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Can A Nation Be Born in A Day? (Isaiah 66:1-9)

Nov 30th 2025

By Rev. Dr. Ed HIrd

Why do we light five candles at Advent? It is about Jesus the Light of the world who breaks into our darkness. God’s first action in Genesis 1:3 was to say: “Let there be light. 1 John 1:5 says: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”. In John 8:12 and 9:5, Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” That’s what Advent is all about.

Despite what Carl Jung suggested, God does have not a dark side, ala Luke Skywalker in Star War.  John 1:5 reminds us that “Jesus the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Isaiah 66, being the last chapter, is very similar to the last book of Revelation. Many people are not aware how eschatological and apocalyptic that Advent really is.  Advent is not just about remembering Jesus first coming in a manger, but also preparing for his second coming.  Both Advents are about light breaking into our darkness. As Isaiah 9:2 puts it, “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.” Isaiah 60:1-2 says: “Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you, even in the midst of gross darkness. Have you noticed that the darkness these days is getting much grosser?

2 Corinthians 11:14 says that Satan comes as an angel of light offering counterfeit enlightenment.  Jesus brings the true enlightenment in a very dark and lost world.  As Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6 tell us, Jesus the Jewish messiah is also the Light to all the Gentile Nations. You don’t need to do yoga to get Jesus’ enlightenment. What you need to do, as Bishop Peter often reminds us, is to surrender our wills. 

My late mother Lorna, who used to sit in this second pew, suffered during the winter from SADS, Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Is anyone else affected by the lack of sunlight in the winter? Mom was drawn to the Light in the midst of darkness. That is why we flew as a family to Hawaii in December 1971, right before my Jesus movement conversion.  Hawaii was indeed a Paradise of Amazing light. The only problem is that I brought my personal darkness with me.  When I was born again in a day, I was filled with heavenly light that has never left me in the past 53 years. One Day at a Time. Jesus in Matthew 5:14 calls us the Light of the World. In John 12:36, Jesus said: “Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” Paul in Ephesians 5:8-9 and 1 Thessalonians 5:5 similarly calls us Children of Light.

One thing that brightened up my mother during the winter was looking at vibrant, colourful paintings. My mother was an amateur painter who took lessons from Bob Hickling, whose arms were paralyzed from polio so he painted with his mouth. My mom loved not only Van Gogh but also Monet, the French father of Impressionism which focused on light, form, and nature. Monet did not use chiaroscuro like Rembrandt, who painted sharp almost three-dimensional contrasts between light and dark. Instead, Monet used extra colour to create effects of light, shadow and depth, giving momentary impressions (hence impressionism). Monet painted the impression of brilliant light by putting contrasting vibrant colors, such as blue and orange, right next to each other. Instead of creating shadows with dark paint, he would create blue and green shadows through which light broke through.

My mother’s love for paintings is now rubbing off on me at age 71. How many of you have or had parents who loved paintings? How many of you have picked up your parent’s love of paintings? How many of you love to actually paint? Both Monet & Van Gogh loved painting sunflowers. (Show painting) His revolutionary method of painting in the outdoors was called plein air. Monet famously said, “To see, we must forget the name of the things we are looking at.”

Some see Monet as the world’s most famous painter. Has any one been to seen Monet’s famous Japanese-inspired garden and pond in Giverny, France? It’s visited by over one half million people annually.  Born in 1840, Claude Monet was passionate about light in his flower paintings. In the early 1890s, he painted Rouen Cathedral first in morning light, then midday light, and then gray weather, showing his deep fascination with the effects of light. What however would light be without colour? Monet said:  • Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.

Monet struggled with depression, poverty, illness, and discouragement. He became so despondent over his lack of sales that in 1868, he attempted suicide by trying to drown himself in the Seine River. Troubled by cataracts, Monet sometimes was so frustrated with his paintings that he destroyed as many as 500 of his own 2500 paintings. He would burn, cut or kick them into oblivion, ripping them to shreds. He once wrote that “age has worn me out. My life has been nothing but a failure, and all that’s left for me to do is to destroy my paintings before I disappear.”

Yet, one of his paintings has since sold for 110 million dollars.

Hitler as a failed painter stole many of Monet’s paintings from Jewish art collectors. In October 2024, after 86 years, the FBI returned Monet’s Bord de Mer painting to the granddaughters of a Jewish couple who fled Vienna in 1938. His fellow impressionists Degas, Renoir, and Cézanne were all antisemitic. Claude Monet however rejected French antisemitism by supporting Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer unjustly accused of treason and imprisoned.

That is why the nation of Israel loves Monet. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem houses several of his paintings. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art holds Monet’s Water Lily Pond. There are around 130,000 painters in Israel. The most famous Israeli painter was Marc Chagall.

Monet had a God-given ability to see light and colour, helping others to see God’s creation in a whole new way. Similarly, through Advent, Jesus removed our spiritual cataracts so that we can see with Kingdom eyes spiritual light and colour, helping others to see God’s new creation in a whole new way. As Hank Williams sang, ‘I saw the Light. I saw the Light. No more in darkness. No more in night.’ That is what Advent is all about.

In Isaiah 66 1, the Lord says:

“Heaven is my throne,

    and the earth is my footstool.

Where is the house you will build for me?

Where will my resting place be?

God is the Father of lights. As James 1:17 puts it, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” The house that God dwells in is full of unimaginable heavenly light.  Do I hear an Amen?

2 Has not my hand made all these things,

    and so they came into being?”

declares the Lord.

“These are the ones I look on with favor:

    those who are humble and contrite in spirit,

and who tremble at my word.

Vs 2 tells us that in order to dwell in God’s heavenly house, we need to humble ourselves with contrition and tremble at His Word?  How many of you tremble at God’s Word?  It is so easy to become blasé and distracted. God wants us to repent of all lukewarmness to His Word and recover our first love for Jesus and the Bible.

3 But whoever sacrifices a bull

    is like one who kills a person,

and whoever offers a lamb

    is like one who breaks a dog’s neck;

whoever makes a grain offering

    is like one who presents pig’s blood,

and whoever burns memorial incense

is like one who worships an idol.

They have chosen their own ways,

    and they delight in their abominations;

Vs 2 & 3 tells us that choosing our own ways, delighting in abominations, it never ends well.  As E Stanley Jones said in his book The Way, there are essentially two choices in life: God’s way or not the way.  Not the way, doing it our own way, always ends in darkness.  Idolatry is all about choosing the darkness. Revival is about choosing to turn from darkness back to the true Advent Light, Jesus. 

4 so I also will choose harsh treatment for them

    and will bring on them what they dread.

For when I called, no one answered,

    when I spoke, no one listened.

They did evil in my sight

and chose what displeases me.”

