October 1996
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Last week my family returned from our annual vacation.
This year we travelled to the New England states. We saw
much of the beauty of God's creation, and a lot of our
country's history as well. Walking the Freedom Trail
through Boston, and standing at the North Bridge outside of Concord where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired gave us a sense of the price that was paid for our independence, and the courage of those who were willing to risk all they had to provide liberty for themselves and their offspring. We often forget the tremendous sacrifice that was made by these people for the cause of religious liberty. The Pilgrims were Believers who had separated from the established church of England. They moved to Holland because of persecution, but ultimately decided to come to the New World. They braved two months of travel aboard the Mayflower, and then landed as winter was approaching. Nearly half of the colonists did not survive that first winter. Spouses lost their mates, children lost parents, and parents lost children. One lady lost her entire family before Spring finally came. What was the motivation for this? While the prospect of owning land was appealing, that was not the primary motivation of the Pilgrims, for no one could own land for at least seven years while debts were being paid to England. It surely was not the ease of life, for carving out an existence in a new land would hardly be considered a carefree existence. No, the motivation was greater than that: it was a pure desire to worship God without the restraints of governmental or ecclesiastical regulation. We who are separatists today owe a great debt to those separatists of the past, and we dare not forget their contribution and sacrifice.
One last thought struck us. As we travelled through the land of the Pilgrims and the Great Awakening, we saw very little Fundamental Christianity. Entire counties exist without a Gospel preaching work. Small to mid-sized cities exist with either no work, or else only a
small, struggling church. New England has turned its back on the Gospel upon which it was founded. Our prayer is, that preachers will go to that difficult area, and once again proclaim the truth of the Scriptures. We in St. Clair County have so much, and they have almost nothing. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers
into His harvest."
Your Pastor,
Mark J. Montgomery
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