Aliyah!

Blessed are those whose strength is in You, 

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 

A Valley of Dry Bones. Can these bones live? They are so dry, all hope is gone. Without the Lord, there is no hope. But with the Lord, nothing is impossible. He is the God of the hills and the valleys. He comes down to the valley. He breathes – and His breath enters into the dry bones. Life! Hope!

His chosen is a Lily of the Valleys, a lily among thorns. Life may begin in the valleys, but as He comes, leaping across the mountains, and bounding over the hills, the call is to go up. Aliyah!

“Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!”

But there are many valleys to be crossed on the way up – for the promised land is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.  Be encouraged as you cross the valleys, dear pilgrim – the valleys drink the rain from heaven.

As you begin your journey, take note of the signs of the goodness of the LORD. As you pass through the Valley of Eshcol (cluster) taste and see that the LORD is good! Do not be discouraged by the giants in the land – your God is able to deliver you from them! He will give you victory over the giants in the Valley of Elah (oak). Can you see, dear pilgrim, He will bestow on you a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, He will make you an oak of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendour!

“Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!”

The Valley of Baca (Weeping) becomes a place of springs as the pilgrim passes through. Sowing may be done in tears, but there will be reaping with songs of joy. The journey may begin with weeping, carrying seed to sow, but there is a promise of a return with songs of joy, as sheaves are carried back.  Rain from heaven will cover the Valley of Weeping with blessings.

As those blessings continue to fall, dear pilgrim, now see you are in The Valley of Beracah (Blessings). It may seem as if there is no way across this valley, but do not lose heart! Sing your praises to Him! Praise Him for the splendour of His holiness! You will see Him clear the way Himself for you to cross this valley. Receive His blessing and bless Him!

“Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!”

The Valley of the Shadow of Death reminds us there is no need to fear evil, for He is with us, and His rod and His staff comfort us.

As we cross these difficult valleys, He provides encouragement all the way. He reveals His glory to us as we ascend a high mountain – we hide from His glory in the cleft of the rocks that He has provided for us. But do not hide from Him too long, dear pilgrim. Listen to the encouragement of His Voice!

My dove in the clefts of the rock

In the hiding places on the mountainside,

Show me your face, let me hear your voice;

For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

Oh! Take the time, dear pilgrim, to feast on these blessed words! Dare to look up! And as you look up, He will give you all the grace you need to traverse every valley in your path. Even the Valley of Achor (trouble). In this world, we will have trouble. But take heart! He has overcome the world. The Valley of Achor. Only He can redeem this from the scene of judgment against the sin of Achan into a door of hope!

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD

For with the LORD is unfailing love

And with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

And this door of hope will lead you from strength to strength, until you appear before God in Mount Zion.

“Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!”

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion

Which cannot be shaken but endures for ever.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

So the LORD surrounds his people

Both now and for evermore.

Is it for me, dear Saviour?

It was 21 years ago that my blessed God stepped down into my darkness and took away the veil that covered my heart, revealing His glory to me in the face of Jesus Christ my saviour.

I look back and separate those 21 years into two periods. The first 19 years I walked in despair, burdened down by the belief that I was continually failing my precious Lord, unable to appropriate His grace, living under a cloud of wretched condemnation. The last 2 years have been a walk of a completely different kind….of a gradual unfolding of His grace, a growing assurance in the faith, and wonder of all wonders, a lifting of my eyes to behold His face revealed in all its glory.

I want to say today to any precious believers reading this who are all too aware of their unworthiness before Him, who see all too clearly their sinfulness, their wretchedness, their need of Him, who feel they can never come forward to claim their full inheritance – He has made a great promise that stands for all time that is true, and always will be true, for they are His words and He does not lie:

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” 

Our God is a holy God, who is immortal, invisible, who dwells in unapproachable light, who no man has seen or ever can see. And yet He calls on us to seek after Him. He calls on us to behold His glory in the face of Christ. He calls on us to seek after His face.

And when we do this, we will discover that as we turn towards Him, He comes running towards us to welcome us with the warmth of His embrace, with a kiss. He has a robe to clothe us with, the precious robe of the righteousness of Christ. He has a ring to put on our finger, the ring that symbolises our belonging to His family. Then He bids us enter, to come and eat at His table, like one of the King’s sons.

And more than this, oh! so much more than all of this, He bids us to look up into His face! And as we dare do this, we will discover the most precious pearl. We will see eyes reflecting back to us how much we are loved and delighted in, because we come in the Name of His most beloved Son.

