The heinous killing of a pastor and eight others yesterday at a prayer meeting at a church in the US has sent shockwaves down my spine for a uniquely personal reason. Attending a no holds barred church where the truth of the gospel is always delivered with gusto, I of course have been thinking about my Tuesday Bible class meeting. A meeting attended by, you guessed it, about nine people, I did wonder for a moment the ‘wisdom’ of continuing to put myself in arms way. Then, I remembered a quote from the Bible, from no other than Our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.’ Matthew 16:25.
The $64,000 question I gravely need to answer therefore (please forgive the pun), is whether or not I will continue to turn up for my regular Tuesday evening Bible class; especially knowing fully well that Wealdstone Evangelical Church is on a high street, with easy access for a would-be lunatic intent on wielding a Kalashnikov? Hopefully, the natural law of justice will take its course when the lone deranged young man responsible for the murders in South Carolina is apprehended. The pleasure I derive from that thought however, is nothing compared with the reassurance I got in my spirit this morning, that, the Charleston 9 are guaranteed eternal life. Will I go to church next Tuesday? Please don’t get me wrong, I am no masochist. But I will sooner take a bullet than not, like Jesus, be about my Father’s business.