Revival is about realizing that our way doesn’t work.  Vs. 4 tells us that idols don’t answer or listen when we call.  Doing what displeases Jesus is always a lose-lose.  IF we want Advent revival, we must choose what pleases Jesus, the Light of the World. 

5 Hear the word of the Lord,

    you who tremble at his word:

“Your own people who hate you,

    and exclude you because of my name, have said,

‘Let the Lord be glorified,

    that we may see your joy!’

Yet they will be put to shame.

Vs 5 reminds us that when you choose the Advent Light, not everyone will be happy about this.  They may hate you and exclude you because of your love for Jesus the Light of Advent. 

6 Hear that uproar from the city,

    hear that noise from the temple!

It is the sound of the Lord

repaying his enemies all they deserve.

Vs. 6 tells us that there is no escaping the sound of Light that God releases into our life.  We reap as we sow. As the Creeds remind us, Jesus the Lord of Advent Light will indeed return to judge the living and the dead.

7 “Before she goes into labor,

    she gives birth;

before the pains come upon her,

she delivers a son.

Vs. 7 teaches that breakthrough always require labour pains.  Advent is a season of labour pains, as we are preparing for the Light of the Christ Child. How many of you as mothers had a completely pain-free delivery?  How many mothers have ever suffered or worried about your children post-birth?  How old does one’s children need to before you stop being tempted to worry about them?  Let me ask you: What is God trying to birth in your life, your family, your work?  What is God birthing right now in Israel and secondarily in our nation of Canada?

October 7th, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, has changed Israel forever.  The electric fence failed them. Many Israelis are turning to the Lord in a way that they never did before.  Has anyone noticed that technology, no matter how impressive, is not our saviour. It will let us down.

Vs 8 says: Who has ever heard of such things?

    Who has ever seen things like this?

Can a country be born in a day

    or a nation be brought forth in a moment?

Yet no sooner is Zion in labor

than she gives birth to her children.

Advent represents desert and waiting times for the Light of Christ.  Israel, since 1948, has turned a barren desert into one of the greatest fruit-exporting country on earth, just like the Old Testament prophesied. They export over 800 million dollars of fruit per year, especially dates, figs, pineapples, avocados, oranges, and mangoes. They have also planted 250 million trees throughout Israel.

God has kept his covenant promises to the ancient Jewish people.  Isaiah 11: 12 says, “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.”

In Ezekiel 11:17, “the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’”

Prophetically speaking, the rebirth of the Nation of Israel on May 14th 1948 is “The Time Clock of the Nations.” Many are realizing that this single miracle of Israel, “born in one day,” is the biggest and most prominent sign of the coming return of the Messiah to Jerusalem!

 British Bible teacher Lance Lambert says: “No other nation in the history of mankind has twice been uprooted from its land, scattered to the ends of the earth and then brought back again to that same territory.  Israel has twice lost its statehood and its national sovereignty, twice had its capital destroyed, its towns and cities razed to the ground, its people deported and dispersed, and then twice had it all restored again. No other nation or ethnic group has been scattered to the four corners of the earth, and yet survived as an easily identifiable and recognizable group.” This is a miracle.

The first exile took place under Babylonian rule in 587 BC. As for the second great exile, Roman forces serving under the Roman commander Titus destroyed and dismantled Jerusalem in August AD 70, exactly as Jesus had prophesied 37 years earlier. The Romans killed 600,000 Jewish residents and deported 300,000 more to locations scattered around the Empire. Sixty-five years later in 135 AD, the forces of Roman Emperor Hadrian crushed the last Jewish uprising, led by Bar Kokhba at Masada. 

Hadrian’s hatred for the Jews burned so brightly that he changed Jerusalem’s name to his own name and declared it “a Roman city forever which no Jew could enter under pain of death.” He built a temple to Jupiter on the site of the former Jewish Temple. Then he renamed the land “Palestine.”

In Vs 9, God says: Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery? Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God.

Many Canadians are wondering these days: Is there hope for Canada? Things seem pretty dark. Will Canada survive against all odds? Can a nation like Canada be born again in day? Will a revival of divine light sweep through our dark land?  The existence of Israel, just like the existence of Canada, is miraculous. Humanly speaking, neither Israel nor Canada should have come into existence, or continued to exist.  Yet God keeps breaking his advent light into both Canada and Israel.  I don’t believe that God has given up on either Canada or Israel.

I see both Canada and Israel as like turkeys.  Wild turkeys are amazingly good fliers, considering their substantial bodies. They reach treetops in seconds to escape predators. Once airborne, they can fly at 55 miles per hour! Domesticated turkeys, however, have lost this ability. The question for us Canadians is ‘will we be a wild turkey or a tame turkey?’  Can Canada learn, by waiting on the Lord,  to fly like an eagle or at least like a wild turkey? How many of us here today want to be a wild turkey for Jesus?  John A Macdonald our first prime minister was a wild turkey for Jesus. 

John A Macdonald was a Moses figure who saw the promised land from sea to sea, that Canada might be born in a day.

Every time we spent a ten-dollar bill from 1971 to 2018, we came face-to-face with Sir John A Macdonald.  In 2018, starting with Victoria, eight of Macdonald’s ten statues across Canada have been vandalized and removed by ‘cancel culture, though the one in Ontario’s Queen’s Park was recently returned.  In the name of ‘tolerance’, inclusiveness, and diversity, John A.’ statues have been ‘beheaded’, excluded, and defamed. Three public schools have recently removed his name. Many youth have never even heard his name. 

Could you imagine Americans removing their 100+ Washington statues and renaming the State and District/DC of Washington?  Do we really want, in the words of a former Prime Minister, to be a post-national state with no core identity? Canada’s actual history is now at stake.

Though a complicated man with many flaws, Macdonald was the most famous of all Canadian leaders. Some of his tragic mistakes were the hanging of Louis Riel, the creation of native residential schools, and the 1885 Electoral Franchise Act which removed the right of Chinese people to vote. We must honestly admit John A.’s unfortunate weaknesses while not losing sight of his great accomplishments.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1815, he moved at age 15 to the land of his dreams with his family. Like Don Quixote, John A. dreamed the impossible dream that miraculously came true, a nation from sea to sea (Psalm 72:8).  Against all the odds, Canada was birthed on July 1st 1867 and still exists, despite cries from some Quebecers and Albertans to separate. God keep pouring out his light on Canada, far more than we deserve or imagine.

Without Sir John A. Macdonald, BC would have been lost forever from joining Canada. BC would have become the 51st state, physically connecting to Alaska.  Many American leaders publicly stated that it was BC and indeed Canada’s manifest destiny to join the United States.  The vast majority of early BC settlers were Americans drawn from San Francisco by the 1858 Gold Rush. They certainly were not Eastern Canadians from Ontario.  John A’s promise of the Canadian Pacific Railway won over the hearts and mind of ambivalent BCers. The American miners also liked the law and order of Governor James Douglas and Judge Matthew Begbie, protecting them from being robbed like in the American wild west.

