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.