a health update amid his ongoing battle with cancer, revealing that while “some nights have been painful” as he begins chemotherapy, his heart has “been at rest that this is all God’s plan.”

In a Wednesday blog update, the 74-year-old chairman of the board at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, revealed that after discovering a malignant tumor on his sacrum during back surgery, doctors in Atlanta were “initially concerned that I couldn’t start cancer treatment until fully healing from the back surgery.”

However, since then, Zacharias was able to consult with doctors at the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The bestselling authority called the opportunity a “miracle,” as the appointment took place “literally a day or two just before they had to close to treating any patients outside of Texas.”

“My doctor, a Sarcoma specialist, feels confident in starting a regimen of chemotherapy and we have begun that,” he shared. “Since this treatment is coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, I will remain here in Houston for the next few months until I finish the chemotherapy treatment. I am so grateful that both Margie and Naomi can be here with me. God has given me the best doctor, and I look forward to gradually seeing this disease mend.”

In times of trouble, the Bible “assures us that at all times God is with us,” the apologist said, adding: “He is our comforter; He is our healer. He is our physician; He is our provider. He knows better than we do.”

“While some nights have been painful, my heart has been at rest that this is all God’s plan. I want to get better; I want to be well. I want to be in his will and honoring to Him,” he said.

While it is “too soon to begin making plans to speak and travel—due to my treatment progress and the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus,”  Zacharias said doctors are “eager to extend my active ministry.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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NASHVILLE (BP) — I don’t have any data to back this up, but I don’t really think I need it: It is safe to say that more churches and pastors have used social media to connect with their people in the last three weeks than ever in the history of the Church or the internet. It has been a sight to behold.

I am part of a church social media managers Facebook group with nearly 50,000 members, and the group has been more active the last few weeks than ever. Church staff and volunteers have popped in constantly with questions on social media, live streaming and everything in between. Questions like: “Has your pastor done a Q&A during all of this? How did it go? What did you do?” or “Anyone have any ideas on how to keep a congregation of about 50 people more connected right now?”

In my role at LifeWay, I am responsible for advising our 60-plus social media managers on social media best practices. I meet with all of them over the course of a given month. My advice to them the past few weeks has been this: “It has never been a better time to experiment on social media.”

That is also my advice to you today. It has never been a better time to learn, and grow and experiment on social media. Why? Two basic reasons:

1. More people are using social media than ever

Toward the end of March, Facebook reported that record numbers of people were using their apps — specifically, countries hardest hit by coronavirus had seen a 50 percent increase in messaging on Facebook-owned platforms.

We have seen a serious increase in engagement across almost every active social media account we manage at LifeWay. A lot more people are spending an above-average amount of time on social media. Some folks are doing it because they can’t go to work. Others are doing it because they can’t go to church or other activities.

For a whole host of reasons, more people are scrolling social media platforms than usual. This means that you have more people paying attention to your church social media accounts than ever. When you have a captive audience, it’s the perfect time to try all kinds of experimental content: live Q&As with a pastor or staff member, Facebook Live worship sing-a-longs with the worship pastor, bedtime stories with the children’s minister. Try all kinds of fun content you’ve never tried before to serve your people and see what sticks.

Source: Baptist Press

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A Presbyterian pastor in Miami is set to launch a fully immersive virtual reality worship service in a digital replica of Miami’s oldest organized congregation.

Christopher Benek, who pastors First Miami Presbyterian Church and is the CEO and pastor of the tech nonprofit CoCreators, believes a virtual reality service is an effective evangelistic tool to reach gamers and others with the Gospel.

“I think that it is important to understand that creation of CHVRCH+ (pronounced “Church Plus”) is not to displace the local congregation. That’s part of why we called it CHVRCH+ — because it is meant to be an additional complement to the existing physical church,” Benek told The Christian Post in an interview Tuesday.

Benek loves his local congregation, which is located in the heart of Brickell community and has nearly doubled in membership in the past year.

“But we also realize that we, like the rest of the church universal, have a lot of work to do. We live in one of the highest population densities south of New York City, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified our understanding that we need to meet people’s needs both physically and digitally,” he said.

Digital and virtual spaces are no less God’s territory than our physical spaces, he continued, and when Christ called His followers to “Make disciples of all nations” he was not excluding digital ones.

“‘There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!’” Benek said, referencing the words of the Dutch Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper.

“Certainly this applies to digital spaces as well.”

Creating virtual spaces is not a way to escape our present reality or ignore incarnational blessings, but rather a way to extend our understanding of reality and open our minds to the new possibilities that might exist in Jesus, the pastor elaborated.

“I think that it is the destructive flaw of many armchair theologians to assume that when faced with new ministry options that we can only experience God in one way. God is the Creator of the cosmos. Certainly, we are not so prideful as to assume that we know all of the ways that God might reveal God’s-self to us?” he said.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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