HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” Isaiah 9:10

It was difficult to convince these Israelites that they were sinners. Driven from one refuge — they took shelter in another. The bricks have fallen down, they said — but we will rebuild with hewn stone. Yes, There is a lot of problem in the church, So I left and will settle over here.

Just so, I have many subterfuges and coverings for my guilt. Convicted on one indictment — my pride shapes another excuse. Forced back from the outer walls — my pride retreats into the citadel. Yes, my beloved things are changing rapidly as we come to the end of our journey. The return of our Lord and Saviour is imminent. Are you ready?

My imagination paints the ugly thing in fair colours — as the parents of my race hid from God’s face among the green leaves and the bright flowers of Paradise.

The customs and fashions of the day blind me to my peril — as there were mourners in the Middle Ages who concealed their grief under a dress of purple and gold.

The whirl of business dulls the discords and tumults within me — as in the midst of the hot battle the soldier forgets his mortal wound. And so today the battle rages on and you are called upon to put your sins and the past behind you and look ahead. The church is not yours and so is the battle. If you fail to put the battle in the hands of God you will be left in confusion and the fighting continues to a bitter end.

The round of gaiety and pleasure absorbs me — as sometimes the inhabitants of a plague-stricken city give themselves up to recklessness and riot.

My blameless creed and my religious observances hinder me from seeing leprosy that is eating into my heart and life — as the broad phylacteries and the long prayers of the Pharisees prevented them from confessing that they were white-washed sepulchres.

Thus, when the bricks are fallen down — I rebuild them with hewn stone, and when the fig trees have been felled — I will replace them with cedars. But from all my false refuges, may God with loving severity and invincible sweetness drive me — drive me into true self-knowledge, and lowly penitence, and His own everlasting arms!