Passionate Grace

Covid-19 is taking its toll on the US I feel it – the uncertainty, the fear, the mounting cases and corresponding death tolls, the economic uncertainty….

I’m a numbers guy – and I keep tracking every day – What is the death rate? What is the R0 rating? What are the projections?

And I am a God guy. In this case meaning I believe God rules over all things on heaven and on earth and does whatever he pleases. His rule includes Covid-19. So I am asking myself where is God in this circumstance? What does he have for me – for my neighbors and friends – for the world?

As I have reviewed the numbers I keep comparing Covid-19 with other deaths and I keep being shocked by what a tiny number it is compared to abortion. This is not to minimize the devastation of the virus. We are rightfully saddened by the deaths it has and will cause.

But, how many of us, myself included, have anything approaching what we feel about Covid-19 directed towards the loss of life via abortion.

The map below shows the total number of deaths in the US from Covid-19 at 3,902 as of this morning. And what an alarming number that is. And yet for March 2020 alone in the US more than 78,000 babies have been aborted. That’s more than 20 times the cumulative total of Covid-19 deaths. 20 times!

I posted yesterday from Amos 3 – God asks his people this question – “Does disaster come to a city unless the LORD has done it?” It is a rhetorical question and the answer is No. The Lord is in and rules over even disasters. And as in Amos he has something to teach us.

In Job 37 it describes God’s rule over the destructive elements of the world and the section concludes with this needed truth: “whether for correction or for his land or for love, he (God) causes it to happen.”

What God’s purposes in this crisis are I can only speculate. Abortion has been a blight on our national conscience for over 40 year. Millions have been killed on the altar of convenience and self-absorption and very few of us bother to consider it much less care. We refuse to look.

There is an invitation in the middle of the the judgement that Amos declares and it says “Seek the Lord and live.”

“Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. “

“Seek me and live;
but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

Seek the LORD and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
O you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth!

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning
and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the LORD is his name;”

There is hope beyond Covid-19. There is hope for a calloused nation that causally murders its young and most vulnerable. There is hope for you and me – sinners though we are.

This is the hope I need and my friends need and the world needs. It is a hope that goes far beyond the hope of Covid-19 going away. Infinitely greater hope. Jesus said “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.

Yes fear Him because he rules over all things. It is before Him that you will give an account.

But then Jesus adds,

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

Perhaps Covid-19 is an opportunity for repentance- yes of our national sins – and yes of our personal sins. The invitation of God is clear “Seek the Lord and LIVE!”

https://dailycaller.com/…/coronavirus-map-united-states-de…/

https://worldpopulationreview.com/…/abortion-rates-by-state/

Covid-19 is taking its toll on the US I feel it – the uncertainty, the fear, the mounting cases and corresponding death tolls, the economic uncertainty….

I’m a numbers guy – and I keep tracking every day – What is the death rate? What is the R0 rating? What are the projections?

And I am a God guy. In this case meaning I believe God rules over all things on heaven and on earth and does whatever he pleases. His rule includes Covid-19. So I am asking myself where is God in this circumstance? What does he have for me – for my neighbors and friends – for the world?

As I have reviewed the numbers I keep comparing Covid-19 with other deaths and I keep being shocked by what a tiny number it is compared to abortion. This is not to minimize the devastation of the virus. We are rightfully saddened by the deaths it has and will cause.

But, how many of us, myself included, have anything approaching what we feel about Covid-19 directed towards the loss of life via abortion.

The map below shows the total number of deaths in the US from Covid-19 at 3,902 as of this morning. And what an alarming number that is. And yet for March 2020 alone in the US more than 78,000 babies have been aborted. That’s more than 20 times the cumulative total of Covid-19 deaths. 20 times!

I posted yesterday from Amos 3 – God asks his people this question – “Does disaster come to a city unless the LORD has done it?” It is a rhetorical question and the answer is No. The Lord is in and rules over even disasters. And as in Amos he has something to teach us.

In Job 37 it describes God’s rule over the destructive elements of the world and the section concludes with this needed truth: “whether for correction or for his land or for love, he (God) causes it to happen.”

What God’s purposes in this crisis are I can only speculate. Abortion has been a blight on our national conscience for over 40 year. Millions have been killed on the altar of convenience and self-absorption and very few of us bother to consider it much less care. We refuse to look.

There is an invitation in the middle of the the judgement that Amos declares and it says “Seek the Lord and live.”

“Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. “

“Seek me and live;
but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

Seek the LORD and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
O you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth!

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep darkness into the morning
and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the LORD is his name;”

There is hope beyond Covid-19. There is hope for a calloused nation that causally murders its young and most vulnerable. There is hope for you and me – sinners though we are.

This is the hope I need and my friends need and the world needs. It is a hope that goes far beyond the hope of Covid-19 going away. Infinitely greater hope. Jesus said “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28.

Yes fear Him because he rules over all things. It is before Him that you will give an account.

But then Jesus adds,

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

Perhaps Covid-19 is an opportunity for repentance- yes of our national sins – and yes of our personal sins. The invitation of God is clear “Seek the Lord and LIVE!”

https://dailycaller.com/…/coronavirus-map-united-states-de…

https://worldpopulationreview.com/…/abortion-rates-by-state/