Christian in a Pandemic

The times such as they are, with the world shutting down in the wake of a sinister and confounding virus, what is the way of the Christian?

Well, I think it is no different than on any other day, if we are truly honest about living Christ.

Certainly times such as these call Christians to be more long-suffering with people, understanding that others may now be operating out of a sense of fear, paranoia, or anguish.

We must acknowledge that not everyone—not even strong Christians—are always able to submit to the Holy Spirit’s calm and quiet steadiness while a highly contagious virus stealthily encroaches the planet. 

Philippians chapter four is a great recipe, if you will, for how to be at all times and, I believe, especially how to be right now. 

First, as Christians, we can best help or support others by maintaining a demeanor of calm:

“Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5).

The way to that calm is spelled out:

First, we internally rejoice in the Lord: (I say internally because externally providing pat Bible answers—or joyous Christian smiles—to folks who are truly afraid, rarely works; saying “God will bring good out of this” is actually more like a punch in the face to someone who is in real or imagined crisis, or even to someone simply concerned about the Coronavirus). 

So we do the following within:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!…Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:4; 6). 

And the result, according to Scripture, is this:

“…the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

That is how we are there for ourselves and for others. That is how we set the tone in our own households and places of work. 

That is our first ministry to a fearful people: first and foremost, we are calm. 

I love how these next verses in Philippians chapter four begin with the word “finally.” 

Isn’t that what we need to get to in this pandemic, or any stressful situation? A sense of finally? 

The context of today in which I hear that word is this: 

“Listen, this virus is here and not going away any time soon. No-one really knows that much more about this disease than when it began, and it is disrupting everything from basketball games to concerts to public schools. People are losing their jobs. People are on ventilators. People are dying.”

And the answer to that context, for Christians, is in the finally of the Philippians verses which follow it:

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).

Before calming the turbulent waters on the lake, Jesus assured his frightened disciples, saying,

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Mark 6:50b). 

He then climbed into the disciples’ boat after which the wind, and the water, calmed. 

We don’t have to tell people to not be afraid because, as I mentioned earlier, that could backfire by denying how a person is confiding to us that they actually feel, or could simply fall on the deaf ears of someone too distraught to think clearly (we must use our discernment when it comes to verbalizing Scripture with others). 

But we can calm the wind--the angst. All we have to do is get into the boat, so to speak, and still the waters of an anxious people through an inner dwelling upon the pure, the lovely, the good, the praiseworthy and the excellent. 

We live out the calm elicited by an inner dwelling upon the “It is I” of Jesus. 

That is His peace, His evangel, His rest that ministers to all people at all times. 

Christ is the dwelling place that, when we tarry there, others, sensing His serenity, may find themselves dwelling also.

Copyright Barb Harwood

Easter's Gift: A Loving Relationship With God

This quote from Ajith Fernando, writing in his book Sharing the Truth in Love, is a beautiful picture of Easter's outcome for us:

"In biblical religion the combination of the transcendence and immanence of God results in the only relationship which truly satisfies the deep yearning of the soul...We enter into a loving relationship with a God who is higher than we are. In this relationship there is freedom from the guilt of sin because our sins are forgiven. There is great peace and security because the God who is committed to us is greater than all the challenges of life. There is joy emerging from the experience of God's love, forgiveness, and acceptance. And there is bright hope for the future because we know that the one who holds the future also holds our hands. And when He seeks to relate to us, He does not force His way into our lives. He honors us by giving us the freedom to choose Him as our Lord and Savior."
Ajith Fernando, Sharing the Truth in Love: How to Relate to People of Other Faiths

D. A. Carson on the Powerlessness and Power of Christ on the Cross

From the book, Scandalous, by D. A. Carson:

"...Jesus' demonstration of power is displayed precisely in the weakness of the cross. Because we read John's Gospel, especially John 2, we know what Jesus actually said on this subject: 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days' (2:19). According to John, Jesus' opponents did not have a clue what he meant; indeed, Jesus' own disciples had no idea, at the time, what he meant. But after Jesus was raised from the dead, John says, the disciples remembered his words; they believed the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken. They knew he was talking about his body (vv. 20-22). The point is that under the terms of the old covenant, the temple was the great meeting place between a holy God and his sinful people. This was the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement for sin. But this side of the cross, where Jesus by his sacrifice pays for our sin, Jesus himself becomes the great meeting place between a holy God and his sinful people; thus he becomes the temple, the meeting place between God and his people. It is not as if Jesus in his incarnation adequately serves as the temple of God. That is a huge mistake. Jesus says, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' It is in Jesus' death, in his destruction, and in his resurrection three days later, that Jesus meets our needs and reconciles us to God, becoming the temple, the supreme meeting place between God and sinners. To use Paul's language, we do not simply preach Christ; rather we preach Christ crucified.
Here is the glory, the paradox, the irony; here, once again, there are two levels of irony. The mockers think they are witty and funny as they mock Jesus' pretensions and laugh at his utter weakness after he has claimed he could destroy the temple and raise it in three days. But the apostles know, and the readers know, and God knows, that there is a deeper irony: it is precisely by staying on the cross in abject powerlessness that Jesus establishes himself as the temple and comes to the resurrection in fullness of power. The only way Jesus will save himself, and save his people, is by hanging on that wretched cross, in utter powerlessness. The words the mockers use to hurl insults and condescending sneers actually describe what is bringing about the salvation of the Lord. 
The man who is utterly powerless--is powerful." 
D. A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

Believe in God; Believe Also in Me

Jesus speaking:

“Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me” (Matthew 11:6 NIV).

