The Sealed Book: Understanding Isaiah 29

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Quill resting on handwritten parchment beside ink and a candle

“For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries. All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.””
Isaiah 29:10-12 NLT

Reading is a fundamental, even ubiquitous, skill in Western countries. The school system soon teaches children to read, sometimes as early as their primary years. For many, like my daughter, a love of books has been with them ever since. Fellow pilgrims will be using their reading ability this morning to read this blog. But it was a tragedy to read a recent news report that primary school teachers are having to visit secondary schools here in the UK to help some children with their reading. A growing cohort of children do not seem to want to learn, and they do what they can to disrupt their own and their fellow students’ opportunities. Very few sanctions seem to work. Thankfully, our schools still seem able to turn out children with at least the ability to read.

Words communicate so much, and there are many different ways this communication can happen. We have books, journals, newspapers, letters, and so on, all printed on paper. Increasingly, the screens on our phones, tablets, or computers have become the visual medium. But in all cases, the written words form the basis for the ideas and information that need to be communicated. 

In our verses today, Isaiah sees a time coming when the ideas God is communicating cannot be read. A “spirit of deep sleep” will prevent the “prophets and visionaries” from “seeing” what He wants to communicate. As a result, the rest of Isaiah’s vision is to be “like a sealed book”. Imagine we are given a book covered in fabric or film that keeps us from opening it. We might have access to the title on the front cover, or a few words about the author on the back. But what is written inside is totally invisible and cannot be read. Isaiah wrote that some of the “prophets and visionaries” could read. Give them a book of their day, for example, a scroll or tablet, and they could read what was written on it, but the vision that Isaiah had was sealed from their gaze, and they were unable to read its contents. But then there were some who couldn’t read anything, it seems, and, sealed or not, the vision written down was invisible to them. Just a few squiggles of ink written on a parchment or scroll, incomprehensible and useless.

Jeremiah was instructed by God to write for a specific purpose: “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings” (Jeremiah 36:2-3). These were not messages to be sealed up, but warnings about what would happen to the people if they failed to obey the messages he had written. We are very grateful to Luke, who “decided to write an accurate account for you, most honourable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught” (Luke 1:3-4). Because of his diligence in documenting everything that happened in those days concerning Jesus and the Way, we have the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts, and probably his help in some of the Epistles. 

But the Books that really matter are referred to in Revelation 20. In verse 12 we read, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books”. Everything a person has done throughout their life will be written down, and one day the books recording it will be opened for all to see. In human terms, that would be a huge book. There used to be a television programme called “This Is Your Life”, and the presenter had a red book containing highlights, the good bits, from the person’s life, which were later played in front of an audience and the television cameras, with the help of family members or friends. But God’s book for that person will contain not only the highlights but also the lowlights. The contents will be painful to relive. Memories long forgotten will be revived. Sinful actions will be exposed. And all this will take place before a vast crowd of witnesses, “the dead, both great and small“.

Thankfully for us pilgrims, another book will be opened: the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we find that “ ... anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). In the previous verse, we find that the “lake of fire” is the second death for those who have refused to believe in Jesus. It makes me shudder to think that after someone has passed away and crossed the Great Divide, only to find themselves in the Place of the Dead, Sheol, or Hades, they will remain there until they stand before the Judge sitting on the Great White Throne, as He replays their life before countless witnesses. After this, they will be “thrown into the lake of fire“. I have sometimes reflected on the word “thrown“. Why did that have to happen? Because the “lake of fire” was a place they didn’t want to go; no amount of struggling or pleading would be allowed to prevent their incarceration in hell.

But let’s think for a moment about the Lamb’s Book of Life. This is a divine register in which the names of all who are redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are written. It emphasises that those whose names are recorded in this book are granted eternal life and need not fear judgement. At the moment we believed in Jesus, our redemption was followed by a Heavenly pen making an entry in the Book of Life. Our names will be written there. But can they be removed? Revelation 3:5, “All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine“. The implication of this verse is that those who are not victorious are in danger of seeing God take His Heavenly eraser and remove their name. This conclusion does not sit easily with those who believe “Once Saved Always Saved”, but if someone turns their back on God and renounces their salvation and the redeeming work of Jesus, would God not have to grant them the consequences of their choice? But we blood-bought pilgrims, believers and overcomers through our faith in Jesus, have nothing to fear. Our names are indelibly written in a place that matters.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You that our favourite Book is not sealed away from our gaze and understanding. Within it we find Your gracious words of salvation and eternal life through Your Son, Jesus. Keep us close to You, we pray, this day and every day. Amen.

