It often amazes me when I read about the saints of the past – how willing they were to give their all for Christ and His kingdom. How Christians of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries were willing to be tortured and put to death, often in a public and humiliating manner. How the Reformers were willing to be burnt at the stake for the sake of justification by faith. How missionaries were willing to go to places with then-fatal diseases, knowing that they were extremely unlikely to see their family and friends this side of heaven. And when I compare these saints to the modern church (including myself) it appals me. It makes me feel sick.
Seriously, the Reformers and those who followed them! They died, DIED, for the sake of not having candles in the worship service. Candles! I would never die for that. I would think, it’s such a little thing, it doesn’t really matter, and it isn’t as though God ever said that we can’t have candles in church. God knows my heart, He knows I want to serve Him. The details aren’t important.
Except they are important. People got lead astray by these candles. What’s more, God didn’t say that we are to have candles – and given that He’s fairly descriptive of what He wants during worship services, then it becomes harder and harder to justify them.
We lack the passion of the saints of the past. I lack the passion of the saints of the past. Oh Lord, give us just a small portion of that passion, that we might give up our all to serve You!
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