A brave new world?

Leaders of the G20 nations meet in London next week to draw up a blueprint for a new global economy. Russia is calling for a new world currency. China is proposing replacing the US dollar with a new global system. Iran, Libya and Kazakhstan have called in recent weeks for a new single currency.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is calling for "the biggest fiscal stimulus the world has ever seen," and the Bank of England is telling Gordon Brown that the UK cannot afford a new stimulus plan.

It is interesting that Bible prophecy speaks of a time when there will be one world economy (Rev 13:15 - 17). There will also be one world government (Dan 2:40 - 44; Dan 7:7, 8, 19 - 25; Rev 13:1 - 10) and a one-world religion (Rev 13:11 - 17). This will be a time when followers of Jesus will be martyred (Rev 17:5, 6), a time when the Jews will suffer as they have never suffered before, including the time of the Holocaust. The Bible calls it "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7).

All these things are not going to happen next week. Nevertheless, it is quite remarkable how quickly things are happening in these days. We are living in tremendous times. Times when Christians need to be living close to their Lord; times when they need to be busy in the Lord's service.

Speaking of how quickly things are happening, Khaled abu Toameh, the Palestinian Jerusalem Post journalist, writes just this week:

During a recent visit to several university campuses in the US, I discovered that there is more sympathy for Hamas there than there is in Ramallah.

Listening to some students and professors on these campuses, for a moment I thought I was sitting opposite a Hamas spokesman or a would-be suicide bomber.

I was told, for instance, that Israel has no right to exist, that Israel’s “apartheid system” is worse than the one that existed in South Africa and that Operation Cast Lead was launched only because Hamas was beginning to show signs that it was interested in making peace and not because of the rockets that the Islamic movement was launching at Israeli communities. . .

Furthermore, I was told that all the talk about financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority was “Zionist propaganda”. . . these groups of hard-line activists/thugs are trying to intimidate anyone who dares to say something that they don’t like to hear.

When the self-designated “pro-Palestinian” lobbyists are unable to challenge the facts presented by a speaker, they resort to verbal abuse.

On one campus, for example, I was condemned as an “idiot” because I said that a majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas in the January 2006 election because they were fed up with financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority.

On another campus, I was dubbed as a “mouthpiece for the Zionists” because I said that Israel has a free media. . . And then there was the campus (in Chicago) where I was “greeted” with swastikas that were painted over posters promoting my talk. . .

What struck me more than anything else was the fact that many of the people I met on the campuses supported Hamas and believed that it had the right to “resist the occupation” even if that meant blowing up children and women on a bus in downtown Jerusalem. . .

The so-called pro-Palestinian “junta” on the campuses has nothing to offer other than hatred and de-legitimisation of Israel. . . What is happening on the US campuses is not about supporting the Palestinians as much as it is about promoting hatred for the Jewish state. It is not really about ending the “occupation” as much as it is about ending the existence of Israel. . .

What is happening on these campuses is not in the frame of freedom of speech. Instead, it is the freedom to disseminate hatred and violence.

I have mentioned before that the Bible speaks of a day when all the nations will gather together to attack Israel. That day may not be too far away.

Christians, atheists and the Government

A Christian-run shelter for the homeless was threatened with the loss of £150,000 of funding unless it stopped saying grace at mealtimes and putting Bibles out for use by guests.

Teen Challenge UK, a Christian organisation working among drug addicts, is said to have lost £700,000 of funding rather than give up its Christian ethos.

Within days of her announcement that the Government was to fund a council of Muslim theologians to make rulings on controversial elements of Islamic doctrine in an effort to tackle Muslim extremism, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears announced a new white paper designed to encourage people, including faith groups, to work in the community.

But, she told the House of Commons, "I am concerned to ensure that if faith groups become involved, they do so on a proper footing - not by evangelising or proselytising, but by providing services in a non-discriminatory way to the whole community." She said she intended to work on a charter, similar to the one by the Christian organisation Faithworks.

I wrote to her, as follows:

Dear Mrs Blears,

I have been reading your white paper, Communities in control: real people, real power, in which you speak of making use of services from faith-based groups.

In the House of Commons, you said you were concerned to ensure that if faith groups became involved, they did so on a proper footing, not by evangelising or proselytising, but by providing services in a non-discriminatory way.

You spoke of drafting a charter along the lines of the one provided by Faithworks.

Principle 3 of the Faithworks charter speaks of "Never imposing our Christian faith or belief on others." This sounds reasonable. But principle 2 of the charter says "Acknowledging the freedom of people of all faiths or none both to hold and to express their beliefs and convictions respectfully and freely, within the limits of the UK law."

Does this mean that while people being served by Christian groups would have the freedom to express their beliefs and convictions, Christian groups providing services would not have freedom to express their Christian beliefs and convictions to the people they were serving?

I would be grateful if you would please let me have an answer on this specific point.

Yours sincerely,

I received no reply. I wrote again:

Dear Mrs Blears,

I wrote to you some time ago, but have not had a reply. I attach a copy of my letter.

I should be grateful if you would please let me have a reply to my letter, in particular to the point in the penultimate paragraph.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

This time I got a reply from her department. The letter is too long to reproduce here, but the relevant paragraph says

With regard to the specific question you have asked, it is important to make a distinction between the freedom of individuals and organisations to collectively express Christian beliefs and convictions. . . and the imposition of these same beliefs upon others dependent upon the services being provided.

The big question, of course, is what the Government defines as imposition.

MPs complained in a debate in the Commons last week that although Christians have made a vital contribution to British society, they are being marginalised by public bodies.

Andrew Selous MP called the debate following a spate of cases where Christians have been sidelined for expressing their faith. One Christian charity working in London to help single mothers, he said, was told by the local authority that its application for funding was refused because its assistance for single parents included "extending Christian comfort and offering prayer."

"If the faith institutions and churches disappeared from my constituency tomorrow," said Conservative MP Paul Goodman, "much of the tapestry of civil society would simply unweave."

This morning, the Daily Mail says £25,000 of taxpayers' money intended for faith groups, to be used to build "faith communities," has been given by Hazel Blears' Department for Local Government to the British Humanist Association to run local campaigns promoting atheism. Caroline Spelman MP, Conservative local government spokesman, called this "scandalous."

