Five Reasons the Shelter at Home Makes Sense for Churches

1. Because we do not know that the virus is not dangerous.

This is the least of my concerns because, I think, we must still be exposed sooner or later in order to overcome it. Whatever the risk, we will not defeat it in hiding.

2. Because we have yet to exhaust all legal means to appeal the shelter at home.

This is not high on my priorities because, if God wants us to gather, we ought to do it with or without government permission.

3. Because a church body is a natural petri dish.

A local church is a close-knit bunch of people from various parts of the community who are encouraged to be among the community when they are not gathered. When we are together, women are going to hug, men are going to shake hands, and children are going to play. When we disperse, we are going to go into all the world.

4. Because we haven’t prayed yet.

Oh, I know we have prayed. I just don’t believe we have prayed to the Lord believing He is our ONLY hope of an answer.

5. Because the Spirit of God is at work right now.

At least I believe He is. This is my primary concern. If we were to somehow force open the doors of the churches, it may be only by human means. As desperately as God loves the church, He has designed that believers be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. A church opened and operated in the power of human flesh could never do what God has designed to be the result of the church.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (constrained by His Spirit)

Always Sick

• Some people are always "sick"(psychosomatic)
• Some people use illness as their excuse to stay away from God
• Some people are more prone to illness because they are seldom exposed to germs
  
  

Very few employers could afford to have their employees stay home every time they get sick. Families would suffer incredibly if every bread winner stayed home every time they got sick. Satan will help you get sick if that will keep you from the house of God.

For years I woke up sick every Sunday. It was the pressure of the ministry I was about to have to do. It was Satan's way of trying to prevent me from preaching. One Sunday I woke up complaining about not feeling well. Anita told me that I was sick every Sunday. She was right; I had just not put it together in my brain. From that day on I began rebuking the feelings of illness on Sunday and ignoring them. Eventually I stopped feeling sick on Sundays.

I beg God that people get spiritually tough enough to come to church instead of letting illness keep them home.[1]

Marvin McKenzie

In the field

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[1] Of course I make an exception for those contagious diseases that are more dangerous