After the tragic death of his invalid first wife Isabella, John A. married Agnes Bernard.  They met on Dec 8th 1866 while both were sauntering down Bond Street in London. By Christmas, they were engaged.  They wed six weeks later, at St. George’s Anglican Church in Hanover Square. This was definitely light breaking into John A’ painfully dark family situation.

Agnes spoke French better than her husband, a real asset in bilingual Canada.  He now had a loving wife who worked tirelessly on his behalf –inviting Conservative MPS to his place for dinner rather than get drunk with them in the bars.

As a devout Anglican Christian, Agnes had a significant impact on her husband’s life, causing him to stop drinking and start attending church.  John A was deeply impressed by the Beatitudes, and made a practice of reading his bible every night before bedtime.  Another MP called Agnes ‘Macdonald’s good angel.’ Biographer E.B. Biggar suggests that Agnes may have extended his life by two decades, saving both his liver and his life. This again was Advent Light breaking into alcoholic darkness.

In 1888, during six weeks of Hunter-Crossley revival meetings in Ottawa, Prime Minister Macdonald had a deep encounter with Jesus Christ.  John Hunter and Hugh Crossley were the Canadian Billy Grahams, leading two hundred and fifty thousand Canadians and Americans to Christ.  As one journalist put it, “When the well-known form of the Honorable Prime Minister arose in the centre of the church, many strong men bowed their heads and wept for joy.” After dining at the prime minister’s home several days later, Rev John Hunter confirmed that “Sir John is a changed man.” Wherever Hunter and Crossley went in Canada, the bars became empty and the churches became full.  How many Canadians know this amazing story of Divine light breaking into a politician’s soul? It is not easy for politicians to be saved with all the pressures they are under.

May the example of John A. and Agnes give us the will to love, live and forgive as a nation.  May Albertans and Quebecers realize that we all truly need each other in this grand impossible dream of Canada.  May God keep our land glorious and free, in Jesus’ name.

And finally, can we as God’s people, and you personally be born, be born again, in a day?  Can Advent light break into our lives this very day?  Can people who come from difficult family backgrounds really change?  Can people who struggle with alcohol or drug addiction really be born in a day?  Is change really possible?  Can Jesus really change your heart, your family, one day at a time? 

How many of you today are willing to change, to embrace God’s marvellous light, to be born again, to surrender your will to Jesus one day at a time? How many are willing to say no to darkness and yes to Jesus our Advent Light? How many want to walk in the Advent light as Jesus is in the light?  Let us pray. 


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BC Christian Ashram videos

Do you ever struggle to forgive people? You are invited to watch the powerful messages given at the July 18th Friday BC Christian Ashram Retreat: As We Forgive Others

BC Christian Ashram Retreat July 19th: As We Forgive Others

Matt Henson, Mark Hird, and Holly Roddam spoke on how forgiveness sets us free.  Matt, who is the Executive Director for the UCAI, shared how the Christian Ashram experience could be a spark of revival both to the Church and to the world.  Imagine a forgiveness revival transforming families and nations. To learn more about the BC Christian Ashram and the United Christian Ashram International, click on http://www.christianashram.com and  https://christianashram.org 


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Francis & Judith MacNutt: God’s Healing Team

Francis & Judith MacNutt: God’s healing team

By Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

Francis and Judith MacNutt were one of the most remarkable healing teams of God that the world has ever known. Born in 1925, Francis MacNutt’s career dream was to become a medical doctor.

Continue reading…


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Alexander & Mary Boddy

Click to learn about this amazing couple.


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Alexander & Mary Boddy

Click to learn about this amazing couple.


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John & Ethel Gayner Banks: Founders of Order of St Luke the Physician

-a article in the December-January 2025 Light Magazine

(Healing Pioneers Series)

In 1932, when the healing ministry was neglected in many churches, Rev. Dr. John & Ethel Gayner Banks birthed an interdenominational healing ministry at St Luke’s Church in San Diego called the Fellowship of St. Luke.  From that fellowship was formed The International Order of St Luke the Physician (OSL), incorporated initially in the state of California in 1935, and later in North America in 1953. OSL helped ordinary people realize that the healing ministry is not just for snake-handlers and religious fanatics. John Banks commented: “People are very scared of the healing ministry. They’re scared that nothing might happen, and they’re scared that something might happen.”

In the twentieth century, people became more aware of God’s healing power that is available to all people, not only through medicine but also through healing prayer.  Earlier healing ministries in which John Banks had participated had been specifically Anglican/Episcopal.  Dr. William De Orteaga commented that “Anglicans and Episcopalians have been among the most pioneering, persistent, and innovative leaders of the renewed Christian healing ministry of the last century and a half.” Many Anglicans however were unaware that there are twenty-two pages in the Book of Common Prayer on the healing ministry.  All the Anglican healing ministries emphasize the close relationship between medicine and healing prayer. In 1914, the Society of the Nazarene was first sponsored by William Temple, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1926, the Society of the Nazarene was officially approved and endorsed by the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops as the healing organization of the Anglican Communion.

In the USA in 1920, Rev. Henry Wilson and John Gayner Banks established an American Branch of the Society of the Nazarene.  Banks had moved from England as a layman to obtain a doctorate in therapeutic psychology at the University of Missouri.  Wilson encouraged Banks to be ordained.  After the death however of Wilson in 1929, the Society of the Nazarene withered away.  Wilson’s family did not even allow the Banks to continue to use the Nazarene name.

While conducting a healing mission in California, John Gayner Banks met Ethel Tulloch, a top postal union leader.  The economic panic of 1907 caused banks to collapsed, resulting in great unemployment. Ethel couldn’t find work, until she taught herself to type and do stenography, making herself invaluable for the post office.  In 1908, the San Diego Post Office had no eight-hour day, pension plan, overtime, or sick leave. Ethel recalled, “These were the jungle days of the post office.” In January 1919, she was appointed fifth vice president of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks, the first woman to hold office. The Labor Leader (Sept. 1919) called Ethel a “live wire” and “one of the strongest workers for the cause in the country.” As a gifted writer, Ethel personally replied to complaints to the San Diego Postal Office: “She probably met more people…than any other person in the city. She was known for her courtesy in the treatment of the public.” Ethel commented:

Seventy-five percent of the friction and trouble in the world occurs because of misunderstanding — and so I consider it a favor when anyone, instead of harboring resentment or bitterness, asks for an explanation.

Because of her standing up for workers rights, Ethel was unfairly targeted by the Postmaster General Albert Burleson as a communist agitator.  She almost lost her job and was put under severe scrutiny.  The stress and exhaustion of this thankless 90-hours per week job left her ‘brain weary’. A specialist diagnosed her as having an incurable fatal illness. She suffered from incessant images of “pain… pain… pain. Pain and death…. Where could I hide from them?”

