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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
This 1:27 min video raises concerns about unintended consequences becoming a looming larger threat, i.e., the potential-becoming-predictable collateral damage from "just do something" government decisions.
How can we navigate uncharted waters and the unintended consequences of our decisions in the middle of chaos, crisis, and disease?
The coronavirus is a pestilence, a pandemic.
It’s a scourge, makes people ill, takes lives. Human beings rightly want to kill it.
So public health officials and political leaders are daily making innumerable and complex decisions in efforts to curtail its spread.
But no one knows what will result, whether these actions will indeed “flatten the curve” of virus growth. And even more, no one knows what unintended consequences will result from actions meant for good.
We cannot unerringly predict when the coronavirus will run its course.
But we can believe God’s promise:
“And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:21-22).
No pandemic can thwart God’s purposes. For God there is no such thing as unintended consequences.
God is still there, and he is not silent.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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This 9:11 min video chat with Rev. Dr. Leslie Mosher, Founder and Executive Director, Surprised by Hope, considers how SAT-7 and Surprised by Hope can do ministry through the limiting challenges and new opportunities presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This vlog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Dr. Rogers at www.rexmrogers.com/. Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
This 1:29 min video reminds us that the coronavirus pandemic is not partisan, but it is providential.
Is it absurd to ask the question, is public health partisan or providential?
Is public health partisan? The short answer is, No.
But it would be naïve to think politicians don’t do a political calculus on what their actions might do for their careers.
This, however, is not a diatribe against politicians, though partisanship does get old. This is about Christians seeing the big picture in a public health crisis.
No one would pray for something like the coronavirus pandemic. No one wants their loved ones infected. Yet God can turn evil to good.
Christians ought to see the pandemic as an opportunity to glorify God by ministering to others.
In centuries past through numerous plagues, Christians did not succumb to flight or fright but stayed long, served long, suffered long.
Christians provided medical and compassion assistance to everyone, not just people of the faith.
Christians first established hospitals in Europe.
Christians recognized that when plagues did cause them to flee, the diaspora helped spread not the plague but Christianity.
No, pandemics are not partisan, but they are providential.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com. Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
This 1:48 min video reviews how difficult it is to know and what we don't know about the coronavirus pandemic. Then, what we know for sure, the known known that we can trust the Sovereign God regarding the virus.
What really can we say that we know for sure as the global pandemic creates a new reality?
This coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented.
Political leaders and public health professionals are scrambling because they’ve never seen this before, not in modern times anyway.
The problem is not with their actions. The problem is with their humanity, meaning that like me they are not omniscient, so outcomes cannot be foretold, only that there will be outcomes.
Remember Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld? In a 2002 press conference referencing the Iraq War, Rumsfeld described decision making as a matter of known knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns.
What God’s purposes are in this pandemic is a known unknown.
What lasting ripples of this pandemic will be are an unknown unknowns.
But the known known, what we can embrace with assurance, is what the Bible says,
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com. Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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This 15:01 min video chat with Dr. Camille Melki, CEO, Heart for Lebanon, considers how SAT-7 and Heart for Lebanon can "lead, not just manage, through the coronavirus crisis" to minister to people in great need.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This vlog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Dr. Rogers at www.rexmrogers.com/. Follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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- Written by: Rex M. Rogers
This 2:10 min video considers how SAT-7 can minister during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Coronavirus pandemic has pushed governments to call for shutdowns, including churches closing their doors and families sheltering-in-place.
These are circumstances with which we in Europe and the United States are not familiar.
But these kinds of challenges are old news in the Middle East and North Africa.
In this region— religion, rulers, and regimes have long shuttered churches, restricted freedom of religion and mobility, and periodically persecuted congregations.
Meanwhile SAT-7, broadcasting throughout 25 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, understands how to connect with people via satellite technology and social media in the relative safety of their own homes.
While churches in the West are moving to online services SAT-7 has been doing this for years to support the MENA Church.
Now, while we’re all subject to travel restrictions, there are no restrictions on media distribution.
SAT-7 ministers every day to people who are sheltering in place, socially distanced, or isolated.
Our friend in Beirut, Pastor Hikmat Kashouh recently said, “Today, (our church) is 1,000 churches. That’s because every house is now a church, following our service and worshiping the Lord. Through SAT-7 we can reach everyone. The Coronavirus may disperse us, but the Lord gathers us and unites us through His spirit around His Holy Word.”
This is SAT-7’s unique opportunity, a lifeline for the Church for such a time as this.
You can be part of this lifeline for the Arab, Iranian, and Turkish people.
Please consider a special gift for SAT-7’s ministry. Perhaps $670 for a broadcasting day sponsorship.
Together, we can bring encouragement to isolated Arab, Farsi and Turkish speaking people, sharing the Gospel directly into the living rooms of millions of homes.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com. Follow at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.