When the news first came that our church had been exposed to the coronavirus, I was shocked and anxious. But I became calm when I realised what I needed to do.

I cancelled our meetings and began to prepare my message through prayer and meditation. That message was the sermonI delivered over livestream on Sunday, February 9.

I know my responses did not come out of my own composure. They came from the instructions of the Holy Spirit in my heart, one after another. And how did they come?

Through years of rooting and building myself up in the glorious Word of Truth.

GOD PREPARES HIS SHEPHERDS

We thank God who has prepared us for such a time like this. We started live-streaming our sermons back in 2015, after a brother among us who went to Australia for studies expressed his desire to follow our services online.

And, if you look at our website, my sermons have already been going up there as early as 2009. That was because one of my elders had the great foresight to take our ministry online, and suggested uploading my messages on the Internet even though we only had 35 members back then.

At the core of it, we earnestly wanted to use the Internet for our ministry in China. When we started the church, we had a vision for mainland China and for the overseas Chinese. So our website and live-streaming services were mainly for this purpose.

On February 9, we had a total of 1,130 viewers at the peak of the livestream – about four times more than our average viewership.

As seen from the papers, the press also handpicked and published some of the points I preached. I humbly thank God that some of the good Christian values were picked up by them and shared with the public – non-believing people thus had an opportunity to relate to our beliefs!

I pray that they can be brought one step closer to God’s saving grace.

There is an increase in pressure now, due to the public’s interest in us.

However, we’re just continuing to do the right thing as we’ve been taught through the Word. In the Bible, Daniel continued to do the same thing by praying and giving thanks to God three times a day, even after knowing that evil men were plotting against him.

So although we know there are more people watching us now, we continue to put our focus on the sheep God has entrusted us with. We are shepherds at heart, though we have a vision for outreach and missions.

Our focus has always been on the quality of our faith, while believing that God will do His work with the quantity. Discipleship and evangelism always go hand in hand.

GOD PROTECTS HIS SHEEP

Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I responded to the crisis by stopping all meetings for the next few weeks and moving all our services onto the livestream. Then, I started our Daily Inspiration and Coronavirus Updates from February 10-19 to encourage our members.

As you know, three of them are down with the virus, while about 20 of us are being quarantined. The rest could be in fear and apprehension, especially with the police and Ministry of Health calling in to check on them.

We need the Word more than anything else now. That is always the number one thing.

Friendship and brotherhood can’t work in times like this if the Word of God was not properly taught. Only when the Word is taught well, and everyone shares a common belief system, will we more or less arrive at the same conclusion and perspectives as the trials come. 

We prepare ourselves to face any possible reality by standing on the promises of God.

During this time, I know that the sheep need to see their shepherds’ face as well. They need to know we are there for them even though we can’t meet physically.

This is why we have set up many WhatsApp chat groups to encourage one another and to know who are fearful, being brought to checkups, under quarantine or had gotten better.

We try to do all these things without creating more fear. We prepare ourselves to face any possible reality by standing on the promises of God. And of course, if there are people from outside our church who encourage us, we forward these messages to everyone so that we can all be lifted up by the prayers of all the saints.

The presence of the Lord is real when we encourage each other.

GOD IS GLORIFIED

Honestly, this has been a truly humbling experience for me. Yet I have experienced the Lord’s transcending peace through it all.

We live in a first-world country where Christianity can easily be linked to wealth, health, prosperity or success. And honestly, who doesn’t want the good things in life?

But have we ever considered that the best things – like the glory of God – tend to come through the seemingly bad things?

It is trials that break us, and then mould us again and again. Through trials, we learn to emulate Jesus. Through trials, we learn to pray and wrestle with His promises – till we can truly rejoice in Christ alone.

Just look at what the apostles and the church fathers went through. See how Christianity spread. Beautiful testimonies through their trials were told and passed down from generation to generation. I hope this true spirit of Christianity can be taught well and magnified over the pulpit of Singapore’s churches.

Then the Church of God will become a beautiful and glorious bride!

Lord, let this trial not be wasted.

So I am not against blessings and protection. Neither am I saying that we should use suffering to buy God’s blessing – that is not the gospel either. But the grace of God is so glorious and transcendent, that it is only brought to light by the refinement of a true believer’s trials.

Therefore, with this crisis, there is only one thing I pray: “Lord, let this trial not be wasted. Let us see, through this trial, how great Your grace is upon us, and how this grace can be shared by the churches in Singapore and even the world. And may Your Name be glorified among the Gentiles. Amen.”