Understanding Isaiah: Voices from the Grave

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Golden wispy light rising from a cracked rocky landscape beneath dark clouds

“Then deep from the earth you will speak; from low in the dust your words will come. Your voice will whisper from the ground like a ghost conjured up from the grave. But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust. Your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind. Suddenly, in an instant, I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.”
Isaiah 29:4-6 NLT

I love Isaiah’s very descriptive language. The first verse of our reading this morning speaks to me of a people destroyed by the armies that surrounded them and realising at last the extent of their sin. Their bodies destroyed, but their spirits living on and crying out to God to save them. They cry out from the “dust”, their voices sounding like the ghostly whispers from another world. But to be true, that is where they are, their souls wandering around in the afterlife somewhere. Hebrew thought about the afterlife was complex, initially being that all departed souls ended up in Sheol, good and bad alike. But during the time of the exile, a new thought emerged: that perhaps there was a resurrection of the dead coming. But there were one or two Scriptural hints in the Old Testament before then. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we read, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end”. Moses’ thoughts after the death of Abraham can be found in Genesis 25:7-8, “Abraham lived for 175 years, and he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life. He breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death”. But clarity emerged with Jesus when He said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am”. But before He said that, we know so clearly His explanation to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”. From Sheol to Heaven took the Hebrews on quite a journey. But why should they be surprised? “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). God is eternal, so is it too much of an extrapolation to think that His original intention was to make man eternal as well? 

Luke 16 tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus, and He narrated it to a group of Pharisees. Some translations call it a parable, but it is unlike the rest, and some biblical scholars believe the story Jesus told them was more fact than a story made up to make a point. The thrust of the story was that the poor man, Lazarus, “ … died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side”. This was consistent with what Jesus said to Nicodemus, “that whoever believes in [Jesus] should not perish but have everlasting life”. There is a clear distinction between eternal life with Jesus and eternal life perishing. So, Jesus blew away any doubts about the afterlife and set the choice of which of the two places available firmly in the hands of mankind.

In the Rich Man and Lazarus story, the Rich Man in hell was able to communicate with Abraham in Heaven. Why Abraham? Because Jesus knew the thoughts of the Pharisees, that they believed their ancestry, grounded right back in Abraham, would lead to their salvation, assuring them a place in Heaven. So back in our verses from Isaiah today we read about the whispers calling out to God from the grave. And the amazing thing is that God heard them, despite their rejection of Him in their lives before the Great Divide. He answered their prayers and as we read on we find that God’s reply was that “your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust. Your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind”. 

As we pilgrims reflect on the words of Jesus, we have an assurance that our souls will be with Him in Heaven one day. What will our new home be like, we wonder? What will it be like, joining the beggar and Abraham at the Heavenly banquet? We don’t know, of course, but can we feel a rise in our spirits at the thought of what is to come? Or are we unsure, fearful of the place where the Rich Man is in torment, but unsure as to our worthiness for eternal life with Jesus? Through faith in Jesus’ promises, we know where our eternal home will be; one thing is certain: we will not be calling out to God from the dust of the grave, bitterly regretful that we missed the eternal life Jesus promised. There will be many calling out, like the Rich Man, from the place of torment, finding that it is too late to change their minds.

Dear Father God. The grave is a terrible place to be for those who don’t know Jesus. But we know that You want no one to perish there in a place of torment. Please help us to plant Gospel seeds in the hearts of those who don’t know You, so that they will find salvation. Please enlarge our vision so that we can see the people around us through Your eyes. Please grant us words of knowledge so that we can speak out words of faith. And we pray all this for Your sake. Amen.

Lessons from Isaiah: Trusting God’s Protection

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“So the Lord will spell out his message for them again, one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there, so that they will stumble and fall. They will be injured, trapped, and captured. Therefore, listen to this message from the Lord, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem. You boast, “We have struck a bargain to cheat death and have made a deal to dodge the grave. The coming destruction can never touch us, for we have built a strong refuge made of lies and deception.” Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken.”
Isaiah 28:13-16 NLT

Isaiah repeats again the words of a previous verse that made a parody of his attempts to proclaim the Lord’s message, speaking as if he were teaching simple ideas to children. But God would use the Assyrians to teach the childish Israelites a hard lesson. A time was coming when they would be “injured, trapped, and captured”, the surviving people being carried off into exile. Isaiah now turns his attention to “the scoffing rulers of Jerusalem”, the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The warnings were much the same. Judah may have been pleased to hear what Isaiah had to say about the Israelites, but their complacency ended quickly when Isaiah called them “scoffers”. As we saw a few days ago, “A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise” (Proverbs 15:12). Later in the book of Proverbs, there is a helpful definition of who a “scoffer” is. Proverbs 21:24, ““Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride“. That was how Isaiah addressed the “rulers in Jerusalem”, and they wouldn’t have been pleased. As we will find in a later chapter in Isaiah, Judah had made a pact with Egypt: ““What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection. You have tried to hide in his shade”” (Isaiah 30:1-2). The people in Judah thought that they were safe from attack, but Isaiah called out the error of their ways. They had put their trust in a foreign power rather than in the Lord. 

This is something that has happened throughout history, so the Judeans were not doing anything unusual. Except, of course, these were God’s people. The Psalmist wrote, “Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them. But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God” (Psalm 146:3-5). Then we have Psalm 20:7, “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God”. The promises of protection from the Lord are scattered throughout Scripture, such as in Isaiah 41:10-11, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. See, all your angry enemies lie there, confused and humiliated. Anyone who opposes you will die and come to nothing“.

