Editorials

The dawn of a New Year provides a very natural opportunity for us as believers to pause and take stock. It is a time when we should both reflect on the year that is past and ask ourselves if in 2013 we truly lived to please and glorify God, and to look forward asking how can we live in 2014 in a way that will produce a greater likeness to Christ.

For many, even for many professing Christians, the solution to living a more holy life seems to be in making New Year resolutions that set a benchmark enable us to live better lives. The answer to living as God has called us to live in Christ is, of course, not in New Year resolutions however well-intentioned, but rather in setting before us the Word of God. Our guide for living is the moral law of God summarized in the Ten Commandments.

In July our nation welcomed the arrival of Prince George. This royal baby, who is third in line to the throne, will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge. As well as being an established regal name, George is also a saint’s name. St George was an early Christian martyr and is the patron saint of England. There have been six King Georges up to now, most recently the Queen’s father.

All true Christians must surely be saddened and deeply concerned as we have witnessed, in our day, the marginalization of the institution of marriage in our nation.

The recent decision by the Lords to accept the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill redefining marriage was deeply disturbing. It would seem that our nation is now set to defy God and impose this bill with all its evil implications. Our nation is in a desperate state of moral and spiritual declension, reminiscent of the dark days of the Judges, when ‘everyone did that which was right in his own eyes’ (Judges 21:25).The words of Jeremiah the prophet are so relevant and apt for our nation:

How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them? (Jeremiah 9:8,9)