Meanwhile, the Government continues to say that it is preparing a charter for faith groups to sign up to before they are awarded public funding. We wait with interest to see what it says.

Oh that will be glory for me

Someone sent me the testimony of a man who claimed to have been in hell. It was not, he said, a dream or a vision, but an out-of-the-body experience, because he saw his body lying on the floor as he came back from the place where he had been.

His wife found him lying in the living room, holding his head and screaming. She said it took her 10 to 20 minutes to quieten him. He said it took him a year to get over the experience.

In his testimony, he described the things he had experienced in that place: the physical agony, the incredible heat, the smell, the darkness, the flames, the screams. He quoted Scripture after Scripture after Scripture to confirm the things he saw. He was a committed Christian, but he said that all knowledge of God's salvation was taken from him during the time that he was there. He believed there was no way out, and that he was there for ever.

After a time, he said, Jesus came to bring him out of that place. "Lord, why did You send me to this place?" he said. "Because people do not believe that this place exists. Even some of My own people do not believe this place is real. Go and tell them," Jesus said.

I was interested that the man said he had seen the Lord. But all he was able to see, he said, was the outline of a man, filled with brilliant light.

A short while later, a friend lent me a book called Journal of the Unknown Prophet.[1] It was prophecy, from start to finish. The part that particularly interested me was a vision at the back of the book described by the woman who had put the book together, a vision that has yet to be fulfilled.

In the vision there were millions of people from every tribe and nation, all of them dressed in white. In the distance was the Father, clothed in flaming light.

Then Jesus came. He greeted each one there, and called him "good and faithful servant." With some He wept; with some He laughed. Some He would take in His arms. With others He would hold their hands. With each one He would look deep into their eyes. You could imagine a face filled with indescribable love. Although there were millions there, the author said, it was as though it was just Him and you.

I long to see the Lord. It may not be in this life, but that doesn't matter. My deepest longing is to see His face.

There is a chorus we used to sing years ago:

It will be worth it all

When we see Jesus;

Life's trials will seem so small

When we see Christ.

One glimpse of His dear face

All sorrow will erase;

It will be worth it all

When we see Christ.

For the Christian, the one who has experienced forgiveness in Christ, death holds no terrors. When my time comes, I will be going home. It will be home not just because of the place it is, but because He lives there.

[1] Journal of the Unknown Prophet. Copyright Wendy Alec. Chichester: New Wine Press, 2002.

Sad news indeed

In 1999 the British Government pledged to cut teenage pregnancies by half by 2010. It has spent almost £300 million promoting sex education and handing out free contraceptives and morning-after pills. The result? Teenage pregnancies have increased.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that pregnancies in 2007 in girls under 18 were up. Pregnancies in under-16s were up six per cent. And the number of pregnant girls under 18 who chose abortion reached 50 per cent for the first time.

The Government's response? To announce the provision of a further £20 million to promote contraception. Every time more sex education, more free contraceptives and easier access to morning-after pills have failed to stem the tide, the Government has announced its remedy: more sex education, more free contraceptives and easier access to morning-after pills. You would have thought, wouldn't you, that by now it would have occurred to someone that something wasn't working. Alas, no. What we're dealing with here is not reason, but ideology.

The same week these figures were announced, the Government issued new guidance to parents. Parents should not teach their teenage children that it is wrong to have sex, the Government said, lest that discourage children from being "open." Instead parents should encourage children from the age of 13 - three years under the legal age of consent, mark you - to obtain contraception. Why not, says a new leaflet, offer to go with your daughter to visit a local clinic or GP so that she can make a choice that is right for her?

How dare they? How dare they tell parents how to bring up their children when their own teenage pregnancy strategy is such an abject failure?

If I am a parent - above all a father - it is my responsibility to bring up my children to be moral, God-fearing citizens who respect marriage and shun illicit sex.

When it comes to morality, the British Government has lost its way. Yet it still insists on telling parents how to bring up their children. How very, very sad.

Perseverance, that's the thing

How is it that sometimes prayers are answered immediately and other times we have to pray for years before we see the thing for which we are praying?

I don't know if I know the answer to that. Perhaps God wants to teach us patience. Or perhaps He needs to work changes in the lives of others before He can give us the thing we're asking for. One thing I do know is that sometimes it is necessary to persevere in prayer.

George Muller will be remembered for his life of faith and for the orphanages he built around Bristol. He was a man of prayer. He saw thousands of prayers answered. Many of the answers came on the same day he prayed - but not all of them so quickly.

"All the children of God," said Muller, "when once satisfied that anything which they bring before God in prayer is according to His will, ought to continue in believing, expecting, persevering prayer until the blessing is granted. . . When once I am persuaded that a thing is right, I go on praying for it until the end comes. I never give up.

"The great point is never to give up until the answer comes. . . The great fault of the children of God is they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God's glory, they should pray until they get it."

He practised what he preached. "I have been praying for 63 years and eight months for one man's conversion," he said. "He is not saved yet, but he will be. How can it be otherwise? . . I am praying."

Muller never saw the man converted. He died first. After Muller's death, the man came to Christ.

Difficult days

Two important things happened last month - things that passed largely unnoticed in some quarters.

First, the United Nations said that Iran now has sufficient material to build a nuclear bomb. Second, Iran launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit. This means that Iran can now reach Israel, the European Union or the United States with a nuclear weapon.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is, of course, a Muslim. He is also a follower of the Mahdi. The Mahdi, a descendant of the prophet Mohammed and the 12th Imam, vanished in the middle of the ninth century with a promise that he would return. Mahdists believe that when he returns, all the world will convert to Islam. President Ahmadinejad is said to believe that he was appointed president by the Mahdi, and that his calling is to prepare the way for the Mahdi's return.

He is said to want to see the destruction of liberal democratic states and Western capitalism and an end to the United States as a superpower. In particular, he wants to see the elimination of Israel. He has promised publicly that Israel will be wiped off the face of the map, and he has said publicly that Israel's days are numbered.

