PRAISING OR WEEPING

I was recently asked to write a meditation based on the story of Ezra’s rebuilding of the temple. The Jews had been living in exile for seventy years, as had been prophesied, and then miraculously King Cyrus, had been used by God to help them to return to their own land.

But returning was not easy. It took yet other prophets to inspire them to build up the walls of Jerusalem, and eventually to begin to rebuild their temple, God’s home. The verses I was asked to write about were Ezra 3:10-13

The foundations at last had been laid. It should have been such a joyful occasion, and yet - .Yes, there
was a joyful outpouring of praise, yet, with the shouting and singing there was also weeping.

I felt the Holy Spirit was searching my heart. Where would I have stood in that great company? When you are old it is easy to look back to the good old days.

As a young Christian I was privileged to go to ‘The Mount’ as we used to call Penygroes, - a little Welsh mining village where each year the nations gathered to worship God and receive his ministry to us. It had started out of the Welsh revival, and God was still doing wonderful things.

But even then, there were those who would tell us that things were not as  good as they used to be, but for us they were days of heaven on earth. When working abroad as a missionary, the ‘Penygroes week’ was the time I felt home-sick, longing to be there.  

But years later, now as a Pastor’s wife, I found that I was giving assent to the critics who looked back to the ‘good old days’. That was, until I met this couple who had come for the first time. For them it was days of heaven on earth, just as it had been for us. I was convicted. I realised it was I who had changed, not God. I realised too that if I would come, seeking him, that he would always be found by me. Faithful God, so unchanging!

On a lonely mission station in the Highlands of New Guinea, a colleague  had pinned a banner to the woven grass walls of his office.

          HALLELUJAH ANYWAY

It had been a struggle for me to accept the teaching that we should praise God for everything, or at least in everything, because we can trust him to make all things work together for good. Having eventually accepted it I find I cannot get away from it.

Someone said that we have three choices when something seemingly bad happens.

 1) We can refuse to accept this circumstance and fight against it.

 2) We can grit our teeth as something bad that we have to endure, or

 3)We can open our hearts and embrace it as something God has allowed and  trust him to work out his good purpose in our lives.

With David we can say, ‘I will bless the Lord at all times,’ and join with the praisers, not the weepers,
as foundations are still being laid for God’s temple.

Have we courage too, to raise a banner and say

          HALLELUJAH ANYWAY?

BLOG –PANCAKES and LENT

Whether or not we observe the feast days of the church depends very much on our upbringing. As a child I remember being taken to the local church for Ascension Day, yet now very few even remember this special day.

I was brought up to keep the Jewish Passover as a special day. This was the one day of the year when we celebrated the Lord’s Supper, - Communion.

It came as a surprise to me when I found some friends refused  chocolate, because it was Lent. Yes, we all know about Shrove Tuesday because we always enjoy pancakes, and then there was Ash Wednesday, but I wasn’t sure what that was all about.

But now I have friends who are very serious about Lent, linking it not only with the days when Our Lord was facing the cross, but also with the forty days and forty nights when Jesus fasted in the wilderness.

You may remember how Jesus, after the long years of waiting, patiently labouring as a carpenter, knew at last that the time had come to begin his ministry. He joined his cousin John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan where he was preaching and asked him to baptise him too. There God not only spoke to him out of heaven, but he also sent the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, to rest on him. Now at last Jesus must have thought he was ready to begin his ministry.

But no, not yet, it seems. For it says the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted of the devil. It is these forty days that we are remembering when we keep Lent.

Maybe I should be keeping it too. So, does that mean I have to give up chocolate? I have to be very careful in what I eat, and, like the Queen I believe, enjoy a piece of dark chocolate to finish off my dinner. I did not think God wanted me to give this up. But what about sharing with my sisters in using a special devotional each morning through these forty days? Oh yes! That is proving a special blessing.

One morning recently I found myself struggling with negative feelings, hurts that I had thought long forgiven, stirred up again. It went on all day. I remembered the story of Abraham how, having laid out his sacrifice for God he spent all day driving away the birds that sought to devour it. Even so, I was struggling to deal with these negative and poisonous thoughts.

Suddenly, my struggle was over, for God had reminded me that Jesus had been driven into the wilderness for forty days to be tempted of the Devil. Somehow I had thought these had been wonderful days of prayer and it was only at the end that the Devil had appeared with his three temptations, but no. It seems it had been unremitting.

So should I be surprised that I too should be attacked by his enemy and ours? I felt greatly comforted, and thankfully, delivered too.

How we love to celebrate the joy of Easter Sunday, and for those who have foregone chocolate for Lent, Easter Eggs too, which tell the story of the empty tomb. But let us be so thankful that we have a Saviour who understands all our struggles, and  who was willing, not only to die, but also to spend those dread days and nights in the wilderness tempted of the Devil for our sake.