Just before we returned from Ireland I was invited to share at a cross community prayer vigil at St Mary’s.
Significantly St. Mary’s was the first Catholic church in the heart of Belfast and was built in 1784 with funds…… raised by the Protestant folk in the city!!
Many believers from both these ‘tribes’ were hoping that night for ‘a miracle’ that would mean the liberalizing of the abortion laws in Northern Ireland would not happen. The local assembly however faltered and failed yet again and the Westminster law was imposed.
But supposing there had been that miracle? We would still be left with a nation, and world deeply divided, falling apart. The human dilemma will clearly not be resolved by humanly elected and humanly run governments……..just look at the current chaos at Stormont, Westminster and Washington DC, to name but a few chronic failures of humanly appointed lawmakers!
I finished the last blog quoting Jeremiah’s lament over the wickedness of the human heart. However just a few chapters later, the same author records the promise of a Greater Miracle than the mere adjustment of a manmade law.
“‘The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant……I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.'” (Jer.31)
The ‘good news’ I was given to share that night at St. Mary’s, was this confident hope we have that God will ultimately fulfill his promise to do what he said he will do….. in changing every human heart, until one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
At the end of the prayer vigil a lady made a ‘B line’ for us.
“Paul! I remember you from Drumalis!’ She exclaimed.
I knew immediately what she meant.
Maybe 15 years ago we had been invited to share at a Catholic charismatic conference in a ‘mansion’ 20 miles north of Belfast called Drumalis House. During the event it dawned on Hilary and I the immense personal significance of the context of that meeting.
Decades before, Hilary’s aunt who lived in that area had done ‘the unthinkable’, by marrying a Catholic man! Subsequently her ‘Protestant’ family protested by completely disowning her.
She and her Catholic husband had then ended up living right here! – in the gate lodge of Drumalis House where we Protestants had been invited to address these Catholics!
It was clearly a ‘set up’ by our Father and so Hilary and I told this story, and then asked the assembled company of our Catholic brothers and sisters for forgiveness as we identified with our forefathers. As it says in The Flame song:
“When our fathers erred they were weak like us
Times they failed to love times they failed to trust
But if we forgive……”
Repentance and forgiveness was reciprocated by our Catholic friends. The location of transgression had become the location of restoration.
We realized we had witnessed the Greater Miracle of God having changed hearts……as ‘the torch of faith’ was passed from one generation to the next!
(Remarkably, Thomas, the leader who had invited us to share at that conference 15 years ago was counseling in a side room that very evening at St. Mary’s! When we subsequently discovered one another in the same building….. we joyfully embraced!)
This timely sign was to remind us that we have already witnessed the first fruits of this Greater Miracle that is coming!
After the service, as we stood around chatting over a ‘cuppa.’ Paul MacAree’s wee dog pictured above began to passionately lick my shoes. To everyone’s amusement this continued unabated for the next 20+ minutes!
On the way home my friend Keith said Father had highlighted to him the dog’s name – ROCKY.
I have taught a Foundations Course, that I wrote almost 50 years ago, scores of times to very diverse groups. The opening scripture is the story of the wise and foolish men and the importance of building our house upon The ROCK who is Christ by hearing and obeying his word.
The course lays out the basis for our fellowship with God and our coming into unity with one another in answer to Jesus prayer in John 17. It is not that we agree on the details of every doctrine, but that we share a living relationship with the Rock that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The next morning as I went for a dander up Peartree Hill, the Spirit highlighted to me the scripture:
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…..”Your God Reigns!”
I knew Rocky had ‘washed my feet’ because my Father wanted to affirm me in the gospel I had proclaimed, that HE reigns over ALL.
No matter how bleak things may appear outwardly, he is the God who has committed to transforming us and our world…….. from the inside out
This is the REALLY ‘good news’ that he wants proclaimed!!!