The Bible says of Israel (in Jer 31:35 - 37):

Thus says the Lord,

Who gives the sun for a light by day,

And the ordinances of the moon and

the stars for a light by night,

Who disturbs the sea,

And its waves roar

(The Lord of hosts is his name):

"If those ordinances depart

From before me," says the Lord,

"Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

From being a nation before me for ever."

Thus says the Lord:

"If heaven above can be measured,

And the foundations of the earth

searched out beneath,

I will also cast off all the seed of Israel

For all that they have done,"

says the Lord.

So could President Ahmadinejad destroy Israel?

Yes, he could. The only thing is that he would have to destroy the sun and the moon first. Perhaps he doesn't know that, which is a pity. Knowing that could save him an awful lot of trouble. Having said that, there is no doubt that a nuclear attack against Israel could do incredible damage.

Mahdists believe that the Mahdi's return will be at a time of chaos, with wars, earthquakes, famines and floods, and that the creation of favourable conditions can hasten his coming.

Israel does not want war, but neither is Israel likely to sit and do nothing while Iran launches nuclear weapons. You will remember that when Saddam Hussein was preparing nuclear weapons in Iraq in the early 1980s, Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin sent aircraft to bomb his nuclear facilities. (That caused international outrage. When they told Prime Minister Begin about the protests, he said "Just tell them 'Never again.'" He referred, of course, to the Holocaust.)

A nuclear attack against Israel would cause chaos indeed. On the other hand, Iran has said that a pre-emptive strike against Iran would be the beginning of World War III.

A problem indeed for incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Let's dare to hope

Life is cheap on Britain's streets. There aren't enough prisons to hold all the prisoners. The land is awash with drugs. The Government is mired in sleaze. The rate of unwanted teenage pregnancies is out of control. There is an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Each year the number of abortions beats the previous year's record.

Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, appealed in the Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago for England to wake up and remember how Christianity has been at the heart of the history of this nation.

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, said in the Sunday Telegraph: "It is time for a movement of Christians that will put the Christian case vigorously in public debate, that will remind the nation of its Christian heritage, that will make a difference where there is human need and, yes, that will commit itself to prayer in schools, hospitals, prisons, workplaces, Parliament and the streets so that people may experience again the blessing of God on this country."

Eighty Christian leaders met recently in the House of Lords to consider the moral and spiritual implications of the financial crisis. They felt strongly that the financial situation is primarily the result of the pursuit of moral choices and values that do not accord with the word of God; that God is calling all churches in Britain to a season of prayer and fasting for the nation; and that the Christian church should reach out to those who are already suffering as a result of the financial crisis.

Today, this very day, Christian leaders are meeting in Westminster to seek God for the way forward. It was hoped to have a thousand Christian leaders present.

A series of seven prayer nights have just been held across London to pray for the capital and the nation.

Can it be that something is beginning to happen? Turn off the television for a minute. Switch off the news bulletins on the radio. Listen carefully. Can you hear a rustling in the undergrowth?

Can it be that God is not finished with the homeland of John Wesley, George Whitefield, William Carey, David Livingstone, Florence Nightingale, Lord Shaftesbury and William Wilberforce?

Millions of Christians are not yet marching in Britain's streets. But then, it might not take millions. The Bible is full of stories of a valiant few who, under God, "subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

Can it be that the tide is beginning to turn?

Pray with me and dare to hope.

A tale of Bury Bob

Stacksteads, near Bacup in Lancashire, England, is not, if it will forgive me for saying so, the most imposing of places. But it once had a revival.

Sam Chadwick, born in 1860, was later principal of Cliff College and president of the Methodist Conference. He was brought up in a tiny, two-roomed house in Back Hammerton Street, Burnley. He was converted to Christ when he was 10 years old. He had little education - he started work when he was eight years old - but felt a call to preach, and studied all the hours he could find.

His biography tells how his first appointment was as lay evangelist at Stacksteads Methodist Church, where he upset all the local brewers with his temperance preaching.[1]

Living in Stacksteads was a man named Robert Hamer, known to everyone in the town as Bury Bob. He was a notorious drunkard. It was said he had committed every crime in the book except murder, and it was only by God's grace he hadn't committed that. He had fought a bulldog with his hands tied behind his back, worried rats with his teeth, eaten glass, swallowed knives, smashed furniture, wrecked public houses, mauled policemen and fought all comers.

One day he walked into a meeting and signed the pledge (a pledge, that is, to abstain from alcohol). The next Sunday he was converted to Christ. The following morning he arrived early at the quarry where he worked and told the men one by one as they arrived what had happened to him.

The men laughed and jeered all week (something they wouldn't have dared to do before), until Friday. On Friday, a huge piece of rock trapped his finger. Before he knew it, he let out a great oath. The men laughed. "Ah," they said, "where's your religion now?" To their surprise, he fell to his knees and with the blood dripping off his elbow, cried out loud to God for forgiveness until peace came. When he got up, every man was standing with his cap in his hand.

The following Sunday the town turned out to see Bury Bob go to church. In the following weeks and months, hundreds were converted to Christ.

[1] Norman G. Dunning. Samuel Chadwick. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933.

One boy's dream

Brenden Foster had leukaemia. He had had all the chemotherapy and all the transfusions he could have, and he still had leukaemia. Now all the doctors could do was to try to make him comfortable. He was weak, and he could no longer walk. He understood from the doctors that he had only a short time left.

He and his mother, who looked after him, had worked out a routine together. Every night they would think of three positive things that had happened during the day, and they would have a laugh together. "A chuckle will do," said Brenden, "but a fake laugh will never do."

According to his mother, Brenden never complained about his condition. Ever. "He's always thought about others," she said.

One day, on his way home from a hospital appointment, Brenden saw a camp of homeless people, and decided he wanted to help. "They're probably starving," he said.

There wasn't much he could do from his bed, but others decided they wanted to help him. People started to gather together to make sandwiches for the homeless folk. After his story appeared in the media, a woman and some friends collected more than 20,000 cans of food in his name. Schoolchildren collected food. A war veteran who lost a leg wanted to give his bravery award to help.

Brenden was thrilled. He began to urge others to follow their dreams. "Follow your dream," he said. "Don't let anything stop you. Mine already came true."

