There is precedent in Scripture for godly people saying no to the governing authorities. There are times when, to use the words of Peter, “We must obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). Is today one of those times?

One of the slogans of the American Revolution was, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Is our government being tyrannical when it forbids us to gather? Is this the right time to rebel, despite the Bible’s clear teaching that, generally speaking, we are called to obey the authorities? (See Rom. 13.)

Let’s examine this from several angles.

First, are local authorities guilty of unconstitutional overreach and/or uneven enforcement of the laws?

In some cases, the answer is yes. This happened in Greensboro, North Carolina, where pro-life workers were arrested for praying outside of an abortion clinic.

As announced on April 3, “Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Thursday to the city of Greensboro on behalf of pro-life advocates whom police arrested for engaging in peaceful prayer outside an abortion facility. As the letter explains, the arrests should not have occurred because the pro-life volunteers, who are members of the Christian ministry Love Life, were in compliance with a Guilford County emergency proclamation related to the coronavirus crisis.”

North Carolina’s Governor Cooper had determined that abortion clinics provide “essential services” and so should remain open. Love Life believes that, as long as babies are being killed in the womb, they should be there to offer an alternative. So, several workers, with their attorney, showed up at the clinic, following the state’s safety guidelines to a tee. Their arrest was unjust. The pro-lifers did the right thing.

A second, closely related question is this: Do churches provide “essential services”? In that case, should any of their activities be shut down?

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne felt that the state of Florida was being inconsistent in its application of the law, allowing crowded stores to remain open but forcing churches to close. (He also felt this violated the next question we’ll ask, namely, is the government acting tyrannically?)

Getting national attention, Howard-Browne called for his church to meet, yet went to extreme measures to follow safety guidelines. (For his detailed statement, explaining the lengths to which the church went to preserve safety, see here.)

He was subsequently arrested, but after Liberty Counsel threatened the state with a federal lawsuit, Florida Governor DeSantis changed the state’s policy. DeSantis recognized the church as providing an essential service, and he lifted the ban on meetings, also dropping all charges against Pastor Howard-Browne.

Was this a good outcome, a bad outcome or a mixed outcome? I respect Howard-Browne’s determination, his forcing the issue of unjust laws and the measures that he took to comply with safety guidelines.

SOURCE: Charisma News

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“Bachelor” alum Michelle Money took to social media over the weekend to plead for prayer for her teenage daughter Brielle, who is currently on life support.

Money’s daughter suffered brain trauma and a fractured skull following a recent skateboarding incident.

The Season 15 contestant of the ABC reality series shared that the pressure on her daughter’s brain had increased and she is calling on the power of prayer for a miracle.

“Your prayers are helping!” she wrote along a video that said, “I just need everyone to pray right now, because we have to get her stabilized,” Money said of Brielle’s condition in an Instagram video Sunday.

Last night was so scary. Brain pressure is up. Considering other options since it can’t be managed with what we are currently doing. However, once I posted to my story asking you to pray, her numbers went down lower and have maintained since then. I believe in the power of prayer. Today is a big day. One week since accident. If we can’t see a turn for the better today we have to consider a different option and they are not what we want to be doing. It’s Sunday. However you choose to spend your day, I would please ask that at 4pm MST, you will stop and pray with my family and me. It would also be amazing if you could just pray all day. Sorry for the emotional video I just don’t know what else to do and I’m alone in here and need support. #prayforbrie

A post shared by Michelle Money (@michellemoney) on Apr 5, 2020 at 6:26am PDT

She noted that prayers have worked in the past so she is calling on Heaven again.

“I posted on my story to have you guys pray, and, once I posted, her numbers started going down,” Money said.

“[Without stabilization] we are going to have to put her into a deeper coma that has lots of other side effects that we don’t want, or we’re going to have to do surgery, and remove part of her skull,” she added.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

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A recent article in Vice described how certain “life-altering” surgeries had been deemed “non-essential” during this COVID-19 crisis. The author was talking about gender-transition surgeries, and worried that, “in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic trans communities . . . are being flooded with reports of postponed and canceled surgeries in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Thailand, and elsewhere, leading to enormous stress and disappointment on top of a global health crisis.”

Despite what the article claims and largely takes for granted, the benefits of so called “gender-affirming” surgery (a strange name for a procedure that denies one’s biological sex) in order to treat gender dysphoria is strongly disputed. The best studies, as I described in a recent BreakPoint commentary, “found that medical transition was not the solution to the patients’ problems, especially in the case of male-to-female transitions.”

