The real story of St. Patrick
(copied from on line source)
Such courageous faith is on display around the world today, though most don’t know it.
St. Patrick’s Day is being celebrated with green rivers and beer, shamrocks and Irish folklore. But many do not know that the historical St. Patrick was a hero for his time and ours.
Patrick was born in England around AD 389 but enslaved at the age of sixteen and sold to a farmer in Ireland. Somehow, he came to faith in Christ. Six years later, in response to a vision from God, he risked his life and returned home to England.
However, God gave him a deep burden for the salvation of the Irish people.
He spent seven years in Bible study, then returned to Ireland, not as a slave but as a missionary. He founded two hundred churches and led one hundred thousand people to Christ over his career, surviving twelve attempts on his life along the way. His death on March 17, 461, is the historical reason today is St. Patrick’s Day.
Patrick’s courageous compassion for people who had enslaved and threatened him is a model God invites us to imitate today.....
“I am greatly a debtor to God”
....St. Patrick.... [stands for biblical truth today, .... with a call to the humility that empowers courageous compassion].
Standing for biblical truth does not mean that we condemn others or consider ourselves to be better than them. It means that we love them enough to tell them the truth even—and especially—when they do not want to hear it. It means that we share with them the good news that has given us hope in the belief that it will do the same for them.
In hisConfessions, Patrick made such humility clear: “I am greatly a debtor to God, who has bestowed his grace so largely upon me, that multitudes were born again to God through me. The Irish, who had never had the knowledge of God and worshiped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called sons of God.”
St. Patrick said of his ministry, “Let it be most firmly believed, that it was the gift of God.”
(copied from on line source)
Such courageous faith is on display around the world today, though most don’t know it.
St. Patrick’s Day is being celebrated with green rivers and beer, shamrocks and Irish folklore. But many do not know that the historical St. Patrick was a hero for his time and ours.
Patrick was born in England around AD 389 but enslaved at the age of sixteen and sold to a farmer in Ireland. Somehow, he came to faith in Christ. Six years later, in response to a vision from God, he risked his life and returned home to England.
However, God gave him a deep burden for the salvation of the Irish people.
He spent seven years in Bible study, then returned to Ireland, not as a slave but as a missionary. He founded two hundred churches and led one hundred thousand people to Christ over his career, surviving twelve attempts on his life along the way. His death on March 17, 461, is the historical reason today is St. Patrick’s Day.
Patrick’s courageous compassion for people who had enslaved and threatened him is a model God invites us to imitate today.....
“I am greatly a debtor to God”
....St. Patrick.... [stands for biblical truth today, .... with a call to the humility that empowers courageous compassion].
Standing for biblical truth does not mean that we condemn others or consider ourselves to be better than them. It means that we love them enough to tell them the truth even—and especially—when they do not want to hear it. It means that we share with them the good news that has given us hope in the belief that it will do the same for them.
In hisConfessions, Patrick made such humility clear: “I am greatly a debtor to God, who has bestowed his grace so largely upon me, that multitudes were born again to God through me. The Irish, who had never had the knowledge of God and worshiped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called sons of God.”
St. Patrick said of his ministry, “Let it be most firmly believed, that it was the gift of God.”