Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-015

Rowland Croucher

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Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; 1 Peter 2:10.

No wonder sophisticated pagans were astonished at the claims the early Christians made about themselves. One of these ‘pagans’ – Celsus – said ‘You Christians are like frogs croaking round a pond saying ‘We are God’s people, God has revealed everything to us’. Silly, arrogant nobodies!’

In our century Lenin and Marx said similar things. ‘When the Socialist paradise comes, all this Christian nonsense will just wither away!’

And so it has been through the centuries. Those early Christians, in Glover’s famous phrase, ‘out-lived, out-died, and out-thought’ the pagans.

What was the secret of their spiritual power. There are some clues in this prayer from the Mozarabic Psalter:

Lead us into holiness, O God, by making our minds one with you in peace. You have made us body and soul, each fitted to its task. Let not our bodily desires war against our souls. Deliver us from unhealthy excitements that we may come to freedom and peace of mind; that we may not be overcome, fill us with your own strength. Amen.

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher <>