Bits and Pieces – 7th Edition – April 19, 2020

STILL SHUT DOWN. As the Covid-19 crisis continues, public church services are off-limits.  However, the Toronto church services can be heard live each Lord’s Day at 11.00am and 6.30pm on sermonaudio.com/toronto. The Wednesday night prayer meetings (7.30pm) continue using zoom.us.  Contact the info@torontofpc.ca if you would like to join.

HUMOUR IN ADVERSITY.  For decades one of the main annual Free Presbyterian events is the Easter Convention held in the Martyrs’ Memorial FPC in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when thousands of Free Presbyterians meet from all over to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ.  The convention is undoubtedly a highlight of the church year.

This year, because of the Covid19 problem, an abbreviated event was held on Easter Monday.  It featured some live preaching, via the internet, and they also showed some film clips from previous years with the church packed with over 2000 people.  Some wag, no doubt wanting to get the church in trouble, phoned the police to complain about this crowd of people not social distancing.  The police arrived at the church to find only two cars in the car park.  No doubt the troublemaker could be recognized by his scarlet face!

DENOMINATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER.  The North American Free Presbyterian Churches have made today, a day of prayer.  All our churches from Orlando in the south, Cloverdale in the west, Fredericton in the north and Malvern in the east will be joining together using various means of internet communication to pray for the present Covid19 situation.  Contact your local Free Presbyterian church to find out how and when you can join.

INTERESTING PROJECT.  Alan and Anne Rogerson have set themselves an interesting study.  Independent of each other they are considering the characters in the Bible.  Then they will list the five Bible characters they would most like to invite to dinner for fellowship and a chat. The Rogersons would then compare their lists and discus the reasons for their choices. For obvious reasons the Lord Jesus is not on the list. Alan suggested that perhaps some of our readers would like to do the same. I invite you to e-mail me your choices with a brief line on why you chose each.  I will collate your answers.  It should be interesting to see the results.  We can report the results on a later issue of “Bits and Pieces.”   My e-mail address is frankmac1@sympatico.ca

THE SINGING OF THE BIRDS.  One of the delights of the spring season is the singing of the birds (Song of Solomon 2:12).  The robins and cardinals are beautiful to look at, and a joy to hear. One of the more abundant of birds is the sparrow that has a rather drab plumage, and its song is somewhat ordinary.  So people get excited by the sight and sound of robins, cardinals and goldfinches, but not so much about the humble sparrow.  Yet listen to the words of Jesus, “Not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6).  He goes on to state that if God so loved and cared for an insignificant sparrow, He will not forget His people.  Jesus said, “Ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7).

GOOD FRIDAY COMMENTS. U.S. President Donald Trump, liked by many and loathed by others, made a good speech regarding Easter.  He, with vice President Mike Pence (a committed Christian) and evangelical Bishop Harry Jackson of Maryland, spoke to the nation on Good Friday from the Oval Office.  He spoke of the value of the Christian faith, and commended the American people to put their trust in “Almighty God.”  

Bishop Jackson then read from the Bible, and prayed.  He ended his prayer “in Jesus name,” which many so-called Christian clerics will not do today for fear of offending those of other religions.  Trump’s speech was not widely covered by the leftist media.

“GOD-HATING” NEW YORK GOVERNOR. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, commenting on Monday April 13 about the slight improvement of the Covod19 numbers in his State said, “This number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do it.  Fate did not do that.  Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that.”  Again he emphasized “We did it.” He may regret that arrogant statement for the days may well come when he needs the help of the God whose help he disdained.  Ponder well Proverbs 1:24-33.  God is not to be mocked.