Not created to be on our own

When God created the earth and placed human beings on this planet His intentions were that they would multiply and live peacefully together.

It was not in God's Plan that we all would live as individuals in our own little cocoon or bubble, isolated from the rest of the world.

2020 was a year where we were forced to go in isolation. Even to honour God and to have religious services we had to find means to have celebrations and Breaking of bread, without being together.

We once were a society that centred around family. Multiple generations often lived together under one roof and when families did live separately, they never moved very far. There always have been events to celebrate with each other. Often people looked for reasons to come together and have fun with each other in group. These days, we have become more of an individualistic culture. Most people today rely on themselves. In previous generations members of a family often came to live not so far away from the other members. Today, work has required many to live far away from where they were raised. Our connections with other people take place most often in the workplace. But those connections are usually shallow, fickle, and short lived.

In the church, we see this sense of individualism and disconnectedness as well. In certain countries people are obliged to move around because their work. They therefore do not have anymore what they would call their "own church". Some may stake a claim on a church but remain distant and on the margins, attending only when something better isn't going on. And then there are those who may indeed have a committed relationship with a church but they are not all in. They aren't fully known by their community. They don't rely on the Body when they are struggling or in need. Instead, they wear masks that cover the pain of their lives, pretending that everything's okay, even though it's not.

This year literally masks had to be covering our face. All over the continent religious people could not come together anymore to have a worship service together. Now the individualism and doing life on our own is not part of God's design. In creating mankind, God desired for us to participate in that community which in this corona period could not be realised in real life, but had to happen in virtual meetings.

Jehovah didn't create man to be in community with him alone. After he created the world and Adam, God said,

 "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18). 

God created man and woman to be in community together, to create families and live together, bearing the image of God.

Scripture is all about community. God chose the Israelites to be his people.

 "And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people" (Leviticus 26:12). 

They lived and worshipped him together in community. Following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, God then instituted the church, the Body of Christ as a community of believers.

 "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (1 Corinthians 12:27).

 This year, we as members of our church-community were not able to come together in real life with our brothers and sisters. But thanks to the contemporary electronica we were blessed to be able to meet by all those modern electric tools. Several electronic applications made it possible that we even could meet with more people from all over the world.

Being made to live in a humble, worshipful, and loving dependency upon God and in a loving and humble interdependency with others, we could share our union with Christ.

Not only were we created to be in community but we also need community. When we can come together we can share ideas and strengthen each other in our way of thinking and handling. In a way there is also social control. We need godly brothers and sisters to watch our back. We need to be connected in community where we can all be on alert together for the dangers that are all around us.

The truth is, we need each other. We need to trust, rely on, and depend upon other believers. God gave us each other to walk alongside, encourage, and spur one another one in the faith. The writer to the Hebrews says,

 "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

James 5:16 says,

 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." 

We are to carry each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2), care for each other's practical needs (Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:16), warn each other of sin (1 Thessalonians 5:14) and rejoice and mourn with each other (Romans 12:15).

Though society might tell us that we can do life on our own, God's word tells us that we simply can't function without each other (1 Corinthians 12). We need each other and we need community. But we should know that in these times of the coronavirus we need to be careful not to bring others in danger, creating possibilities to infect each other.

At the moment we still do have to keep to the corona measures to keep everybody safe. We should not claim as some other Christians and certain Jews do that we have to have the religious freedom to have our worship and praise services in group. There are the meeting tools like Zoom, Meats, HouseParty, Jitsi, Hangouts, Google Meets, a.o. to join a virtual meeting. Lets make use of them for still some more months. And lets hope that from September onwards we shall be able to have again a normal life with many people, able to go to shops, restaurants, hotels and other places, like going back to a prayer hall or church.

Even when not created to be on our own, for the time being we shall have to be happy to keep it cosy in our small corona bubble.

A new start when the lockdown comes to an end

For weeks, we have been limited in what we could do and where we could go. It looked like one life or one period or age had come to a close and another way of living came to the forefront.

Several countries loosening the restrictions of the lockdown offer a totally different world than before the corona crisis. Many people had now several weeks to think about their way of life and are wondering how they shall have to continue in this world where nothing shall seem to be the same as before.

“Most of us think that we can change our lives if we just summon the willpower and try even harder this time around,”

says Alan Deutschman, the former executive director of Unboundary, a firm that counsels corporations on how to navigate change.

 “It’s exceptionally hard to make life changes, and our efforts are usually doomed to failure when we try to do it on our own.”

For New Year's resolutions it is well known that mostly when Spring arrives they are all gone or forgotten. To suggest that most people will never change, no matter how much they want to, seems almost giving no opportunity to believe positively in mankind.

