When in hundreds of years-time, our great, great, great, great, grandchildren look at this day in history, they will realize that it was quite significant, because on June 15th, 2020, after nearly three months, shops were allowed to re-open their doors for the first time, places of worship were opened for private prayer, and face coverings were mandatory on public transport. This easing of lockdown of course, has only been made possible because the number of corona cases and deaths, together with the risk level, has significantly decreased over recent weeks. But let us just consider for a moment, the lengths we have had to go to as a nation, to get to this place. Everything that we always considered to be essential to our daily lives has been locked down. Our children have been unable to attend school. We couldn’t sit on a bench in the park or on the sea front. Many of us were forced to work from home. I had to learn to cut my own hair! We couldn’t even travel to see our family members, or visit loved ones in hospital when they were dying, and although funeral services were still allowed, only some immediate family were permitted to attend. Let’s be honest, we have really had to ‘baton down the hatches,’ in order to get to where we are today in terms of Covid-19, and it hasn’t been easy even for the strongest and most resilient of us, and even now, as we cautiously step ahead, we know that there is the risk of a second spike. In fact, there will always be a risk, particularly to those who are ‘shielding,’ until a suitable and effective vaccine is found, and who knows how close we are to seeing such a vaccine become available?
Now like the rest of the British people, I have taken this pandemic very seriously indeed. I have practised social distancing meticulously. I have washed down everything bought in the shops with hot soapy water. I have washed my hands it seems, more often and more rigorously in these past weeks, than in my whole lifetime! But as we gradually prepare to come out of this phase, there is another virus we don’t hear people talking much about these days, which to be honest is deadlier than the corona virus - and that virus is sin. And although you may not have succumbed to Covid-19, the sin virus touches absolutely everyone, because it has lasted as long as human existence, it is a virus we are all born with, and its death rate is 100%. And to be brutally honest, we don’t have to look too far do we, to see the effects of the sin virus in our world?
But thank God, there is already a CURE for this virus, and this cure costs us nothing but a willingness to accept it, and this cure is absolutely and completely reliable and effective. We don’t have to play around with fixes in the hope that our sin problem will be remedied, but the cure comes in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who existed from all eternity, but one night, entered our world wrapped up in human flesh.
Sin is the deadliest virus we will EVER have to deal with, even though Satan does his utmost to try and make it look harmless. It infects our spirit, our soul, and our body, and unlike the corona virus, it cannot be eradicated by taking small remedial steps, but we must implement HEAVEN’S guidelines. These guidelines require that firstly we agree with God that our sin is wrong and needs to be abandoned. Then we have to turn from it in repentance, and accept with gratitude, the enormous price that had to be paid in order to cleanse us from sin – the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s hill. And when we do that, the bible promises that God is faithful and just and He will forgive us our sin, and set us on a brand new trajectory in life.
Maybe you are reading this, and like so many others, you are struggling to understand all that is happening in our world right now. Maybe like many others too, you are suffering the effects of prolonged isolation and loneliness. Maybe you have questions about what I have written. If that is so, I am only at the other end of an email - pastorstephen@enonbaptist.church and I will gladly respond to you. God bless you.
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