In Acts 20:7, “Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them until midnight.” Paul made sure he was with brethren to worship his God and commune with the church and remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Hebrews 10:25, we are told not to forsake the assembling of ourselves for worship. We have been told by our government not to meet in crowds larger than a certain number (the specified number varies with local and current circumstances regarding the pandemic). We are told to obey the laws of our land if they do not go against the Word of God (Romans 13:1-2). What can we do to worship our God? We can and should meet in our homes with our families during this time of lockdown. There are many congregations airing their Sunday morning services. There are also 5-minute devotionals, lessons for Sunday evening and Wednesday night services. We have no excuse for not worshipping our God. Also, we can do our own services and have one of the men teach a lesson during our services in the home.
As we have been going through this lockdown because of the Covid-19, have we worshipped our God? Yes, we cannot meet with the brethren, but we can provide the communion items for our family to worship and commune with our God in remembrance of our Lord giving His life on the cross for our sins. We can sing (Ephesians 5:19), pray (2 Thessalonians 1:11), observe communion (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) and listen to a lesson (as they are all over Facebook and YouTube (1 Timothy 4:2). For giving, we can mail our contributions to respective local congregations. What can we do about communion? We can make our own unleavened bread or buy some Matzo crackers. Grape juice can be purchased at any grocery store. Some congregations are providing the communion elements to their members if they come to the church building to pick them up. This is also a good time to give of our means to whomever is handing out the communion for our Sunday worship (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
There are some of our brethren who use Zoom so they can worship with certain brothers and sisters. I guess the biggest drawback with this is they cannot hear one another sing. They sing, pray, commune and have a lesson presented by one of the men.
We are not forsaking the assembly as some would have us think, but instead, we are making the effort to assemble as best we can under daunting circumstances. [Early Christians often faced formidable challenges and adapted as necessary to worship God. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor.] If we are worshipping our God and remembering our Lord’s sacrifice for us on the Lord’s day, we are obeying our Lord to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
This worship period can be a very special time for building up our family relationships. It can and should bring us closer to one another and to our Savior and Father above.