I suppose there is a question about God’s protection today. Would He protect, for example, the UK if the people living here turned to Him for help? In some ways this question is academic, because the UK is becoming increasingly secular, but I believe that if the entire nation turned to Him, He would. God will never reject a contrite and repentant person – just look at the thief on the cross – and I’m sure that would extend to a nation. But instead there is an alliance of Western countries who rely instead on their “chariots and horses”. The question for the Judeans was: “Do you think your pact with the Egyptians will save you?” Unfortunately, they would find out the hard way that the Egyptians had no intention of helping them out. 

Isaiah continued in the next verse in today’s reading by saying that God alone is the trustworthy footing on which Judah should rest all its confidence. In an often-quoted statement, the Lord says He has established a “foundation in Zion,” meaning Jerusalem. In several places we can read that God confirmed that Jerusalem would be His home. Psalm 132:13-14 is just one. “For the Lord has chosen Jerusalem; he has desired it for his home. “This is my resting place forever,” he said. “I will live here, for this is the home I desired“”. Zion was a fortress, as we read in 2 Samuel 5:7, “But David captured the fortress of Zion, which is now called the City of David”. Ancient buildings relied on large, sturdy corners to keep a building upright. These “cornerstones” were essential, and one was always the most important. References to “the” cornerstone imply something on which the entire structure depends. God has verified this “stone”. It will bear the needed weight as the keystone for the entire building. The Lord says that anyone who believes in this stone won’t “be in haste” in the sense of being panicked or alarmed. Instead, they will experience security and confidence. They “need never be shaken“. 

It is no exaggeration to call Jesus the Cornerstone of our faith. Without Him upholding His followers, the whole structure would come tumbling down, and as we know, Christianity is alive and well in this world. Peter wrote, “You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honour, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced”” (1 Peter 2:4-6). There will one day be a new Jerusalem, which we can read about in Revelation 21, where God Himself will live, along with His people. There will be no shaking there in the lives of believers, because “nothing evil will be allowed to enter … but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelation 21:27). 

That is the future and the hope that we pilgrims have faith for. All those who believe in Jesus will be gifted eternal life with Him. But are we ready? Will Jesus find us doing His will in the life we have now? A sobering thought, and we must take it seriously. Of course, He is gracious enough to forgive our sins, and we come into His presence this morning, reaching out to Him again with our prayers and supplications.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Jesus. We love You, Lord. You are indeed our refuge and strength, as we depend on none other than You. As we face the day ahead, we pray that You go before us, straighten our paths, and show us the way through the minefields of life. In. Your precious name, we pray. Amen.

Understanding God’s Voice: Lessons from Isaiah

Posted on by Adrian Clark

““Who does the Lord think we are?” they ask. “Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned? He tells us everything over and over— one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!” So now God will have to speak to his people through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language! God has told his people, “Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest.” But they would not listen.”
Isaiah 28:9-12 NLT

The drunken Israelites did not receive Isaiah’s correction well at all. Their lifestyles had no place for God, and they responded badly, mocking Isaiah’s message like children ridiculing their peers. We can almost hear the rhyming mimicry as it fell from their drunken lips. Such childishness from so-called religious leaders beggars belief. They don’t take Isaiah’s godly message seriously. After all, they thought, why would they want to be lectured by someone still committed to proclaiming God’s message? But as they will find out, the Lord will throw these words back into their faces.

Have we ever tried to communicate Scripture with someone who perhaps knows a little about the Bible but who responds to our comments with ridicule? I had such a conversation recently with a man whose knowledge of the Bible was actually quite impressive, but he has rejected just about everything it says. His scorn of God’s Word started in Genesis 1, but he quickly became bored with the conversation and couldn’t get away quickly enough. The problem was that he had developed a worldview not aligned with God’s view, and in his current thinking, he rejected anything that conflicted with his own thoughts. This left him in a fragile state, without any foundational truth to base his life on, and it will one day crash down like a house of cards before the gaze of the One sitting in judgment. He didn’t lapse into mockery, but I have met some people who do. 

There is a question for the religious leaders in Samaria that would be interesting to hear answered. Perhaps it could be phrased something like, “How did you get to a state where you rejected God and everything to do with Him, even though you had the Scriptures to refer to?” This question is even more significant for anyone who has lived since Jesus came into this world. But answers will, I fear, be few in number because before Jesus there is no answer. Just a growing awareness that they have got things so wrong. I suspect there will be efforts to cast the blame on someone else, including the age-old response, “The devil made me do it”, or they would blame their parents, or their environment. In Hebrews 10:26-27 we read, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”. My friend knows the truth, but rather than letting it set him free, he has responded with a stubborn rejection of anything to do with God.

The Israelites had reached a stage where they blocked their ears to God’s messages. Perhaps they had become like the children in their response to Isaiah, holding their hands over their ears and shouting out silly noises to stop the message reaching their souls. There was such a time earlier in Israel’s history that we can read about in 1 Samuel 3:1, “Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon”. Had God stopped speaking? Not at all, but the people had become deaf to His voice and had stopped listening.

