Grace and Truth

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Tag Archives: covid


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No Church Allowed in Victoria

All churches have been closed since March here in Victoria, Australia. Seven months now and not a whimper from one church leader. Pathetic.

Yesterday we went to a park and sat outside and had church. There were 20 of us. We spaced out in household groups. I’ll admit not many of us were wearing masks.

We worshipped amongst the trees , my husband and I dedicated a baby and we read the Word.

And then someone called the police.

“Who’s the leader here?” they said as they walked over, fully armed. My husband said we were. I showed them my Bible and said that we are having church.

“It’s illegal” she said “you’re having a mass gathering”.

I asked if I could speak to her aside. She reluctantly agreed and I explained to them both that amongst our group there has been two attempted suicides in the last fortnight.

“It’s no excuse for breaking the law” she said.

“I will have to fine each of you $5000 . I have to, we no longer have discretion”.

Before you judge me as being irresponsible and for not obeying the government, just try to imagine yourself in Melbourne . Please try to imagine being in lockdown since March. Stage 4 lockdown since July. Not allowed to leave our homes 22 hours a day, not allowed to see anyone except one person outside and, up till recently, only if you’re walking. Not allowed to leave a 5km radius of our home.  Now we are allowed to actually sit in a park with no more than 5 people total and from a maximum of two households. Masks are mandatory at all times. Most workplaces are closed still. Kids have been out of school for months. Suicides are at an all time high for boys under 18.

And churches are shut.

Peope in other states of Australia cannot even grasp what we have been going through down here and I don’t blame them for that. Nobody should have to live like this. There have been moments where I felt I would lose my mind…But for the grace of God…

Many people have though. A couple who owned a beauty business which has been shut for many months, dropped their two kids off at their grandparents and then went and took their own lives.

And yet we count daily covid cases like they’re the only thing that matters now. For the last three weeks our daily covid cases have been 10-15.

So judge me if you like, tell me I’m being irresponsible but I honestly couldn’t care less. We have been smuggling people in to our home for months. We have been running an underground church. We have cast out demons, we have lead people to Christ and we have baptized people. This week we will be baptizing another in our bathtub.

Tell me, can this Anti- Christ government stop Gods work and Gods kingdom? No.

For those who have told me I should submit to government, I want to ask you, what side would you have been on when the Nazis were in power?

The police didn’t end up fining us $5000 each, thank You Lord, they let us off with a warning after all. Even ended up thanking us for the work we are doing. “Just find a way to do it legally,” they said. That is something I cannot figure out.

Our churches will not be open for months and months here.

But by the grace of God we will continue on.

 

 

 

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Pregnant Woman Arrested for Facebook Post in Melbourne

Yes that’s right. A young pregnant mum in her pajamas was arrested in front of her young children for posting on Facebook to attend a lockdown protest.

See it here: https://youtu.be/hn0wWVNXmks

We still have an 8pm curfew. We have not been allowed out for more than one hour of exercise a day for 5 weeks. We have not been allowed to see our elderly parents for 8 weeks. Today we had 113 new cases. 113.

Think about it.

 


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Join This Chariot

About three weeks ago I had a dream that a couple of people were coming to our house for prayer. But when I opened the front door a stream of people came in and kept coming…and coming. All different races of people. I wondered how they knew to come. They said

“We knew you’d be open!”

Our lounge was packed with people and I lifted up my hands and said “No social distancing here!”

The dream ended.

During the lockdown we had been doing a Bible study every morning and two others had been joining us via Messenger. So we just thought now we are “allowed” to have two people come to our house we will just invite them on a Sunday morning to continue this bible study, but now in person.

That was three weeks ago and every week more and more people have come on a Sunday. We have such a blessed time of worship, bible study, prayer and eat lunch together. Yesterday was beautiful.  We had guys join us from a Christian halfway house, where they take in men who have come out of jail or rehab and give them a place to live and a job.

The Lord spoke to us about House of Saul versus House of David and the outcasts going to David in the cave at Adullum….

On Friday I said to the Lord “What is going on?” This home-Church thing seems to be taking off at our place FAST, like it’s almost out of our control.

we have literally just opened the doors and people have come.

He gave me this scripture in our family bible study and confirmed It the next day as I was reading the book “Anointed for Burial”

”Go and join this chariot” Acts 8:29

As my friend Tim Shey has said , I think we just need to follow the cloud at the moment guys.

Be willing to do things differently because suddenly all our plans have been interrupted. Like the old thing is dead now. We’ve got to just follow the Lord.

And as my other friend (and spiritual father) Bill Randles has said – the church needs to meet in flesh and blood.

bless you,

Belinda

 


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Artificial Intelligence in Creating Experimental Vaccines: Interview with Moderna CEO

Yesterday Moderna released its initial results in its experimental mRNA covid – 19 vaccine development.

In this YouTube clip from January 2020 Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel, discusses the new innovative DNA technology they use to develop RNA vaccines, including the Amazon cloud, economic viability in vaccines and the Gates Foundation involvement with them.


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Will the Western Church Please Stand Up

The Western Church is so used to being hunkered down inside it’s four walls that this lockdown is not so different than what it’s become accustomed to.

(Apart from the tithes of course.)

In fact, it comes as a mild relief to have the excuse not to evangelize or minister at all. “Well what can we do, we are in lockdown??”

Cosy and comfy in our Christian bubbles we console ourselves that we can’t do anything anyway so why not turn on Netflix?

I had a fellow minister say to me today “Belinda, why are we the only ones who will still minister to people?”

And I’m sure we aren’t actually the only ones, but it kinda feels like it sometimes. I guess this is what we already knew – the church isn’t the buildings, it’s the living, mystical Body of Christ.

He had actually asked someone else first to minister to the guy last week who’d been heavily involved in the occult but he’d said no. He is not ministering to anyone during the pandemic….

…And we led this guy to Christ…

He’s also asked people to help him feed the baby Christians that had recently come to Christ in his ministry, but they’d also said no. No to bible study…because of the pandemic.

Listen, I’m not advocating for unwisely putting people in harm’s way at this time. I also understand that some people are genuinely fearful of the virus and of copping a fine for being out, and the fines are huge. But also- what the heck?? I can’t help comparing us with the apostles in Acts…what would those who “turned the world upside down” do right now?

 

“So one came and told them, [f]saying, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”
Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, 28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”
But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” ….
And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for [j]His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” Acts 5

 

 

 


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The Way to Get Through This

My husband was on a business trip in the
USA when the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus a Pandemic.

Things had already started to become strange up until that point but on that day everything turned and people went crazy here in Australia.

Just like that, toilet paper, pasta, hand sanitizer was stripped from the shelves and by the time I got there I couldn’t find any.  I remember the anxiety as I walked into the shops to find bare shelves, three children to look after and my husband far away.

The burden of responsibility to look after my family lay heavily on my shoulders. At heart I am a homemaker, and when I couldn’t get the basics for my family it struck me much more forcibly than anything else. I wasn’t afraid of the actual virus, I still am not. But those bare shelves brought some fear up in me I never expected.

The Lord was so very kind to me. He began to wake me up every night in the middle of the night, in fact He is still doing it to this day. I would get up and go into my prayer closet.

just me and Him.

I would cry, sometimes just sob at His feet. It wasn’t just about the toilet paper. I felt something had shifted in the spiritual realm. I felt everything was different now. And boy did I want my husband home.

I’ve always been a pray-er but those times with the Lord at night became my lifeline, literally. Without them I would not have coped. He gave me the strength to meet each day. He taught me to trust Him in a way I never have before and He turned my mourning in to dancing.

I would go in with a heavy and burdened heart. And I would come out of my prayer closet rejoicing.

Truly in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy. Really .

The joy that Christ gave me in those times became my strength for the day ahead.

Now we are in lockdown here in Australia, have been for two weeks. All the churches are shut, even the small ones. We are not allowed to meet in groups of more than 2, apart from our own household.

What do we do in such a situation? How do we get through with faith intact, with hope and peace?

It’s only in the Lords presence – and I can testify to it.

Every night He, in His grace, wakes me up still. It’s the only time I am alone now with a husband working from home and 3 kids locked out of school.

”where else would I go but to the Lord”

He is our strength, He is our hope and deliverer. Our shield and the horn of our salvation. Trust in Him, He never fails.

 

Bless you my brothers and sisters in this difficult season.

Belinda