Church Is Open!

As I write this, it’s late May 2020 and this has been one of the strangest years I can ever remember. Much of the year has been taken up with the Wuhan Virus (also called COVID-19, the Corona Virus, and perhaps other names) and the effect on the world’s economy. For those of you reading this in the future, nearly every country in the world established “shelter in place” or “stay home until we tell you it’s okay to leave” orders. Except for those who had “permission”, for lack of a better tern, government leaders demanded people stay at home. To say the least, many businesses closed temporarily, some permanently, and it’s anybody’s guess when things would return to pre-2020 conditions.

Needless to say this affected houses of worship, not just churches. Nearly every church I know of closed, canceling services for weeks on end. Some offered drive-in services, where the minister preached using a low power radio station and people stayed in their cars. Other churches “streamed” their services using various forms of social media. Some stayed open, using stringent “social distancing” and disinfecting as much as they could after each service (apparently).

Now, Missouri, where I live at this writing, lifted the stay at home orders in early May. Some churches began holding services on Mother’s Day (May 10, 2020) and others later on. The important thing is, we can COME TO CHURCH again!

David may have had something like this in mind when he wrote in Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” We don’t know when he wrote this particular psalm but there were times he was on the run, sometimes trying to escape Saul and his wrath against David. He even lived among the Philistines for a while! Only he knows the reason why, but there is one unmistakable fact: there were times he could not visit the “house of the LORD”, or the Tabernacle, in his day.

But when he got the chance to worship the LORD, at the House of the LORD, and this must have been something he just couldn’t wait to do. After nearly three months of “you can’t go”, and now you can, that sure meant something to me. It was just a good feeling—I was with brothers and sisters in the LORD, and heard a Bible-based message that I didn’t have to share with myself (I don’t use social media except email and text messages).

One day the restrictions, I pray, will soon be lifted and all of us can worship the LORD again in our churches in accordance with the First Amendment to the U S Constitution. For those of you who are still “shut up”, like Jeremiah (Jer, 36:5) and can’t go, remember that the LORD is with you and your prayers will still be powerful. “We’re in this together” is a currently overused and misused phrase, but for those of us believers, it’s absolutely true.

May the day soon come when we can all be glad to go to the House of the LORD!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)