Brenden died in his mother's arms. He was just 11 years old.

Did you have a tear or two in your eye as you read about Brenden? I confess I had a tear or two in mine as I read about him.

The point of Brenden's story, it seems to me, is this. You might be only 11 years old. You might be sick. You might be weak. You might not have much time left to live. But you can still make your life count.

Two (dis)similar stories

Daniel James, described as a "larger than life" character, was a former pupil at Worcester Royal Grammar School and an undergraduate at Loughborough University. He had played rugby for England under-16s and England Students.

He was in a training session at Nuneaton Rugby Club when a scrum collapsed on him. He suffered a collapsed spine and was paralysed from the chest down. Numerous operations brought little improvement.

Eighteen months after the accident, accompanied by his parents, he went to a suicide clinic in Switzerland and took his own life.

A British doctor, asked his opinion, thought it a tragedy and suggested Daniel might still have been suffering from depression after the accident. But Daniel's mother was adamant.

"He couldn't walk, had no hand function, but constant pain in all of his fingers. He was incontinent, suffered uncontrollable spasms in his legs and upper body and needed 24-hour care.

"What right does any human being have to tell any other that they have to live such a life, filled with terror, discomfort and indignity?" she said. "This was his right as a human being. Nobody, but nobody, should judge him."

Shortly after Daniel's story appeared in the media, the Daily Mail published the story of Matt Hampson. Matt Hampson started playing rugby at five, became a star player at Syston Rugby Club in Leicestershire, joined Leicester Tigers Academy, and played for England under-18s and England under-21s.

He had his neck dislocated and his spinal cord trapped in a training scrum. He has no feeling from the neck down, lives in a wheelchair and needs a ventilator to breathe. Teams of carers look after him round the clock.

"I'm a much nicer person since the accident," he says. "More compassionate."

He writes a newspaper column, coaches youngsters, has his own website, and watches rugby home games. In recognition of his charity work, he was invited to London to meet the Queen.

"I forgot my nerves because she seemed quite awkward," he said. "A lot of people don't know what to say to me when they meet me because of my situation, and I think the Queen was the same. It was almost as if I had to put her at her ease."

Two similar stories with different endings.

Some people would say people's lives are their own, and they have a right to do what they like with them, including ending them at a time of their choosing. Others would say that our lives are not ours by right, only on loan, and one day we'll have to give account for them.

Things happen. Sometimes you wish they didn't. But personally, I think life is for living.

Christianity and the politically correct

News of perhaps the craziest example of politically correct tomfoolery comes from Brighton, on England's south coast.

Pilgrim Homes, a 200-year-old Christian charity, runs a care home there for elderly Christians. The home's residents, 39 single Christians aged over 80, include former missionaries and a retired minister.

Brighton and Hove Council, who provided £13,000 of funding for the home, wanted the home to use images of homosexuals in its promotional literature, show a presentation about homosexual rights to staff, ask the residents if they were (a) lesbian, (b) homosexual, (c) bisexual, (d) heterosexual, or (e) unsure, and repeat the questions to residents every three months.

Residents at the home felt the questions were inappropriate and intrusive. Managers at the home said to comply with the demands would unduly distress the residents and undermine the home's Christian ethos. Council officials withdrew the council funding and accused the home of "institutionalised homophobia."

After months of attempts to resolve the matter, Pilgrim Homes told the council it intended to take action against the council for religious discrimination. The Christian Institute was consulted. Lawyers were advised. I waited with interest to see the result.

The matter has now been settled out of court. The council funding is to be restored and the allegation of "institutionalised homophobia" is to be withdrawn, together with the requirement that residents should be asked about their sexual orientation four times a year.

Pilgrim Homes' chief executive said they were willing to ask potential residents about their sexual orientation when they applied for a place at the home, "on the understanding that they have a right to refuse, and that we will not be required to act in a way which goes against our doctrinal beliefs."

Tom Ellis, a solicitor representing Pilgrim Homes, said the council had shown "a total disregard and lack of respect for orthodox Christian beliefs and values" when it decided to cut the funding. "Pilgrim Homes has a right to provide its services within the context of its doctrinal belief without interference from the council."

The battle against bureaucracy is not all lost, it seems, so long as Christians are prepared to stand up for what they believe.

When does life begin?

When does life begin? If you had asked me that question some years ago, I would have said at birth, never having really thought about it. If I had been a woman with a baby kicking in my womb, I would have known that life begins before that.

In fact, life begins at the moment of fertilisation. Neither the male sperm nor the female ovum have life in themselves. But when the two come together, you have a single fertilised cell. Every cell in the human body contains 46 chromosomes. The male sperm has 23 chromosomes and the female ovum has 23 chromosomes, so when the two come together, you have a single fertilised cell with 46 chromosomes, 23 from the father and 23 from the mother.

Shortly after fertilisation, that cell begins to divide and multiply. One cell becomes two, two cells become four, four become eight. Nothing is added to that single cell except food and water until it becomes a mature adult.

Three weeks after fertilisation, the baby's heart begins to beat. Six weeks after fertilisation, electrical impulses from the brain can be recorded. By this time, the baby has eyes, ears and internal organs.

During the second month, the child begins to move and responds to touch. Facial features are forming. At two months, the baby can swim vigorously in the fluid which surrounds it. He, or she, has fingers and toes.

During the third month, the child has fingerprints. He can turn his head, curl his toes, open and close his mouth and make a tight fist. Fingernails and toenails appear. He drinks, digests and urinates. Sexual differences can be distinguished.

It is obvious the baby is alive. As someone pointed out, if he weren't, there wouldn't be need for abortion. That's why abortion is such a terrible thing: it deliberately ends a human life.

Those words in Psalm 139 are so profound:

For you have formed my inward parts;

You have covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvellous are your works,

And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

When I was made in secret,

And skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in your book they were all written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them.

Thank God that there is forgiveness available in Christ.

Caroline Petrie: A misunderstanding?

Caroline Petrie is a 45-year-old mother of two children. She is a nurse, employed by North Somerset Primary Care Trust to visit patients in their homes. She is also a committed Christian.

