Inklings From Isaiah: Before We Re-Open Churches - Stop to Consider

1. Whenever the people of God disobey God in any particular, God’s judgments are severe. There seems to be a peculiar disproportion about God’s judgments: “My people do not consider.” 

Stop to Consider - Before making the decision to defy government-mandated church closures and re-open your church, stop to consider why God allowed the "providential tyranny" of a collection of ungodly political tyrants to use a virus to close down the churches in the first place.  God's judgement always starts with His people.

2. God’s judgement on wrong is inevitable, but it is not inevitable to the individual; it depends on the individual whether he escapes the judgment. There is no law to make a man go wrong saving himself; there is no law to keep a man right saving himself. 

Stop to Consider - When an ungodly leader issues what we know to be an unjust mandate against our legally protected religious liberty, do we consider giving up our right to worship and instead, pray, submit, and allow God to bring His inevitable judgement upon that individual?  Will we trust that God will use our submission as a means to bring a lost soul to a saving faith in Jesus Christ?  

3. There is no such thing as fate; a human being always has the power to do the incalculable thing. There are fatal issues, but not fate. 

Stop to Consider - Instead of demanding our legal rights will we choose to pray and trust that God would use His providential tyranny to bring both the sufferer and the evil tyrant to a saving faith in Jesus Christ? Giving up our rights is not fatal; being a stumbling block to a person's faith is a fatal issue.   

4. When God’s decrees come to pass it is because men will not turn. God’s will is supreme, but God never fights against us; it is self-will that fights against God.

Stop to Consider - God's "providential tyranny" included closing down church in-person worship.  His judgment is just as much aimed at His people as well as the ungodly.  In our attempt to assert our legal right to re-open, stop and consider if our motive is really more an issue of self-will fighting against God. I would also add that many political conservative believers claim that this is a fight for the survival of our constitutional freedoms.  Be careful - God is not building an earthly kingdom - His kingdom is not of this world.

5. When the Spirit of God is at work in him a man lets God’s will overcome, there is no fight, it is a higher power easily overcoming. 

Stop to Consider - The Spirit of God is at work in God's "providential tyranny" and it often comes with a "DO NOT DISTURB" sign.  As believers we are in a spiritual battle for lost souls. Let God's higher power of judgment bring a man to submission to His will.  An earthly court battle stirs up more hostility and only hinders God's work.

6.  If I view anything as inevitable with regard to any human being I am unbeliever. I have no right to have anything less than the hope and the belief of Jesus Christ with regard to the worst and most hopeless of men.

Stop to Consider - Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, Antifa thugs, BLM leaders and their insolent followers, George Soros, Mayor DeBlasio, and I will let you finish your own list  - all may seem hopelessly lost and the worst of men and women.  But fighting for our rights to worship and taking them to court as enemies most likely will not demonstrate our hope and the belief of Jesus Christ with regard to their lost condition.  Don't underestimate the higher power of God to use His providential tyranny to overcome the worst of them.

And can I add something?  No force on the outside can stop the church from advancing God's kingdom. Whatever circumstances God has placed us in are places where we can glorify and enjoy Him - closed church buildings or online worship - nothing can prevail against God's church - not even the gates of hell. 

- Adapted from Oswald Chambers' notes on Isaiah