The Christian Life – Gregory Scott Blog

Irish-Scotch Travel Journal Day – 7

Maughold Village, Isle of Man, a hidden treasure

If you are looking for Christian history, the Isle of Man is probably not the first place that comes to mind. The Isle of Man is known as a tax haven for corporations, not a destination of spiritual pilgrimages.

When we were here in 2018, we toured Viking burials, the ruins of an early Christian church, and Castletown where John Wesley preached in 1777. Today we determined to do something different, and that led us to Maughold Village.

St. Maughold lived in the 5th Century A.D. in Ireland. He was a pirate, captaining a ship of pirates, that is, until he crossed paths with St. Patrick.

As we know, Patrick was bold, and Patrick preached the gospel to Maughold, who repented and gave his life to Jesus. As evidence of his repentance Maughold in approximately 450 A.D. and probably commissioned by Patrick, set out in a boat from Ireland for the Isle of Man. When he arrived, he began doing what he apparently had seen St. Patrick doing in Ireland – making disciples.

Maughold founded a church there, in what is now known as as the Village of Maughold, and he baptized new believers at a well a few hundred yards from the church down the slope toward the Irish Sea. He later became a bishop and is now considered the patron saint of the Isle of Man.

So, today, we were on a Maughold mission. We rented a taxi and told the driver we would need him for about two hours. He drove us the ten miles to the Village of Maughold, about a 30 minute drive through some of the most beautiful country with some of the most beautiful vistas you can imagine.

The church there, besides being founded by St. Maughold, is also home to a number of early Celtic crosses, some nearly 1500 years old. We looked around inside the church and then outside at the crosses before I asked for directions to Maughold’s Well. I was told it was a twenty minute walk.

Irish-Scotch Travel Journal Day – 3

Culloden Estate and Spa, Holywood, Northern Ireland

It’s easy to speculate about why the Lord in His sovereignty allows certain things to happen the way they do. Day 1 of this journey was without a doubt the worst travel day any of us have ever had in terms of the sheer quantity of things that went wrong.

And here’s the thing: before we rerouted from Newark to Philadelphia, we all prayed and agreed it seemed the thing to do. Yet, when it was all said and done, we found ourselves stuck in Philadelphia, and at then end of Day 2 in Toronto, neither of which seemed to have anything to do with our mission.

What is undeniably true is the Lord must sometime allow such things to happen to position us for purposes we may not fully understand. This positioning is necessary because as humans we exist in space and time and, therefore, in one place at a time. We can’t be in Philadelphia and Dublin at the same time, and there may be reasons the Lord want us in Philadelphia or not in Dublin.

The Apostle Paul ending up on the ship that wrecked and dumped him and the crew on the shore of Malta is an example. See Acts 27-28. As he was in the midst of it, Paul might have asked the Lord why he ended up on a ship that wrecked, but I’m convinced the Lord was positioning him.

I believe Paul ended up on Malta when the father of the “chief official” of the island was sick, so Paul could heal him and lead him to the Lord. As a result, tradition indicates, the chief official became a Christian, as did many on Malta. Paul had to be in a ship wreck to be in a position to share the gospel so Malta could be converted to Christianity.

Irish-Scotch Travel Journal Day – 2

My pic of our destination today (Toronto) from our plane

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
Philippians 4:12

The Apostle Paul was adaptable. That is what he is saying to the Philippians here. He is saying this because being adaptable is vital to being useful to the Lord in the work of the kingdom.

If we are unwilling to adapt, we make ourselves vulnerable to any adverse circumstance. If things don’t go our way we quit, or decide it “wasn’t the Lord,” or whatever other euphemism we use to sugarcoat surrendering to adversity.

Paul’s adaptability meant he could continue his missionary journey even if his supporters were not giving at the level he was used to. It meant God’s plan for planting a network of churches in Asia Minor was less vulnerable to a bad turn of events, whether personal, political or religious.

Adapt is what we were called to do on Day 2 of our adventure, and it started by thinking through how to survive in Philadelphia, and then as many as 3 days in Ireland with no fresh clothes or toiletries until our bags found their way to Dublin and then our hotel in Belfast.

Here’s two tips. First, if you ever find yourself stranded on a trip without a fresh pair of “whites,” just turn them inside out, shower up, and step back into them. A note of caution though: this only works once. On the third day you will need a fresh pair of underwear.

A Kingdom View of Memorial Day

As I’ve gotten older and deeper into the kingdom of God, I’ve become more conflicted about Memorial Day.

It is not the acceptance or sometimes glorification of war we see on Memorial Day; In a fallen world war is sometimes necessary, and once one accepts that boundaries will be crossed. That is to be expected.

What has bothered me more is the hyper nationalism Memorial Day seems to inspire, particularly in Evangelical Christians. I wonder what my foreign brothers and sisters living here think when they witness it? I wonder what the Lord thinks.

Anytime we are tempted to elevate cause or country over the Kingdom we should be concerned. The savior of the world is not the United States of America but King Jesus, and the answer to the world’s problems is not democracy or a republican form of government but the Gospel.

Instead we should consider the Lord’s instructions to those living in exile in Jerusalem:

3 Reasons Christians Don’t Live in Victory over Sin

I’ve always had a high view of the power of the Holy Spirit to enable Christians to live in victory over sin. There is plenty of scripture to demonstrate that those who have been born again and filled with the Holy Spirit have the power to resist sin.

The Apostle Paul said that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead resides in Christians. So, why would I think that Spirit could raise Jesus from the dead but not be powerful enough to enable me to resist sin? Or, why would I think the power of the fall of man was more powerful than the resurrection of Jesus?

That born again, Spirit-filled Christians have the power to live in victory over sin, frankly, should be fundamental and axiomatic. The more interesting question is, “If Christians have the power to live in victory over sin, why don’t they?” I think there are three primary reasons: