Dear Pilgrim, is your thirst desperate?

© Elizabeth DeBarros 2012 - "Womb of the Morning"

Dear Pilgrim, is your thirst desperate?

Does your whole being long for Him?

In His grace has He made your thirst for Him so desperate that you would spend a precious night before Him, panting for Him, your eyes staying open through the watches of the night, rising before dawn, crying out for help from Him? For darkness covers the earth, thick darkness is over the peoples. Our need of Him has never been so desperate.

Let me take you to the Cave of Adullam, the cave of Refuge, which points to the One who is our Rock, our fortress, and our deliverer, our Rock in whom we take refuge. See here David, sheltering in his Rock as he seeks to defeat the enemy in the Valley of Rephaim, or giants. See how he becomes aware that he is thirsty, how he longs for some water to drink. 

Listen! “Oh that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”

Do you see - even sheltering in the cave of Refuge, it is possible to still be thirsty. For it is His desire that we come to Him as children and ask Him to quench our thirst! It is His desire that our eyes be opened to the greatness of our need, that we might cling to Him, that we might see Him and behold His power and glory! But dear Pilgrim, we need to ask! Oh, how we need to ask!

Watch! Three mighty warriors are stealthily breaking through enemy lines, seeking out water from the well of which David spoke. How they are risking their lives! How they must love David, to be ready to lay down their lives for him to satisfy his thirst in this way! See their success as they bring the water back to the one they love.

Look! David is chastened. He sees the love of his friends, their willingness to lay down their lives for him to quench his thirst. He cannot drink of this water. He pours it out as an offering before the Lord, seeing the water for which he longed as their life-blood which they were willing to sacrifice for him.

Dear Pilgrim…has your gaze been shifted towards Calvary, to the cross on which One willingly gave His life for His friends? To the Roman soldier now coming to thrust a spear into His side…that blood and water might pour out? Do you see how He willingly poured out His blood that He might quench our thirst? But this is not water drawn from a well, my friend. Now that He is risen, ascended and glorified, He can send rivers of living water to us. Oh, Pilgrim, do you see - not even just the water from one river, but the water from many rivers! What abundance He has to offer us! Oh, Pilgrim, He has made us thirsty that we might drink of the abundance of the rivers of living water that are available in Him!

Come, Pilgrim. David could not drink of the water, for that water would only satisfy his physical thirst. His pouring out of the water before the Lord speaks to how he was looking for water to satisfy his spiritual thirst. How desperate we are for this spiritual water! Oh Pilgrim, how desperate we are! How we need to wait for Him more than watchmen wait for the morning.  But Pilgrim, take note of this blessed picture, that when He comes knocking during the night, His head is drenched with dew - He brings with Him the blessing of the early morning dew that speaks of Him quenching our thirst. 

Precious Pilgrim, will you help me? Will you remind me of my desperate thirst? Can we encourage one another to seek Him with all of our being, so that if in His grace He should come calling during the night to meet our thirst, He will not find us asleep? As we shelter in the Cave of Refuge, can we seek Him together? For just as the three mighty warriors point us to the Quencher of our Thirst, so too they give a beautiful picture of the blessedness that comes from seeking for water from Him in unity. The dew of Mount Zion will fall upon God's people seeking Him in unity.

And as He pours Himself out to us to satisfy our thirst for Him, 
we ourselves will be in the midst of many peoples,
 like dew from the Lord, 
like showers on the grass, 
which do not wait for anyone or depend on man.

Dear Pilgrim, are you aware of how beautiful your aroma is?

Dear Pilgim, are you aware of how beautiful your aroma is today?

I can see from the look in your eyes, even the tears now welling in your eyes, that you are all too aware of what you perceive to be the foul stench of sin wafting around you. How you desire to be completely pure, to be free from the daily battle that corrupts and stains even the purest offering you can bring Him. How your heart trembles with sadness that even your love for Him is tainted. You think about your righteousness being like filthy rags before Him, and you are broken, emptied of self, bowed low before Him.

Dear Pilgrim, I urge you to take in a deep breath – and listen to the voice of your Beloved:

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!  
How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!

Oh Pilgrim, what a precious truth it is that unlike the idols which cannot smell, Yahweh can! As He breathed out into the nostrils of man His very breath, giving him life and fellowship with Himself, so too as man walked with the LORD in the Garden, the LORD breathed in the pleasing aroma and fragrance of fellowship with him – and He declared that it was very good.

Sin caused a stench in the nostrils of our Holy God. But Pilgrim, come with me to Golgotha. Walk soberly. We are walking on the Holiest of ground. Kneel with me here at the foot of His cross. Lift your face – see Him there, Lamb of God, bloody, disfigured, bearing your sin, my sin, in His body on that tree. And as you gaze upon Your Saviour, take this truth into your heart, that He gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. As He hung on that cross, He was a fragrant offering! Only the Son of God could possibly bear all of our sin on His shoulders and at the same time be a fragrant offering before His Father. For this is His beloved Son, whom He loves, with Him He is well pleased.

Precious Pilgrim, do you see? The Son is a fragrant offering to the Father. As you come before your Father, in the Name of His beloved Son, trusting only in Him, in His righteousness, then everything you offer your Father becomes a fragrant offering, acceptable to Him. Your prayers rise up as a precious, holy fragrance to the throne room just like the incense from the golden altar before the Ark of the Testimony in the Tabernacle. Your acts of love towards your brethren become a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. You are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

And as you worship your Saviour, the Beloved Son, kneeling at His feet, pouring your heart out to Him, for Him, in adoration of Who He is, all He has done and all He will yet do, the Garden is once more filled with the fragrance of perfume.

Dear Pilgrim, dare you walk by a new and living Way?

Dear Pilgrim, I see you are still here in the courtyard of the tabernacle. Like the lame man who was begging at the Beautiful Gate, I see you also have come into the courtyard and you are walking and jumping and praising God for His healing touch upon your life, and just as the crowds were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to the lame man, so too they respond to what the Lord has done in you in the same way. May His Name be praised! What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus! To have our sins forgiven through the pouring out of His blood, to be washed clean in the water of His word….what more could we want? How many people have spent so much time rejoicing and exulting in the truth that they now have peace with God, that they have remained forever in the courtyard?

Oh, dear precious Pilgrim…look up again! The tabernacle…we have not even entered into it yet!

“I will put my dwelling-place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high” 

The Lord walked with His people in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day – but the only time we read of this is when the heads of Adam and Eve were already held down in shame as a result of their sin and they hid from the Lord. Yet His desire is to walk among His people, His people walking with their heads held high, their fellowship with Him restored. And for those who enter through the narrow Gate of the tabernacle, who accept the sacrifice made once and for all at the bronze altar, who have their feet washed at the bronze laver, fellowship is made possible once again.

But Pilgrim, do not hold back, for here in the courtyard it is not possible to experience this intimacy of relationship. Walk with me into the tabernacle – to the place of gold! The gold table of the bread of the Presence, the gold lampstand, the gold altar of incense. And then notice the curtain torn in two from top to bottom at the far end of this room, and dare to walk into the Most Holy Place, by a new and living way. See the golden ark of the covenant, where the Spirit of the living God will write upon the tablet of your heart, provide you daily with all you need, and remind you that you have been chosen of God, and appointed to go and bear fruit that will last. See the golden cherubim with their wings outstretched above the mercy seat of Christ, sprinkled with the precious blood of Christ, the place where God met with Moses and spoke with him. Notice that the only light in this Most Holy Place is the shekinah glory of God Himself. And as you kneel here and meet with God, gazing into the glory of God in the face of Christ, you will be amazed at how despite your head being bowed low before Him, He tenderly lifts it to enable you to walk with your head held high.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory,which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”.

Dear Pilgrim, do you need cleansing?

Dear Pilgrim, is it the cry of your heart to know Him better? To enjoy a greater fullness of all that is offered through the gospel message? Then allow me to take you to the tabernacle in the dusty desert, the tabernacle that was outlined with great care and in great detail by Yahweh to Moses from the mountain top, the sanctuary in which the Lord would dwell among His people.

Look at the courtyard before us – with linen curtains surrounding it. White linen – symbolizing the purity of the place in which God would dwell. Come with me through the one entrance into the courtyard, that one entrance that speaks of the only way of salvation in His Name, the Name of Jesus Christ, for there is no other Name by which man might be saved. Note the colours of the curtains in the entrance – blue, purple, scarlet – pointing to the Divine King who gave Himself as a Sacrifice.