In December she visited a 79-year-old woman patient and spent 20 or 25 minutes attending to her needs. Before she left, she asked the woman if she would like her to pray for her. The woman declined, so Mrs Petrie said "OK," and left.

She was later suspended without pay, accused of "failing to show a commitment to equality and diversity," and required to attend a disciplinary hearing. "I knew I hadn't done anything wrong," said Mrs Petrie. "I only offered to pray for her because I was concerned about her welfare and wanted her to get better."

Mrs Petrie was reprimanded in October after she gave a small home-made prayer card to an elderly male patient. He happily accepted it, but someone who was present raised concerns. She has not given out prayer cards since. Her superior told her then "You must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity" and "you must not use your professional status to promote causes that are not related to health."

Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, said it was extraordinary that equality and diversity policies which purported to ensure tolerance were ushering in censorship and intolerance.

This week Mrs Petrie was waiting to be told the decision of the disciplinary hearing.

After a national outcry, the NHS asked her to return to work. Mrs Petrie said she wasn't sure if she would. "I should not have to choose between being a Christian or being a nurse," she said.

Last month the Department of Health published a document titled Religion or belief: A practical guide for the NHS, which says: " Members of some religions. . . are expected to preach and to try to convert other people. . . To avoid misunderstandings and complaints on this issue, it should be made clear to everyone from the first day of training and/or employment, and regularly restated, that such behaviour, notwithstanding religious beliefs, could be construed as harassment under the disciplinary and grievance procedures."

The document does not make clear the limits of acceptable discussion about religion - which means that action could be taken against anyone who talks about their beliefs to patients or fellow workers.

Said Dr Peter Saunders, secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship: "We're seeing a culture of thought police emerging where it seems no longer acceptable to express what are really just orthodox Christian beliefs or the exercise of Christian conscience."

In countries once unashamedly Christian, there is now a serious move to shut Christians' mouths.

Getting answers to prayer (4)

There is a third condition to answered prayer. It is obedience.

The Bible says in Psa 66:18: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear."

On the other hand, it says in 1 John 3:21, 22: "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God. And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."

This doesn't mean to say that we have to be perfect. If it did, there wouldn't be many people seeing answers to prayer. What it does mean is that if we are looking for answers to prayer, we shouldn't have any contentions with the Lord. If we have any known sin, it should be repented of. Ask God to forgive you on the basis of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. When it's under Christ's blood, it's washed away, forgiven, forgotten.

(The Bible says some interesting things about prayer. Take for instance 1 Pet 3:7. "Husbands, dwell with them with understanding, giving honour to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." Did you know that the way you treat your wife can hinder the answers to your prayers?)

Psa 37:3, 4 says "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart." God is faithful. He will fulfil His promise there. But if we want God to fulfil the last bit, we need to fulfil the first bit. A continued walk of obedience is the key to continued blessings - and it's a key to answered prayer.

Jesus put it like this: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." To abide in Him is to live in Him, to dwell in Him, to remain in Him, to stay within the boundaries His love has set for you. But notice the result. "You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."

Some years ago, I was living in two rooms in a small house in a foreign land with no telephone, no television and plenty of time to pray. I used to pray in general terms: "Lord, bless him," "Lord, bless her." We do that because we are afraid that if we prayed in specific terms, God wouldn't answer.

One day I said "Lord, I'm tired of praying in general terms. I want to pray specific prayers and get specific answers. If I don't know how to do that, I want you to show me. And if I'm not in the right place for that, I want you to bring me to that place." There were no sudden flashes of lightning or voices from heaven, but I reckon you can't pray prayers like that and have them go unnoticed.

A couple of weeks later I was reading Isaiah 58. "Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer," it said. "You shall cry, and he will say, Here I am." That's it, I said. That's what I want. I looked at the conditions listed in those verses. "Share your bread with the hungry. . . bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him." I can do that, I said. But I still didn't have it.

Then one morning, as I was thinking about it, it suddenly hit me. The things that God was speaking about there were the things that He wanted those people to do at that time. What God was wanting me to do might be something different. What God was talking about here was obedience.

God had begun to teach me the conditions for answered prayer.

So see if it isn't so

When somebody says the Bible is full of contradictions, I have learned now to say "Have you read the Bible?" You'd be surprised at the answers I get.

Usually it's something like "Well, I've read bits of it."

"How long ago?"

"Well, it's some years ago. But. . . the Bible does have contradictions in it. . . doesn't it?"

Well actually, no. If you looked, you might find something that looked like a contradiction to someone who didn't understand what he was reading and was only looking for an excuse not to believe. The remarkable thing is that the Bible was written by about 40 different people in different places and different walks of life over a period of something like 1,600 years, and it all agrees.

You can see the Persian empire, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman empire, the coming of Christ, all prophesied there many years before they happened. You can see prophecies in the Old Testament fulfilled in the New Testament in exact detail. In the Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Christ came, there are hundreds of detailed prophecies about Him in His life and His death.

Psalm 22 foretells His physical suffering on the cross; how His hands and His feet were pierced; how He was mocked and insulted, even to the words of His mockers; how they cast lots for His clothing. Psalms 22 and 31 foretell the words He spoke on the cross. Psalm 34 tells how none of His bones were broken. Psalm 69 tells how in His suffering they gave Him vinegar to drink.

Zechariah tells how He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Isaiah 53 tells in advance how He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, how He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, how after His death He was placed in a rich man's grave.

But don't take my word for it. The Bible doesn't need me to defend it. Check it out for yourselves.

Getting answers to prayer (3)

There is a second condition to answered prayer: that you pray in faith. In other words, you believe when you pray that God will answer. God wants you to trust that He will do what you ask.

Heb 11:6 puts it like this: "Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him."

Remember the woman with the issue of blood (Matt 9:20-22)? She'd been like that for 12 years, but she just knew if she could only touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. She believed it when she went to meet Him, she believed it as she touched Him, and she continued to believe it after she touched Him. Jesus said to her "Your faith has made you well." Strictly speaking, you might want to argue, it wasn't her faith that had healed her, it was Jesus who had healed her. But it was her faith that enabled her to receive her healing.

