Sunday 4/5/2020
From the Desk of the Pastor:
In the early years, Circuit riders were most often lay preachers without formal education. They were young, poor, and, for the most part, single. Traveling thousands of miles a year.
Though circuit riders eventually represented many different denominations but none were more aggressive or effective than the Methodists. In 1838, there were only six Methodist circuit preachers for the whole Republic of Texas, but this number soon grew. Supervised by presiding elders under the authority of itinerant bishops, circuit riders helped make the Methodists the largest religious group in Texas.
Circuit preachers received little pay, and sometimes only farm crops for their services. Each congregation was responsible for collecting a circuit rider’s salary but many early pioneers had little or no money to spare. This posed a great hardship for preachers with families to support. However, the difficulty of getting paid was nothing compared to the poor working conditions. Lack of roads, bad weather, diseases, and far-flung communities took their toll. They many times had to fight wild animals, robbers, Indians and just plain bad people to serve their Circuits. One Methodist Circuit rider had to kill some Indians. His supervising elder spoke to him about Christians didn't do things like that. The Methodist Preacher invited the supervising elder to ride along with him. One Methodist Rider took 6 months to cover his Circuit. Of the 737 Methodist circuit preachers that died prior to 1847 nearly half were under the age of 30. Did God kill the Circuit Riding Preachers and their congregations or was life extremely hard back then.
In the Old Testament we can see where it seemed that our God was a merciless God having warriors thumbs cut off, whole groups of people killed and diseases send down in many folds for punishment. Was that God doing that or was that how they saw God during that time. Some are willing to argue one way or the other to the death. However we should remember that our God of the Old Testament covered the ark, that contained the law, with His Mercy seat. The law was given but his law was covered by His Mercy seat of love and forgiveness.
Whether the people that lived in AD20, 1838 or now see God as vengeful punishing all of us for the sins of others we have to give a lot of though and prayer to it.
“We could bear nearly any pain or disappointment if we thought there was a reason behind it, a purpose, to it.” — Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
Sometimes we use God for that purpose and he is innocent of fault.
We can prove just about anything in Holy Scriptures by reading verses and not the entire pariscope/Chapter or Book or understanding the Bible as a whole.
This Scripture is when Jesus was in conversation with others:
Luke 13:1-5 (NLT) A Call to Repentance
13 About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”
