World headlines are dominated by news of COVID-19; a deadly strain of the flu virus. As of this writing, CNN reports that over 7,100 deaths have occurred worldwide. Italy is virtually shut down. San Francisco is on lockdown. Schools in the USA are cancelled. NASCAR cancelled, Supercross cancelled. People have already rushed Dollar General and bought all the available toilet paper. The virus has been labeled a “pandemic.”

It’s bad. So bad that even churches have cancelled their services and are doing “the online thing.”

Which prompts me to write this blog. The real pandemic here is fear! But what are we afraid of? Death? I understand that the world might be afraid of dying. However, a Christian is someone who has placed their faith in a resurrected Savior! Jesus said that we are the light of the world, that we are to shine so that others will see the glory of God! (Matthew 5:13-16)

I understand that many churches cancelled live services in an effort to protect their parishioners. Many stated that their focus would be on praying for this nation. Those two thoughts do not align.

Take a look at Matthew 8:23-27. It’s the story of Jesus being asleep in the boat while a great storm arises. The Twelve disciples are in the boat – at least 4 of them are experienced fishermen. Even they are terrified. They wake Jesus. Mark relates that when they woke him, they asked, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” The Greek literal translation is “Do you not care that we are perishing to death?!” That’s bad! They’re dying twice over!

Jesus gets up, speaks a word and the storm is calm. We teach this story to 1^st graders in every Sunday School curriculum. The title in our Bible is, “Jesus calms the storm.” Our take away from this is that if we’ll just wake Jesus up, he’ll answer our prayer. We don’t say it that way. We know Jesus isn’t asleep. (But if we’re honest, we’ll admit it sure feels like it sometimes.)

Yet, that isn’t the point of the story. The disciples wake Jesus up, they are terrified because they are certainly about to die…and Jesus asks, “Why are you so afraid?” To which the answer would be, “Because we are about to die.” And Jesus’ response is, “Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:40)

In other words, Jesus is saying, “You’ve been with me. You’ve seen miracles, you’ve heard the teaching. And now your confidence is still in this world?”

Matthew chapter 10, Jesus teaches his disciples not to fear man who can only kill the body, “rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

At the end of Jesus’ life, one disciple betrays him because of unmet expectations, the other 11 run and hide. Peter is so afraid that he even denies that he knows Jesus.

Yet in Acts chapter 4, we see Peter and John get arrested, drug before the High Council and then preach with such boldness and clarity that people are astounded! They were a direct witness and reflection of the Resurrected Savior! People could see that these uneducated, fearless men had been with Jesus.

That’s how the church started. That’s how the church grew. Read the history of the early Apostles. They all end up losing their life for the sake of the Gospel and we are afraid of a virus?

Our nation has asked us to pray on its behalf. This is our shining moment! This is our opportunity to not only say “I’m praying for you” but to actually do it! And we’re staying home? Because we are afraid we might die?

This virus has ravaged Wuhan China, Iran and Italy. It’s now global and in the United States. China is a communist country and does not have a strong, prominent church with leaders who are able to stand on a national platform and say the name of Jesus. Iran is Muslim country who does not worship a Resurrected Savior. Italy – Roman Catholic, where so often the God of the religion cannot be seen because of the religion. The Gospel Coalition estimates that less than 1% of Italy’s 61 million residents is “evangelical.” Meaning only about 1% of the people take an active approach to prayer, that simple followers of Jesus can pray directly to God.

Here in America, over half of our population claims to be “Christian.” A full 75 million Americans identify as Evangelical  and actively profess to be Jesus Followers. Now is the time to show our faith!

Evangelical Free Church of Eaton, Colorado this past week heard the news that Greg Laurie (Harvest Christian Fellowship in California) was moving to Livestream Services. The response was not to follow suit, but instead, they put microphones around the auditorium. Pastor Kirkpatrick started off with a devotional, challenged the church to pray and then opened the floor to prayer. According to youth minister Jason Newby, “It was powerful, moving and thought provoking” as adults, youth and even children stepped to the microphone to pray for this country.

Christians, we have the opportunity to put our faith into action in the days ahead. Do not let FEAR keep us from shining our light.

I had the opportunity to preach at my home church yesterday. I referenced the Las Vegas shooting and other evil acts that have recently been perpetrated on American soil. Little did I know that as I closed the service, another evil madman was wreaking destruction in Sutherland Springs, TX.

All of our hearts break. The news media and blogosphere are blowing up today with the questions, “Why?!” and “How can this be prevented?” What we are neglecting to ask is, “How did we get here?” Some simple statistics illuminate a disturbing trend. In 1960, the United States population was 180 million people. It is now 325 million…that’s a growth of 80%. In the decade of the 1960s, there were 18 total school shootings. (Wikipedia has a comprehensive list that is easy to follow for statistical analysis.) In the decade starting 2010 until now, there have been 133 incidents of school shootings. That’s a +700% increase. What happened?!