The Bible is full of promises. It is faith that turns God's promises into personal experience. Faith is simply believing that God will do what He has promised to do. Faith is believing God's promise, despite the circumstances.

It's as though God looks for faith. It can be the faith of the person concerned; the faith of the people who are concerned about that person, like the people who brought the paralytic to Jesus (Matt 9:2); or the faith of others who pray, like the elders who pray for the sick person in Jas 5:14, 15. Where there is faith, miracles can happen (Acts 14:8 - 10; Mark 9:23).

Matt 21:22 says "All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Notice that "believing." Faith must be based on God's word. It's not faith in our faith, or faith in ourselves. Faith comes through God's word. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom 10:17).

Notice how faith works. "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). According to that verse, when do we believe? When we pray. We believe that we receive the things we ask for, even though we don't see them yet. If we believe we receive them, that verse says, we will have them. In other words, we don't receive in order to believe, we believe in order to receive.

It is here that people miss it. They think about the need, say "Oh, I don't have faith for that," and don't pray. Don't do that. You may not have faith to begin with. Remember Rom 10:17. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes. Faith isn't something you work up yourselves. Faith comes from above. Pray about the situation and continue to read God's word until faith springs up in your heart. Then you can ask and know you have the answer.

"God is not a man, that he should lie," the Bible says, "nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?" (Num 23:19). God is faithful to fulfil His word. Can you believe it?

Obama and Eugene Robinson

American Christian journalist and author Bill Wilson has some strong words to say about Barack Obama's choice of homosexual bishop Eugene Robinson to pray at one of his inauguration events.

Sunday, January 18, says Wilson, marked the beginning of the US presidential inauguration. Kicking off the ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial was homosexual activist and false minister of the gospel "Vickie" Eugene Robinson, the apostate Episcopalian. Robinson was charged with opening the event with a prayer. He began his prayer for the new administration at the White House with these words, "O god of many understandings. . ." From then on, Robinson called on this pagan god to "bless" America, but each "blessing" was actually a curse pronounced over the nation, a prophetic call from the abyss to the one world order and the encoding of the true gospel into words that tickle the ears, but destroy souls.

Robinson asked god to bless our nation with tears, anger and discomfort so that we might not accept: poverty around the world; women being raped because they seek an education; the discrimination of homosexuals, transgender people, immigrants and people of color; simplistic answers rather than the truth about ourselves as a nation. Robinson then asked for the blessing of patience to understand that our problems will not be fixed anytime soon; with humility to embrace with respect our differences and to know that our national needs must be balanced with the needs of the world; and compassion, "remembering that every religion's god judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable."

It is with these curses embraced by the new administration that our nation begins another chapter in its history, a chapter that when it is written will say that Americans stepped outside of its underpinnings as a Christian nation and its leadership fell apostate to a strange word. Even the man who claims to lead evangelical Christians served as an apologist for the apostate. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church, praised the choice of Robinson to pray, saying that the president elect "has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground."

Warren could not be more incorrect. Robinson is not a man of goodwill. He is an apostate that mocks the word of God. And in lacking discernment by promoting common ground with such a man, Warren is deceived and is deceiving others. What has occurred is the cursing of our nation and its leadership with heresy. And it is a sad day that Christian leaders would embrace such compromise.

You can read the whole piece here or here.

Getting answers to prayer (2)

The first condition to getting answers to prayer is that we pray according to God's will.

The idea of prayer is not that we should twist God's arm up His back to try to persuade Him to do something He doesn't want to do. That's not the idea at all. The idea is to pray for what He wants to do so that He can do it. We are asked to pray Your kingdom come. Your will be done (Matt 6:10).

(If you wonder perhaps why God doesn't just go ahead and do what He wants to do without waiting for us to pray so that He can answer, there are two things that might be useful to think about. When He created this earth, He intended us to rule down here in obedience to His will, so He gave man dominion over the earth. He's never taken that dominion away. Secondly, He gave us a free will. He's never taken that away either. God doesn't impose Himself on people. He will wait for people to call on Him so that He may respond.)

God is willing to supply our needs, but unwilling to pander to our lusts. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures," says James in Jas 4:3. When we pray, Jesus said, we should pray in His name. In other words, on His behalf. It wouldn't make much sense to pray for something in Christ's name that was contrary to God's will.

So if we pray for something that is not God's will, God won't give us the answer we're looking for (unless perhaps we want it so badly or pray for it so long He lets us have it to teach us a lesson). But praying in accordance with God's will is a different matter. Pray in accordance with God's will and we can expect an answer. "Now this is the confidence that we have in him," says 1 John 5:14, 15, "that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him."

How do we know what God's will is? The Bible makes it clear what God's will is on a lot of things. He is "not willing," for instance, "that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9). If we're walking with Him, if we have His word and His Spirit, we will usually know what His will is. There are some things, granted, that the Bible doesn't tell us. There will be some things on which we don't know God's will. What do we do then? Ask. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him" (Jas 1:5). Pray until you know what God's will is, and then pray for God's will to be done.

God doesn't make prayer difficult. There are conditions that need to be met. But remember, God asks us to pray because He wants to answer.

Getting answers to prayer (1)

Some people imagine that prayer is something of a hit-and-miss business. A bit like throwing snowballs at the moon and hoping something will stick. Really, prayer is not like that at all.

The fact is that God promises to answer prayer. Consider the seven occasions in the Gospels where Jesus promises answers to prayer.

In Matt 7:7, 8 Jesus says "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." The promise is repeated in Luke 11:9, 10.

John 14:13, 14 says "Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it."

If you had been in His shoes, would you have made a promise like that? Neither would I. But He did.

John 16:23, 24 says "In that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

In Matt 21:22 Jesus promised "All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

In Mark 11:24: "I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

Finally, John 15:7. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."

So, when I pray, can I ask for anything?

Yes, you can.

Two private jet planes and a billionaire lifestyle?

Well, no.

But you said. . .

Yes, I know what I said. Look at it like this. The Bible is full of promises. Most of the promises have conditions attached to them. Fail to fulfil the conditions and you won't see the promise fulfilled. But fulfil the conditions, and you will see the promise fulfilled certain sure.