“And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me” (Matthew 11:6 NASB).

People of stated Christian belief or denominational adherence speaking:

“I believe in the Christian God, but not Jesus.”

“God is enough for me. I don’t need Jesus.”

“I am religious as far as the Christian denominational God goes, but am not into Jesus.”

“I know there is a Christian God; that's it, period.”

“I follow the liturgy and catechism of my church. Outside of that, I don’t really know God or Christ at all.”

“I pray to the Christian God all the time, but I am uncomfortable around the topic of Jesus.”

“I believe in a loving Christian God, but not the God of the Bible.”

“When I think of God, I don’t equate him with Christ, I equate Him with my religion and denomination. A personal connection with Christ is not part of that equation. If anything, Christ belongs to the church and is separate from me.”

Jesus speaking: 

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here” (John 14:1-31).

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny Him before My Father who is in heaven” (John 10:32-33).

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father”(John 10:14-18).

“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).


This, then, is the Gospel, the Good News as it is called, that Jesus is come from and of our Father in heaven.

He comes, continually, for everyone.

The Good News is that there is no cultural, denominational, religious, Protestant, Vatican, familial, evangelical, political, social, priestly or congregational litmus test or corporate church membership or definition of God that one must sign on to, pass or maintain in order to become, and be, one of Jesus Christ’s tender sheep in His all-inclusive flock.

To “believe” in the Christian God without Christ is not only impossible, as the verses above make clear, but is also the greatest sorrow and rejection of abundant life one can impose on one’s self.


Copyright Barb Harwood

Prayer with no Expectations

At times I do not feel like praying. Anything forced does not seem to me to be prayer; It feels more like doing the dishes only because my mom told me to.

And then, especially earlier on in my Christian walk, I would pray because I thought my prayer—the prayer itself that emitted from my self—to have power. 

And then there is the transactional prayer—the praying that goes on at the same time as, in the back of my mind, a reciting of the score: 

“I have been living this good way for you, God, so You will certainly honor this request.”

As I sat here early this morning, contemplating how to get going again with prayer after many days of back-burnering it, it occurred to me that if I really pray for God’s will to be done (as Jesus taught), then I pray without expectations.

The elimination of expectations disables any trusting in myself and my words and instead recognizes and relinquishes all power to the Holy Spirit (who prays for us even when we don’t know what to pray and are at a loss for words):

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

Rote prayer no longer exists for the same reason—it is no longer viable to think that my simply going through the motions will elicit an outcome. The Romans verse above clearly points this out, not so that we can simply never pray, but so that we can avoid, as much as possible, a rote sort of prayer that checks a box.

And the transactional prayer also disappears, again, for the same reason: whatever I do or don’t do, when erased from the scoreboard, frees prayer to be what prayer simply is: a pure two-way conversation with God void of past, present and future. 

Many people will say we ought to remember the answered prayers of the past (meaning, I suppose the prayers answered in the way we wanted them to be answered and not counting the prayers that weren’t). I agree it is very well to remember past and current blessings of God, and to certainly enjoy that they will be forthcoming. But not as a basis or criterion for current ongoing prayer.

Praying without expectations takes trust, which is what I realize I have lacked when I initiated rote, self-power-fulfilling and transactional prayer.

This trust is confident only of “God’s will be done,” keeping myself out of it in every way. It is a trust that thinks on Him and Him only—not what He will or won’t do—but just Him. 

This is the path, I believe, to the peace that the Bible says is beyond understanding. It is a trusting ignorance of outcomes content in a pure and simple faith in the person of Christ. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

What is Hell?

I find it sadly ironic that many of us reject hell while at the same time live within it. 

The Christmas Vacation movie, starring Chevy Chase, has a great illustration of everyday hell-on-earth. After disaster upon disaster occurs during the days leading up to the Griswold family Christmas celebration, Clark responds to his wife’s advice that everyone go home before things get worse:

“Worse! How could they get any worse! Take a look around you, Ellen, we’re at the threshold of hell!”

Hell is our personal separation—here on earth—from the receipt of sincere love, the affirmation of parents, understanding between ourselves and others, vital health, what we imagine “success” to be: in general it is a separation—here on earth—from peace and contentment in all circumstances.

