By David Phillips
Today is the day many refer to generally as “the day of worship”. Indeed, it is the Lord’s desire and our practice to assemble together on the first day of the week for the purpose of worshiping God and celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus. The early church did it, Acts 20:7, in keeping with the apostles’ teaching, Acts 2:42. At present, on this very day, we are under restrictions from our Civil leaders, forbidding large gatherings such as normal worship assemblies, and the stated reason is so that we may avoid the greater harm of more rapidly spreading the COVID-19 virus. We understand that the virus is particularly dangerous to those who are elderly, those who have been treated for cancer, and those whose bodies are not particularly strong. Most every worship assembly contains a number of those sort of people, so we are not permitted by our government to assemble in our traditional manner, in large groups, to worship.
But did you notice that this is not 1969 when home computers connected to an “Internet” had not been invented? Today, as we suffer through government-imposed quarantine and social separation, in the hopes of preserving more lives, unable to assemble in person in a normal-sized group, we DO have a means to worship together. What a blessing it is that, though we are prevented from worshiping together in person, we are permitted to worship together on the Internet. How wise, how providential our Heavenly Father is to have blessed us with the technological ability to do something in the interest of worship that was unheard of just a few years ago. Just when we need it most, God has it ready for us.
So, this morning at 10 AM, while a handful of us are at our regular place at the church building, engaging in a regular worship service, you can join us live, in real time, while it is happening, and participate with us.
What if this particular virus had happened to our world a few years ago? Not only could we not worship together as we can today, but our ability to stay in touch would be severely limited, our ability to work from home as we can now would be non-existent, the sending and receiving of vital information and instruction would be painstakingly slow. Have you noticed how timely God’s blessing are? He gives us what we need for such a time as this (Esther 4:14).
Let’s worship. And let’s all join the Psalmist in praying this –
Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by (Psalm 57:1).