So do the promises to answer prayer have conditions attached to them?

Yes, they do. Would you like to know what they are?

So it's Israel's fault?

How is it that whatever happens, it's Israel that's to blame?

I did not intend to write so often about Israel, but with so much Hamas propaganda coming out of Gaza and so much anti-Israel feeling in the media, justice demands some attempt to put the record straight.

Israel is a sovereign state, with a right to defend its territory and a duty to defend its citizens. Hamas is a terrorist organisation sworn to the extermination of Israel. Over the past eight years, more than 8,000 missiles fired from Gaza have landed in Israel. What other nation, asked former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would have waited eight years before retaliating? What other nation, he said, would have waited eight months?

Israel is said to have started the conflict. Israel didn't. Israel is said to have refused to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza to help the suffering. Israel hasn't. Not only has Israel allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, Israel has brought injured civilians from Gaza to be treated in Israeli hospitals.

Hamas has targetted civilians with the rockets it has fired into Israel, but that fact is carefully ignored. Israel's Foreign Ministry has issued videos showing Israel aborting missile strikes because Hamas targets were suddenly approaching civilians. Yet Israel is accused of deliberately targetting women and children. Hamas's figures of killed and wounded are trumpeted, while Israel's version of the figures is ignored. (The figures issued by the UN, I inderstand, were given to the UN by Hamas.)

Venezuela has broken off diplomatic ties with Israel because of its offensive in Gaza. Bolivia has done the same, accusing Israel of genocide. The Canadian Union of Public Employees, who apparently had nothing to say when battles against terrorists in Russia, China and Sri Lanka had a far greater civilian toll, wants Israeli academics banned from Canadian campuses unless they explicitly condemn the assault on Gaza.

When the situation is discussed in the British Parliament, Israel is accused of war crimes. Francesca Segal tells in the Observer how antisemitic incidents have suddenly quadrupled in the UK and the graffito "Kill Jews" is appearing in North London. Starbucks cafe bars are being smashed up in London because Starbucks' CEO is Jewish, and Tesco stores are being targetted because Tesco's founder was a Jew.

Some people won't have anything to do with Bible prophecy. This is a pity, for two reasons. First, God didn't put it in the Bible because He wanted people to ignore it. Second, every Bible prophecy that has been fulfilled to date has been fulfilled in exact detail. This is reasonable ground for supposing that any Bible prophecy not yet fulfilled will be fulfilled in the same way.

There is a prophecy in the Bible, beginning at the first verse of Zechariah 14, which has still to be fulfilled. It speaks of a day when all nations will be gathered in battle against Jerusalem - with surprising results.

That day may not be as far away as some people suppose.

And the fighting goes on

The fighting in Gaza continues. There are said to be 800 dead and many more injured.

Hamas, a terrorist organisation which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has fired more than 6,000 rockets and missiles into Israel from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. There seemed to be little concern outside Israel. But now that Israel has decided to retaliate, out pours the Jew-hatred and the antisemitic rhetoric. Since Israel began its offensive, the number of antisemitic incidents has risen across Europe.

Part of the problem is Hamas' lack of concern for the lives of its people. It uses its men, women and children as suicide bombers. It deliberately places its ammunition dumps and military command centres in the middle of civilian populations. It uses women and children as human shields. It appears to fire on the Israeli army from inside or in front of UN schools, so that when Israel returns fire it will be able to use pictures of the dead and wounded to influence world opinion for the Palestinian cause.

Alan M. Dershowitz, writing in the National Post, says the number of civilians killed by Israelis is almost always exaggerated.

There is much more protest - and fury - directed against Israel, he says, when it inadvertently kills approximately 100 civilians in a just war of self defence, than against Arab and Muslim nations and groups that deliberately kill far more civilians for no legitimate reason. . . more Arabs and Muslim civilians are killed every day in Africa and the Middle East by Arab and Muslim governments with little or no protests. . .

Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid killing civilians - if for no other reason than that it hurts its cause - while Hamas does everything in its power to force Israel to kill Palestinian civilians by firing its missiles from densely populated civilian areas and refusing to build shelters for its civilians. . .

Hamas and Fatah have killed far more Palestinian civilians over the past several years than have the Israelis, but you wouldn't know that from the media, the United Nations or protesters who focus selectively on only those deaths caused by Israeli military actions.

Said Daniel Finkelstein, writing in the Times:

The poverty and the death and the despair among the Palestinians in Gaza moves me to tears. How can it not? Who can see pictures of children in a war zone or a slum street and not be angry and bewildered and driven to protest? And what is so appalling is that it is so unnecessary. For there can be peace and prosperity at the smallest of prices. The Palestinians need only say that they will allow Israel to exist in peace. They need only say this tiny thing, and mean it, and there is pretty much nothing they cannot have.

Yet they will not say it. And they will not mean it. For they do not want the Jews. Again and again - again and again - the Palestinians have been offered a nation state in a divided Palestine. And again and again they have turned the offer down, for it has always been more important to drive out the Jews than to have a Palestinian state. It is difficult sometimes to avoid the feeling that Hamas and Hezbollah don't want to kill Jews because they hate Israel. They hate Israel because they want to kill Jews.

MP Michael Fabricant said he has been "horrified and angered" by the BBC coverage of the conflict, and will be making a formal complaint to the chairman of the BBC Trust about it.

BBC TV featured an interview with a Norwegian doctor from Shifa hospital in Gaza, Mads Gilbert. He painted a horrific picture of death and destruction in Gaza, claimed Israel was operating contrary to international law, using unconventional weapons and deliberately targeting civilians, and said he had seen only two Hamas "fighters" in hospital; all the rest of the injured had been civilians.

What the BBC failed to mention - something that is fairly common knowledge - is that Mads Gilbert is not just a doctor, but a longstanding activist in the Palestinian "solidarity" movement viscerally hostile to Israel, a former member of the Norwegian "Red" Party and a supporter of the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11.

