"Special At-Home Worship Service #7"

We wanted to let everyone know that we did not meet together physically as a congregation this week because we wanted to protect our FCC family from any ripple effects from the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19). But we did upload a “phoned-in service” for people to watch, as well as providing another “at-home” devotional for households to go through together.

We understand that it's hard to feel disconnected at this time when so many people are panicking and living in fear -- and maybe even feeling alone and vulnerable -- but we also know that the best way that we can keep one another safe is to prevent the spread of infection. That’s why we’ve been sending daily emails to everyone in the church family to help people know that we’re thinking of everyone.

With that in mind, we wanted to encourage people not to fall into the world’s twin traps of twisting our perspectives on reality to suit our own wishes -- either tweaking our spiritual standards so that they make us feel better or holding double-standards about things and judging others wrongly.

When the world isn’t “as it should be” in our minds, it’s easy to start losing faith in not only God, but even God’s objective measuring sticks. People are being chastised by our society for trusting the Bible or for praying, when God is so clearly (in their estimations) not doing anything to help with COVID-19, so we’re increasingly being pressured to tweak, ignore, or otherwise amend the Bible and our doctrines to fit our square pegs more roundly into the world’s round holes. Or -- ironically -- people will apply the same standards completely differently to different situations, lauding our favorite politicians for doing precisely what we recently berated their opponents for doing (or conversely, attacking our least-favorite politicians for doing things that we would’ve applauded our favorites for doing).

In both of these traps, we’re focusing on changing our perceptions of external constants instead of focusing on letting God change ourselves. Because, let’s face it -- if we want God to change the world, then the easiest and the hardest place that He should start is within us, not them.

So I encourage all of us to spend a moment today and pray for a clear mind to apply both logic and God’s clear standards in consistent ways -- and to pray courageously that God would help us to apply them first and foremost to our own hearts and lives.