Do you see the brazen altar? There are many people here, all bringing their sin offerings to the priests to be sacrificed before the Lord, that they might receive forgiveness for their sins. See the grate in the altar, where the fierce fire from the Lord burns up the sacrifice. Bronze – this withstood the fiery judgment and wrath of the Lord when the rebels brought their own incense before the Lord. Oh, Pilgrim, kneel with me and see how this bronze altar points to Him and the sacrifice that would give us the forgiveness we need for our sins. And note that there is no seat next to this altar, for the priests had to stand continually, endlessly repeating the sacrifices - as the blood from the animals could never take away sins. Take comfort, precious Pilgrim, in the knowledge that the Lamb of God sacrificed Himself for our sins once and for all, and He is now seated at the right hand of God. What a Saviour!

But dear Pilgrim, I urge you, not to keep your eyes cast down by the altar. For our God took a great deal of care in outlining the plans for the tabernacle to Moses on the mountain. The tabernacle is not limited to the bronze altar of sacrifice. Lift up your eyes! Do you see – the laver?

Oh Pilgrim, come, walk with me to the laver. These are precious steps we are taking. For when the pattern was given to Moses, it was only the priests who could walk to the laver. The Israelites could go no further than the altar. But the great truth of the Sacrifice our Lord made for us is that now, He has made us all priests. Can I share with you a sorrow of my heart, Pilgrim….for so many years, I remained at the sacrificial altar, eyes cast down, not realising I was free to walk further into the tabernacle. But now He has lifted my eyes, and the laver….

For walking this Pilgrim path, it is dirty, it is dusty, and despite our best efforts our feet get dirty. We are clean, for we have come past the bronze altar, we have accepted His sacrifice, our guilty consciences have been cleansed and we have been given life that we might know Him. Yet we still get dirty. Oh, Pilgrim, come to the laver with me. Be cleansed!

I see you are doing as I have tried so long, my friend. You are trying to cleanse yourself with the water from the laver. It seems the right thing to do, doesn’t it? Yet His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts higher than our thoughts. Look – here comes One to clean your feet. Pilgrim, I understand the look of horror in your eyes as you realise Who this is, that has been my reaction. “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?...You shall never wash my feet!” Is it not enough that He had to sacrifice Himself on that cross and bear the wrath against sin in our place? Does He now have to come and bend down at our feet, our feet that need to be cleansed, take hold of them, wash them, dry them? This is not how it should be – we should be the ones to bow down at His feet. How can we let Him do this, the King of Kings?

Oh dear Pilgrim, allow yourself to be broken yet deeper still. Broken in recognition of the fact that we can do nothing to cleanse ourselves of our dirt, broken from any remaining vestiges of pride, broken in recognition of the fact that the Servant King is the only One who can cleanse us, that He desires to do this for us, that it is His joy – and gratefully receive, Pilgrim! Take to heart His words “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me”.  We are IN Him, through the sacrifice at the altar – to be WITH Him, to enjoy a greater fullness in our walk with Him, let Him wash us clean. Let us run to Him when our feet have become dirty, just as Peter did when He saw the risen Lord - and was restored in his spirit through an intimate time of fellowship.

And after He has washed your feet clean - fall at His feet and wash them with your tears of worship.

Dear Pilgrim, are you feeling burdened?

He who overcomes,
I will make him
a pillar
in the temple 
of My God
Rev 3:12

Dear Pilgrim, are you feeling weighed down and burdened? Come with me, I have something to show you that will lift your spirits, lighten your heart, fill you with hope.

Come with me to Solomon’s Temple. Majestic! Awesome! Bow down and worship!

Everything about this Temple points us to our Messiah, from the bronze altar and bronze sea in the outer courtyard pointing to the sacrifices of Messiah’s blood and our need for washing clean in Him before we can enter into the Temple to meet with the Presence of the Living God, to all the golden furnishings of the temple inside.

But, dear Pilgrim, I want us to stand in the outer courtyard and look at the pillars standing at each side of the portico of the temple. One of these pillars is called “Jakin”. This means “He establishes”. The other pillar is called “Boaz” – by His strength. Dear pilgrim, can you see – He will establish these pillars in the temple by His strength. He is building His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!