One sleepless night, Ethel dreamed about the opening lyrics to Rock of Ages: ‘From Thy side, a healing flood.’ She saw the Rock of Ages with Living water spilling like a healing flood through the Rock. She cried: “‘Lord help me’… from the bottom of my troubled heart.” Ethel then had a vision of Jesus in white robes bidding her to receive Holy Communion.  His eyes glowed with such “yearning and tenderness and compassion.” Two hands stretched toward her from the light “with a loving welcome — and there were nail prints.” Jesus invited her to the altar. “I knew he was pleading ‘come unto me.’” Ethel realized: “Could not my sick body be made clean of disease by his body if he dwelt in me and I in him?”  Her faithful obedience resulted in a miraculous healing of her body, mind, and emotions.  

After reading Ethel’s Come from Away pamphlet about her healing, John Banks appointed her as convenor for the Southern California Chapter of the Society of the Nazarene.  John and Ethel were married a year later in 1929 at Calvary Church, New York City by Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now John Banks was no longer a widower.  While on their honeymoon, they visited all the healing homes in England and America, dreaming of drawing them all together into a world healing fellowship.

The Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930 recommended the restoration of the Sacrament of Healing, or Holy Unction, after prayer and preparation, and where moral and intellectual difficulties exist, confession as well. Lambeth also suggested for complete restoration, that prayer for healing be followed by the Sacrament of Holy Communion, which is also a sacrament of healing.

Ethel Tulloch Banks’ original two-page newsletter grew in 1937 to become the OSL Sharing Magazine, the oldest continuously published Christian healing journal in North America. Ethel as a gifted writer and theologian did much of John’s writing, so that some of what appeared under John Gayner Bank’s name was in fact her work. The Banks’ strong emphasis on Jesus and the sacraments gave an alternative to sick people who were otherwise tempted to get ‘healing’ through the very popular Christian Science and the New Age/Thought movements. 

Ethel conducted Monday prayer meetings for forty years, beginning each session with the question: “Has anyone been a witness to faith?” The Banks were convinced that Christ’s power to heal to-day is just as great as it was when He walked on earth. One of Dr. Banks sayings was, “A little faith brings little results; greater faith, greater results; and marvelous faith, marvelous results.”

OSL is committed to

  1. Promoting the restoration of the Apostolic practice of healing as taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ;
  2. promoting a sound pastoral and counseling ministry;
  3. promoting the practice of holding healing services in every church;
  4. developing local chapters to promote healing missions, workshops and prayer groups in their area.

OSL believes that

  1. God uses many agencies for healing: some are spiritual such as prayer, love, faith, anointing with oil, and the laying on of hands;
  2. some are medical such as medicine, surgery, and psychology.
  3. These agencies should be supportive of one another.
  4. God’s desire for us is wholeness and health.
  5. Christian healing is accomplished through faith in Christ and through subjecting one’s entire life to the scrutiny and counsel of God.
  6. Jesus Christ is alive today and still possesses all power on earth as in Heaven.

We pray that John & Ethel Banks and the OSL might inspire us all to recover the healing ministry of St. Luke the Physician: “Almighty God, who inspired your servant St. Luke the Physician to set out in the Gospel the love and healing power of Your son. Make obvious in Your Church the love and power for the healing of our bodies and souls, to the praise and glory of Your Name, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird


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Isaiah 64:1 -12 “Returning to the Healing Father”

All Saints Crescent Beach Nov 24th 2024 sermon

Vs. 1  Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

I will never forget at age 17 going to the Led Zeppelin concert in Dec 1971 with my Jewish friends from India. My original favorite rock band was the Animals, followed by my next favorite band Led Zeppelin. I was hoping that the heavens would open, so to speak, at this concert, and I would have this amazing experience. Instead it was just ordinary. The disappointing ordinariness of this concert tempted me to almost dropping acid in search of this ultimate experience. Fortunately, my Scottish side protected me from my foolishness. There was no way I was going to be overcharged $4 for LSD.  A month later, God ripped open the heavens and gave me the ultimate experience that changed my life for ever. I had a Damascus Road conversion to Jesus Christ that brought inner healing and significance to a very lost soul. I was born again, and never have recovered from this.

The term ‘Oh’, as in Oh that you would rend the heavens, is used 207 times in the bible to express a range of emotions including surprise, anger, disappointment, or joy.  Just think of the song ‘Oh Susannah’ or the expressions ‘Oh Boy!’ or ‘Oh no!’  Sometimes we become dead to this phrase, or use it without meaning such as OMG. 

The word ‘rend’, by the way, can be translated ‘break down the door and come and rescue us.’ Do you ever wish that God would appear on earth, just show up, break down the door, so to speak, and make things right?  There are many rending of the heavens in the Old Testament like the burning bush with Moses in the desert, the fire coming down on Mount Carmel with Elijah and the receiving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai with Moses. The ultimate rending of the heavens was with Jesus being born at Bethlehem and the Holy Spirit poured out on Jesus at his baptism. For us his Church, we were birthed with a great rending of the heavens on the Day of Pentecost. Times of revival and renewal are wonderful times of the rending of the heavens. Each Sunday in the liturgy, we often say Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again, the final rending of the heavens. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.

Does God ever feel abstract or meaningless to you?  How many have ever read or seen HG Wells’ book The Invisible Man? Sometimes God feels like the invisible man. Are you willing to forgive God for being invisible most of the time?  God’s invisibility easily tempts us to seek idols, because idols are visible. Jesus is God’s solution to the problem of invisibility.  

Isaiah was longing for God’s presence. Are you longing right now for the things of God? What is your passion, your longing? Do you have a passion to know Jesus better? James 4:8 says, if you draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

The Christian Ashram retreat was founded by E. Stanley Jones in 1930, 94 years ago. In this retreat, which I lead in BC, we always start with the time of the open heart. In the early days, the Open-Heart time could last for up to four hours of people sharing about three questions: Why did I come? What do I want? What do I need? Just for a brief moment, not for the next four hours, I am inviting you to share why you came to All Saints today.  Secondly, what do you want from God at this healing service?  Thirdly, what do you actually need today?

Vs. 2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!

Vs. 2 talks about God coming like fire, a powerful symbol of the Holy Spirit. How many of you have ever had a fireplace? How many currently have a fireplace? Santa in the old days used to deliver presents through the fireplace.  It has been a lot more challenging more him for so many homes lacking chimneys and fireplaces. You may or may not be aware that Janice and I are currently working on a book on E. Stanley Jones:  Fire in God’s Fireplace. There is a lot of counterfeit wildfire out there that just burns people up, and leaves communities burnt out and burnt over. Revival and renewal can easily be imitated and manufactured in the flesh. All Saint’s is a wonderful fireplace. All Saints is so healthy, such an amazing gift in a time of great confusion and distraction. To be healthy, it really helps to be in a healthy Christian community. Being a Spirit-filled healthy community, as Bishop Peter often reminds us, is about surrendering our will.  As the Lord’s Prayer puts it, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. The church is God’s family. Healthy children need healthy families.

