Modern-Day Martyr
Before heading off to prayer meeting last evening, I checked my e-mail and logged on to the Internet.  My home page is Fox News, and the cover story was about Fred Winters, a pastor in Illinois who was gunned down in the pulpit while preaching in morning service.  You can read all about it here.
I checked out the church website, and from everything I’ve seen, this pastor was a godly man who was utterly committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the authority of God’s Word. ¬†He had a great love for the Lord and for people. ¬†Supposedly, as the gunman walked down the aisle toward the pastor in the middle of the service, the pastor said to him, “Can I help you?” – something that another pastor on staff did not find surprising at all. ¬†Here’s the video clip this morning from Fox News:
Yesterday morning started out like just any other Sunday morning for this preacher. ¬†He simply got up behind his pulpit and started preaching God’s Word to his flock. ¬†As a pastor, I am reminded of how important it is for me to “to preach … as a dying man to dying men” (Richard Baxter). ¬†And certainly all of us should pray, as Moses did,¬†
Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.- Psalm 90:12
What are the practical implications of this verse for us as believers?  Perhaps they are best stated in the following two resolutions of Jonathan Edwards:
- Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
- Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
By all accounts, Pastor Fred Winters finished well.  God help us to do the same.
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