Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Fight The Good Fight


Send "Fight the good fight with all thy might" Ringtone to your Cell Fight the good fight with all thy might!
Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.

Run the straight race through God's good grace,
Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;
Life with its way before us lies,
Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.

Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide;
His boundless mercy will provide;
Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life, and Christ its love.

Faint not nor fear, His arms are near,
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.
end "Fight the good fight with all thy might" Ringtone to your Cell
This old hymn was used at the Sunday morning service on June 28th as one of the readings came from St Paul's stirring farewell to Timothy summed up in his testimony that Paul had "fought the good fight". (It was a St Peter's day being celebrated but St Paul provided an appropriate companion-saint while bearing in mind that all the redeemed in Christ are saints.)
The old hymns are quick to remind us that life is a fight, a struggle against "the world, the flesh and the devil". We often forget this today and when trouble afflicts us we wonder why when we have done this faithfully and that industriously, why it is that we are afflicted.
However, it has always been so with Christians. The old saints knew that nothing we can do acts as a talisman or charm to ward off evil. All the evil that befalls urges us to flee to Christ as in the third and fourth stanzas above (which almost brought me to tears on Sunday).