Many great cities of the world were built on or around rivers: Nile in Cairo, Egypt. Río de la Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yamuna in Delhi, India. Pearl in Hong Kong, China. Thames in London, England. Moskva in Moscow, Russia. Han in Seoul, South Korea. Hudson in New York City. Rivers supplied drinking water…

Hurricane Isabel was front-page news in September 2003 as it rampaged through the Middle Atlantic States, coming ashore first in all its fury near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, site of one of America’s most famous lighthouses. When the storm hit Hatteras, the only road to the outside was destroyed. Oceanfront houses were swept from their…

Sometimes when I have felt anxiety or fear, it was triggered by something specific. Other times it was just a vague sense of dread as though I was about to receive some bad news. Isaiah tells us that God is “a refuge for the needy in their distress” (Isaiah 25:4). The psalmist tells us the…

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…