Gospel for Asia calls on Christians to pray and fast for end of coronavirus during Lent

sermonindex Feb 26, 2020

With the deadly coronavirus outbreak spreading, Christians around the world are taking precautions while publicly observing Lent, as a prominent international mission organization calls on believers to pray and fast for the end of COVID-19 that has killed over 2,700 people.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) created a Lent devotional calendar online that includes daily prayers and Bible readings as Christians remember the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert, as recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

"We are encouraging and asking Christians around the world to pray and ask for God’s mercy and grace: for those affected by the coronavirus, for their protection and strength, for the doctors who are faithfully working to bring healing and hope and for wisdom for the leaders in the nations that are dealing with this tragedy," Danny Yohannan, GFA vice president, told Fox News.

sermonindex Feb 26, 2020

Here is a link to the 40 day lent calendar for those interested: https://www.gfa.org/lent/

J

jochbaptist Feb 27, 2020

Dear Greg

May I respectfully ask that we do not endorse or encourage extra-biblical practices like lent.

As an unbeliever, for me these kind of religious observances contained an odor that repelled me from Jesus, as I wrongly associated Him with such.

Much to my delight, my Savior smelled like life, newness and freedom when He found me. So I want us all to stand fast in that freedom I found.

True revival, will rid us of these man-made obstacles.

Blessings

sermonindex Feb 27, 2020

May I respectfully ask that we do not endorse or encourage extra-biblical practices like lent.

Hello brother,

Thank you for your message. On SermonIndex we have never forced or compelled people to "not" celebrate easter and other church days in the church calendar, of which many church traditions follow. Also on the other end of the spectrum we have not enforced or argued that people that they had to keep these days. We have had grace on both sides of the camp.

I believe its healthy to consider some validity to why the early believers made emphassis on Sunday for worship (the Lord's day) and Easter as the day Christ rose again.

Lent I believe personally comes from catechumens who were early disciples seeking to embrace the faith and be water baptized publically. The church decided to do most baptism's on easter as its signifigance of the Lord's resurrection and what we call "Lent" was a period of 40 days that they asked those desiring baptism to seek repentance to embrace the mystery of faith fully.

So now the entire church who follows this does it, not just new believers. It is simply a way to prepare your heart to really embrace the signifigance of the Lord's ressurection on easter.

Of course the arguement is clear you can do this anyway, and sure why not. but I believe the other side of the argument is valid that we can also set a period of weeks in our year apart to specially seek the Lord to allow the ressurection of Christ to mean that much more to us.

P

passerby Feb 28, 2020

Chances are SARS CoronaVirus-2, will linger with humans from now on, how it will manifest in terms of morbidity and death rates remains to be seen globally. As of know it is a big economic and health scare but seems not scary as the the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918.

Because of its relatively high reproduction rate, the only effective thing to do is forced quarantine and isolation.

It is not a doomsday for christians, that is certain, but still, a looming imagery of a dreadful scenario can make the hearts of many to flutter.

G

Gloryandgrace Mar 2, 2020

Should we pray this plague be stopped? Yes.
Should we be helpful of others and calm distressed hearts? Yes.

But 2017-18 about 80,000 died from the flu...and yet the media could care less, it didn't realize it's potential to undermine President Trump. Now, they use it as a weapon to panic society and create more animosity between liberals and Their president.

Bloomberg saw the opportunity and has used it in his campaign ads.

Turn off the news. It does you no good.

D

deogloria Mar 3, 2020

You might know the old saying, "if you don't read the news you are not informed, if you read the news you are misinformed..."
There is a lot of truth in it. And yet we should still be wise and try and read the signs of our time. I believe this virus is not just another flu virus. It is wise to be vigilant and make some preparations for you and your family etc. Imo we have some difficult times ahead of us.
I'm glad if we can look back in a few months and you can show me how wrong I was. But for now I would say, watch this space and buckle up, it could get quite bumpy. Walk closely with the Lord !