I came across a hymn written by Frances Havergal just before Christmas. I trust she won’t mind, I rewrote the last 3 verses, and giving it a new tune was privileged to be able to lead our congregation in singing it this morning. May these words bless you today. Is it for me, dear Saviour? Oh yes! Yes, it is!

Is it for me, dear Saviour,

Your glory and Your rest,

For me, so weak and sinful?

O shall I be so blessed?

Chorus:

O Saviour, my Redeemer,

What can I but adore,

And magnify and praise You,

And love You evermore?

Is it for me, dear Saviour

The warmth of Your embrace?

A ring and robe You would give me?

Oh boundless, wondrous grace!

Is it for me, dear Saviour

Your gracious “Enter in”,

To come and eat at Your table,

A precious child of the King?

Is it for me, dear Saviour

This boldness in the faith?

That as I bow in Your presence

I look up into Your face?

Weeping may last for a night time

Cowering under the bedcovers through the night, gripped in the midst of fear, almost suffocating from the weight of those fears. Many tears but not a wink of sleep passed my eyes that night as I poured out my fears to God.  This is how I saw in the new year on 31^st December, 2011. As the new day dawned, and the first rays of light from 2012 shone through the bedroom window, chasing away the shadows of the dark night, He uttered a verse of promise to my heart:

“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”

As those words took root in my heart, the fears were swallowed up by His promise, as hope and peace took their rightful place, growing with the strengthening daylight.

This word of God has not returned to Him empty, but has proven itself to me over this year, time and time again.

It is a promise that has sustained me throughout a difficult year. And it is a promise that has returned to me as the year closes and I have sought to respond to the tragedy of Sandy Hook, which stands as a solemn and Holy testimony to the darkness engulfing the land, to a land that has been “given over” in Holy judgment, a land where His hand is lifted high yet the people do not see it. As in America, so in Britain.

This Christmas time, as Immanuel holds my attention, I remember how Light stepped down into the darkness. The darkness did not overcome. Darkness was defeated. This is the promise we have, the promise we celebrate! No matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. In this time of darkness, it is surely time to teach one another a lament, to hold fast to the promise of Immanuel.

Sovereign Lord, list the tears of my lament

In your scroll, hear my cry

For our land walks in the dark

And we cannot see the light

Arise O Lord! May we hear Your Voice again!

Sovereign Lord, truth has stumbled in the streets

Righteousness stands afar

Yet we have not lost our hope

As we cry “Come, Emmanuel!”

The light shines in the dark and is not overcome!

And weeping may last for a night-time

But rejoicing – it shall come

Yes rejoicing – it shall come

Rejoicing shall come with the dawning of the day!

Sovereign Lord, my heart is poured out on the ground

The fathers’ hearts are turned away

But as darkness closes in

Your deliverance draws near

Arise, O Lord! And turn our mourning into joy!

And weeping may last for a night-time

But rejoicing – it shall come

Yes rejoicing – it shall come

Rejoicing shall come with the dawning of the day!

Immanuel - God with us

Last year as I thought about the blessed incarnation of Christ, the Word dwelling among us in flesh, my thoughts were shadowed by the cross of Christ.

This year as I think about the Word coming to tabernacle amongst us, I am mindful of His return.

It is no surprise, really, that the world can find it in its heart to acknowledge the birth of Christ upon the earth. A baby in a manger doesn't challenge us. Little Jesus, meek and mild.

This year, I want to shout out the truth, that He is coming again. And His second coming will be so different to His first coming.

At His first coming, only a few people were aware of His birth. Mary, Joseph, a few shepherds.

At His second coming, every eye will see Him.

At His first coming, He emptied Himself and made Himself nothing.

At His second coming, He will come revealed in His full glory.

At His first coming, the angels appeared to the shepherds and sang glory to God.

At His second coming, the angels will be sent with a loud trumpet call to gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

At His first coming, the Magi brought gifts to Him – gold,frankincense and myrrh.

At His second coming, His reward and recompense will come with Him.

At His first coming, He proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favour.

At His second coming, He will proclaim the day of vengeance of our God.

At His first coming, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world was despised like one from whom men hide their faces.

At His second coming, men will call out to the mountains and rocks to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.

At His first coming, He revealed Himself to a nation that did not call on His Name.

At His second coming, He will strike down the nations.

At His first coming, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

At His second coming, He will be dressed in a robe dipped in blood.

At His first coming, the Magi bowed down and worshipped Him.

At His second coming, every knee shall bow before Him.

At His first coming, the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem looked on the one they pierced.

At His second coming, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn Son.