In other words, such “treatment” is driven by ideology, not evidence. One of the fundamental tests of a worldview is what I call “the test of the real world.” In other words, sometimes an ideology looks great on paper, even realistic and compelling and compassionate, but fails miserably when lived out. For example, Communism.

Contemporary gender ideology not only fails this test by failing to deliver the green grass on the other side of mutilating surgery, but in a way made even more obvious in this time of crisis.

Reading the Vice piece, it occurred to me just how rare this kind of article suddenly is, when just a month ago, they were ubiquitous. In fact, in our present crisis, the piece comes across as indulgent and out-of-touch.

While the author acknowledged that “medical facilities may soon become overtaxed for everyone,” it didn’t even mention other procedures deemed “non-essential,” such as (in Massachusetts for example) colonoscopies, which can prevent colon cancer and save lives. Or hip replacement surgery, which would easily fall into the category of “life-altering” for people suffering from chronic pain.

SOURCE: Christian Post, John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera

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Well known leaders from a variety of Christian traditions worldwide are interceding in prayer amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In a prayer call hosted by Rick and Kay Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and posted on Facebook Monday, pastors and leaders from the U.S., U.K., Singapore, Brazil, and Australia all prayed for people who are affected by the disease. The prayer call, which occurred during Holy Week, also coincided with the 40-year anniversary of the founding of Saddleback. The church’s first public service was held on Easter Sunday in 1980.

Interspersed with the prayers were worship songs led by artists Chris Tomlin, Brook Ligertwood, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and Matt Redman.

Pastor T.D. Jakes of the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, prayed for those who are anxious and fearful due to COVID-19.

“Nothing that is current in our news is shocking in Heaven. But You have a plan and You have a purpose, and that you orchestrate all things to the council of your own will,” he prayed, asking God to give people who are beset by anxiety the kind of peace Jesus had in the storm-tossed sea, Who was able to sleep while the waves were rocking the ship.

“I pray for anxiety, to be worried about what might happen, what could happen, the possibility of something happening, the kind of anxiety that every time you sneeze or cough you think, ‘I must have COVID-19.’ The kind of anxiety where the enemy constantly threatens you about you or your children or your loved ones or that somehow you’re going to suffer loss. I speak against it. I know that he is the father of lies. And I thank you, Lord, that your word is true.”

Brian Houston, who leads Hillsong Church in Sidney, Australia, and has since become a global movement with congregations around the world, prayed that the Church would be bold and creative during this season.

“These are challenging days, no doubt about it, for the world. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Who would have thought even just a month ago that at Easter all of us would be being innovative, coming up with new ways to take the Gospel out to thousand, [and] between us all millions,” Houston said.

He emphasized that this is a great opportunity for the Church to be the light to the nations, highlighting that Google searches for “prayer” and other faith-oriented terms have significantly increased amid the disease outbreak, as The Christian Post reported last week.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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It is terrible to hear of thousands of people dying, including a bishop, pastor, and elder in the same city.  It is terrible to hear of millions of people losing their jobs. It is terrible to hear about so much suffering and grief and turmoil. Yet in the midst of this crisis, God is at work. In fact, He has a plan. A redemptive plan. It is imperative that we get a divine perspective on the current crisis.

On March 18, I sent an email to my primary publisher with the subject heading, “A Crazy Idea?” The “crazy idea” was this. Since I had been feeling so stirred to write and speak and preach on biblical themes related to the virus, should I try to put together a book to get out immediately? Could it be?

My editors said yes – they had been sensing the very same thing – and 8 days later, I had completed the manuscript. The book is due out on April 15 with the title, When the World Stops: Words of Faith, Hope, and Wisdom in the Midst of Crisis. Less than one month to write and publish a book. This does not happen every day.

But I share that here to say this: God has much to say to His people in this hour. And if we will step back and hear His voice, I believe we will hear Him say this: “Redeem this for My glory!”

One of the chapters of my forthcoming book is titled, “Seize the Moment!”. In that chapter, I relate the account of Jesus healing the man born blind in John 9. It reads:

“As [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’

“‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’” (John 9:1–5)

Do you see what happened here? The Lord never told His disciples how this man became blind, other than it was not the result of personal sin. How, then, did the man come to be born blind?

Jesus doesn’t tell us. He doesn’t say, “My Father did it.” He doesn’t say, “The devil did it.” He doesn’t say, “This is a purely natural phenomenon.” Instead Jesus says that the man “was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him” (John 9:3b, NET) – meaning, through his healing.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Brown

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