Isaiah 28:11 declares another way God will speak to His people. If they had become deaf to His voice, then perhaps they would listen to another in a language of judgment, with punishment administered by “foreign oppressors”. These were the Assyrians who spoke a language that was foreign to the Israelites, and what was to happen was recorded in 2 Kings 17:5-6, “Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three years he besieged the city of Samaria. Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign, Samaria fell, and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were settled in colonies in Halah, along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes“. Did the Israelites then hear God’s “voice” as they reflected on their lives in exile? Some did, and we read about them in other accounts in Ezra and Nehemiah. But many didn’t, and those who escaped the Assyrian swords and became exiled were absorbed into the communities in which they found themselves. God’s purposes will always be fulfilled, and He purified His people.

We pilgrims ignore the Word of God at our peril. We know the words that Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Unlike my friend who has rejected God’s Word, we embrace it and we are like the Psalmist who wrote, “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord” (Psalm 119:1). In this Psalm we can also read, “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions“. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me”. And so we pilgrims pursue the Word of Truth, Jesus Himself, without ceasing. Day by day we read what God is saying to us. And we pray without ceasing, because that is what He expects of His children. Yes, there will be times when we err from the Path of Life, taking time out and resting away from God. But He is gracious and kind. 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. There is always a way back to God’s loving arms. 

Dear Heavenly Father. When we are weary on our journey to Glory, we can rest awhile, soaking up sustenance from Your Word and Your Spirit. You have provided us with all that we need for life, and today we ask again for a refilling of Your Spirit to help our beacons of light to keep shining for all to see. We love You, Lord, and will continue to love You even until our days end in this world. There is no other place we would rather be than in Your loving arms with You in Heaven. Amen.

Being Salt and Light: Overcoming Modern Challenges

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The proud city of Samaria— the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel— will be trampled beneath its enemies’ feet. It sits at the head of a fertile valley, but its glorious beauty will fade like a flower. Whoever sees it will snatch it up, as an early fig is quickly picked and eaten. Then at last the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will himself be Israel’s glorious crown. He will be the pride and joy of the remnant of his people.”
Isaiah 28:3-6 NLT

Why do people sometimes fail to see serious problems and issues and carry on their lives regardless? The leaders in Samaria failed to see that their inebriation was badly affecting their ability to make rational decisions, including that of worshipping God. But Isaiah could see a time when the drunkards were no more, and “at last the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will himself be Israel’s glorious crown”. But verse 6 ends with the sobering thought that there will only be a remnant of the people left. The majority will have disappeared along with the bad leaders.

But returning to our initial question today, consider an alien from another planet observing the human beings on Planet Earth and the way they were conducting their lives. They would observe the same drunkenness affecting people’s behaviour, and they would wonder why they did it. Add into the mix the other drugs that seem to underpin so many lives, and they would be left scratching their heads in wonder. How could such an intelligent species fall into such strange and debilitating habits? must have been their question. In Samaria, drunkenness led to the collapse of a nation. Today, in 21st-century Britain, drugs destroy lives and lead to the rest of society having to mop up the after-effects. Ruined lives and families, and health care costs that reach eye-watering levels.

Of course, the drug community is small, compared with society as a whole, but it is still significant, affecting society negatively. But in another part of society we have the Christian believers, who are also small in number. They are also significant, but nevertheless have a positive impact on society because of Jesus’ exhortation to be “salt and light” in their generation, their families and amongst their friends and communities. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:13-16). 

Salt adds flavour to the food we eat, and in times gone by, before refrigeration had been invented, salt was used to ensure food, particularly meat, didn’t spoil. In our societies, the analogy extends to believers, pilgrims such as us, who are meant to stop moral decay in our society by standing up for honesty, kindness, and justice. I support an organisation called the Christian Institute, and they do just that. They constantly lobby politicians and others in authority, trying to introduce or develop Godly influences into the very seat of our governments. Often the work that they do goes on under the radar and away from the public gaze. Only rarely does their work generate a media headline, but the “salt” in their activities achieves many good results. We pilgrims, too, have the same influence when we interact with our fellow citizens, and it is worth considering joining a community group, where our knowledge of God and His ways will counter the enemy’s disruptive activities. Believe it or not, this is also an important role in our churches because some congregations lose their way from time to time, building their spiritual activities on liturgies and jumble sales rather than the Word of God. But we remember that salt only works if it keeps its unique properties. If a believer acts just like those in the selfish world around them and forgets God’s teachings, they lose their spiritual impact and become useless to God’s mission. A sobering thought.

We pilgrims also remember that we are beacons of light in our communities. A question sometimes asked, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I ask this in a positive way, because unless those around us know about our faith, how can we ever hope to “give light to everyone in the house”? Our “house” will extend beyond our homes to anywhere we go, such as our places of work, or the supermarkets, the local park, care home or wherever. Jesus referred to “good deeds” in His analogy and how they can influence people so that they see God in all that we do. Evangelism is mostly not up-front Gospel preaching on a street corner, or the handing out of tracts outside a nightclub, but demonstrating that, in all that we do, we are doing it for God. People will then see from the quality of our work that we are of a different spirit. Colossians 3:23, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people”. Someone once said, “Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words”.

