Quarantine – Reality twist:
This word ‘quarantine’ has been used extensively in the past few years. A great deal of controversy arose over this word and the issues of masks, vaccines, rules for hand washing and a new term – social distancing. It is my view the virus constructed by scientists in a lab in China was destined to be misused as a change agent in the earth. Conspiracy theories abound but the one to which I most readily subscribe is verbalized in a quote of Jesus found in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10: “The thief comes not but for to steal, kill and destroy but I am come that you might have LIFE and that more abundantly.” But there are factors involving ‘quarantine’ I have yet to see discussed in any public forum. Since I have a propensity for hearing what is not being said let me be the one to break its silence around a particular aspect of ‘quarantine’.
Take a look with me at the Apostle Paul’s first book to the Church at Corinth, Chapter 6 verses 16 thru 18: “16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” The Holy Spirit of God moves Paul to exhort this Church to ‘quarantine’ themselves by separating themselves from the presence, the influence and the contamination of idols. And, for those who do not know, idols are those things we objectify which drain us of trust and reliance on God. Subsequently, in his 2nd letter to this Church, Paul reveals an enormous principle suggesting God has effected a quarantine in us by His cleansing processes: 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Many of those of us who are believers in Christ have yet to understand that this NEW nature is separated – ‘quarantined’ – from sin. When we sin, it is the product of the old nature and from a belief system (mindset) in the process of being renewed. Our true identity is in this NEW creation – NEW nature created in us by God through Christ. There is a prescribed way believers are to walk, live and have our being within the context of this ‘quarantine’. Books are written about this ‘prescriptive’ lifestyle, but I will summarize it in just a couple of quotations from the Gospel of John, the first being 6:28-29, the second being 8:51:
FIRST: My paraphrase of John 6:29 ‘YOU JUST HAVE ONE JOB’
28 & 29 “28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
8:51 “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”
Within the framework of these quotations, we have the essence of the boundaries of our quarantine. It quite simply is the matter of operating (living) life according to what we hear from the Spirit of Christ within us. We got this ONE JOB. Doing anything else results in ‘death’.
THIS is a ‘quarantine’ we can LIVE with!