Heritage is very important to God, Psalm 78 talks about teaching the children about their heritage and ancestry in God so that they can put their hope in Him.
God commanded His people to teach their children the praises of God, His strength and His mighty works, so the next generation might know and in turn pass them on to the the next generation. So each generation can set their hope anew in God. The parents were to teach and the children were to remember.
Our Australian Christian Heritage is where our sense of identity comes from. We can look back at our “Heroes of Faith”and allow their stories to push us on. Men and women like Pedro de Quiros, Captain Charles Sturt, Edward John Eyre, Ludwig Leighhardt, Rev Richard Johnson, Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Alfred Deakin, Caroline Chisolm, Henry Parkes, Mary Mackillop and many more.
Alfred Deakin is one of our most famous politicians, he was Australia’s second Prime Minister and he was largely responsible for the passing of the Australian Constitution. He believed “the knowledge and love of God to be the foundation of all life and love and power. Apart from God man’s life was selfish and sensual mainly - narrow, hard, harsh and discordant.”
The preamble of the Constitution which was passed in 1901 had the inclusion “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God.” Alfred Deakin loved the word of God.
Few Australians are aware of the importance of our Christian Heritage.
Caroline Chisholm was known as “the emigrants friend”. She is one of most outstanding Australian heroes. She helped the many women who were living on the streets. Her work was exhausting she relied on God for strength and resources to set up the many homes and an employment agency. She is commemorated on 16 May in the Calendar of saints of the Church of England
Captain James Cook conducted Christian Services for his crew on Sundays. He named places he discovered Trinity Bay, Pentecost Island, the Whitsundays, Providential Channel, Easter Island, Christmas Island.
Australia’s heritage is in God and so is our destiny. From start to finish this is the Southland of the Holy Spirit where the Gospel will be preached zealously and openly.