Take care you do not forget the Lord your God!
That was the advice to members of Beulah Methodist Church from Reverend Cuthbert A. Edwards, Bishop, South Caribbean District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas.
Quoting from Deuteronomy 8:11, he told the congregation recently that God had been so good during the St Philip church’s 160 years, they should never forget His goodness.
In fact, he added “it is a great danger in forgetting God”.
“Sometimes, for many of us, God is only remembered when we are in trouble, when we fall upon hard times or when we have our shopping list of things that are needed. But when everything is going fine, we have all the material things we need, all our needs are supplied – we forget God. God is relegated into irrelevance.
“How many of us in times of hardship and trouble have promised God to serve him faithful and worship every Sunday if God carries us through some difficult times? However, as soon as we are out, we forget God. Do not forget the Lord your God,” he reiterated.
Edwards said people’s forgetfulness of God was reflected in lack of thankfulness.
“To remember God is to live thankfully and to be always thanking God for all that God means to us and has done for us. The scripture reminds us ‘in everything, give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’. There is great danger in forgetting God’s past goodness upon our lives.
“The Israelites were asked not to forget their history. They were told not to forget the One who walked with them in difficult times. They were not to forget it was God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. They were not to forget that it was God who parted the waters and allowed them to pass through on dry land. They were not to forget that it was God who guided them by a fire by night and a cloud by day. They were not to forget it was God who provided water and manna in the wilderness and prevented them from starvation.”
The cleric said similarly, the Beulah congregation must not forget that God led them through the last 160 years.
“We must not forget that all the things that have happened over these last 160 years were a result of God’s blessings. It is God who gave our forebearers the foresight to purchase this spot. It was God who stirred the hearts of early Methodists to start work in this area. It was God who has kept the doors open for these last 160 years.
“To forget God is to our own peril. Listen to what the Israelites were told: ‘If you do forget the Lord your God . . . you shall surely perish’.”
Following the sermon, the church’s oldest member 94-year old Iris Garner assisted Edwards in unveiling a plaque to celebrate the church’s 160th year.
Beulah Methodist began as a temporary wooden chapel and school. The foundation was laid on July 24, 1852, and the cornerstone of the new building laid on March 13, 1858, at a cost of £100 pounds sterling. The land was originally purchased from a farmer, Thomas Nurse, for $50. (CH)