Samaria was facing destruction and exile in the years to come, but “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will himself … will be the pride and joy of the remnant of his people”. God always has a remnant of His people who carry the torch of His presence from generation to generation. As we pilgrims know, we are just such a people. Through our Godly lifestyles, we worship and praise the One who one day will bring to fruition a world full of remnants, gathered over the centuries. A people that the Apostle John could see, as we read in Revelation 21:7, “All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children“. We may be facing all sorts of challenges, but one day things will be different, as we dwell in God’s presence forever.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for Your Word and Your Spirit, which assist us in every situation we find ourselves in. Drunkenness is not for us, and we pray today that You fill us afresh with Your Holy Spirit, so that we can be effective for You wherever You have planted us. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

Restoration Through Christ: From Useless to Fruitful

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Pink and white blossoms growing on a grafted tree in an orchard

“The Lord did this to purge Israel’s wickedness, to take away all her sin. As a result, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust. No Asherah pole or pagan shrine will be left standing. The fortified towns will be silent and empty, the houses abandoned, the streets overgrown with weeds. Calves will graze there, chewing on twigs and branches. The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots. Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God. Therefore, the one who made them will show them no pity or mercy.”
Isaiah 27:9-11 NLT

The picture Isaiah painted from his thoughts was one of future desolation, an apocryphal scene of towns intact but with all inhabitants gone. Signs of neglect would be everywhere. There would be no people, only a few calves left wandering. They would have no proper food, so they would fare the best they could on what they could find, mainly twigs and branches. Their future would be uncertain. The Asherah poles and pagan shrines would all be demolished, a fitting end to the idolatry that brought Israel down. As he mused on the picture before him, Isaiah compared the people to branches found on a forest floor, branches that had died and, after falling off the tree, were left mouldering until they eventually disappeared, absorbed into the vegetable detritus below the trees. And all because they had “turned away from God“. God would have no pity or mercy for them because He would honour the choices they had made. He had to, because that was how He created them. In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, we read, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. That same principle applies to all human beings who have the capacity to make the choices to which God referred.

As we read yesterday, Jesus is the true Vine, and He said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). He then said, “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.” It’s obvious, really. Any branch that loses the life-giving sap that runs through a tree will inevitably die and fall off, no longer useful for bearing fruit. It might be useful for heating cooking pots or fertilising the ground for future growth, but nothing else. In the same way, any Christian who ceases to be connected to Jesus by following His ways will end up in the same place as a useless branch, “gathered into a pile to be burned”.

Jesus’ analogy of His disciples as branches growing from a grapevine was one they would immediately relate to. Any gardener today will understand this analogy as well, because there are many bushes that consist of a decorative variety grafted onto a wild root and trunk. My wife and I had a cherry tree planted in our front garden, with the wild part so vigorous that it started to take over, and the impressive display of grafted blossom became smaller and smaller each year. Isaiah’s picture of desolated towns, empty of the people he described as dead branches, fits well with what Paul wrote in Romans 11:17: “But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree“. As with my cherry tree, we pilgrims are new branches grafted into the original rootstock, Jesus Himself. 

The question for us pilgrims is about the fruit we are producing, if any. Jesus said, “[His Father] cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more” (John 15:2). The danger for disciples everywhere, even us pilgrims, is that we stop producing fruit. But what fruit are we supposed to be producing? We find a list in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” How can we test ourselves objectively to assess our fruit-bearing? As the Psalmist David wrote, we need to bear our souls before God and pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24). What is God saying to us today about the condition of our hearts? 

But back to the question about the fruit we are producing. Here are some signs of slowly growing spiritual fruit in our lives: are we noticing that we react more calmly than we used to when facing times of stress and anxiety? Do we care deeply about the well-being of others, even when it requires sacrifice or the forgiveness of wrongs? Do we refuse to respond to harsh words, instead letting the Holy Spirit help us to hold our tongues? Are we consistently faithful to God rather than just visiting Him from time to time? Many more examples show the Holy Spirit producing the kinds of fruit God desires in our lives, and we don’t have to strive to produce them. Living a life pliable in God’s hand is all that is required.

Many questions remain for us pilgrims today, but no matter how difficult the answers may be, we need to reflect on them. Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). We need to trust Jesus in all that we do, not just in times of difficulty. We need to listen constantly to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us, allowing Him to guide us into all truth and help us produce the fruit that God desires. Paul wrote, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). God never intended us to become useless branches. Thankfully, God is in the recycling business. He takes the useless and transforms them into the useful through the blood of Jesus. A miracle, if there ever was one.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace and love, and for Jesus, who came at just the right time so that we might be restored and justified, no longer useless. We declare our faith and trust in You, and we invest our lives deeply in Your life-giving Spirit, so that we can produce the fruit You require. We ask this in Your precious name. Amen. 

Podcast Episode: Resurrection Hope In Isaiah

Posted on by Adrian Clark

Pip: There's a particular kind of hope that doesn't flinch at a grave — and Being a Pilgrim is the place where Adrian Clark goes looking for it, straight through Isaiah and into Revelation.

Mara: This episode sits entirely in that territory: resurrection promises in Isaiah 26, and what happens when those promises collide with the end-times imagery of Revelation 20 and 21.

Pip: Let's start with what Isaiah actually says about death, suffering, and the hope that outlasts both.

