Saint Patrick and What We Must Remember

Every March seventeenth, the western world celebrates Saint Patrick's Day. But these people know little about the man whose birthday people are celebrating.

You can Google Saint Patrick's Day if you wish but here's the basic story. He was kidnapped from Britain as a youth by Irish pirates. He managed to escape and go back to his home. But God laid it on his heart to go back to Ireland with the gospel. Patrick did so and that act of obedience changed the entire nation.

As Christians, we're commanded by Christ to proclaim the gospel everywhere. People need to hear the good news of salvation-without-works, as the Apostle Paul pointed out in Romans 10:14 (BBE). "But how will they give worship to him in whom they have no faith? and how will they have faith in him of whom they have not had news? and how will they have news without a preacher?"

In Patrick's case, the people listened to him. But that wasn't the case for God's prophets. Jeremiah 44:4 (KJV) shows how often the Lord tried to bring back Israel to have faith in him. "Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, 'Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.'"

Even our Lord Jesus was rejected by his own people. John 1:11 (BBE) reads, "He came to the things which were his and his people did not take him to their hearts."

Likewise, Christ expressed his anguish in Luke 13:34 (BBE) when he cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who were sent to her! again and again would I have taken your children to myself, as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, but you would not!"

It's easy to preach to those who speak our language but heartbreaking when they refuse to hear the message God gave us. Ezekiel 3:7 (BBE) shows why this is so. "But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart."

I'll touch on the hardness of people's hearts in my book, You Think You're Going to Heaven? Most of them won't listen to us because they refuse to hear the heavenly Father. What a shame!

On Thursday, I'll be posting about why learning patience doesn't come immediately.