There is a beautiful hymn in the old Methodist Hymnal called “Faith of our fathers, living still, in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword, O how our hearts beat high with joy whene’er we hear that glorious word. Faith of our fathers! Holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.”
Do we ever stop to think about our Christian heritage and give thanks for our forebears who brought the gospel to this land, and to us, and who built this church and what did it cost them to do it? They may not have suffered as some have had to in the process but they were a dedicated bunch! Take some time to look at the foundation stones and ask a few questions.
However, there are many places in the world where to be a Christian is highly dangerous and the church is regularly under attack. Martyrdom is not just a thing of the past. I sometimes wonder how I would react if tortured for my faith, or forced to convert on threat of death. It is true though that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”.
Things just could be getting harder to be a Christian here too. How faithful will we all be?
Rev Malcolm Rawlings – You are welcome to hear the rest of the message at our Worship this Sunday.