Come with me, dear Pilgrim, let us go and walk up to these pillars. Can you lift your head with me and look to the top? Can you see what is on top of the pillars? These are called capitals. Do you see they are in the shape of lilies? This reminds me of the Song of Solomon where the chosen is called a “lily of the valleys”, a lily among thorns. The bridegroom has come and taken this precious lily from the depth of the valley and where has He placed her? Right at the very peak of the pillars adorning His temple! She has made her Aliyah! Pliny has written of the lily ““No flower grows taller; sometimes it reaches three cubits, its neck always drooping under the weight of a head too heavy for it”. It is true – the lily does bow down her head for she knows she has been chosen among thorns, she knows she is what she is all through the grace of God, she knows that she has been established by His strength alone, she sees that she has been lifted up, and she can do nothing but bow down in awed wonder and worship in the presence of the Living God!

Can you also see the decoration of pomegranates around the capital? Such a delicate design, in rows upon rows. An orchard of pomegranates! Can you hear the bridegroom’s voice? Listen! “Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits”. The fruit that He has caused to bear in you is an orchard of pomegranates, and this adorns the lily-shaped capital at the very peak of the pillar in His temple!

One final thought, dear Pilgrim. The capital on the pillar is usually there to mediate between the column of the pillar and the load thrusting down upon it, for normally the pillars would be supporting a heavy roof. These capitals have no load bearing down upon them. For He says to us “My yoke is easy and my burden is light”. Oh, dear Pilgrim, as you bow down your head before your God, lift it up in the freedom He has given you! Just as the gates should lift up their heads that the King of Glory should come in, so you too, precious lily, lift up your head, lift up your head – and the King of glory shall come in! Who is this King of Glory? Yahweh Sabaoth, the LORD of hosts, He is the King of Glory!

God Save the Queen!

The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;  
he turns it wherever he will. 
- Proverbs 21:1

I have lived through many changes in the 41 years of my life. I have lived in 6 different homes in 4 different towns, and have been governed by 8 different Prime Ministers. I don't have any recollection of the Winter of Discontent of 1978/9 or of the election of Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979. I do however have a vivid memory from 1977 – concerning one of the few constants in my life.

The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977. I remember as a 5 year old our whole school getting involved in the events, decorating our classrooms, receiving a memorial Silver Jubilee tea mug, and having a celebratory party. And I will never forget lining up alongside the Coal Road in Leeds with my class, and waving my British flag furiously as the Queen drove past in her cavalcade. As the Royal car passed, we all glimpsed a gloved hand waving at us. That is a memory that has remained firmly etched on my mind.

The Queen provokes a great deal of respect from my heart. She has dutifully served her country ever since being handed the monarchy at the tender age of 25 upon the death of her father, King George VI, himself a reluctant King following the abdication of his elder brother Edward. The Queen has ceaselessly, and tirelessly, served her country and her citizens for 61 years, making her the second-longest reigning British monarch, only 2 years shy of Queen Victoria’s 63-year reign, to date. My whole life has been lived as a subject under her reign. And she has been part of our family tradition – for each Christmas without fail, we would gather around our television sets at 3pm to watch as the Queen addressed the nation in her annual Christmas Day speech. 

As she approaches the twilight of her years on the throne, I am feeling an increasing burden to pray for her. At her coronation on 2nd June 1953, the Queen made an oath before God. She was asked by the Archbishop of the Church of England if she was willing to take the oath, to which she replied she was willing. She was then asked whether she would govern her subjects according to their respective laws and customs. And then she was asked “Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?  Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?” She replied “All this I promise to do.” And then laying her hand on the Bible, she said “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.”

As I have reflected upon her reign, and have read the transcripts from each one of those Christmas Day speeches, it has become clear to me that she has found herself caught between two demands placed upon her as Queen – on the one hand to be a dutiful Queen to her subjects and serve them, and on the other hand to discharge the duties under her oath before God. In her very first Christmas Day broadcast in 1952, a few months before her coronation, she said “I want to ask you all, whatever your religion may be, to pray for me on that day - to pray that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.” Whilst she has without fail spoken of her faith in Jesus Christ at every one of her Christmas Day speeches, she has also said “Of course religion can be divisive, but the Bible, the Koran and the sacred texts of the Jews and Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, are all sources of divine inspiration and practical guidance passed down through the generations. To many of us our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example.” (Christmas Day broadcast, 2000).

The Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill is currently being debated in Parliament. This Bill seeks to corrupt the precious symbol of marriage that God has placed in society, whereupon every marriage between a man and a woman points to the love of Christ for the church. By widening the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, this precious symbolization will be obfuscated. The Bill has almost finished its passage through the House of Commons, whereupon it will pass to the House of Lords for debate. Assuming it passes through the House of Lords, it must then receive Royal Assent before it becomes an Act of Parliament (law). No sovereign has withheld Royal Assent from any Bill since 1708, so in practice Royal Assent is seen as a formality.

