All Saints

Today, Sunday, November 6, is All Saints Day observed. On this day, we remember the innumerable saints that have gone on before us. This is a great cloud of witnesses. From faithful John the Baptist to the most recent martyr in the Muslim lands, God’s people have sealed their faith in blood.  We look to them and we thank them for the relative peace that we have inherited through their faithful sacrifice. Through their faithful witness, we have attained that which they only saw by faith. By faith, they saw even our day and looked through their sufferings for the joy to be revealed on the other side.

           

But there are still martyrs in the world. Christians are attacked even in Christian lands. Through disobedience, the Church is in retreat in lands where she was once on a faithful victory march. Repentance is in order in these places.

And in lands across the globe, Christian s are still murdered, martyred, for their faith. In Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, to name a few places in the news, Christians still seal their faith in Jesus, through the blessed privilege of martyrdom.  And there are many such places, no more obvious than in the Muslim lands.   

May we look to the example of these great saints who were and are great in faith and be exhorted, encouraged and inspired. Where we have grown weak of faith, let us repent and ask God to restore a righteous zeal within our hearts, a zeal that would even embrace death rather than ever forsake our precious Lord Jesus.