A church in New Jersey is offering Palm Sunday branches and cards with Psalms written on them to drivers and is also delivering these spiritual items to homebound members.

“We hope that the Palms and Psalms will provide the comfort and strength that the Cross and Word of God offers in the present crisis situation,” the Rev. Joseph Hein, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Middletown, told The Christian Post.

The One Hour Drive-through Palms & Psalms event is being held after its 10:00 a.m. online Palm Sunday service. Volunteers wearing Personal Protection Equipment will also deliver palm crosses in packets that have been sanitized to some of their homebound elderly members.

Hein said that the event was “born of Westminster’s’ strong evangelical faith and emphasis on local mission work.”

“By placing the Cross and The Word of God in our members and neighbors’ hands, we seek to comfort and strengthen. The cross and resurrection is a reminder that God has defeated death on the Cross and that love and life lives at the center of the universe.”

For the event, local residents and church members alike are welcomed to drive slowly through the church’s U-shaped driveway and receive a palm cross and a card with a Psalm written on it, while remaining in their vehicles.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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Dear Friend,

These are difficult days, aren’t they?

Anyone who says they have no fear in this pandemic, well, I don’t want to take any advice from them.

I realize God has not given us a spirit of fear but also I know that fear is a part of how God protect us from time to time from things that can harm us.

Let me show you in scripture…

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

For the longest time people have said something like this, “I don’t want to give my life to Jesus just because I am afraid of going to hell.”

Oh?

So, it would be like you saying now in the pandemic, “I don’t want to wash my hands or social distance from others just because I am afraid of dying.”

Really?

I would encourage you to rethink your theology of fear.

When God asks us to do something, we shouldn’t let fear keep us from doing what He is asking us to do. But on the other hand, sometimes God uses fear to get us to do things we should be doing or to stop doing things we shouldn’t be doing.

See, fear is not always bad, sometimes it is good. Sometimes God uses fear to save our lives and even our souls for that matter.

During the time of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, God encouraged Joseph not to give into his fear in this passage…

Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ[a] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed[b] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…

See, God encouraged Joseph not to be afraid but to obey and do what He had called Mary and now Joseph to do. So, Joseph refused to give into his fear and did what God asked him to do.

But another time, Joseph was getting ready to do something and look at what God does this time…

Matthew 2:13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt

So, in one situation he encourages Joseph to run toward his fears and in another situation he encourages him to run away. So, when do you know which is which? Glad you asked!

SOURCE: Christian Post, Kelly Williams

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This is Daniel Whyte III president of Gospel Light Society International with The Scripture & the Sense Podcast #465, where I read the Word of God and give the sense of it based on an authoritative commentary source such as the Bible Knowledge Commentary or Matthew Henry Commentary. This podcast is based upon Nehemiah 8:8 where it says Ezra and the Levites “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The aim of this podcast is that through the simple reading of the Word of God and the giving of the sense of it, the church would be revived and the world would be awakened.

Today we are reading Amos 5:27.

27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.

________

That was Amos 5:27. Now here is the sense of it.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary reads:

Because of this idolatry and hypocrisy in their worship, God said He would send Israel into exile beyond Damascus, toward the direction of Assyria. The horror of “exile” was more than the ruin of defeat and the shame of capture. For Israel, it meant being removed from the land of promise, the land of God’s presence. Exile, in effect, was excommunication. Yet this was the judgment of their sovereign Lord, the mighty Suzerain whose covenant they had spurned.

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Thank you for listening to the Scripture & The Sense Podcast. Remember to read the Word of God each and every day and pray without ceasing to God for wisdom to understand it and apply it to your life. Most importantly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Please stay tuned for a complete presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can get your soul saved from Hell to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die. May God bless you and keep you is my prayer.

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My young friends often ask me how we lived before cell phones. How did we do life, they wonder, before we could carry around access to the world in the palm of our hands?

Actually, I reply, we lived quite well. In fact, there are some days I’m nostalgic for the way things used to be.

I remember when we used to have to wait for the mail carrier to bring us any important documents. If someone wrote you a letter, you had at least 2 days to write back. Now, someone will send an email, and then, a second email wondering why you haven’t answered their first email.

If you wanted to talk to someone, you would call them on the phone. That would assume the person would be near the phone you were calling. After all, the phone was bolted to the wall and the attached cord only stretched so far. If they weren’t nearby, you wouldn’t be able to talk to them.

Which brings up the answering machine. In those days, we didn’t have voicemail. We had an answering machine. Basically, it was a tape machine attached to your phone. If you wanted to hear your messages, you had to walk over to the machine and press, “Play”. In some ways, this gave you a buffer with conversations you didn’t want to have. You could always tell the other person you hadn’t checked your messages yet.

Now, in this time of “shelter in place” and “quarantine”, people are asking me how we can do church without a building. How will we do worship if we don’t have the screens, lighting and multi-media support? Where will we put the children if we don’t have a building? Where will the students hang out?

For all of the talk about the church not being the building but the people, our anxiety reveals our true beliefs. For most of us, the building is the church.

Church is the place where we meet God. Church is the place where we share our burdens and joys with our brothers and sisters. We connect with friends and we hear the songs of the faith. Place is important. After all, God created place.

Yet, church is more than place. Rather, the gospel creates its own space. Sometimes, it’s in a building. Sometimes, it’s not.

Jesus walks along two friends on the road to Emmaus. The three sit down for dinner, and during the prayer, the two friends recognize Jesus. There’s church.

Philip explains the Suffering Servant passages to an Ethiopian traveler who chooses to get baptized. They find water and we have church.

For years, we thought there were no Christians in China. We thought Mao’s purge had been so complete and the bamboo curtain had dropped so tightly, we couldn’t get any missionaries into China and no one was coming out. We thought we had lost the church in China.

