Don’t Abdicate Your Place

It’s only been a few weeks since COVID-19 (Coronavirus) entered our country and lexicon on a grand scale. Yet, in that time, reactions to it from every corner of the country seems to have gone from a mere curiosity to full on panic. Stores have been raided for their toilet paper and paper towels, hand sanitizers, disinfecting and baby wipes, and face masks. Sports events, concerts, conferences and all manner of travel have either been postponed, delayed or canceled. Even public schools and places of higher education have opted to either go strictly to online learning or cancel classes for two or more weeks. In all the flurry of this, it’s not just secular corporations and organizations that are reacting so frantically. It’s also many churches and Christian organizations that are gripped in the same reactive responses.

The challenge that this has created for many is that there is a mass exodus from Christian hospitality and responsibility. In this age of distinction, I have spoken often of the challenge that the Church is facing as God continues to make a distinction between those who are His and those who merely present an image of being His. Just as there was a distinction that God made between the Egyptians, the Israelites and the true children of God during the days of Moses, God is doing it again today.

You can plainly see those who are responding in fear and those who are responding in faith. You can literally see churches participating in the same actions as the world systems by restricting physical contact with one another (the world has called this social distancing), as well as canceling services or choosing to do online broadcasting only (the world has called this self-quarantining).

If the Church is meant to be salt and light, have the answers to the ills of the world and a reason for their hope (See 1st Thes. 5:5, Col 4:6, and 1 Peter 3:14-15), then why is there such apparent confusion among so many within the Body? The lack of salt and light being expressed, or hope being given seems antithetical and anti-Christian. At a time when the Church and faith based organizations should be the haven of rest and the ark of safety that both Christians and non-Christians can turn to for hope and healing, many are being turned away, told that there will be no expression of love beyond a smile, or provision of hospitality made, or an attempt to be the voice of reason and peace.

If the Church as the Body is to be an extension of the Head, it should also reflect the character and nature that flows from the head.  Now is not the time for the Church to abdicate their place or position of authority and the embodiment of a place of grace. Paul told the Ephesians that we have been raised up and seated together in heavenly places. As a priestly and holy nation, a throne or seat of authority is where you sit when you rule, make decisions, declaration and decrees. Now is the time to be everything that is required in this hour.  Abdicating our place should not be done, ever.

The age of distinction is a time in which those who are truly the Church and those who only appear to be the Church will be seen for who they are. There are great examples of the separation of sheep from goats, wheat from tares, and wise from foolish in scripture. Before the exodus from Egypt, there were 10 plagues that were unleashed upon the land. The first three plagues were able to be replicated by the Egyptian magicians. The fourth through the ninth plagues all made a distinction between the people of Egypt, their land and livestock, and that of the people of Israel. It was the final plague that not only made a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel, but even a distinction among the Israelites themselves.

Christians who are yielding to fear, abdicating their place as the hands and feet of Christ, and putting more faith in the reports of man instead of the report of the Lord will find themselves outside of the ark of safety as God prepares to free His chosen ones from the tyranny that has held them bound for generations. The true Church must rise to speak in agreement the words of God’s report, must denounce cries of fear and paranoia that are being spoken by world systems, and live in active faith in love.