Vs. 3  For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Vs. 3 talks about trembling.  Paul, who was deeply immersed in the book of Isaiah, alludes simultaneously in 1 Corinthians 2:9 to Isaiah 64:4, Isaiah 52:15, and Isaiah 65:17.

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

 Can you imagine how will one day change when it begins to tremble at God’s presence? In Isaiah 66:2, it speaks of the humble and contrite in heart trembling at God’s Word.  Have you ever trembled at God ‘s Word or at his presence?  We as Canadians need to recover a holy fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom. Healing comes through our recovering a sense of God’s awesomeness.  Even more than a beautiful Crescent Beach sunset, God’s presence can be very healing and calming.

Vs 4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

Vs. 4 says that waiting is key to healing. One of my favorite bible verses in Isaiah 41:31 “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.“ Waiting is never easy, particularly when you are a child waiting for Christmas.  I will never forget when my grandmother showed us where my parents were hiding all our presents. 

I served at age 5 as a shepherd in our Kindergarten Christmas Pageant.  Sadly I got lost and waited to be found. But they never did find me.  I secretly think that because of my lost shepherd incident, that I missed my potential career as a famous Hollywood actor.  There might have been a Hollywood agent waiting in the kindergarten audience to discover their next child Hollywood actor. Speaking of child actors, I had the privilege of interviewing 12-year old Ollie Herdman for the Light Magazine.  The Herdmans (or to be politically correct, the Herdpersons) were the worst family ever in the entire world, yet they wanted to be part of what became the Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever.  We laughed and cried at that movie with three of our grandkids. How many of you have seen this amazing Christmas movie yet?

 It is remarkable how God acts and heals those who actively wait for Him. The Bible again and again challenges us, as in Psalm 27:14, Psalm 40:1, and Psalm 130:5-6, to wait for the Lord Healing is a waiting game. Our refusal to wait is often a refusal to heal. One of my greatest weakness is when in my impatient impetuosity, I refuse to wait. I am not willing. I want my healing right now.  True love waits. Waiting heals and transforms us. How many of us are grateful for how God miraculously gave us this building in Crescent Beach?  So am I, but I in my Hird impatience didn’t like how long it took to receive the recent Crescent Beach miracle.  How many are believing that God will come through in enabling up to get the repairs done on the building?  What if this latest miracle takes longer than I impatiently want it to? Are you ever tempted to use fear and guilt to get your own way, rather than wait patiently on the Lord? Never say yes to people who try to manipulate you through shame and telling you that the sky will fall.

God acts for those who wait.  You may have heard the phrase ‘Good things come to those who wait.’ Do you need healing today? Is healing worth waiting for?  Have you ever received a healing that took time?  Have you ever received a partial healing that developed into a fuller healing later, like the blind man Jesus prayed for who initially saw people looking like trees.  Jesus’ second touch gave him the full healing. Do any of you today need a second touch from Jesus?

God’s delays are not always God saying ‘no’.  Sometimes God says ‘slow’ or ‘grow’ before he says ‘go’.  I hate being on waiting lists.  I really don’t look forward going to emergency wards nowadays, like at Surrey Memorial with its 20-hour wait. But waiting can be deeply healing as we surrender to the Healing Father.  Don’t be afraid of healing tears as you wait.  Which direction are you facing as you wait for things to happen?  Grumpy waiting can look like picking up your marbles and leaving. Turning itself is deeply healing depending on the direction that we are turning. Many atheists nowadays are obsessed with the god that they don’t believe in.  They have turned their face away from not only God but also painful situations that they don’t want to deal with.  What is it that we can’t face in our lives? Biblical waiting is all about turning and returning to the healing Father.  What if we turned our face openly to the Potter of our souls?

Roberto Escamilla in his book Prisoners of Hope said: “One of the most beautiful stories E. Stanley Jones told (repeatedly) was about the little girl who came to church with a broken doll in her hands… She was crying because her doll was broken. She asked the pastor perhaps the most meaningful question anyone could ever ask: ‘Is this the place where they heal broken hearts? Roberto said: “If I only had one sermon to preach, it would be about broken hearts.  If I had only one song to sing, it would be ‘There is a balm in Gilead’ to make the wounded whole.  If I had but one story to tell, it would be about the little girl and the broken doll.  And if I had only one thing to say and one sermon to preach, I would preach about the One who has the power to heal broken hearts. Because that is a universal need.  Somewhere along the way, your heart is bound to be broken.  Psalm 147:3-4 ‘He heals the broken-hearted…He determines the number of stars.’…

As Roberto put it, one of the church’s primary responsibilities is to heal broken hearts, broken lives, and broken bodies; to heal and repair brokenness, all kinds of brokenness.  The church is the hospital for sinners with spiritual needs, for all kinds of brokenness…The church is the place where we must always answer categorically, ‘Yes, this is the place where we specialize in healing brokenness -all kinds of brokenness!’  Is there a way, said Roberto, to help men and women with broken lives, broken health, broken homes, broken dreams, and broken hopes?  Is there One who can heal brokenness when everything is broken?  Is there One who can help us put it together again – help us get it all together?  It is our mission as Christians to reach out and offer sustaining love to all persons with broken hearts. 

Vs. 5  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways; But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?

In vs. 5, Isaiah asks a very good question: How can we be saved? Many people in BC have become so secularized and emotionally cut off that they don’t even think that they need saving.  If we don’t understand the human condition, we will not get our need for a saviour. As Bishop Peter often says, 95% of people are broken. The rest are liars. Broken people need a saviour, need a potter who can mend the broken parts.   In BC and Canada, we need far more than just political salvation. Even a needed change in government is not enough to fix BC and Canada. We need Jesus. His Hebrew and Greek name Yeshua/Jesus means salvation. Vs. 5 teaches that a key to God turning up is our remembering God’s ways. Many of us suffer from spiritual amnesia.

Vs. 6  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.

Vs 6 is  the Romans 3:23 of the Old Testament: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Sin is just another word for our selfishness and rebellion. At the middle of the word ‘sin’ is the letter ‘I’.  Our self-centeredness has the ability to destroy the best things in our lives.  I can make us sick. The most selfish are often the most self-righteous. Our self righteousness is a huge block to self-surrender and healing. We are reluctant to acknowledge humanity is fundamentally flawed and sinful from birth. I used to believe that education would solve all problems. Many still believe that science and technology will solve all problems. A few naive people still believe that more government will solve all life’s problems.