Says Melanie Phillips, writing in her blog at the Spectator:

It is beyond appalling that the BBC should have presented this apologist for Hamas as a dispassionate first-hand observer. . . Whether it is cynical, malicious or just plain incompetent, the BBC's coverage of Gaza is a national disgrace. Given that such propaganda will invariably incite people to hatred, hysteria and even violence, the case for Parliament debating the BBC's performance is overwhelming.

The great tragedy is that a people who not too long ago lost six million of its number, including a million-and-a-half children, in a deliberate attempt at extermination should still have to fight for its existence.

God has a purpose for your life

Do you know that God has a purpose for your life?

Consider the Bible verses at Eph 1:3, 4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world." God knew you, you see, before the world began.

In Matt 10:30, it says that "the very hairs of your head are all numbered." In some translations of the Bible it says the hairs of your head are all counted, but in the King James Version of the Bible it says the hairs of your head are all numbered. So you can't comb your hair in a morning and a couple of hairs come out in the comb without God knows about it and has allowed for it. That's the measure of his concern for you.

Now look at 2 Tim 1:9. "Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began." Not only did God know us before the world was created, but He both had a purpose for our lives and gave us the grace to fulfil it, even then.

Finally, look at Eph 2:10. "For we are his workmanship," it says, "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." God has prepared things for us to do, things that no one else on earth can do but us. Every one of us has a gift, a ministry to fulfil. I often think of Dorcas, who was "full of good works and charitable deeds which she did." When she died, "all the widows stood. . . weeping, showing the tunics and the garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them." She might not have been a great preacher, but she had a ministry, something given her to do that would bless others and affect the world for good.

It's a sad thing, but many people never find the ministry that God has for them, because all their lives they make their own decisions and go their own way. If you want to find God's purpose for your life, repent of your sin and yield your life to Christ. Then He will begin to lead you into a life that is fruitful and wonderfully satisfying.

Perhaps you are a young Christian, and you have not yet found the ministry that God has for you. Don't worry. Pray. Read the Bible. Join a Bible-believing church. Begin to do the things that are at hand for you to do, and be faithful in them, and God will lead you into the life He has prepared for you. He will not fail, for He is faithful.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

This week Israel has been fighting Hamas, the Islamic terrorist organisation in Gaza, and Hamas has been fighting Israel. The cause of the conflict: Hamas, or people controlled by Hamas, have been firing rockets from Gaza into Israel for years, and are continuing to do so.

Israel is in a difficult position. Hamas has been arming for war, via Egypt, for long enough. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, in the north, has thousands of rockets able to reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona. Iran, who has promised to wipe Israel off the map, will have enough material for an atomic weapon any time now.

Israel is a small country, with a piece of land about the size of Wales. She is surrounded by Islamic nations who together have more than six hundred times the amount of land Israel has, much of it undeveloped. The Islamic nations aren't concerned about the land they have: they want the bit that Israel has.

In the Bible, God calls the land of Israel "my land." In the midst of the land is Jerusalem, where God promised to place His name forever. One day the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth to reign and rule, not just as King of the Jews, but as King of kings and Lord of lords. When He comes back, He is coming to Jerusalem. That's why there's all the trouble in the Middle East.

After God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, He told them that if they were disobedient, He would scatter them through the nations to the four corners of the earth. They were disobedient, and He kept His promise. The same God also promised He would bring them back to the land. He has done that too. The Bible promises in both the Old and New Testaments that after they are returned to the land, they will have a spiritual restoration through the Jewish Messiah.

The last few verses of Matthew 23 tell how Jesus grieved over Jerusalem.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," He said, "the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

"See! Your house is left unto you desolate;

"for I say to you, you shall see me no more till" - Notice, He didn't say you shall see Me no more; thank God, there's an "until" - "till you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" in Hebrew is Barukh haba baShem Adonai. In modern Hebrew, barukh haba, or if you are particularly Orthodox, barukh haba baShem Adonai, simply means "Welcome."

The enemy of souls doesn't want that spiritual restoration to happen. If it does, then Christ can come.

We are instructed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Under His wings

My grandfather kept hens. Sometimes one of them would go broody. When that happened, he would make a nest for her in an old wooden box, put a dozen eggs in the nest, and put a piece of sacking over the front of the box so she could sit on them undisturbed. Three weeks later, she would have a dozen tiny chicks.

If the weather was good, Granddad would put her box out of doors with an enclosure of wire netting around the box so the chicks could run on the grass. The hen would sit watching her brood, every inch the proud mother. If danger approached, she would call to the chicks, and one by one they would run under her wings. She would be sitting there looking just like she did before, but the chicks were now out of sight, safely protected by her wings, warm against the side of her body. Except perhaps for one who would be too clever to come in, and was still playing about outside.

Did you know that God has wings? Well, apparently He does. In the beautiful 91st Psalm there's a precious promise: "He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge." Imagine being safe under the wings of the Creator of the universe.

Ruth knew something about that. She was a girl from Moab who decided to trust the God of Israel and go to live in Israel with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Boaz, who later became her husband, had some kind words for her. "The Lord repay your work," he said, "and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge."

King David had the same idea. In the 17th Psalm, he says to God "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings." In the 57th Psalm, when he was on the run from Saul, who was out to kill him, he says to God "In the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by." And in Psalm 61, he says "I will abide in your tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the shelter of your wings." The word in the original Hebrew translated shelter there is translated elsewhere a secret place, a hiding place.

Jesus knew about it too. In the last week before He died, as He thought about Jerusalem, the city and the people that He loved, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," He said, "the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" He had a place for them. Safe in the Saviour. What a wonderful place to be!

I remember the first time I heard the gospel, in a little church one Sunday evening. After the service, some folks from the church took me to their home. A neighbour who also belonged to the church sat there and told me what Jesus had done for her. There was a happiness on her face that I could see. Yet it didn't occur to me it was for me.

God continued to speak to my heart until four months later I gave my life to Christ. Can you imagine it? The Creator of the universe wanted me to accept His call to a personal relationship with Him. All He wanted to do was bless me, give me His forgiveness, His love, His joy, His peace. And it took me four months to decide I was willing. Sometimes we're a bit like the chicken who thinks he knows better. Don't you be like that. When you hear the call to be safe under His wings, come running. You'll never regret it. Not for a moment. I never have.