Isaiah 26: Resurrection, Judgement, and the Hope That Outlasts Death

Mara: The opening question here is a hard one — what do you do when your best efforts produce nothing? Isaiah 26 names that failure honestly, and then turns it into a theological pivot.

Pip: The passage does something striking with that pivot. Isaiah sets up the despair first, then lands the counter-claim — and the contrast is the whole argument.

Mara: The verse that anchors this is Isaiah 26:17-19, and the setup is the suffering: "We, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world. But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy!"

Pip: So the upshot is that human effort hits a hard ceiling, and resurrection is what breaks through it — not as a reward for trying harder, but as something given from outside entirely.

Mara: Exactly that. The post is direct: "our ultimate hope does not rest in what we can accomplish, but in what God accomplishes for us." That's the load-bearing claim everything else hangs on.

Pip: And to illustrate how far people will go to avoid that conclusion, there's a genuinely arresting detour into cryopreservation — bodies frozen to minus 196 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen, waiting for a future revival that still cannot guarantee salvation.

Mara: It's used to make a precise point: no expenditure of money or ingenuity purchases life after death. The post quotes Paul — "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God" — and sets that against every human workaround.

Pip: The resurrection itself is then grounded in Jesus as the first instance. The post quotes Matthew 28:6 — "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said" — and frames the empty tomb as the prototype for what Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.

Mara: And the segment closes on a genuinely joyful image: the dead awakening and singing. "Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy" — resurrection leading not to relief but to worship.

Pip: The second post in this theme, End Times: Isaiah 26 and Revelation Insights, picks up exactly where that joy leaves it — with the verses that immediately follow in Isaiah 26, which are considerably less comfortable.

Mara: Verses 20 and 21 instruct God's people to lock their doors and hide while the Lord comes to punish the earth for its sins. The post connects this directly to Revelation 20's Great White Throne — the dead judged according to their deeds, and anyone not found in the Book of Life cast into the lake of fire.

Pip: That is a significant tonal shift from a resurrection chorus, and the post holds both without softening either.

Mara: It does. There's a careful note that the judgment described in Isaiah may have addressed Israel's immediate situation, but the post argues that through Jesus, believers escape the coming judgment regardless — citing John 3:17-18: those who believe are not judged; those who do not are already walking in judgment, effectively out on bail awaiting their trial date.

Pip: That phrase — out on bail — does a lot of work. It makes the urgency concrete without being theatrical about it.

Mara: The post ends with Paul's words from Romans 15:13: "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Pip: So the arc runs from writhing in agony, through an empty tomb, to a song — and the judgement passages sit in the middle not as a threat to believers but as the reason the message matters to everyone else.

Mara: What holds these two passages together is that the hope isn't wishful — it's grounded in something that already happened, and it points forward to something still coming.

Pip: A grave borrowed for a weekend, and a song waiting on the other side of it. There's more of Isaiah ahead — we'll see you there.

The Promise of Resurrection in Isaiah’s Teachings

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Just as a pregnant woman writhes and cries out in pain as she gives birth, so were we in your presence, Lord. We, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world. But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy! For your life-giving light will fall like dew on your people in the place of the dead!”
Isaiah 26:17-19 NLT

Isaiah describes the efforts the people made so that something would happen. They writhed apparently in agony, “but nothing comes of [their] suffering”. In times of extreme stress and distress, people sometimes do extraordinary things, as much out of desperation as anything else. The bottom line, though, was that Israel’s own efforts could not bring about the salvation they desperately needed. That points us towards a fundamental biblical truth: our ultimate hope does not rest in what we can accomplish, but in what God accomplishes for us. Isaiah wrote that salvation could not come through human efforts, no matter how hard we try. Some people do extraordinary things to maintain their appearance or prolong their lives through this potion or that snake oil, but inevitably their efforts reach an endpoint that keeps them from reaching their ultimate hope. But even that doesn’t stop some people. They arrange for their bodies after death to be frozen, a process called cryopreservation, where their body fluids are replaced with a medical form of antifreeze before their remains are frozen in liquid nitrogen to a temperature of -196 degrees Celsius. But their salvation still cannot be guaranteed, even if, on some future date, they can be unfrozen and brought back to life. Sooner or later, eternal death will result. As we pilgrims know, there is only one way to be saved, and that is through Jesus. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Paul wrote, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8). The reality is that no matter how much money you spend, it is impossible to purchase a life after death through anything we can do. Our bodies will die and be returned to the elements from which they have been constructed, but our souls and spirits will live eternally in the place of our choosing. We can reach out in faith to our Heavenly Father, accepting His free gift of eternal life spent with Him, or we can reject Him and find out what hell will ultimately be like. 

There is another Godly “but” in the next verse from our reading today. “But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again!” The previous verses speak of pain, failure and helplessness. Then God says that death itself is not the final word for God’s people. David wrote, “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever” (Psalm 16:10-11). The first “Holy One” was, of course, Jesus, and we know that the tomb in which He was laid was soon empty. Jesus only borrowed it for the weekend. After the death of Lazarus, Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” (John 11:25-26). Early on in His ministry, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. Such a straightforward and simple statement, but the truth and reality of Jesus’ mission has divided mankind for centuries, with most people choosing to reject what He said. Worse, partly because of Jesus’ heritage and ancestry, there has been an uprising of animosity against the Jews, something we term anti-semitism. But this animosity has been extended to include Christians, and Open Doors has calculated that 388 million believers in Jesus are being persecuted for their faith today. This amounts to 1 in 7 believers across the globe. 