Vs. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.

Vs. 7 talks about our unwillingness to listen to advice, even from God.  One of my scariest moments as a teenager was when my mother was so frustrated with me that she would say: “Go ahead, do whatever you want.”  I knew then that I was really in trouble when my mother was ready to give me up to my selfishness.  The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. If you really want the kosher cure, you have to understand the Jeremiah 17:9 reality. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can understand them?

One of the areas where I have deceived myself is sometimes confusing my impatient impulsiveness with being led by the Holy Spirit.  When I let impatience lead me, it is more likely in the flesh than in the Spirit. Proverbs 14:29 says that whoever is patient has great understanding.  My family default coming from a long line of blacksmiths and master mechanics is to get the job done. As someone who has been ordained for 44 years, God and people have tested my patience many times.  What have I regretted since I was ordained in 1980?  Those times when I impatiently rushed in where angels feared to tred.  I have a pioneering anointing. It is deep in those who formed the Anglican Mission.

Business entrepreneurs like my late father are vulnerable to this temptation of impatiently doing things in the flesh, in their own wilfulness, of not surrendering their will to the healing Father. My dad so much disliked waiting for elevators that he moved from the second floor to the first floor at the Peninsula senior’s residence. My mother, who really heard from God, often held my dad back from his impatience. She would say ‘Ted, Ted’ in short staccato, and my dad would often calm down and think before acting impatiently. Sometimes Mom would say ‘Oh Ted’ to redirect his impatience. 😉

I was reminded this week that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, ….patience.   True love is willing to wait patiently. True joy is willing to wait joyfully. True peace is willing to wait peacefully. I discover this week that I still need to keep growing in this area.  My belt buckle symbolizes the testing of my patient waiting this week.  While about to doorknock in Langley, my belt buckle disconnected.  I grabbed some red ducktape to temporarily hold my belt together.  There were no belt buckle clothing shops open at 9am near our campaign office on Fraser Highway.  Someone said that there was a Walmart somewhere in Langley.  But I didn’t have time or a real sense of direction. My GPS sent me three miles away from the correct doorknocking destination.  My patience was really being tested. Guess where GPS sent me to:  Walmart where I grabbed a new belt. Thank God for GPS being led by the Holy Spirit, and helping me grow in patient waiting.

Dr Gary Chapman in his book Five Languages of Apology said that the first language is ‘I’m sorry’ which taps into regret.  In my family, we never said that we were sorry until I came to meet Jesus. Self-righteous people very rarely sincerely say that they are sorry. They hardly ever admit that they are wrong.  Is it easy to admit that our righteous acts are like filthy rags?

My impatience at times have caused my relationships to shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind carry me away.  Have you ever noticed that you can’t really control other people? They don’t like it and it doesn’t work. When I impatiently try to fix and control other people, say like my wife, she doesn’t always appreciate it. 😉

Vs. 8  Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Vs. 8 talks about God being a potter. in High School, I took a ceramics course, even creating my own toilet bowl ceramic. Have you ever thought of God as a ceramics coach?  God loves healing cracked pots.  We have a professional Crescent Beach potter in our walking group who sells his pottery every summer in Newfoundland. Were any of your dads into making pottery?  The Fatherhood of God revealed in the Old Testament, and magnified by Jesus in the New Testament, is such good news in the midst of our sinfulness and brokenness. Cracked pots bring the best light.

Vs 9  Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray,  for we are all your people.

Vs. 9 ask God to have amnesia about our sins. How many of you would like God to forget your sins?  In Isaiah 43:25, God says “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”  In Jeremiah 31:34, and quoted in Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17, God says, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” As Corrie Ten Boom put it, God casts our sins into the ocean and then puts up a fishing sign.  That is what the cross accomplishes. Without the cross, there is no lasting forgiveness.  Forgiveness brings healing.

10  Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. 11  Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.

Vs. 10 and 11 speaks about the plight of Jerusalem on Mount Zion. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the Jews were devastated. Everything that they trusted in had been destroyed. Sometimes life can feel like everything is ruined.  Many of us feel that we no longer recognize the Canada that we grew up in.  Everything seems broken. Much of Canada feels like a emotional wasteland with inflation, violent crime and rampant drug usage.  In such difficult times, what do we trust in?  Might Jesus bring healing to our broken land of Canada? As 2 Chronicles 7:14 puts it, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.  Does Canada need healing?

12  After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

Vs. 12 cries out to God to fix us crackpots.  God is worth waiting for. His forgiveness is deeply healing. Can anyone tell us about the health benefits of sin and selfishness? It’s just not good for us in either body, mind or spirit. Turning and returning to our healing Father is always the healthiest thing that we can do

God knows you by name. That is deeply healing.  Jesus remembers you. Jesus will never forget you. You are unforgettable. You are beloved.  He gave everything for you on the cross. He held back nothing for you.  Your healing is in his shed blood on the cross.  He loves you with an everlasting love. He will never change his mind.  Let our hearts come alive together. It is impossible to underestimate the hardness of our hearts, but Jesus can give us hearts of flesh. Do you want a soft heart today? Would you like Jesus to heal your heart?  Let us pray…


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John G. Lake, Father of the Healing Rooms

an article published in the Light Magazine

March 1, 2019 by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird Leave a Comment

John G Lake

What if most of the people in your family died from incurable illnesses? 

Born in St Mary’s in Ontario in 1870, John G. Lake moved with his family to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in 1886. Eight of his siblings died, despite the best care from medical doctors. This family tragedy inspired Lake to seek the healing power of Jesus Christ. 

After Lake was healed in Chicago from a digestive disease, his whole family went from chronic sickness to supernatural health. His invalid brother got up and walked after healing prayer, his hemorrhaging sister was healed, his mother was restored at the brink of death, and his wife was cured from tuberculosis. 

Upon being filled with the Holy Spirit in 1907, Lake said, “My nature became so sensitized that I could lay hands on any man or woman and tell what organ was diseased, and to what extent.” Rev. Audrey Mabley of Eternally Yours TV describes John G. Lake, a fellow Canadian, as the greatest man of faith for healing that perhaps has ever lived.

For the first nine months after being touched by the Holy Spirit, Lake could not look at a tree without it framing itself into a glory poem of praise, “Everything I said was a stream of poetry.”

Anointing in South Africa

Feeling a call from God in 1908, John G. Lake and Thomas Hezmalhalch, with their large families, boarded a ship to South Africa. Being sure that God would provide, they arrived with just the clothes on their backs and not enough money to enter the country. Waiting in line at customs, a stranger gave them enough money to pay their way into the country. The families were unexpectedly greeted in Johannesburg by Mrs. C.L. Goodenough, who offered a furnished cottage for them to stay in. 

