Remember, Remember

King James I came close to going up in smoke on this day in 1605. 

The plot to assassinate him and his Council, in the House of Lords has been remembered ever since with bonfires and fireworks. What most of us have largely forgotten is anything else significant about King James and his times. 

He was Queen Elizabeth's successor on the English throne, though he was Scottish. He believed that he had a divine right to rule in the way he thought best, which made him extraordinarily arrogant. 

His shabby dealings with Parliament started the process which led, in his son's time, to the particularly brutal and bloody Civil War. But more than that I hardly know.

So I have started re-reading about that formative period of our history, because I know so little about why we are as we are. 

I realise that it is impossible for me to remember what I never knew, so I am trying to fill those gaps.

The same applies to my remembering the significant history of the development of the Christian faith, historically and in our own times. 

That is why I keep reading and studying. It feeds my mind and my heart, and helps to keep my faith fresh.

St. Paul was a great teacher and pastor to the churches which he had planted. As he writes to the problem-soaked church in Corinth, he returns to their foundational story. 'Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. 

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. ' (1 Corinthians 15.1-4)

It is striking that Paul reminds his friends that this Good News, about the death and resurrection of Jesus, has the power of God to save us from our sins, and give us a fresh start.

Nothing else is as important for us first to know and then to remember. so that we can continue to stand firm in what we believe. Without remembering, we shall be swept away with whatever latest thought or fashion has come in on the tide of time.

What steps are you taking to remember the foundations of your faith in Jesus?

Best wishes,

Richard