When the bamboo curtain opened up, not only did we find believers in China, we found millions of them! House churches met in secret. Sometimes, the teacher would only have one page of the Bible. That way, if they were arrested by Chinese authorities, the churches wouldn’t lose the entire Bible. A page of the Bible, a few believers and guess what? You have church.

Source: Christianity Today

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In a society where the term “Christian” increasingly has negative connotations, Addison Bevere is breathing new life into the word “saint,” an ancient term he believes is key to unlocking the meaning, identity, and purpose many believers crave.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Bevere, COO of Messenger International, an organization that impacts millions of people in over 150 countries through its various initiatives, admitted he “hasn’t enjoyed” calling himself a “Christian” in nearly two decades.

“I’m not ashamed of Jesus, but I don’t like the stereotypes and labels and stigmas that have attached themselves to what it means to be a Christian. It doesn’t resonate with me,” he shared. “It’s not that Christian is a bad word, but for me, it’s become something that feels cheap. When you Google ‘Christians,’ so often you’ll see words like ‘judgmental, hypocritical, backward, out of touch with reality.’”

“It almost feels like the world looks at Christians and says, ‘We tried Christianity. We tried this pathway and it didn’t work, so now we’re pursuing something else, a secular, ‘do-it-yourself’ spirituality.’ My response is, we never tried it, really. The Gospel message is big enough for our big world.”

Five years ago, Bevere, son of popular ministry leaders John and Lisa Bevere, was reading a book where the author made mention of saints, describing them as “people who participate in the mystery of the final day.”

“That,” he said, “wasn’t the picture of a saint I had in mind. I always associated ‘saint’ with stained glass windows and being a part of a special, elite, unattainable group.”

But according to Bevere, the term “Christian” is used only three times throughout Scripture, whereas the Greek word hagios — translated as saints — is used more than 60 times. This, he said, indicates something special about the archaic term.

“As I read the Bible, I wondered, ‘Why are so many people identifying as saints? Why would Paul address entire letters to saints?’” he said. “I realized that the idea of a saint isn’t something that belongs to people once they die; it’s something that identifies and energizes and gives meaning and purpose. It’s a prophetic declaration. It’s how God works. He sees us as we should be. He loves us along the spectrum.”

According to Bevere, a saint is “someone whose life is marked by a hope and a purpose that astound our world and point people to the One who is life.”

“I believe,” he added, “that when we view ourselves as saints, it’s lifechanging. We find the meaning and purpose that so many of us crave. I believe that until we discover the life we’re created for, we’re going to find ourselves frustrated with existence and religion. It’s time we re-think what it means to be a saint.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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Chris Ridgeway writes at the intersection of faith and technology. He is the cohost of the Device & Virtue podcast about ethics and everyday tech and lives in Chicago.

an ministers bless the Lord’s Table over Zoom? The worldwide pandemic provides all-new context for this theologically untested—and for some unthinkable—question. It may be time to consider what we mean by “presence.”

National guidelines now limit gatherings to 10 people. Churches have transitioned to online services and Zoom meetings. The sermon livestream is no problem—we’re comfortable with the Word transferring digitally. A recent study from the Pew Research Center easily pulled together 50,000 online sermons from Pentecostal to Catholic. Eighty-three percent of American protestant pastors agree that viewing a livestream is an acceptable option for the sick.

The controversy is with the latter half of Word and Table. “This is my body”—Christ’s words make our faith explicitly physical. But COVID-19 has transformed our physical bodies and gatherings from blessed unity to social-distanced partitioning. Hugs and hands convey fear instead of love. The bread and the cup elicit worry of viral transmission.

With physical gatherings canceled, congregations with quarterly Communion may slide the schedule a bit. But many evangelical Lutherans, Anglicans, and Presbyterians celebrate with bread and wine weekly. The shared Table is ordered and integral to worship. What now? Do you have to be present to partake of the presence?

Some “low church” nondenominational churches like Saddleback have long offered instructions to follow along with your own grape juice and livestream. Never mind 1990s HTML wonders like eHolyCom. While the United Methodist Church wrote exploratory papers in 2013, most sacramental denominations have relegated online Holy Communion to an exotic theological issue—akin to “Can extraterrestrials be saved?” (or to virtual cathedrals in the immersive Second Life video game). John Dyer offers a recent and extensive John Dyer offers a recent and extensive survey.

For many, online Communion is untenable. The Westminster Confession 27.4 forbids it. A conservative reformed professor told me, “The situation you describe is essentially private Communion.”

Today’s situation forces a reconsideration. COVID-19 may be the spark, but the kindling fueling the fire burning isn’t theological discourse. It’s in that last “I love you” text message you sent your spouse. The white-on-blue bubble carries an instantaneous reality, a moment of intimacy and presence that moves our heart and mind more than any adjacent physical stranger in that coffee shop (or perhaps that pew).

The means of digital communication have become ordinary and invisible to our most meaningful relationships. We laugh and cry and express intimacy and frustration with a cross-cut of iMessage and emojis, FaceTime and Instagram stories. We challenge our best friend on workout apps and ask private medical questions via telehealth.

The essential word is presence—along with the dramatic and sustained cultural shift in our understanding of it. A daily digital culture has shaped our interactions to the point that human presence is not synonymous to physicality.

Communications scholars have long understood this. It’s our words, yes, but also the verified identity of our interlocutor—that photo and number so you “know it’s them.” It’s real-time interactive signals like those three dots that appear when your relation is typing a response. It’s both low-resolution icons like a thumbs up and high-resolution facial expressions when we switch to video—those incredibly important nonverbal eyebrow lifts!

Source: Christianity Today

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