The only way that Lake could describe the anointing that fell on him while in South Africa was as ‘liquid fire’ pumping through his veins. Lake believed that the power of God is equal to every emergency. The well-known South African author Andrew Murray commented of Lake, “The man reveals more of God than any other man in Africa.”  Mahatma Gandhi notably said, “Dr. Lake’s teachings will eventually be accepted by the entire world.” 

So many people were healed in South Africa that Lake was brought by Arthur Ingram, the Bishop of London and Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to address a Church of England conference. Bishop Ingram said of Lake’s Triune Salvation talk, “This is the greatest sermon I have ever heard, and I commend its careful study by every priest.” 

Out of this South Africa healing revival was birthed the Apostolic Faith Mission in southern Africa, a movement now numbering 1.2 million people. 

Sadly, on December 22, 1908, while Lake was ministering in the Kalahari Desert, his wife Jenny died from malnutrition and exhaustion. She had been feeding countless poor sick people on her front lawn, while waiting for Lake to return.

The Healing Rooms

Feeling a call to Spokane, Washington, Lake left South Africa, where he settled and  married Florence Switzer, having five more children. In 1915, he began the Spokane Divine Healing Institute, later called the Healing Rooms, training up ‘healing technicians’. His instructions to them were to go to the home of a sick person and not come back until that person was healed. Some might be gone for an hour, some a day, and some for weeks. Lake commented:,“We pray until we are satisfied in our souls that the work is complete. This is where people blunder. They will pray for a day or two, and then they quit.” Having previously been a manager for a life insurance company, his extensive business experience caused many business people to be more open to the gospel. Lake commented: “If there was one thing that I wish I could do for the people of Spokane, it would be to teach them to pray.” In Spokane alone, 100,000 healings had been documented and recorded within just five years. Dr. Ruthlidge, of Washington DC, said that Rev. Lake, through the Healing Rooms, made Spokane the healthiest city in the nation. 

This Spokane Blessing spread back to Lake’s Canadian homeland. A 32-year-old Canadian, William Bernard, had been suffering from curvature of the spine, since being dropped by his nurse at age three. When Bernard said that he had no faith, John G. Lake laughingly said, “I have enough faith for both of us.” After his spine was healed, two physicians certified him as fit for military service. Bernard commented, “I’ve always longed to give my service to my country of Canada.”

Lake fearlessly submitted to a series of experiments at a well-known research clinic where they watched him through x-rays & microscopes in a laboratory context as he successfully prayed for elimination of leg inflammation in a dying man. He called the Healing Rooms the most amazing adventure in the world. The Spokane Better Business Bureau investigated the healings, giving Lake and the Healing Rooms an opportunity to vindicate themselves by presenting numerous local healings with Spokane residents. Most of the cases where people were healed were ones that physicians had pronounced hopeless. One such case involved the healing of a 35-year-old woman from a 30-pound fibroid tumour in her abdomen. The tumour was completely gone after just three minutes of prayer. Lake commented of the Healing Rooms, “The lightnings of Jesus heals men by its flash; sin dissolves, disease flees when the power of God approaches.”

Thanks to Healing Rooms International Director Cal Pierce’s work in Spokane in 1999, there are now 2,961 Healing Rooms in 69 countries around the world. 

According to Tiny Marais, Director for the Greater Vancouver Healing Rooms, the Healing Rooms’ teams at the recent Missions Fest Conference prayed for over 230 people, “We saw the hand of God on everyone we prayed for.” Today, John G. Lake’s life, through the Healing Rooms revival, still impacts millions of lives around the world. 

About Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

Ed & Janice HirdBooks by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God’s Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.


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The Asbury Outpouring from a UK Anglican perspective

A wonderful reflection on the Asbury outpouring from a UK Anglican pastor who recently reflected the Asbury outpouring in Wilmore, Kentucky.


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The Benefits of Self-examination

The Lenten Discipline of self-examination  (Proverbs 27:14-27)

By Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

(part 2 of a 3 part series on Proverbs 27 & 28)

March 12th 2023

Many of us have heard of the recent spontaneous student-led revivals on many college campuses, beginning with Asbury college, Dr E Stanley Jones’ alma mater. Asbury, going back to E Stanley Jones in 1905, keeps having unplanned times of revival decade after decade. The Asbury revival of 1970 helped birth the Jesus movement portrayed in the amazing Jesus Revolution movie. We’ve now seen it three times with various family & friends.

How many of you would welcome an outpouring of revival and renewal in Crescent Beach even during these 40 days of Lent? Because God is sovereign, We cannot make revival happen, but we can prepare our hearts for coming revivals. There are six key Lenten disciplines to help us prepare for revival: prayer, fasting, self-examination, repentance, Bible-reading, and generosity to the poor.  E. Stanley Jones said that there is no freedom without discipline. Many people don’t like the word ‘discipline’. Some people use the alternate term ‘rhythm’ or ‘habit’ or ‘practices’. Either way we need to build these disciplines in our lives to fully prepare to celebrate Jesus’ death & resurrection less than a month from now.

Paul said in Galatians 4 that he was into the pains of childbirth until Christ was fully formed in others. How many of you would like, through self-examination, to have Christ more fully formed in you? Less of you, more of Him.  Sometimes spiritual formation through self-examination can feel overwhelming because it challenges us to move beyond our comfort zone & make changes. It may feel like staring blindly down a dark well. 

Self examination however is a vital Lenten tool in our growth in holiness, what the Bible calls sanctification. How many of us have regular medical, automobile and housing examinations and checkups? How much more important is an annual spiritual checkup & examination during Lent?  As Bishop Peter puts it, Lent is a 40-day journey in the desert. Self examination is a desert discipline.

Some of you may be wondering: What is self examination anyways? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as the study of one’s own behavior and motivations. 

Self-examination is not just what we are doing, thinking, or feeling, but even more importantly why we are doing what we are doing. How many of you came from a family where self examination was practiced and perhaps even taught?

The Greek philosopher Socrates, before being executed, said “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  You may have noticed Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was always going beyond outward behaviour to inwards motivations. Our heart motivations is the heart of the matter. As Proverbs 4:23 says, above all things, guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life. 

Our woke culture tells us to naively trust our heart but the Bible in Jeremiah 17:9 warns that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. 

That is why self-examination is so difficult, because it is so easy to con ourselves. The key here is to be as unbiased and objective about ourselves as possible. This is a tall order. 

So many of us confuse our pseudo-self with our genuine self. The pseudo-self is the imposter, what I call the Hollywood pretend self. Lent is a great time to get real and stop pretending. Lent is about coming out of the darkness, and walking in the light.

