Any time a new word or phrase warrants a new entry to the lexicon of English idiom is a moment of momentous consideration, at least to me.  I love the English language in all of its breadth & splendor and (if we are to be honest), a richness that sometimes defies orthodox opinion and expression.  “2020” is a perfect example.

None of us foresaw anything of this “Kafkaesque” year, and all of us would wish that it were nothing but a horrible dream, from which we wake up to the sound of chirping birds, a roaring economy and the normal flow of affairs.  Well; that would be lovely – wouldn’t it?

But it’s not.  2020 brought all manner of fiendishness in it wake, from political perfidy at both ends of the calendar (whatever one’s alignments & affiliations), along with pandemic throughout and pandemonium right-smack-dab in-the-middle.  It is what it is.

It has been a year of very severe challenge.  Red vs. blue, health vs. economy, police vs. protestors & rioters, racism vs. race-baiting – All very much in play, with offense being taken on every side, reason bowing to emotionalism, and an end-result being just one bloody mess.  God have mercy on us.

I know the challenge that has been presented to the Christian Church.  Does the local fellowship remain open or go digital and virtual?  What will the effects be of our decisions?  Can fellowship remain viable through social media?  What will it take to maintain and advance our witness for Christ?  Does what we do or don’t do any longer matter to an increasingly godless society?  What does it now mean to “trust in God?”  Honest questions; one-and-all.

I very much appreciate the position of President Trump when he declared that “the cure can’t be worse than the problem,” a truism that bespeaks a truth that defies clear application, given our current conundrum and its attendant conditions.  All well-intentioned, sound pastors and their respective congregations have sought the Lord for wisdom with which to address our response to what is now the syndrome of 2020.

I know for us at First Baptist Church at Conshohocken that it became imperative to seek out His counsel.  My experience as a pastor has been that, on the rare occasion that we have chosen to close (a snowstorm or two), we shortly thereafter discovered that someone had needed the blessing of authentic, in-house and in-person fellowship on those occasions.  I recall back in the early portion of the new millennia when, upon awaking to a Sunday morning snowstorm, discerning the voice of God’s Spirit telling me to get up and shovel out in order to open the Church – Sure enough; a young, single father and his little boy joined us and stayed with us for over three years! 

We prayerfully concluded that at least one church needed to remain open within our one-square-mile-in-diameter borough.  We would make no judgment upon what other churches would do or not do, but we were to remain open, albeit with all requisite protocols in-place and in-play.  We made the requisite alterations and accommodations, and continued apace to live out the life, ministry and witness of First Baptist Church.

The Book of Proverbs offers a helpful and memorable passage, one that perhaps will find differing conclusions for each parish or fellowship, and one to which we turned and looked and clung, seeking to embody it for all it is worth:  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” (3:5, 6) – Always a good idea to do; assuredly!

Let it not be forgotten though, that discernment in the Lord always leads, at least in part, to repentance, as God’s Spirit must convict us and dispense of our sin before we can hear His voice with clarity and certainty.  I believe that discernment and repentance go hand-in-hand; indeed, if I may put it this way, we struggle to discern God’s wisdom & purpose, while He readily discerns the state of our hearts and the manner of our lives. 

Scripture makes plain that any effort on our part to discern the wisdom and will of God will entail repentance at the very core of such effort.  Whoever was anointed of God to bring about the manufacture of Psalm 139 was instinctively and intimately aware of such need, when he wrote:  “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv 23, 24).

I vividly remember a clergy meeting in the immediate aftermath of the travesty that beset our nation on September 11, 2001, as we gathered to plan an ecumenical service for the community.  A few of us put forth that we should include a portion within the service that addressed our need for repentance, but several others vehemently rejected such an inclusion, telling us that their “tradition” didn’t allow for it in such a circumstance. 

Well; all one can say is that, nineteen years later, it has become obvious that tradition should have been laid aside in favor of repentance, as the United States of America has become a cesspool of filth, both morally and spiritually, as well as intellectually.  It is frightful, as it becomes more readily apparent every day that a spirit of antichrist is assuming more and more control and authority over almost every facet and aspect of our national existence.

The Church needs to be doing some very serious repenting, even if the culture at-large remains defiant of God and His moral law; indeed, the Word of God has established this very point of application!  God instructs and leads His people to repent, not them of the world, a world that will profoundly and directly benefit by such godly repentance.  The classic text is one with which we are becoming more-and-more meaningfully acquainted, or should be:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, pray and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven, then will I forgive their sin, and then will I heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Do that, my dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, and such opportunities will come our way for revealing and declaring and bearing witness to the grace, goodness & glory of our Lord Jesus Christ that will astound even the most seasoned and established of devotionalists, intercessors, & evangelists!  My own experience, albeit filled with limitation & foible, tells me the truth of such an assertion.

