05 November 2007 Devotion for Today "Remember, Remember" Ephesians 2:1-6

05 November 2007  Devotion for Today  “Remember, Remember”  Ephesians 2:1-6

 

It was on this day four hundred and two years ago, when a group of catholic terrorists hired one Guido (Guy) Fawkes, a military munitions expert, to fill the cellar of the parliament building in Westminster with thirty-six large kegs of gunpowder.  He was to ignite the gunpowder just as England’s protestant King James opened the session of parliament for the year.  Through an act of betrayal, the plot was discovered just as Fawkes set to ignite the fuses.  After his arrest and excruciating torture, Fawkes and other conspirators were hanged, drawn, and quartered.   The day the conspiracy was discovered has been memorialized in Britain as Guy Fawkes’Day in which they commemorate each fifth of November with bonfires, fireworks, and the burning of Guy Fawkes in effigy. I recall as a child growing up there, that they also recited the following poem:

 

    Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

    The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

    I know of no reason

    Why Gunpowder Treason

    Should ever be forgot.

 

God in His Providence protected the king who, a few years later, commissioned the translation of the Bible we know today as the King James Version, making God’s Word available in the common vernacular which has never ceased to spark revival and spiritual awakening since.  God is still living and active in the affairs of men, even in our politics today.  He averted catastrophe in 1605 with the discovery of gunpowder.  Who knows what evil God has spared us in spite of the terror attack of 2001 and the war on terror since that time.   God still intervenes on behalf of those who love and serve Him, and is more powerful than the deadly prince of terror which Paul names for us in the following text in Ephesians 2:

 

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raise us up together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  (Ephesians 2:1-6).

 

We Americans may not make much of Guy Fawkes’ Day.  Instead may the Lord help you to remember His watchcare and protection over you today, and cause you to thank Him for intervening on your behalf, and keeping you from sin and disobedience.

 

Have a blessed day.

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com

jcrussell@liberty.edu

 

Church website:   http://25621.lifewaylink.com
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