A couple years ago I read a collection of prayers by the Puritans from the 16th and 17th centuries. I felt impacted on two levels. On the one hand, their prayers of worship were very helpful. But on the other hand, their prayers about penitence and deprecation were so terribly negative, they were downright depressing!…

You might recognize one of Isaiah’s more familiar passages when he says: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives…

In Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Ivan endures all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp. One day he is praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner ridicules him: “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, “I do not pray…

English poet and theologian Frederick Faber wrote: “We must wait for God, long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and lightning, in the cold and the dark. Wait, and he will come. He never comes to those who do not wait.” God is a God of power. Where mountains tremble, fire blazes,…

Revival was needed in Isaiah’s day. God’s place was trampled down, and God’s enemies seemed to triumph over God’s people. “For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary. We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not…

In a recent conversation with other pastors in Queens, we talked about our similar experiences of people who have dropped out of church during this pandemic. We shared similar feelings of sadness over this loss. The prophet Isaiah also grieved over God’s people. “Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden…

I recently read the story of the Welsh Revival that took place in 1904-1905. It’s considered the largest Christian revival during the 20th century. Christian gatherings were characterized by a spontaneity of prayers, testimonies, confession of sins, and singing. Scores of people were filled with the Holy Spirit and upwards to 100,000 people in Wales…

So many people today believe that they get along just fine without God. A pandemic hits and they don’t even think of God. God, they maintain, is an optional extra – good for you, but not for them. Sadly, we can sometimes live independent from God, as though he doesn’t even exist. Or, we call…

As Isaiah prays, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,” he has some specific pictures in mind (Isaiah 64:1). He was concerned for his country. He could foresee the Babylonians coming in, ravaging the land, taking the people into captivity, leaving their homeland utterly desolate. Did God notice? “Look down from heaven…

God is present everywhere. Yet the consistent language of heaven where God dwells is always up! Psalm 123:1 says, “I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven.” Since God is “up” in heaven, we invite God to “come down”, visit us in power, and manifest his very real presence…