While reading to my family about Patrick of Ireland tonight I was lead to two thoughts about church life that I think would greatly affect the Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the community we live in. These thoughts come from the reading of Patrick’s Confession where he says,
“But it was here in Ireland that God first opened my heart, so that – even though it was a late start (he was sixteen when he was taken as a slave to Ireland) I became aware of my failings and began to turn with my whole heart to the Lord my God. For he looked down on my miserable condition and had compassion for me, young and foolish as I was…Because of this I cannot – I will not – be silent. I will tell of the great blessings God has granted to me and the grace he has shown to me in this land of slavery. Because this is the way we should behave toward God – when he has shown us why we were wrong and we have admitted our sins, we should praise him and proclaim his kindness to everyone in the world.”
Thought #1: A Refusal to be Silent
Patrick looked to his sin and then to the mercies of God and he could not be silent. He had grown up in a home where his father was a deacon in the church and his mother taught him to follow Christ, but he went in the way of his sin. He said, “I was lead away as a slave to Ireland…We deserved slavery – for we had abandoned God and did not follow his ways.” And it was in the midst of his sin that he saw the kindness and loving kindness of God and could not be silent about it. His mouth spoke of his sinful condition and the mercies of God toward him in that condition. He was compelled to “proclaim his kindness to everyone in the world.” Many in the church refuse to speak of their sin and the grace of God in Christ Jesus because we know it is a disadvantage to our position in the world. As G.K. Chesterton said, “Faith is always at a disadvantage; it is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors.” The saints who refuse to be silent about the glory of God in Christ in the midst of a fallen world will suffer reproach but not from God who has shown them grace and mercy in the midst of sin and misery. This refusal to be silent will result in God giving people new hearts so that they will repent of sin and find life in him through Christ.
Thought #2: Proclaim His Kindness to Everyone
Patrick said, “I will tell of the great blessings God has granted to me and the grace he has shown me in this land of slavery.” Patrick would not be considered politically correct to think that there is blessing and grace in the midst of slavery. But how different would the church be if her people counted it all joy when she faced various trials and afflictions knowing that through them the Lord is bringing her to completion in Christ. How different we would be if we were speaking to one another in the church of the loving kindness of God from his Word. God’s people are living in the midst of a fallen world with the struggles of theirs and others sins; therefore they are need of knowing the kindness of God for encouragement.
What if everyday Redeemer Presbyterian Church refused to be silent and proclaimed his kindness to everyone? What if everyday we spoke of the gospel to someone and bore one another’s burdens with the loving kindness of God?
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