In the news today, the McCheyne Memorial Church, built in memory of Robert Murray McCheyne, one of the most godly pastors Dundee (or for that matter, Scotland) has ever seen, will be turned into a holiday home for its London owner, a place to go for a long weekend.

Originally part of the Free Church of Scotland, it was opened in 1870 by “The Prince of Preachers”, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the minister of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.  Where hundreds used to worship will now be simply a playground for a wealthy Londoner.

This kind of thing happens when God’s people fail to stand for truth, fail to carry through on commitments, fail to love God’s Word, neglect prayer, decide that their time and their money are their own rather than God’s, and fail to train their children to know and love the Lord.  We can blame militant secularism for the decline of the church in Scotland, but the problem is in the church, not in the world.

I Peter 4:17

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?