Thanks to all who supported this summer's fantastic, impactful mission partnership between FIBC and Warsaw Volunteer Mission.
Enjoy the highlights video!
Fjords, glaciers, bears, and other features of the Nordic landscape are anything but silent. They are part of a choir that gives unceasing praise to the Architect of the cosmological cathedral we inhabit. They are preachers who will not be silenced.
But what is the aim of the creation’s pedagogy and to what end do fjords and forests preach? Psalm 19 asserts that the content of the created order’s teaching is the glory of God.
The secular and social dogma of the West is materialism. In this philosophy matter is the sole explanatory cause of all things, and so there is little love for the divine or tolerance for the transcendent. But if we are good, consistent materialists, why are we mourning with those who are suffering? What is cruel and unjust about violence if all things are merely matter and devoid of transcendently infused meaning?
Since the dawn of God’s story, his symphonic mastery over every note has not waned, but the pitch of its perfection resonates with echoes of brilliance. What is mysterious to us is manifest to him; where we are confounded, he is informed; where our love is slack with sin, he is perennially steadfast with holiness.
These truths are what feed our understanding of the questions previously addressed in my earlier posts, ‘Where is God in COVID-19?’ and ‘Why would he allow such an awful thing to occur?’ These truths are also what allow us to move on with confidence to another question, ‘What is the Christian’s response to COVID-19?’
Jesus may be sovereign and always with us, but if he allows and ordains catastrophes – both those we experience personally and collectively – can we trust him? Does he actually act in our best interest? If Jesus genuinely cared for us, wouldn’t that mean he should be a preventative force of COVID-19 rather than the causal agent behind it?
Since the outbreak of this virus, the world seems to have been catapulted into a narrative that seems more akin to thrilling fiction than our sobering reality. We’ve never seen anything quite like what we are witnessing – the cessation of normal life in almost all nations across the globe. Governments, either by appeal or force, enact quarantines in a bid to stem the tide of a virus, that unless slowed or stopped, has the likely potential to kill and hospitalize millions of people. Unlike the typical westerner who subscribes to a materialist worldview, or in some cases may retain some sense of an impersonal spiritual realm, the Christian is under obligation to think deeply about the COVID-19 outbreak.
Thanks to all who supported this summer's fantastic, impactful mission partnership between FIBC and Warsaw Volunteer Mission.
Enjoy the highlights video!
This Saturday, all of the congregations who share the Kristuskirken church building (including FIBC, ReGen, The Spanish Congregation, etc.) will be coming together to participate in a work day to do cleaning, maintenance, and organization at the church. Bottom line: these work days are few and far between and WE CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOUR HELP!
Details: Kristuskirken Work Day, Saturday, April 16 from 09:00 - 14:00 (coffee and cake at 09:00, then we work)!
* Kids and Youth are welcome to help as well (no childcare will be provided).
** Remember to wear work clothes and durable shoes.
*** You don't have to stay until 14:00, especially if you are planning on joining the House Blessing event at Pastor Erik's house later in the day on Saturday.
**** Students needed CAS or other volunteer credits, this is a great opportunity for you.