1962 – Engle v Vitale appeared before the Supreme Court. Steven Engle had a daughter enrolled in New Hyde Park School, NY. Every morning, school started with a prayer that said, “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country. Amen.” It was actually a voluntary prayer, but Mr. Engle took issue, none-the-less. He sued the school district and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In a 6-1 ruling, the Supreme Court held that although the prayer was voluntary and although it was vaguely worded, it still referenced “Almighty God” and was therefore promoting religion. According to the court, this was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” 

1963 – Abington School District v Schempp was the Supreme Court case that took the Bible out of schools. Until that point, it was customary and lawful in Pennsylvania for either 10 verses to be read aloud without comment, or for the Lord’s Prayer to be recited. Edward Shempp protested that this was mandating a religion. At the same time, Madeline Murray O’Hare (founder of American Atheists) was filing a similar lawsuit. The court consolidated the two cases and in an 8-1 ruling declared that the Bible could no longer be read in public classrooms.

It was about the same time that the Theory of Evolution was being presented in Science classes. I live 8 miles outside Dayton, TN – home of the famous Scopes Trial in 1925. That was a Tennessee case that upheld Evolution NOT be taught in public schools. However, by the 1960’s, Evolution was indeed being presented as a theory alongside Creation in many schools across the country.

1968 – Epperson v Arkansas The Supreme Court ruled that schools cannot NOT teach evolution. Arkansas had a law that was similar to Tennessee making it illegal to teach evolution. However, the Supreme Court ruled that by not teaching Evolution, the school was forced to teach Creation and that also violated the Establishment Clause.

Henceforth, Evolution became the law of the land. My own mother graduated High School in 1969 in Mansfield, OH. At the time, she recalls being taught both Creation and the Theory of Evolution. She went on to a Christian college and graduated 4 years later with a teaching degree. Her first job was to tutor a Junior High student in Science. To her shock, in the 4 short years she had been away from public education, the textbooks had changed and no longer mentioned Creation or the Theory of Evolution. Instead, it was just “Evolution.” God had officially been removed from our schools.

1987 – Edwards v Aguillard The Supreme Court struck down a renewed effort by Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards (affectionately dubbed, “The very last of the line of New Deal Southern Democrats”) to allow schools to “Teach the Controversy.” He wanted Creation to be taught alongside Evolution. Once again citing the Establishment Clause, the Supreme Court decided 7-2 that allowing the teaching of Creation would “endorse religion by advancing the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind.”

Fast-forward to modern day America. August 2017: Kennedy v Bremerton School District, the Ninth Circuit held that a public school teacher or coach has no right to engage in any form of expression at school, if the speech or conduct is “in the presence of students and spectators.” Coach Kennedy had kneeled on the 50 yard line after a High School football game and offered a silent prayer of thanks to God for allowing him to coach football and be a positive influence on the players. He was fired from his job as coach.

October 2017 – A park bench next to the Randolph Henry High School Baseball Field in Charlotte County, VA commemorates the death of 18 year old Colton Osborn. The bench is inscribed with the words, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13” WSET (a Charlotte county ABC affiliate) reported in October that per Superintendent Nancy Leonard, the offensive verse has to go if the park bench is to stay.

Just a couple weeks ago, it was reported that the famous “Peace Cross” in Bladensburg, MD must come down. This memorial was erected in 1925 to commemorate the 49 community members who marched off to WWI and never returned. Although standing for nearly a century, the Fourth Circuit now says the public memorial violates the Establishment Clause.

The Establishment Clause in its entirety reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That little comma makes a big difference! The Establishment Clause isn’t just to prohibit the government from creating a religion,  but it is also to allow its free citizens to practice and act upon their beliefs.

The Coach Kennedy case will be appealed to the Supreme Court. It should win, just as the Kountze High School Cheerleaders won their case. They wanted to send a positive message with their run-through banners back in 2012. They painted Bible verses on the banners. “But thanks be to God, which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. -I Cor 15:57.” Another one read, “If God is for us, who can be against us! -Rom 8:31.” Just this summer, a Texas Appeals Court sided with the cheerleaders and said that because of the Establishment Clause, they had the Constitutional right to exercise their religion. It only took five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so.

Mass murderers are trying to gain access to our schools, and we are afraid of Bible verses! What has happened to our country?!

Evil. In the void of good, evil will abound. We’ve kicked God out of our schools, out of our workplaces, out of our public spaces…and evil has come to fill the void. Now I ask, “Why are we so opposed to Christianity in this country?” It can’t be because people want to follow the teachings of Jesus. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Treat other people the way you want to be treated.” Even if a Christian doesn’t follow these things perfectly, they still aren’t bad teachings and anyone who even tries just a little bit will be a decent person to be around! So why is Christianity hated?

What’s easier to believe than, “There is no God?” I live in the South. Most everybody believes in some form of God. What they don’t believe is that Satan is real. We are losing our minds right now trying to come up with a reason why someone would shoot up a concert in Las Vegas, drive a car on a bike path or shoot innocents in small Texas Church. But the answer is really quite simple. Satan. The more we kick God out, the more Real Estate Satan gains.

It is now more than ever that this Nation needs God. We need park bench with reminders that God loves us. We need teenagers to share positive messages. We need coaches and leaders to exemplify humility and thankfulness. We need God!!!!

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces in the heavenly places. -Ephesians 6:12