One day we pilgrims will be resurrected. Jesus was the first: the angel said to the women who had come to prepare His body for a proper burial, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:6). No matter how hopelessly final Jesus’ crucifixion, death and burial seemed to have been, we worship a God who specialises in bringing life out of situations that appear to be hopeless. What happens next is beyond even our wildest dreams. Paul wrote, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). In 1 Corinthian 15:53, Paul wrote, “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies”. The hope that we pilgrims hold is therefore much more than wishing tomorrow will be better. Our hope reaches beyond the grave. Even death cannot separate a believer from God’s purposes and promises.

Our verses today end with a song. Isaiah wrote, “Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy!”. How marvellous is that! Our future hope is in a life of joy where there will be no more sickness, crying and death. The dead are described as awakening and singing, and we are promised that the grave is not the end; our resurrection will lead to worship. Can we get our minds around the fact that we will wake up in God’s presence with a song of praise on our lips? In our current lives, we may be passing through the valley of death, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. One day we will be singing our spiritual hearts out in God’s presence. It is only God who can deliver the salvation our hearts yearn for, and once again I am reminded that I have been commissioned to tell this fact to those around me. A simple message: “Hell is hot, Heaven is real, and Jesus saves!” 

Dear Heavenly Father. A song is already forming on my lips, a song of worship to You, who loved me so much that You sent Your Son, Jesus, to die for my fellow pilgrims and me. There are no words available to express our gratitude, but grateful we are with every fibre of our beings. We worship You today, and will continue to worship You across the Great Divide into Heavenly places. Amen.

Understanding Why the Wicked Prosper

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“In the night I search for you; in the morning I earnestly seek you. For only when you come to judge the earth will people learn what is right. Your kindness to the wicked does not make them do good. Although others do right, the wicked keep doing wrong and take no notice of the Lord’s majesty. O Lord, they pay no attention to your upraised fist. Show them your eagerness to defend your people. Then they will be ashamed. Let your fire consume your enemies. Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you.”
Isaiah 26:9-12 NLT

Isaiah introduces something that has constantly baffled the righteous followers of God for millennia. Why do the wicked get away with their wickedness? Why doesn’t God just zap them when they do wrong, those people who “take no notice of the Lord’s majesty”? But it’s worse than that because the same wicked people do harm to God’s people. Isaiah called out to God to “show them [His] eagerness to defend [His] people”. We can all think of people in the public eye who are overtly wicked and who, in their pride and arrogance, think that they are immortal and unstoppable in their wickedness. They may even redefine the word wickedness to mean good, and many gullible people will swallow the lies. Isaiah wrote about them once before in Isaiah 5:20, “What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter”. One current example of this can be found in the war between Russia and Ukraine, in which the leader of the attacking side declared his goal was to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine. Wasn’t that just an excuse to reoccupy a nation with the false justification that it had a moral duty to do this? We pray that God will bring justice to the poor people in Ukraine and Russia who are suffering so much.

The Psalmist, Asaph, had a similar problem, as we read in Psalm 73:3, “For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness”. He goes on to describe the ways in which the “wicked” prospered, through good health, lack of troubles, and with everything they need. But in their pride, Asaph could see their arrogance, the way they boasted and crushed those less fortunate. They spoke only evil and scoffed at God. Psalm 73:11, “”What does God know?” they ask. “Does the Most High even know what’s happening?”” Asaph concludes in the next verses, “Look at these wicked people— enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply. Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?” He then continues with “I get nothing but trouble all day long; every morning brings me pain”. This is a very human Psalm, because Asaph’s feelings are bang up to date. Was there a hint of self-pity infecting his soul? As we read, he next tried to rationalise in his own mind why such evil people got away with their evil. “So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is!” (Psalm 73:16). Don’t we do the same? A burglar steals and is never caught. A mobile phone is snatched, and the owner never sees it again. At the other end of the scale, a despotic leader sends a million young men to their deaths but is still in power at home. Why does God allow such people to get away with their wickedness?

Asaph finally went into God’s presence, and there he found the answer to his dilemma. “Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked”. There is no use fretting about God’s apparent lack of action because God will act. Asaph wrote, “Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction. In an instant they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. When you arise, O Lord, you will laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning” (Psalm 73:18-20). Asaph then turns his thoughts away from the wicked, as God’s light illuminated his soul. He realised how bitter he had become, and he turned his gaze to God Himself. Asaph completes the Psalm with, “Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. … But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do” (Psalm 73:25-26, 28). When we lift our gaze into Heavenly places, we find a different perspective, because we find that God is still on His throne and He has everything under control. He wants no one to perish, and He is gracious and patient, just in case the wicked people finally realise the error of their ways and turn to Him in repentance.

But just one more thing that we need to bear in mind, even pilgrims such as us. Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). If God had zapped all the wicked people, would I be writing this? Would any of us be still alive on this planet? We pilgrims need to fall on our knees before God with grateful hearts, thanking Him for His patience and grace.

