CHARLES: A couple of things that come to my mind.
One is what Burk mentioned and that is the second great command that Jesus gives, to
love our neighbor as ourself.
We as shepherds in our church have been trying to think through decisions in a way that reflects
that priority for the members of our church so that we as a church are reflecting that
in this critical time.
That it is not just about our own safety and security or priorities or comfort or whatever
you would add to that list but there is a love of neighbor that motivates us, that is
tied very closely to our love for God.
I also, and I said it at the end of the talk I gave earlier, I think it's important for
the saints to live with hope.
When you asked the question about suffering, I didn't get the chance to answer and I'm
almost glad I didn't because they had much better answers than I gave.
But when you asked what came to my mind were scriptures, James 1, 1 Peter 1, Romans 5,
that bids us to rejoice.
God is sovereign, His providential care is at work in the worst of circumstances.
No, I don't say rejoice in any frivolous way that doesn't take seriously the gravity of
the circumstances, but there is a hope that is untouched by the affairs of the world.
There is some gospel power in the saints reflecting Jeremiah who is sitting amid ruin and despair
and declaring the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and his compassions never come
to an end.
I don't think it counts if you sing greatest is thy faithfulness in graduation and celebrations
and anniversaries, anybody can sing it there but it is during times of crisis and calamity,
it is during times of sorrow and suffering, that's when you really mean it, when you don't
know what's about to happen next, the pressures of life are weighing down on you, you are
clinging to the faithfulness of God.
So I do believe as Sinclair said earlier, this is a time for us to live out the gospel
we proclaim and that we profess.
Being good and godly neighbors wherever God has planted and placed us and living with
the hope of our risen savior are two things that come to my mind I just think are
critical during these days.
FERGUSON: Chris, I was thinking when you were quoting Luther how often I have heartily
sung the verse and where this world with viruses filled and threatening to undo us, we've sang
that so often and this is a time which presses us to believe that these things are true and
to live them out.
My observation is we've all... we've got different resources in order to serve the people around
us.
We've got different gifts in doing that.
There are some people who know exactly what to do and then there are the people like me
who say, is there anything I can do?
We need to help one another in that.
But it seems to me the absolutely fundamental thing is, who we are in what we do.
But that, oddly enough, there are all these verses in the new Testament about Christians
having peace because they have a God of peace.
I think it's those things that in terms of the impact of Christian witness will most
tell that we... that inwardly we are on our knees before them and they know that we proclaim
Christ as Lord, but we're saying we are your servants for Jesus' sake and that it begins
to make sense to them when they see the connectedness between the gospel that we may have spoken
to them and the dispositions that we now have that we live and trust in the Lord.
Yeah, we have our anxieties, but we're able to cast those anxieties on the Lord.
That we have our needs, but that there is... the gospel has given us poise and peace.
That's not something that we put on.
We don't flick on the light in order to be lights to the world.
We are the light of the world.
We have peace with God.
I think we must have confidence in the Spirit's ministry to use what God has done in our lives,
to speak through the service that we're under to the people who are around about us, especially
those who are most anxious.
PARSONS: Living out what we believe in the gospel and as you said, Dr. Ferguson, that
means living with a certain peace.
This is a time I think for Christians to really show forth the calm that we can have, that
we take proper precautions but we don't overreact, that we are able to live out truly the fruit
of the Spirit with a calmness and a steadfastness.
I know that there are many, many people who think that many people are making too much
about all of this and then there are others who think that people aren't making enough
about it, they're not doing enough or saying enough and that has been one of the most difficult
things in striving to serve people well and teach people and shepherd people through this
because you have people at different ends of this spectrum and all throughout it.
Even among us here today, I'm sure there are people who are very worried and people who
are not worried much at all.
I think this is a time that I think all of us, particularly mothers and fathers and grandparents,
where the devil is going to try to divide homes and try to bring division and try to
bring just unnecessary disagreements in the home and in marriages, in the church.
This is a time for us to really strive to serve one another well as we strive to lead
where we can in helping people to show grace to each other, to show a tremendous amount
of freedom.
We've been meeting this week as a staff at the church and talking about how
we really want to strive always, not just during this time, but always to give grace
and freedom and help people wherever we can.
But just one last thing, Chris.
I do talk with a number of people who they are simply asking the question, when are we
going to be through this?
When are we going to be done with this?
When is this crisis going to be over?
When are the markets going to come back?
When is the economy going to begin to come back?
The answer to that is, of course none of us really knows completely, but too often we
are treating this trial like we treat our own trials in life where we're just trying
to get through them and we muscle our way through them.
When often the purpose of trials and the purpose of difficulties and hardships in our lives,
the purpose of suffering is not just to muscle our way through them and to get through them
by grinding our teeth saying we're going to get through it, it's to humble ourselves.
As Dr. Ferguson was saying, it's time to investigate our own hearts and
ask the Lord to examine us and know our ways.
It's a time for us to stop and pause and see if there's any wicked way in us.
It's a time for us to really focus our lives on the Lord and to take our theology seriously.