In many of the so-called civilised countries, you may find bookstore shelves swollen with the latest self-help books, and life-change gurus like Anthony Robbins, Dr. Phil and, yes, Oprah are pop-culture icons. There are the Experience, Observation, Awareness, even a Fear Guru next to the guru who tends to demoralize us. And for all these gurus there was a lof of screening time on television lately. Bounded to the house, many also came hooked tot the screen wich brought all the bad news about corona, but also brought programs about people who had difficulties with coping with themselves as well with others.

For many people, it also looked difficult to accept themselves for who and what they are.

We noticed also that in this period of the CoViD-19 pandemic several people looked on the net for answers about the role of God in this matter. Many also sought for a spiritual guru. Others looked on social media to others to find out how they were coping with this present situation. Some also tried to learn from the one who hasn't reached the top. It was as if they needed a sibling to relate to their father.
What does not seem bad, is that some people went looking for themselves, and after knowing self, God, world drama history,... they found themselves more related to the divine Creator God. They came to feel that though at other times we are so busy to have contact with other people, that we forget a much more important contact.

In quarantine many become confronted with That Higher Being, coming to feel there is no one between them, there also not being restraints, Someone Who accepts them the way they are.

I t can well be that in this period we took more time to try to impress Him by moulding our character to the one He loves i.e imbibe virtues and give up our bad habits. Did you felt also closer to HIm? So that's kind of evergreen feeling because you are growing with Him and not just getting prepared to showcase self in front of Him after end of the present life. (?)

It is well know we all want to do some things our own way. 

"What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. The mind doesn’t direct the will. The mind is actually captive to what the will wants, and the will itself, in turn, is captive to what the heart wants." 

Having been captive now for some weeks, in our own cocoon, we had enough time to think about ourselves and about our relationship with others and with our Maker.

Having had so much time, many considered if this would not be the moment to go to do it differently. The 8th of June was for the kids as for the parents like a new schoolyear, or a new start of a new and a different life.
This new situation made some people making a resolution and summoning up all their willpower does little good if, ultimately, their heart isn’t in it. Does this mean you should abandon any hope of change? Not at all. If you’re going to make a resolution, you should determine if the resolution is actually good. always you should check what is the driving desire. Is it a good one?

If your resolution is actually a good one, just do it. Go ahead and work out more, smoke or drink less, read your Bible more, pay down your debt and save more for retirement, focus on your marriage, spend more time with your children.
In all cases, we shall have to place ourselves in the surroundings with others. Our interaction with them is always going to influence our aims and actions.

Jesus gave us an example to follow and provide a helper, the Holy Spirit, who can change our desires and empower us to love God and neighbour. As Paul tells us,

 “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

 With us and our willpower, Jesus says, change is impossible,

 “but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

 As Cranmer realized, our wills are captive to what our hearts love, and we are powerless to change ourselves without the work of God’s Spirit changing our desires.

When you think through the resolutions you want to make for after Corona, here’s a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer as you ask God to work on your heart:

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Preceding

 Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week

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Additional reading

1. Social media, sympathy & shocks
2. The unseen enemy
3. Broken daily routines
4. Staying at home saves lives
5. A virus giving the world an opportunity to re-evaluate and change the way we live
6. Unlikely silence
7. Covid-19 Psalm 19 Isaiah 26 and the Evangelical Proof-Texters
8. 7 Ways To Boost Your Immune System in Lockdown
9. So many being afraid – reason enough to step in the boat with Christ
10. Love in the Time of Corona
11. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
12. 2020 World Time to pause

China staat open voor internationaal onderzoek naar oorsprong coronavirus

China staat open voor een internationaal onderzoek naar de oorsprong coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Dat zei de Chinese ambassadeur in Berlijn, Wu Ken, aan het Duitse magazine Der Spiegel.
Hij ontkende de beschuldigingen dat China de uitbraak aanvankelijk in de doofpot zou gestoken hebben. Hij gaf wel toe dat er communicatiefouten zijn gebeurd.

China was als eerste land ter wereld geconfronteerd met het onbekende virus en heeft 'snel en transparant gereageerd', zei de diplomaat.

'Natuurlijk heeft deze ongeziene epidemie enkele van onze onvolkomenheden aangetoond. We denken erover na hoe we in de toekomst de relatie tussen wetenschap en publieke communicatie via de plaatselijke politiek kunnen verbeteren.'

De ambassadeur wees de eis om schadevergoeding van de VS af.

 'Volkenrechtelijk is er noch een verdrag, noch een precedent, waarbij de staat waaruit een virus stamt, moet opdraaiden voor de verliezen van een andere staat',

 zei Wu. Hij vroeg wie dan voor bijvoorbeeld aids of de H1N1-griep verantwoordelijk gesteld zou worden.

Sterker uit de coronacrisis komen

27 EU-leiders roepen in video samen op tot solidariteit

De 27 EU-leiders roepen in een nooit geziene gezamenlijke videoboodschap op tot solidariteit om 'sterker' uit de coronacrisis te geraken. De boodschap werd zaterdag, Europadag, op Twitter geplaatst.

In de video, net geen zes minuten lang, komt ook premier Sophie Wilmès aan bod. Zij wijst in de drie landstalen op de Belgische wapenspreuk: eendracht maakt macht.

Oud-premier Charles Michel mag als voorzitter van de Europese Raad van wal steken, door op te sommen wat Europa betekent: vrijheid, tolerantie, diversiteit... maar ook solidariteit en eenheid.

'Ons doel is dat Europa sterker uit de coronacrisis komt',

 zegt de Duitse bondskanselier Angela Merkel. Haar land neemt in juli het voorzitterschap van de EU over.
Ursula von der Leyen, voorzitter van de Europese Commissie, erkende donderdag in een persbericht nog dat de Europese solidariteit

'bij het begin van de crisis op de proef werd gesteld. Vervolgens zijn we elkaar beginnen helpen: de facto solidariteit. Die solidariteit moet zich verderzetten.' (Belga)

Meer dan 4 miljoen coronabesmettingen wereldwijd

Het aantal bevestigde coronabesmettingen is wereldwijd de 4 miljoen gepasseerd. Dat heeft de Johns Hopkins Universiteit in Baltimore zaterdagavond (lokale tijd) bekendgemaakt en blijkt ook uit een eigen telling van het Franse persbureau AFP. Volgens de universiteit zijn ongeveer 278.000 mensen aan de gevolgen van het nieuwe coronavirus overleden.

Van alle landen zijn de Verenigde Staten het zwaarst getroffen. Daar zijn 1,3 miljoen infecties bekend, ongeveer een derde van het totale aantal. Het dodental is daar ruim 78.000. Europa is het zwaarst getroffen continent met ruim 1,7 miljoen bekende besmettingen en meer dan 155.000 sterfgevallen. (Belga)

According to Pew Most White Evangelicals Don’t Think COVID-19 is a Medical Crisis

In 2011 the International Health Regulations Review Committee already gave a warning that

“The world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public-health emergency.“

In certain countries or states, we the last few years have seen a grow in evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Several of those evangelical denominations slid or slipped off to become very conservative or sometimes even very fundamental Christian groups.

The nonpartisan American think tank, Pew Research Center, based in the Washington, D.C. area does polling, research into American social issues, politics,  public opinion and demographic trends, If you read any newspaper or watch regular news you see their material, as it is used regularly
  In early March of 2020 Pew did a survey of white evangelicals from March 10 through 16. In the United States CoViD-19 was declared a national emergency on March 13, 2020. Here is what Pew says.

 Around three-quarters of white evangelicals (77%) say they are at least somewhat confident that Trump is doing a good job responding to the outbreak, including roughly half who say they are very confident. Majorities of white evangelicals say Trump has assessed the risks of the situation correctly (64%) and that the crisis has been blown out of proportion by the media (76%), while just a quarter (24%) say Trump hasn’t taken risks tied to the coronavirus seriously enough.
By comparison, about half of Americans overall (52%) say Trump has underplayed the risks, including majorities who say this among the religiously unaffiliated (64%), black Protestants (67%) and Jews (73%)

Close to 1,000 students some from high infection areas were encouraged to come back to campus in central Virginia.

We can notice a blatant disregard to face the facts. Pandemics happen and history is full of them. In the United States they, like in many other places, have pandemics every so often. Influenza, small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, etc… have all happened in the history of the United States from colonial times to current. Many evangelicals do not seem to understand that people should be protected and in many cases also receive vaccinations against such diseases to avoid worse scenarios. 

  It is incredible that today when one has so much coverage of bad cases all over Europe that several American churches are still calling their flock to meet and want to have big Easter gatherings this weekend.

This irresponsible attitude to ignore the rules of good public health indicates a totally irresponsible attitude without a deep love for other people.