I can tell you that there is openness to the things of the Gospel.  I say the “things of the Gospel,” because I understand all-too-well that people, including convicted Christians such as myself, can easily, even unwittingly, find themselves picking-and-choosing from what they like or dislike.  We can’t read God’s Word or invest in Christian activity with any fruitfulness or godly productivity without being infused with the Holy Spirit.  Flesh and spirit are at war with one another, so says the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:17.

But being open and taking an interest constitutes a start with which the Spirit of God can work.  We must more-often-than-not leave the effects of our doings to Him; after all, we are ostensibly working on His behalf, so what He wants to have done is of paramount importance.

Still; it is imperative that we enter His Presence with thanksgiving and praise; not simply as we would enter any other meeting.  Do football fans settle before the television to watch the Super Bowl with an “as usual” disposition?  Of course not; nor should the people of God as they participate in a service of worship, whereby the accent is on “worship.”

It is vital that God’s people be praying.  There are so few prayer meetings any more, the prevailing opinion of the “experts” that prayer is of lesser value than strategy sessions and determining what people want, rather than what will honor God which, by its very nature, will bring blessing to His people and, de facto, to those around them.

We are called to be praying continuously, earnestly and in righteous stead.  We are taught to seek to find out what pleases God, to present our petitions and requests of all kinds, to beseech His mercy and grace, to ask for the Holy Spirit, to pray for the fruits of righteousness, etc.  Prayer will keep us busy; to be sure.

We are given to find ourselves ensconced in fellowship, of the kind that casts its collective eye upon Jesus, takes a genuine interesting the lives of one another, is acutely aware of its need to bear witness to the saving grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ through word and deed, does not balk at being an embodiment of counter-culture as it stands firm in God’s truth while at the same time it holds forth Christ’s love.  There is no substitute for authentic, honest-to-God, biblical fellowship, the likes of which no virtual expression or technological ingenuity can replace or duplicate.

My experience has been such that, with increase of years and experience, I serve Him more thoroughly and fully, finding opportunities at every turn.  All one needs is to ask God for guidance, open one’s eyes and ears and – Presto! – You will clearly see how God will use you.  The opportunities are ripe for the plucking.

This very day I offered a lady in line at the store some Scripture leaflets:  “May I share God’s Word for Christmas with you?”  “Oh; yes – Thank you … I need more of this!” was her heart-felt response.

Next; I stepped up to the checkout and offered the clerk the same, accompanied by the same words, to which she responded, “Yes; thank you – God be with you!”  I replied by assuring the young lady that He is with me; praise God!

The first lady needed the encouragement of the Gospel and; no doubt, a genuine witness concerning who Christ is and what the Gospel is all about, while the second was clearly a fellow believer who shared God’s praise and mutual encouragement with me.

The dictum that I would submit to you is that in all of our doings with other people, we are to be one of two things:  We will either be a witness for Christ, or we will be an encouragement in Christ.  All of our dealings fall into one of these two categories, with no exception. 

You may be working a business deal around a conference table, purchasing some goods and materials in a store, working the links on a golf course, chatting over coffee – You will be one or the other if you are intentional in seizing opportunities that God brings your way.  Does not the Scripture exhort us to make the most of every opportunity and the best utilization of time (Colossians 4:5)?

2021 may easily prove to be the antidote to 2020.  I know how I am praying to this end.  I am praying for revival, that God would pour out His Spirit upon the earth, revitalizing dry bones, breathing new life into stagnant situations and awakening His people to their high calling.

I am praying that God will deepen me in His Presence and Word, that He will further enable and empower me by His Holy Spirit, that He will widen my borders still more, that I may take Jesus with me through new portals and into new vistas of witness, and that I will be a still greater blessing to my lovely little fellowship. 

To all of which end, I am praying that I may die more-and-more to my individual self, and live more-and-more for Jesus, sot that, like the Apostle  Paul, it will not be I, but Christ who lives in me, that the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20).  I simply want, with what is left of my years, to faithfully & fruitfully serve Him with all that I am and have.

It is a challenging goal, one that will require much discerning and repenting, but one that will present one glorious opportunity after the other, such that a harvest will be reaped to the glory of God – All praise belongs to Him!

Bradley E. Lacey

Holiday Season 2020-21