Christians Remember Your History!

 I will be starting a series in Church History and what it has to do with our lives today, how it has influenced the modern church, and the events and people  who were pivotal in maintaining the truth of the gospel in the history of Christianity

St. Patty looking spiffy

I felt this was fitting with the upcoming St Patrick's day, a day that is severely misunderstood, because we misunderstand the saint behind it.. Since I also love history with a fervor I thought it to be even better to write about. To start off I am a Protestant (though many Baptists don't consider themselves protestant...it's a long story) and I find it troubling about how many Protestants forget about their history. Now you may retort that you know all about Calvin, Wesley, Luther, and Spurgeon, but that isn't the history I'm talking about. I'm talking about pre-Reformation history. Dark ages kinda history. The stuff that Protestants would rather not be around because we think it makes us look bad. Well funny enough there were a lot of men who were great Christians who lived in the pre-Reformation! In fact, while many of us (me included) don't consider the Roman Catholic church to be our home, we do share in its lineage. And with this we have many great examples that we can look to, but would rather ignore.

"Saint" is a funny word to many people in the Protestant church. That is because when we think of it we think of people praying to saints. Really we don't have to get involved into the practices of the Catholic church to revere men  who were instrumental in the foundation of the Christian Church (and there were a lot!) and use them as examples that we should form our own walk after. In fact, two of my heroes of the faith are saints who are canonized in the Catholic Church (St Augustine of Hippo and St Patrick).

Looks like an interesting book...

So what are the things that we can take from our brothers in the catholic church about saints, or even just our forerunners in the faith? It doesn't matter who they are from Augustine to Billy Graham, it is all our history and we can learn from it, so we aren't doomed to repeat these great men and women's mistakes. He are some thoughts:

• They were human. They made mistakes. Before coming to Christianity, Augustine was basically shaking up with his lady friend and in an odd gnostic off shoot of Christianity. And yet in spite of these mistakes he was one of the charging forces behind the Council of Nicea, which drove out the Arian heresy that rejected the trintiy. God still used this guy. And i'm sure he still made mistakes joining the church.
• They gave up the same things we did to follow God. St Patrick is one of my heroes because he sold off his inheritance to fund his missionary journey to Ireland. Imagine telling your parents that your birthright is being sold to go to a remote place to tell people about Jesus. It's kind of a far fetched thought for most. Even more astounding is that at this time in the 5th century AD Ireland was on about the same terms as the wild west of America. It was not safe. And yet he went anyways!
• Now lets get into someone more modern that more Protestants may recognize. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who is not a saint in any church but could be looked at in the same way) gave up his life for the gospel. He died in a Nazi concentration camp because rather than conform to the propaganda of Hitler and his buddies he kept preaching in a way that caused a severe backlash to the Nazi's. In fact, Dietrich even was part of an assassination attempt on Hitler. Wouldn't have guessed that from a pastor, huh? Since he knew that innocents were being slaughtered he felt it his duty to do what he could to help others. And it lead to his death.

This is just a few examples of men who would not exactly fit the mold of anyone who fit the stereotype of a stoic, extremely serious, and only talk about theology kind of men. But that is what is endearing about them. We can see how men who are considered great in the eyes of church history had to make risks and even suffered a bit too. So to sum up my points of what you should get from these "saints" it would be these:

• Look at these guys as men. They aren't supernatural or extraordinary in most ways. They are just faithful men who God used.
• Study their lives to see what things you can emulate..and what actions you can avoid.
• Don't look at them as just as someone who should be celebrated (especially on St Patrick's Day) for no particular reason. Use this time to glorify God and thank him for using ordinary men for his glory, rather than just guzzling down gallons of green beer. 
• Understand God can use you in the same way. These men were faithful to God and they were lucky enough to be used in these astounding ways by God. You have NO idea how God can use you! 
• Bonhoeffer proved you don't have to be a canonized saint to be a "saint". God doesn't use just the top dogs in this world. 

Who knows, maybe one day someone will look to you as their example in how to be a godly Christian!