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Preceding
Using fears of the deadly coronavirus

Observance of the Lord’s Evening Meal

Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week

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Find also to read

1. The unseen enemy
2. Making deeper cuts than some terrorist attacks of the near past
3. Mel Brooks saying “go home” to Max Brooks
4. CoViD-19 warnings
5. President Trump shall have to recognise that Immigrant Workers Are Vital to the U.S.A.
6. In denial, Donald Trump continues to insist that nothing serious is at hand and everything is in control
7. Under-reporting the total number of coronavirus cases
8. José Antonio Vergara talking in Esperanto about the outbreak of the epidemic
9. Margaret Zaleski-Zamenho from Paris telling in Esperanto about the situation in France
10. Coronavirus on March 11 declared a global pandemic on March 31 affecting more than 177 countries
11. Europe in Chaos for a Pandemic
12. Only a few days left before 14 Nisan
13. Even in Corona time You are called on to have the seder
14. Observance of the Lord’s Evening Meal
15. One Passover tradition asking to provide the less fortunate with foods and help
16. In a time when we must remain in our place
17. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
18. Love in the Time of Corona
19. Recrafting our World
20. CoViD-19 warnings
21. Anxiety Management During Pandemic Days~
22. Hope on the Horizon: Pandemic Anxiety Management II~

Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week

For Pope Francis at the Vatican, and for Catholics worldwide from churches large and small, this will be an Easter like none other, like for real Christians this week shall be one of isolation whilst otherwise so busy with meeting and sharing the Good News.

The joyous message of Christ’s resurrection will be delivered to empty pews in the Christian world.
Bible students all over the world, who normally gather on 14 Nisan to have their Memorial Meal shall not be able to gather in this time of lockdown.
Also the Jews shall not be able to invite friends and poor people to their seder and shall have to celebrate the Passover meal on their own.

For the Catholics and many protestants, the world seems to come to a stand still, having no mass or worship services in public any more. Some protestant churches already spoke of a devil (Satan) making sure there would come an end to people serving and worshipping God.

Worries about the coronavirus outbreak have triggered widespread cancellations of Holy Week processions and in-person services. Many priests and pastors will preach on TV or online, tailoring sermons to account for the pandemic.
Many extended families will reunite via Face Time and Zoom rather than around a communal table laden with a Pesach Memorial Meal on Wednesday the 8th of April or an Easter feast on April 12.

Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, will be celebrating Mass for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Easter in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica, instead of in the huge square outside filled with Catholic faithful.

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Find also to read:

1. Making deeper cuts than some terrorist attacks of the near past
2.  The unseen enemy
3. Coronavirus on March 11 declared a global pandemic on March 31 affecting more than 177 countries
4. Europe in Chaos for a Pandemic
5. No idea yet for 14 Nisan or April the 8th in 2020 Corona crisis time
6. Only a few days left before 14 Nisan
7. Even in Corona time You are called on to have the seder
8. A meal as a mitzvah so that every generation would remember
9. A night different from all other nights and days to remember
10. First time since Nazi time no public gathering
11. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
12. Love in the Time of Corona
13. Christian Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Corona en carnaval makkelijk gebakken broodjes voor verhogend racisme

Niet alleen 57 Chinees-Nederlandse organisaties hoefden een carnavalslied over Chinezen en het coronavirus

‘Discriminerend en haatzaaiend.’

te verklaren. Het carnavalslied toont weer eens aan hoe carnavalsliefhebbers geen voeling hebben met mensenrechten en respect voor anderen.

Het lied Voorkomen is beter dan Chinezen is door dj Lex Gaarthuis gemaakt en vrijdag uitgezonden in zijn show Laat met Lex. Het gebruikt onder het mom van carnaval racistische stereotypen en spreekt onder andere over ‘stink-Chinezen’.

Gaarthuis bood excuses aan, maar het probleem is breder. Chinese Nederlanders voelen zich bedreigd, worden geweigerd als ze de bus in willen, worden op straat uitgescholden. Of mensen hoesten op hen.

Ook in het vroeger boeiende Nederlands praatprogramma dat van 2014 tot 2019 uitgezonden werd bij de publieke omroep, maar dat Belgen die niet geabonneerd zijn op RTL 4 sinds januari 2020 niet meer kunnen volgen, werden gasten uit de actualiteit aan de tafel gebracht bij presentatrice Eva Jinek, in haar talkshow Jinek die het stereotype van Chinezen die hond eten over de tafel aankaartten.


Bij het landelijk meldpunt discriminatie kwamen 3000 meldingen binnen, alleen over het lied van Gaarthuis. Dat is een enorm aantal - gemiddeld krijgt het meldpunt 4500-5000 meldingen per jaar.
Een petitie en aangifte deden de ronde om hier de strijd tegen aan te binden.



Zowel in Nederland als in België worden bepaalde Chinese wijken geweerd. In Nederland gaat een deel van de bevolking zo ver mensen met Aziatisch uiterlijk te beschimpen. Die westerse Chinezen krijgen opmerkingen toegeroepen als:

‘Alle Chinezen Europa uit’, ‘kanker-Chinezen allemaal doodmaken’, ‘altijd die Chinezen met hun scheve ogen’.

Dit valt natuurlijk goed in de ogen van populistische politici die graag zout op  de zoete broodjes gooit om zo nog meer anderen dan Ariërs uit te laten maken en te verwensen.