QC (no SG accountability!) on 20/3/20

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We largely (except for Wen Jin) met virtually today!
 We discussed prayer. Winnie was saying (quoting R C Sproul) that "people who think prayer doesn't work don't pray. We talked about the 10 lepers (Lk 17:11-19). Jesus said that the Samaritan who returned was 'made..well (Gk: 'saved') by faith, i.e. he had experienced more than just physical healing. All 10 may have been grateful for what Jesus did for them, but only one expressed that gratitude to Jesus. All received healing, but only one received Jesus.

Why pray if God already knows everything? We said that prayer the means by which God ordains that things come to pass (i.e. God ordains the means as well as the ends). Prayer is the place where human responsibility and Divine sovereignty meet. Knowing that God has ordained some things to happen through prayer helps us pray with significance (our prayers make a difference) and boldness.

However, prayer is more than a transaction - it is the expression of a relationship. This involves all that God is and all that we are, so that prayer becomes a multilayered thing. Prayer made in faith pleases God (1 Ti 2:12-2, Heb 11:6, Ro 14:23). Unlike us, God does not 'need' prayer. But He 'wants' prayer from His children.

I also asked what our responses should be to the COVID situation. My grouse with many Christian messages is that they portray God as responding to the threat of danger to His people. This is no doubt true, but is incomplete. He is the one who is sovereign over COVID and in fact has ordained it to come to pass.

Why do we heed the government when we are told not to gather for church services. Surely we should heed Heb 10:24-25 and 'obey God rather than men" (Ac 5:29). We raised the idea of Wesleyan social holiness - responsibility to society at large. We are also reminded of Paul's 4 points of ethical practice in 1 Cor 6 and 1 Cor 10:
- our actions must be helpful (6:12a, 10:23a)
- our actions must build up (1):23b)
- our actions must not master us (i.e. become an end in themselves, 6:12b)
- our actions must not be to seek our own good, but the good of our neighbours (10:24).

In this current context I agree that we  must 'submit to the authorities (Ro 13:5). If the COVID situation is prolonged, the church in Singapore must give up certain freedoms that it has taken for granted and share in a small extent in the suffering of brothers and sisters in closed countries where freedom of assembly and worship are restricted.



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