Interruptions: They Augment the Good or the Bad

Interruptions: They Augment the Good or the Bad   Kelly Durant

John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

2. What is an interruption? I think the past 2 months we have learned a lot about it with all the new restrictions and changes that occurred during the Covid 19. An interruption is when there is an activity going on, like regular business, and then something stops it abruptly but usually temporarily; there is then a timeout time and a focus on something else other than the regular so called ‘normal’ activities. New knowledge and awareness of things are disrupters as well bringing on new results. We must always analyze these outcomes if they are of God or not.

When you serve Jesus and serve others as a missionary, preacher, or in particular as a Soldier or Officer in the Salvation Army, your whole life becomes one big interruption of going from one unexpected activity to the next. It seems daily unforeseen things happen and you really have to hold on to Jesus to manage this type of lifestyle. I call it good stress, because in the end what we do is for God’s glory to help others, amen? But we must also have a time for a Sabbath rest.

All Christians when they get serious with the Lord will be called to do many things extraordinary that we are not familiarized to do, like becoming ‘fishers of men’; It will become uncomfortable, and it will involve learning patience, and also, a dying to your pride. Today I will focus on some angles of how interruptions affect us, I’ll start with myself, how I had to change, then focus on the community at large and the Covid disruption, and finally focus on the church, and more things to expect.

3. Personal interruptions: I recall as a kid I would be having fun outside, practicing throwing a knife at the tree or acting out as some character or something and then I would hear my mother yell, “Come inside now! It’s time to eat, wash dishes, and get ready for tomorrow!” I hated being interrupted but there seemed to be no other alternative if I wanted to eat and not get whipped.

Also, after being married, even on the first year my sweet wife Regina would yell at me too, “Come here and take your son, I need to cook!” I would in vain respond, “But I am practicing a song, or working on a project!” as that seemed to not have any priority. So again, having a family, I learned to get interrupted about 20 times daily and learned to just do what a parent does and become extremely flexible.

Also, when I was 21 and in college, thinking I would become a psychologist and make myself into some eccentric earth loving character but I got my lifestyle  interrupted with a call to go serve the Lord in Brazil. Thank God for that interruption! I would not trade all that I have learned while serving Jesus for nothing! When Jesus calls you, you must stop what you are doing, make a u-turn, and go down the road He has for you in life. Life after the interruption of ‘God’s calling’ gets excitingly better, and purposeful, but also full of unexpected changes and interruptions. You become as the wind, driven by the spirit. John 3: 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Soldiers in the Salvation Army get this call, a call to serve and love and then the action!

4. Interruptions in the community: When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, they thought they would be fishermen until they were old and dead, but then Jesus interrupted them one day and totally changed their lives and direction, Matthew  4:18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

This is how it is when you learn of Jesus, you have to make a decision to follow Him or not, to keep on with the old, or choose a new life with Him at the stern guiding your deep sea adventures. I can tell you I am amazed that even after so many years (over 40 for me) the adventure with Jesus never ends and what a glorious life it is to see souls saved and lives made better!  

The lifestyle of serving others and Jesus implies that every day you will get interrupted in your planned activities by a dozen different things and people that have some kind of a need and then their need becomes your challenge on how to help them as much as possible so they gain hope and faith that there is a God that loves them. Jesus changes us from being self-serving to God-serving!

5. Not everyone likes getting interrupted by Jesus (or you telling them about Him). Mark 1:24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”

You and I must be Jesus’ spokesperson sharing the ‘good news’ and like it or not, Jesus will bring on a change! Where there is a demon possessed person, Jesus will rebuke and heal, where there is a sick person, Jesus will comfort and heal, where there is a broken hearted soul, Jesus will heal it as well and give that person a new life, a mission, and one of sharing His ‘good news’ of life eternal!

So do you see the cycle? Jesus shows up, He interrupts normal business, He then repurposes the broken stuck-in-a-rut person to do good for God’s Kingdom, and then He gives that person a mission. So you or I when touched by Jesus also go on to interrupt others in their day-to-day boring existence to share the gospel with them. We see some people change totally, and then we see others who miss the boat and go back to their mundane repetitious life and are forgotten by all. 

6. Interruptions by Satan: Satan certainly does scheme time and time again how to interrupt the flow of things and deceive and murder God’s people! His tactics are diametrically opposed to Jesus! Jesus in the community comes to bless, to heal, to give meaning to life, and life eternal, to instruct on humility and love but not so with Satan. Satan inspires people to spread violence, sickness (viruses), division, and death. We see him too active of late!

