Out of Season

Enough cowering!

Enough hiding out and social distancing from getting things done because of the virus! Paul said that there would be "in season" and "out of season" times for preaching the gospel (II Timothy 4:2) and for growing the kingdom. He did not mean that sometimes we work and serve, and at other times we should stop because it is inconvenient or dangerous. I believe he was exhorting the church to stay busy even when it was inconvenient and/or dangerous as it has been here for the last month or so with the COVID-19.

What a bonanza for the devil! The church waiting around until things get better so it can get busy again building the kingdom. What if things get worse? What if the quarantine lasts until December? We need to realize that the evil one never takes a break in attacking the church and consequently the Lord's body should always be in the fight: no let-up, no retreat and no furlough in the spiritual battle.

This Coronavirus crisis and the resulting shutdown highlights the danger of reducing our spiritual experience to the one dimension of public worship. We figure that if we attend worship, we have the essence of our Christianity covered so when this is interrupted it's as if our entire Christian life is canceled.

Our Christianity, however, is expressed and experienced in many ways. We live it by sharing our faith, we serve it when we serve one another and support the church, we experience it through prayer and adoration of God both publicly and privately. We grow in Christ when we both learn and teach His word, and we share eternal life when we deepen our relationships with other believers whether we do it close up and personal or at the required social distance of six feet.

So let's get busy, shall we? Find a way to serve. Devote time to prayer, study and teaching. Those who lead need to inspire by openly demonstrating their leadership. We cannot all meet at the building but while it is empty, some can fix what needs fixing, improve what is old and neglected, replace what needs replacing so that when we will be able to meet, there will be visible evidence that we were not idle while others slept.

Brothers and sisters let us not slip into the bomb-shelter mentality. There are kingdom matters to attend to even if the time is "out of season."