Distance from each other but not God

                When I watched the television coverage of protests in various states this past week, people demanding their right as Americans to be free and live as they please, defying social distancing guidelines, I knew I had to write about a sermon I have been listening to over recent months.  Peter Marshall, its preacher, delivered Trial By Fire in the last months of World War 11.

                Marshall came  to America from Scotland with five dollars in his pocket and no real plans; however, he also came with an assurance that God was leading him to make this journey after he and his mother had been praying about his future.  Initially digging ditches not far from his Ellis Island entrance, he went to Birmingham, Alabama, where two friends from Scotland had settled.  His gifts were recognized by his participation in a men’s Bible study group at his church, and they collected enough money for him to go to the seminary.  He clearly was gifted by God.

                After serving at two smaller churches in the South, he was called to the prestigious New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.  Church attendance grew as reports about its powerful new preacher spread.   In 1947, he was asked to be the Chaplain for the United States Senate.  What had been a poorly attended few minutes before Senate sessions became a compelling and important feature of those meetings. 

                I have listened to this sermon several times over recent months.  At the beginning, Marshall quotes William Penn:  “Men must be governed by God or ruled by tyrants.”  He goes on, calling Americans to be less concerned with their rights and more mindful of their duties and responsibilities as citizens of this country established on Godly principles.  He quoted a Life Magazine opinion piece exhorting Americans to move from a “lackadaisical” Christianity to a stronger and bolder commitment to Christ and the self-sacrificing life of faith Christ calls us to.  This choice could lead to a “long awaited Christian revival, a revival born in the hearts of its citizens.”  I wonder where our country would be today had these words and this sermon been taken seriously and acted upon.

 How could these words be more timely to us now, so much farther down the road away from Godly leadership and Christian faithfulness to Christ.  Please consider taking about 27 minutes to listen to Trial By Fire by Peter Marshall.  Let your spirit be stirred to meet this critical moment in our country and the whole world fighting a deadly virus with the basic essentials of faith: prayer, Bible reading, more prayer and much more of the Holy Spirit’s presence in us and all we do.  Let’s seek the “simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (11 Corinthians 11:3 NASB) that Paul encouraged the Corinthians to remain steadfast in.