Satan always comes in with deception fooling people who are carnally minded motivating them with temptation; temptation with power and personal wealth, playing on their fear of living life poor, enticing a person, you or me, to satisfy inordinate passions which always  includes harming and abusing others, even to steal from them and even kill. He also pressures all to be subdued under fear, to succumb to his demons who are merciless psychotic debauched gang leaders and dictators who overtly exploit and persecute  innocent people.  I really hate Satan and His people with a passion! All true Christians will hate Satan and expose the evil works of his people!

So what are Satan’s end-time plans for absolute dominion which will require every person on earth to worship him? We already know from what Jesus revealed in Revelation to John His servant. These tactics keep repeating and keep getting more intense. His favorite is to divide and conquer. 

7. Interruption by prophecy: From the 4 horsemen we learn that these objectives will be used by Satan and they are: Subjugation by force, war and division, hunger, an imbalance of wealth, and then death which implies death by diseases. What is implied under death? Revelation 6:8  So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

The interesting part here is “and by the beasts of the earth”. The first claim was the Corona 19 was from a virus (or bacteria) carried by bats, but soon it was said to be one made in a lab (in China or the US), so maybe the truth is somewhere in between; it could be bats carry it but it was enhanced by a lab to infect humans more readily. A bat is considered a beast as it is not an animal that can be domesticated. Basically beasts do kill many humans yearly by many means!

So we are at the moment in time in which man’s intervention, or interruption of nature’s normal containment, is what is provoking more death carried out by people doing Satan’s wishes to discover how to kill mass amounts of people. 

8. What terrible days we are living in and we all need Jesus like never before! Imagine, the news groups already report that due to the shut downs we should expect more death from suicides from the effects of having the Covid 19. We also should expect many deaths from hunger, from food shortages, as the interruption of the production of food from the factories and slaughterhouses has crippled the normal supply. China already only produces half the meat they use to!

And what do we know from WW1 and WW2? It was failed economies and mass desperation for food and goods that provoked Japan and Germany into the war invasion phase to invade other countries and kill on a mass scale. Also China’s leader, Chairman Mao killed 26 million or more of his own people to subdue them into atheistic communism in 1949. Don’t think it can’t happen again! Mass destruction is already in the works by these elaborate elites that already own more than half of the world already. Governments obey their bidding because they own the governments, the world organizations, and most everything!

Satan has always killed some of his own to get to the ones he really hates, and that is his adversaries, the Christians, who always with the truth expose his plans for dominion, wars, hunger, death and population reduction by ‘plandemics’. Imagine, lab generated poisons and viruses can kill more people on a mass scale more than anything else besides an atomic bomb. And will things now get calmer? It seems not as they announce a 2^nd wave and that no normalcy will happen until 7 billion get the vaccine they already planned to market years ago.. 

9.The interruption to the church by Covid 19: Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (The evil done to Joseph by his own family, sold into slavery).

As Christians it seems that so many times that the attacks against us turns into something unexpectedly beneficial. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. By the closing down of houses of worship many thousands of house churches (church-in-the-home) were opened up! Some churches probably will lose some folks for a while, but the number of Christians in this time of uncertainty and confusion, I believe, has actually grown. 

Christian church buildings are only a modern luxury. Before it was like this,  Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple (Jewish ones), and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Worship before was an everyday thing! It was as we do it today, it was a scripture reading, a devotional reflection, a singing of a hymn or inspired song. With the internet you can hear the teaching of most anyone you like, just be careful with false doctrines though!

10. One last thought, the interruption of death: As Christians our hearts go out to families right now who are dealing with loved ones who have died due to the Covid 19 interruption. There is nothing like a death in the family to interrupt your normal life and change your destiny and the relationship dynamics you have with others. Death, no matter if it is by prolongated fear, an addiction, a virus, an accident, a murder, or old age, is an interruption by Satan! 

He brought death into the world by enticing humans with temptation, never forget that! He still provokes early deaths by getting people involved in wrong and destructive activities. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We cannot control much of what happens in the world or in this life but we can control how we will respond to all these interruptions.  Will we do what Jesus would do? Will we trust God anyway despite the world rapidly going to hell?  Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God. Today this could include almost every nation! It is time to increase our faith and always be ready to get interrupted, ready go or ready to stay, either way we must glorify the Lord, loving everyone, in all we do! Let’s pray…