In the Midst of Darkness . . . There is HOPE!

Right now the darkness over our nation has reached a new intensity. But just as the stars shine the brightest on the darkest of nights, the ‘Lord of all Hopefulness’ still reigns and His Star is still guiding those who choose to follow Him – even in the midst of extreme darkness.

In the UK the Abortion Act legalised the killing of the unborn. And now the Assisted Dying Bill has just legalised assisted dying through choice for terminally ill patients, with the support of the medical profession and the National Health Service.

All of this is in spite of the fact that, within the Palace of Westminster, the Government carries out its work beneath a massive mural, showing Moses bringing down the Tablets of the Law from Mount Sinai, the sixth commandment of which says, “You shall not kill.”

God’s commandment for the whole of mankind has now been dismissed by our Parliament as an irrelevant myth. Life is no longer sacrosanct. Both the beginning and the end of life are now under threat from human intervention, in a society which has reneged on its Judeo-Christian foundations.

Parliament is meant to be a window for the nation – through which light and truth and justice shine upon the people of the land. Tragically, as Jeremiah expresses it, “death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses.” (Jeremiah 9:21)

Today I am weeping with Isaiah who expressed the heart and words of God when he wrote: “I called but you did not answer. I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me” (Isaiah 65:12).

Abortion, gay marriage and now assisted dying have blown away the last shred of a legal spiritual covering which God intended to provide safety for the nation. How dependent we now are on the intercession of the saints, to keep the powers of darkness from blowing away everything we value and to maintain a witness in the nation that there is eternal life in Jesus, even in the midst of physical suffering and death.

God, and His prophets, were never afraid to speak out the consequences of rebellion against the laws of God. I have no idea what will be next for the British people, and other nations who walk this path, but I do know what Scripture says “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Today, however, as I write these words, is the first Sunday of Advent. Believers the world over are looking ahead to celebrate the event that penetrated the darkness with the light of eternity. Jesus was born under the reign of an evil King, who would murder hundreds of babies and behead John the Baptist, within a totally pagan Roman Empire which would eventually authorise the crucifixion of the babe of Bethlehem.

It was into this extreme darkness that Jesus came. It was in this darkness that the Light of the World shone, overcoming death itself and bringing hope, healing and eternal life to those who turned their hearts towards Him. The lost, the hurting and the broken flocked to the One who met the need of their broken hearts. Those in despair of a seemingly loveless religious system, that had lost its way in heartless pharisaism, found their deepest needs being met in Him.

And in this respect nothing has changed! The same Light still shines in the darkness. We may despair at the way secular humanism now dictates government policy in so much of our broken world, but Jesus is still shining in the darkness. He is still there for the hurting and the broken, who are still finding that the ‘Lord of all Hopefulness’  is their Redeemer and giver of life.

Could it be that God will even use this situation to touch the hearts of those who know, deep down, that the termination of life through deliberate human intervention is against God’s law? – A law that God has written on the hearts of men and women and which Satan is doing everything he can to blank off from the mind and understanding of mankind.

But who will hear and answer the cry of those who truly are asking the hard questions at a time like this? Governments may have deserted the ways of the Lord, but the words God spoke through Isaiah still resound from the pages of Scripture with an urgency from on high, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8). Who will go into the darkness carrying the light of truth in their hearts, bringing the good news of eternal life to those who may be seeking Him?

Every day of a human life is an opportunity for God to penetrate the darkness of a human heart and reveal Himself to them. To foreshorten those days is to rob a person who, in and through  their personal suffering, may turn to God at the one time of their life when they have come face to face with the most important question of all, where will they spend eternity?

I sat at the bedside of a long-term friend. He and I had walked together through many ups and downs in business and life. Many times we had talked about Jesus and faith in God, but he always had too many other issues clouding his thinking. But, as he lay in Lancaster hospital, on the very edge of death, everything else had been swept from his mind. It was when he faced eternity, and nothing else mattered, that Jesus met him at his point of need and he was saved from eternal death.

We have an extraordinary and glorious truth to proclaim. I cannot just sit back and let my age be an excuse for doing nothing, when God is urging us forward to open Gates of Hope across the world. The old hymn ever echoes in my heart, “There’s a work for Jesus, none but you can do.” And that is equally true for every believer.

So, my prayer today is that the Lord Himself will stir your hearts to be part of God’s response to the darkness, so that as and when ‘the end of your day’ comes, you will be found still doing the works of the Kingdom of God!

Copyright © Peter Horrobin 2024.

Peter Horrobin is the Founder of Gates of Hope International. To find out more about the work please go to www.gatesofhopeinternational.com or, in its abbreviated ‘Go-High’ form: www.gohi.world. To receive regular updates about the work of GOHI, please register your name and email address on the website.

GOHI is currently investing greatly in many different works across the world especially, at this very testing time in the region, in the Middle East, in  both Israel and the Arab world. You can share in supporting this precious work of healing for both the Sons of Isaac and the Sons of Ishmael by giving to GOHI online through the website. Anything you can do to help will be deeply appreciated. To make a donation now, please go to:  www.gohi.world/give-serve/