Dear Heavenly Father. We are so grateful that You sent Your Son “to seek and save the lost”. Unless Jesus had walked on this world, we pilgrims would have had no hope for the future other than a miserable existence in a place where we wouldn’t want to be. All other religions are about man seeking a god, but there is only one God who came to seek sinners like us. So on our knees before You today we offer our worship to the One who has done so much for us. Amen.

Seeking God: Morning and Night Reflections

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“In the night I search for you; in the morning I earnestly seek you. For only when you come to judge the earth will people learn what is right. Your kindness to the wicked does not make them do good. Although others do right, the wicked keep doing wrong and take no notice of the Lord’s majesty. O Lord, they pay no attention to your upraised fist. Show them your eagerness to defend your people. Then they will be ashamed. Let your fire consume your enemies. Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you.”
Isaiah 26:9-12 NLT

Morning and night. Special times perhaps for God’s people, and pilgrims like us everywhere. Some nights, lying in bed in that “starting to drift off into sleep” mode, I’m conscious of a feeling of relief after a confusing and chaotic day, and I bring before God my thoughts and emotions, asking Him for His perspective and confessing any sins that I might have committed. This leads to praying for the issues that have emerged over the past few hours, and that’s how the day ends. But Isaiah went further; he earnestly searched for the Lord. That builds a picture of a man who is aware of society’s ills and where God cannot be found at all. We pilgrims perhaps feel the same, as we consider our increasingly secular society, where God has been forgotten, ignored and even vilified. Where our fellow citizens follow their selfish desires as they did in the days of the Judges: “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Their moral compass long gone. Their songs, devoid of praises to God, would instead have the lyrics “What’s in it for me” or “I’ll do it my way”. But Isaiah searched for God while lying on his bed, and I’m sure, in the quiet of the night, he found His Lord.

But on awakening, Isaiah sought God again. Faced with such an arrogant and Godless society, he knew that he needed God to be there with him. He didn’t know what he would face in the day ahead, and perhaps he was even a bit scared about the issues he would have to face. The people around him had forgotten God, as we have read in previous chapters, and were following sinful practices, particularly idolatry, even though they went through the motions of the Jewish rites and rituals. But do we pilgrims feel the same? Do we too wake up and immediately start to think God-thoughts, earnestly seeking Him for whatever resources we need for the day ahead? Are we like the Psalmist David, praying as in Psalm 5:3, “Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly”? In a time of great stress, David wrote another prayer: “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). This might be an appropriate prayer for those of us pilgrims who are currently living in drought-filled parts of England. But the land in which we live is indeed parched without the living water of God’s Spirit flowing throughout our societies, our churches and communities.

What requests do we have this morning? And, here’s the thing, do we believe that God can bring answers to our prayers? But I know that some people wake up in the morning, just relieved that they have survived another night, having been racked with pain, or unable to sleep. Others wearily haul themselves out of bed, wishing that they didn’t have to face the day ahead at all. But not Isaiah. He had an eager expectation that God would be there with him. He knew what Solomon had written years before: “Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:23). 

Jesus always spent time in prayer in the mornings. Mark 1:35, “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray”. Why did He have to do that? Because when He left Heaven, Jesus left behind most of His divine attributes, taking on human form with all the limitations that would follow. So He had to spend time communicating with His Father in Heaven to ensure that He would follow His will in the day ahead. We should do the same because we don’t have a clue about the issues that might appear in the hours ahead. We pray for grace and compassion in our interactions with fellow citizens, God-followers or not. We pray for the words to say when someone needs comforting. We need the leading of the Holy Spirit when God wants us to bring His message of hope into a life devoid of hope at all. And, above all, we need God to fill us afresh with His Spirit, resourcing us for the day ahead. I do not know what I will face today. But I know Someone who does, and I need to hold His hand throughout the day ahead. Thankfully, His hands are big enough to hold each one of us. 

Almost despairingly, Isaiah wrote, “For only when you come to judge the earth will people learn what is right”. A statement of truth, but within it there are pockets of hope for those who follow Him day by day, for those who earnestly seek God for His resources and His righteousness. But by Judgment Day, it will be too late for most to understand the difference between right and wrong. For those who have never understood what God truly desires, Fanny Crosby wrote a hymn in 1869 called “Near the Cross”, and the first verse reads, “Jesus, keep me near the cross,/ There a precious fountain; / Free to all, a healing stream,/ Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain”. And the chorus goes: “In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever, / Till my ransomed soul shall find / Rest beyond the river”. That’s where we pilgrims need to be, always aware of what Jesus has done for us. Always close to our Master.

Dear Heavenly Father. It all starts with the Cross at Calvary, and Your Son in agony of body and spirit, taking on to Himself the sins of the world. And before You this morning, I declare my gratitude. In this weary and parched land, I pray that once again, You will awaken us with a new move of Your Spirit. Raise up Godly men and women, we pray, who will pray without ceasing for revival to hit Your churches, shifting the people’s gaze far above their leaking church roofs to Your throne. It’s all about You, Lord, and we echo Your prayer for Your Kingdom to come and Your will to be done, in Your precious name. Amen.