At His first coming, Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

At His second coming, He will rejoice over Jerusalem.

At His first coming, He was lifted up as He was pierced for our transgressions and bore our sin.

At His second coming, He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted before all the nations of the world.

As I remember the coming of the King this year, I am overawed. My Jesus, My King, My Saviour, My Lord…I bow my knee before Him. May He grant me a greater boldness in the coming year to proclaim the year of His favour, the year of Jubilee. 

The fear of the Lord leads to life

I fear my God. May this be the beginning, the foundation, the source of any wisdom I may have. I have been crying out for wisdom, for understanding – and my fear of Him is growing.

The writer of Psalm 119 feared His God. “My flesh trembles in fear of You. I stand in awe of Your laws". 

My God is Holy, Holy, Holy.

I know what it cost Him that I could be adopted into His family, a sinner like me, who has failed to keep His law.

It cost Him His only begotten Son, His beloved Son with whom He is well pleased.

He gave His Son up to death as the punishment for all my sin, for without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin.

THIS makes me fear Him.

And through my adoption into His family He has given me, not a spirit that makes me a slave to fear, but rather the spirit of sonship by which I can cry out “Abba, Father!” His beloved Son delighted in the fear of the Lord through the Spirit of the Lord. It is my prayer that I may understand something of what it means to delight in the fear of the Lord.

But when I cast my eyes around me at the world in which I live, at a world which has no fear of God before its eyes, then my flesh trembles in fear of Him.

Knowing that my God is Holy, Holy, Holy, and knowing that His wrath will be revealed against the wickedness of men makes me fear Him.

Knowing that my God is Holy, Holy, Holy, and knowing that when He rises to shake the earth, men will flee from Him, makes me fear Him.

O, let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the people of the world revere Him! 

(Ps 33:8)

For this is what He says concerning those who fear Him:

“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured his name. ‘They will be mine’, says the Lord Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not’” 

(Mal 3:16-18).

May we fear God, and give Him the glory.

Wonders on the earth below

May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord,
    when they hear the words of your mouth.
Psalm 138:4

Our God is an Almighty God. He demonstrates His signs in the heavens above and on the earth below.

The wonder of Him demonstrating His signs is that so many people do not see His hand at work. His powerful, majestic hand.

The wonder of Him demonstrating His signs is that so many people do not hear His Voice. His powerful, majestic Voice.

O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!

“Though seeing, they do not see;
"though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”

Jesus spoke in parables when He dwelt among men, God incarnate, speaking the very words that God gave Him, and His words were accepted by His own. Others could not understand because of a hardness of heart, unbelief.

“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Today is the day of salvation. The eternal gospel is still to be proclaimed to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people.

In His mercy, God continues to speak. He is not silent. Even when He speaks in judgment, there is still opportunity for repentance. Even in the Hour of Judgment, the eternal gospel continues to be preached.

The worst thing that can happen to us is for God to cease to speak.

“O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still.”

“For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.”

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

----------------------------

Almighty God, Heavenly Father, thank You that You continue to speak. Thank You that You speak through Your Word. Thank You that You speak through Your signs in the heavens above and on the earth below. Give us ears to hear. Let our hearts not be hardened against You. Give us opportunity to speak Your Word, to our friends, neighbours, loved ones, for the days are evil. May Your gospel continue to be preached so that when Jesus returns His bride will be comprised of every nation, tribe, language and people, that He may receive the Glory due to His Name. Amen.

"No-one else dared join them"

Our God is Almighty. He sits enthroned in the heavens. The lightning, hail, snow and clouds, and stormy winds all do His bidding. He speaks. His Voice is powerful, majestic. He reduces the rulers of this world to nothing…He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

Our God shows wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below.

From heaven He pronounces His judgment, and the land fears and is quiet.

Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations He has brought on the earth.

“Be still, and know that I am God”.

Our God is Almighty. He makes distinctions between His people and others. His Presence is with His people, and He gives them rest. He promises He will make a distinction again between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

“No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” 

(Acts 5:13-14).

Almighty God, Sovereign Lord, I pray fear of Your Name falls across the nations. I pray Your Name is lifted high in awed wonder at the works of Your Hands. I pray that whilst You oppose the proud, You would give grace, grace and more grace to the humble. I pray more and more men and women believe in Your Name and are added to Your people, to Your treasured possession, for the sake of the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

(For meditation: Psalm 148:8; Psalm 29:4; Isa 40:23-24; Acts 2:19; Psalm 76:8; Psalm 46:8,10; Exodus 33:14; Malachi 3:18)