Kristina Ramirez Jordan
When we were running about 12-20 in church and everyone was complaining about their old age, their health issues or their general lack of interest in even coming to church more than an obligatory showing on Sunday morning, Satan had no reason to show up in our services either. Neither did God for that matter since we weren’t inviting Him to join with us.
However, God decided to shake us up out of our ruts by answering the prayers of a few faithful members who were working as hard as they were physically and spiritually able to. They wanted to see our church grow with more people, changes in our music, more children coming to church and people who were willing and able to do some of the work that needed to be done around our church.
God began to bring by a visitor every so often. Nothing seemed to be happening though, as no one was staying after they visited. It seemed they always found something that was not in their liking to join us on a regular basis. Then, God sent a small group of people who were looking for a church home where they could work and serve the Lord. Everyone was so excited the first couple of weeks as we saw more of their group join in the next few weeks.
Suddenly, Satan looked and saw that the Lord had sent a spark of His Holy Spirit among us as this new addition began to work and help implement some things that we had not been able to get accomplished. He knew he had to do something to put out that flame, so he sent a couple of his best demons to stir things up a bit. He sent his demon of distrust to stir up the hearts of some of the original members. Soon they began to fear that “ all these new people are taking over”. And of course the devil couldn’t leave out the new members, so he sent them his demon of doubt to make them feel that they were unwanted.
It wasn’t long before God allowed the government to step in and tell not just our church but all churches that we could not meet together because of a virus going around. They told everybody, right around Easter time, that to get rid of this virus we all need to stay in our homes and not to go out except to the grocery store. That didn't stop us from having church though. We had online services with different members sharing their talents and teachings not only with each other, but with people who were watching that we never would have been able to reach any other way.
It almost seemed like a modern version of Job being tested by Satan to show God that His people didn't care about Him anymore and they didn't care about worshiping God and trying to witness to others to bring them to Christ. And just as with Job, it didn't work, again. When we were finally allowed to assemble together again there was a new attitude in many of the members that were returning to the services. True, there were still many that were not able to return because of age and health problems that would put them at too much risk of exposure and they were sorely missed. Maybe this was Gods' way of starting to weed out his wheat and tares.
We began to make some progress in getting along and working on areas of our church service that were lacking. We soon began to have Sunday School in person again, we started a music practice for our musicians and praise team. We were beginning to get to know each other and the heart we each had for God and His work, especially the work He had for us to do in this church. We started seeing a few couples visit more than once, and even had some join with us. The Lord was starting to bless our efforts, and you know the devil didn't like that and he had to figure a way to slow things down.
When we came back to church, something was different. We treated each other better. We started to get along with each other like a loving family. It was no longer “us” versus “them”, but God’s people working together to get our people back that are still not coming because of this pandemic going around and to see our church grow. The Holy Spirit was being felt in our services so the devil had to come up with something else.
Our pastor was told he had cancer. One of our other ministers came down with pneumonia and the virus going around. Still another minister had some kind of mini stroke and began having double vision. None of this has stopped a one of them. So Satan we are here to tell you that just like Job, our church is not going to stop praising and worshiping our God and spreading His message to this lost and dying world.
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