Saturday, March 28, 2020

A Different Kind of Pandemic

Coronavirus: What it does to the body - BBC News


The current COVID-19 pandemic we are experiencing is hopefully a once in a lifetime event. With something this dramatic taking place it seems prudent to look for lessons that can be applied.  In that regard, there are probably countless lessons we can learn including better preventative hygiene, proper disaster planning, leadership models (both good and bad), re-evaluation of priorities, spending a lot of concentrated family time, etc.  One aspect that occurred to me was a spiritual illustration.  Through one super spreader, Adam, the world has become infected with the sin virus.  And, if you’re a father, you’re a spreader too.  So, what spiritual lessons does this analogy offer?
Verse

Things to think about:
·      While the Garden of Eden was surely nicer than the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, the epicenter of the disease has been identified. 
o   And like in Wuhan, an animal, in this case a serpent, was the ultimate source of the disease.
o   At that time, God was acting as a sort of CDC, imploring the people to stay away from a known threat to their health.  And like some folks today, Adam and Eve believed fake news (“you will not certainly die”) leading them to ignore the warnings and pay a very heavy price.
o   They knew almost immediately they had contracted the disease and self-quarantined (they even had Personal Protective Equipment!).
§  Genesis 3:7-88 – “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
·      As we said, Adam was the original super spreader.
o   Romans 5:12 – “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned”
·      The sin virus is invisible, 100% contagious, and deadly.
o   Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and Romans 6:23 – “the wages of sin is death”
·      The world has come up with many home remedies such as religions, good works, and philosophies
o   Romans 1:22 – “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools”
o   Colossians 3:8 – “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”
o   Isaiah 64:6 – “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”
·      The truth is Jesus is the only way to eradicate the sin virus
o   John 14:6 - Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
o   Romans 8:3-4 – “…God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us…”
·      Just like with a physical cure, you actually have to take the medicine.  It’s not enough to consider it or watch other people take it.
o   Romans 10:9-10 – “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
·      Once we’ve been cured, it is our responsibility to help others who also have been infected.
o   Mark 16:16 - Then Jesus said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all. Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is condemned.”
o   A lot of people think they won’t get sick from coronavirus because they’re too young, too healthy, or just lucky.  Of course that’s not true.
o   Similarly, many folks think the sin virus doesn’t affect them.  They’re “good people” who “try to do the right thing”.  But we know the disease is no respecter of persons.
o   How can you and I be “carriers of the cure”? 
§  Who do you know whose life is in the ICU right now and desperately needs the breath of life that only Christ can provide?


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