If any one of us cannot say we have been in our own personal hell—be it an addiction; a stalemate with a spouse; rejection in job, friendship or romance; a physical illness or disability; impending death for ourselves or the death of a loved one; the loss of a home through foreclosure or natural disaster; being wrongly accused be it on a grand or small scale; estrangement….If we can say we have not experienced hell on this earth then I think we are not cognizant of what hell really is. 

Because nobody escapes the above list of possibilities in life. 

Sure, there are ranges and degrees, and what may not seem like hell to others, may, due to our current mental and physical state, indeed be hell to us. 

The reason that all of the potential hellish states of being exist is due to our ultimate separation from God.

How do I mean that?

I mean that, even though those states of hell-on-earth exist and do not go away—even when we desire and include God in our life, those states of hell-on-earth become other than hell-on-earth.

God removes the hell of it all by staying with and getting us through the physical, emotional, and mental crisis or breakdown.

A beautiful example I always go to is this:

A meek, sincere, mature, quiet, physically hard-working Godly man in his 60’s was diagnosed with late stage melanoma. 

After months of undergoing treatment, he said something I have never forgotten and which brings me genuine comfort and confidence:

“The Lord will work a miracle. Either He will cure my cancer, or He will take me home.”

This man lived in the peace and contentment of Christ that kept hell at bay.

Jesus Christ…His peace, His gentle yoke is what keeps us out of hell, here on earth, here and now. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1

“…the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:26-27

Where is the Beauty in All of This?

In all of life, where, and what, is beauty?

Where is it to be found?

And must we visit it a while, and then depart?

Isaiah 52:7 captures beauty where we may not:

“How lovely on the mountains

Are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who announces peace

And brings good news of happiness,

Who announces salvation,

And says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

In all the world and universe, there is no greater beauty than this.

We strive our entire lives to locate, create, promote, and travel to beauty.

Notice how, in the above verse, beauty is not found in the mountains, which are, no doubt, lovely. 

Beauty is not found in the person traversing the hills and natural peaks of nature. Otherwise, the verse would stop at “feet” instead of going on to describe what makes those feet lovely: good news, peace, an announcement of happiness and salvation. 

That is what makes the feet walking upon the mountains lovely: feet shorn of the Gospel of God in Christ.

This is available anywhere, lying in wait for sober, yet eager, takers. 

We need not compete through levels or acquire credentials before attaining it. We need not ask or earn the permission or approval of any person. We need not require our own “self-betterment” first.

We need only what Scripture itself ascribes:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Jesus Himself, in the New Testament, says, 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Jesus’ feet are the lovely carriers of beauty to all corners of the earth, even to us. He is the One who keeps loveliness there, and in here—inside of our heart, mind, soul and spirit—through His grace and merciful transformation. 

It doesn’t matter where: this beauty, this loveliness, this Gospel of Jesus lives.

Those ensnared in darkness—through not yet being rent yet by contrition—miss it. 

“…the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light…” (John 3:19, in part).

This beauty is not visible to or perceived by some because it is overshadowed, nullified, marred, and blacked out by the darkness thoughtlessly and often unknowingly enforced, stipulated and promulgated by their incubation in it. 

Hence a bleak soot coats the world in a nebulous norm; an unnerving sense of “what’s it all about?"; an obsession with outward significance and often, in the end, a daily shrugging at and resignation towards the “crazy world we live in.” 

This beguiling yet treacherous obscurity of beauty does not require murder and flames of destruction. 

It’s very essence is often entirely the opposite, couched in a pleasant wink of elaborate and cunning opposition to grace and mercy, appealing to the inner places we deny are within us until they reveal themselves in support of what we criticize in others but now locate, to our horror, in ourselves.

This predisposition lives deep within us. 

C.S. Lewis describes it as indulgences in lust and anger, which we deem to be trivial.

It is from these so-called "trivial mis-steps,” left unchecked, from which each individual goes on to lose future, and more daunting, battles for good and loveliness. 

Beauty, in the scheme of things, is not the absolute absence of evil, but its reigning over evil where it continues to exist.

Even in the starkest hour, beauty can be found alive, in the articulation of Christ who holds out His hand to the “worst” perpetrator (and there is no partiality with God, that we can excuse ourselves: 1 Samuel 16:7; Romans 2-3; 1 Corinthians 10:12). 

It is this Gospel—this Good News of Jesus Christ—that aids the injured, heals the spiritually damaged, affirms the overlooked, hears the lost and suffering, and comprehends the grieving and inconsolable. 

It is this Gospel that grants all who are caught up in frustration, who mentally struggle or suffer complacency, who show no regard for others or even themselves, a garland instead of ashes, gladness instead of anguish and remorse, encouragement instead of perpetual accusation—so that we may be “oaks of righteousness” planted by the Lord, that He may be glorified (Isaiah 61:3).

This, then, in all of life, is what beauty is and where it is to be found.

This, then, is the beauty in all of this.

Copyright Barb Harwood