The prayer of my heart, the burden on my soul for my Queen, is that in the twilight of her reign as Queen of England, she will have such an encounter with the King of kings that she will no longer feel the tension between her loyalty to her subjects and her God, but rather will be filled with gratitude that she is being given an opportunity to be faithful to the oath she swore before Almighty God, to maintain the Laws of God in this land. I pray that the revelation she receives from Him will be such that her fear of Almighty God far exceeds any fear of man, and that she will honour the laws of her God over and above the wishes of her people. Above all, I pray that she has such an encounter with the One who sits enthroned on high that she bows her knee before Him and confesses that there is no other Name by which man may be saved other than the Name of Jesus Christ.

May God bless her on this, her birthday. May God save the Queen!

Dear Pilgrim, why are your eyes downcast?

To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Psalm 123:1

Dear Pilgrim, where is your gaze today? Under the heat of conviction of sin, are you unable to lift your eyes to heaven, beating your breast, crying out to God to be merciful to you, a sinner? Be reassured, justification is yours.

Yet at the same time, dear Pilgrim, I want to show you that a great blessing awaits His people who, whilst being bowed low in His presence, have the faith to take hold of His Holy boldness to lift up their eyes before Him.

Let us consider dear Abraham, our father in the faith. The Lord Himself instructed Abraham to lift up his eyes on one occasion – and as he obeyed in faith, he saw with his own eyes the land of Promise that would one day be given to him and his descendants. On another occasion when the Lord appeared to Abraham, it was only when he lifted his eyes that he saw the Lord before him. His response to this was to bow low to the ground. There is no other response to the presence of the Lord. Yet this was not the end of Abraham's response. Filled with faith, he implored the Lord "do not pass by your servant...let a little water be brought...wash your feet...rest...while I bring a morsel of bread." Do not pass me by! A cry of faith. A cry from a heart desiring intimacy. A cry from a heart that believes it is possible to fellowship with His Lord, even break bread with Him! What holy boldness! And what a response he received - not only did the Lord condescend to answer Abraham's request, He even confided in Abraham! Oh, can you see with me the greatness of this blessing? How the Lord delighted to answer Abraham’s request – because he had dared to lift his eyes.

As we lift our eyes, He reveals more of Himself to us – the awesome wonder of the work of His hands in creation, and the unchanging, eternal, sure word of the Lord and His attributes. He also uses the lifting of our eyes to reveal our sin to us. Sin…without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin. Thus Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place where he was to offer his sacrifice to the Lord, the sacrifice of his beloved son. But as Abraham lifted his eyes one final time, he set eyes on the greatest blessing of all – the ram caught in the thicket, the Lord’s own provision for the sacrifice. Dear Pilgrim, pause a moment, and consider this – the ram, the Lord’s own sacrifice, also lifted up His eyes. Listen. “He lifted up his eyes…” On whom, dear Pilgrim? On whom did the ram, who would one day be sacrificed to take away the sin of the world, lift up his eyes? “He lifted up his eyes on his disciples…” Oh, dear Pilgrim, listen, take heart, be encouraged, for do you know why He would lift up His eyes on His disciples?

“He lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God’”. 

He lifted up His eyes on His disciples to bless them! Blessed are you who are poor! Oh, what love is this? That the One before Whom we can only bow down low, and lower still as we discover the breadth and depth of His love for us, would stoop down to such a level that He would have to lift His eyes to us? Yes, dear Pilgrim, you who began this morning beating your breast with your gaze downcast, feeling the weight of your sin, your unworthiness before Him, He lifts up His eyes to you to bless you, for yours is the kingdom of God, for your trust and hope are in Him alone! The fulfilment of the Aaronic blessing:

“The Lord bless you and keep you,

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you,

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace”.

Dear Pilgrim, take heart! You have His peace! Now dare to lift up your eyes to His as you bow low before Him, and He will remind you of His promises, reveal more of Himself to you, quicken you to offer yourself as a living sacrifice to Him, and reassure you that He provides all you need. And He will so fill you with Himself that He will enable you to pray and to serve in accordance with the will of the Father as you lift your eyes to heaven, having encountered the Living God. Dear Pilgrim, join with me in echoing Abraham's cry of faith: "Do not pass by your servant".