COVID-19 IS REFINING MY CHURCH

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God has not stopped working in our midst. (report by Josh Daffern of Centreville Baptist Church USA). In fact, He’s used this COVID-19 crisis to refine our church, fulfilling 1 Peter 4:12, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you.” I pray the same is happening in your church through this crisis.

1. This crisis has built resilience in our faith. I have been continually inspired as I’ve checked on our church family. Instead of “woe is me” and bitter complaining, I’ve seen a strength and resilience bloom in the hearts of our church. They want to spend less time talking about themselves and more time asking about how others are doing and inquiring where and how they can help and give back. Their faith has not weakened during this crisis, it has only strengthened.

2. This crisis has fueled new generosity. Like everyone else, the tentacles of this spreading crisis is having an economic impact above and beyond the health impact. But my church has continued to give faithfully, and they’re even going above and beyond to collect food and other items to give away to hundreds of families in our local community. Our church holds to outrageous generosity as a core value, and this crisis is allowing us the chance to truly live that value out.

3. This crisis has forced us to invest in our online presence. Like many other churches, our online presence was not what we wished it was. But it’s hard to invest and expand your online presence when you’re so focused on all the in-person events that happen on a weekly basis. When this crisis hit, we shifted our ministries to online. More than just a temporary placeholder, we’ve leveraged this opportunity to expand not just worship services but all of our ministries to have an online presence. There is still much more we can do, but we’ve jumped years ahead in just a few short months. When we resume our on-campus worship services, our online ministries will remain, because everyone we’re trying to reach lives online. This crisis has forced us to go where people are living, and I for one am grateful for that.

4. This crisis has refocused our attention on what’s important. Where I live (just outside of Washington, D.C.) can seem like one constantly spinning hamster wheel. There’s always someplace to go, there’s always something to do, traffic is always jammed. This crisis has refocused my attention (and the attention of my church) on what’s truly important: family and faith. I am grateful for that refocusing.

5. This crisis has opened up new opportunities to share the gospel. Like the early church in Acts 8, this trial has forced us out of our comfort zone, and we have taken the gospel with us. We’re interacting with our neighbors in ways we haven’t before. New people (and people who would never attend in person) are watching online and hearing the good news of Jesus.

EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES ARE NOW ERUPTING WORLDWIDE

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The waves of earthquakes are rocking the centre of the U.S. and the sudden awakening of several volcanoes around the world may be a sign of the pre-Messiah shake-up predicted by the prophets. At the same time, several far more mild earthquakes in Israel seem to embody the Biblical concept of God’s mercy being aroused by Man’s actions.

The earth seems to be waking up as seismic activity is being reported around the globe. Last month, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook Idaho, generating a multitude of avalanches. The quake was the largest in the region since a 6.9 quake hit in 1983. There have been 238 earthquakes in Idaho in the last week according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. Five of those have been substantial in size rating 4.0 to 6.5. Idaho isn’t new to experiencing earthquakes.

Two weeks before Idaho felt the earth move, Salt Lake City, Utah, approximately 340 miles away from the Idaho epicentre, was hit by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake. Since that earthquake, there have been 886 smaller earthquakes and aftershocks in the Salt Lake area. The belly of the country is clearly rumbling as the University of Utah Seismograph Station mapped a total of 980 tremors throughout Idaho, Utah and Wyoming since March 18

Earthquakes and Volcanoes Are Now Erupting Worldwide

An article in Discover explained the epidemic of earthquakes as being caused by the continent “stretching,” a process described in German as “horst and graben.”

“As North America continues to stretch across the Basin and Range, these faults can generate earthquakes as the valleys continue to drop,” the article explained. “Both of the earthquakes that happened in Nevada and Utah recently were on one of the normal faults that bounded a valley.

VOLCANOES AROUND THE WORLD

But it is not just the central U.S. that is experiencing a seismic awakening. Since January 21, the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland has experienced more than 8,000 earthquakes and about 10 centimetres of land uplift due to magma intrusions underground. Geologists believe the volcanic systems in the region become active about once every thousand years. The last time this region experienced volcanic activity was 800 years ago. Beginning in the tenth century, the volcanically volatile period lasted for 300 years.

The region is about 30 miles southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, but is only nine miles away from Iceland’s international airport. A major eruption could shut down travel for all of Iceland as well as endanger the nearby town of Grindavik as well as the Blue Lagoon, a popular tourist destination. There is also a nearby geothermal power-plant which could be endangered by volcanic activity.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia exploded on Friday. Though two relatively small eruptions were recorded, the volcano is a hotspot and cause for concern. In 188, a Krakatoa eruption had one of the highest death tolls of any volcanic eruption, killing more than 36,000 people. The most recent eruption at the site was in 2018, generating a tsunami and killing 437 people.

Volcanoes are explicitly mentioned in the Bible as one of the “end times” signs as God shakes all that can be shaken as a wake up call that He exists and that He judges unrighteous nations.. The following Scripture reveals how God refines His own people.

And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on My name and I will answer them; I will say: ‘It is My people’ and they shall say: ‘Hashem is my God.’ Zechariah 13:9

GOD USES SO CALLED NATURAL DISASTERS

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Fire causes an atheist to prayer. Wow! Here’s an ABC report this morning of an atheist’s change of heart during the fires in South East Australia. Read to the middle of this post where he saw God change the wind and save them:

News Channel is chatting to David Geoffrey, the owner of the Wave Oasis bed and breakfast in Mallacoota.

Here’s what David’s saying;

Well, [conditions] are a hell of a lot better than they were. It doesn’t look like it was midnight like it was just before. There’s actually some light coming through the smoke. There’s obviously dangers of spotting and the fires are running up in a northerly direction back towards the Princes Highway. I know that much. But before, it was… It was… Mate, you just don’t want to go through something like this. It was terrifying.

And, um, I’m pretty… I’m a bit emotional still but I’m grateful that our animals are alive and that our guests that were with us are safe. We’ve stayed together. And, yeah, it was horrendous.

I want to give God the glory because, mate, I had a good friend, ex-firie, well, former head of fire department here in Mallacoota, Graham Clarke. He’s been giving me the heads-up. He’s in Canberra but is totally surrounded by fire where he was and was good enough to ring me and he said, “David, it’s at the airport.” So, I knew where it was. The airport in Mallacoota is five or seven minutes away in the car. I knew it was hitting town because the sirens start up.

At that point, I was praying. I was an atheist. I was praying to God, praying to Jesus, turn the wind. You wouldn’t believe it – but I’m going to tell you the honest to God truth. It pushed this thing back against itself. Literally we felt the wind come from off the beach, it shouldn’t have, but it did, but it went back at it. I don’t care if anyone else doesn’t recognise it. It was unbelievable…. We thought it was a fire front about to run over the top of us but what it was was, I believe, God’s intervention, absolutely, through prayer, because it absolutely just burst its smoke and the redness was the sun coming through the smoke, not the fire about to destroy, you know, obliterate all of us down here. Because there’s nothing they could have done if that had happened. It doesn’t matter how many fire trucks you have.