Self-examination is about God doing spiritual surgery on us. How many of us want to be put on the operating table during this Lent? When I first served in 1982 as the assistant priest at St Matthew’s Abbotsford, I had an unusual dream where Archdeacon Major wanted me to do brain surgery. I told him, “I had no idea how, but hang on and I will read a book on how to do it.” In prayerfully discerning the meaning of that dream, I realized that I was the patient on the table and God was doing brain surgery on me, renewing my mind. What if we prayed during this Lent, “Rebuke me, O Lord, in your love. I want to change.”?

One of my favorite Psalms 139 in vs. 23-24 invites God to search our hearts and see if there is any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting. It also affirms that we are each wonderfully and fearfully made. Self-examination is not about self-flagellating yourself in a psychological guilt trip.  Self-examination does involve confessing our sins, and faults as in AA’s Step 4 & 5 ‘doing a searching fearless inventory of the exact nature of how we have wronged God and others.”

But it is also about discovering our God-given unique giftedness, strengths, and personality tendencies in Christ. One of the most beautiful thing about one’s spouse is that they are not us. We do not need to apologize for how unique and different that God has made each of us. We are all originals. Don’t try to be a carbon copy of someone else.

What exactly is this self that we are examining? The self in Hinduism is seen as God and therefore sinless. The self in atheistic Buddhism does not exist; it is seen as a mere illusion. (Many people don’t realize that Buddha was an atheist who embraced nothingness.) The self in the Judeo-Christian worldview, however, is made in God’s image and therefore inherently valuable and creative, though broken by sin.

 God, according to Acts 1:24 & 15:8, is the heart-knower. Nothing is hidden from him when he examines us. He counts every hair on our heads. Some of you may know the collect for purity where we pray “Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open and all desires known…” That is why soul-searching is so good for the soul. Getting honest with God during Lent is so liberating. You will feel more whole and healthy inside. It begins with first removing any logs in our eyes, so that we can see clearly.  

During your Lenten self examination, you may want to ask the Lord to show you if you are bearing any grudges.  Dr E Stanley Jones said: “The forgiveness of injuries, the loving of enemies, is the chief characteristic of real Christianity.” Self-examination helps us grow in greater obedience and self-surrender. You might pray: “Lord, I don’t want to forgive that person, but I surrender my bitterness to you.” Our truest self is a surrendered self who is now longer just stuck back in the defeat and rebellion of Romans 7, but who has discovered the Spirit-filled life of Romans 8 and the 2 Corinthians 5:17 identity of being a new creation in Christ Jesus. 

Biblical self-examination as Colossians 3:3 puts it, reveals that we have died. Our new life is now hidden with Christ in God. Rather than being obsessed with self realization, self-actualization, or self fulfillment, Christ is our life, our reason to get up in the morning.  

Proverbs 27 vs. 14 “If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.”

How many of you are early risers? Early risers even prefer to floss their teeth in the morning.  Sometimes they are too noisy before others want to wake up.  I have learned to use headphones in listening to podcasts or music when my wife is still sleeping. Self-awareness and awareness of others helps us not unnecessarily turn our family & neighbours into enemies. I was so clueless when I first got married that I didn’t realize that my wife was not a morning person. Rise and shine, honey! 

15- 16. “A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.”

Perhaps the quarrelsome wife verses are connected to the clueless husband waking her up too early in the morning. Quarrelling marriages and families may feel intergenerationally normal. We lose awareness of how destructive it is. 

17. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Self-examination & self awareness great greatly sharpened through being in a community like All Saints, where iron can sharpen iron. One of the reasons I deeply value being part of All Saints for five years now is that Bishop Peter, with his recovery background, is very gifted in helping people grow in the Lenten spiritual disciplines. 

18. “The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master will be honored.”

Might one say that All Saints is a fig tree and Bishop Peter is a guardian of the galaxy? 😉

19. “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.:

This is a profound self examination verse, taking us to the heart of the matter. The first mirrors ever discovered were likely through people gazing at still lakes. How many times in your life have you looked at yourself? How long have you gone without ever looking at a mirror? God wants us to look at the mirror spiritually, not only but rather especially at Lent. People often use addictions like workaholism to avoid self examination, looking at the mirror.  

Many people secretly hate themselves, so they avoid any self-awareness. They become experts at numbing their consciences and blaming others for any issues in their lives. The blame game always ends badly. Have you noticed? Lamentations 3:40 tells us to examine and test our ways, and return to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 11:26 encourages us to examine our self before we receive communion. You might want to try that this morning. Taking communion glibly without self-examination can actually make us sick or worse. 2nd Corinthians 13:5 challenges us to examine ourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test ourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?”

Dr Gil Stieglitz encourages self-examination through the use of the Ten commandment or the fruit of the Spirit. In your Lenten self-examining, you might to ask yourself how you have been doing lately in honouring your parents, or telling the truth, not coveting.  Dr Gil also trained us in using the seven deadly sins for self examination (Pride, envy, anger, lust, sloth, gluttony, greed). As Christians, we need to regularly self-examine ourselves about the pride of self righteousness, thinking that I am holier than thou.

You probably know that even in prison, there is a pecking order about who is better vs really unforgivable. You might ask yourself how you’re doing in the area of anger and grumpiness. If you are really being brave, seek a rebuke from your spouse by asking them for honest feedback about any of your irritability. You might also ask yourself and others if there is anything that you are slothfully avoiding. Are you perhaps hiding behind excuses, rather than facing responsibility?

In your self-examination, you may wish to ask: where am I being gluttonous, say, with too many video games, too much internet, or too much food? I used to be addicted to sugar, and didn’t think that food would taste good without it. Through my wife’s encouragement, I gave up sugar and am so much healthier because of it.

It can be painful to face the truth about our brokenness. God is not sat all surprised by our brokenness. You will remember what Bishop Peter says about 95% of people being broken. It can be wise to pace ourselves in our Lenten self examination, one day at a time.

Avoid utopian expectations of a quick fix that will immediately solve all your problems, making you perfectly sinless. Growing up in Christ takes time. Have you noticed? The good news is that because of God’s amazing grace, we can trust that God, who knows the worst about us, still loves us anyway. We have deep value as people made in his image, sinners for whom Christ died. Through the new birth, we have become God’s own adopted children. What higher identity could we have than God’s beloved children?

120. “Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.”

This is also a profound look at the potential destructiveness of human restlessness. Our culture is so often never satisfied. What if in our Lenten self-examining, we repented of restless negativity and chose to be thankful rather than complaining?

21. “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.”

As part of the Lenten discipline of self-examination, we need to guard our hearts against being taken out by flattery. Watch out for people who put you on pedestals. As Bishop Peter often says, don’t believe your own press. This by the way is a gentle rebuke from Peter, a wise warning about the dangers of our celebrity-driven culture. Fame is a deceiver. Galatian 6:3 is clear that if anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. By definition, pretending that we are better than other people is not biblical self-examination.

Have you noticed that so much of high school culture is largely pretend culture? That is why only 2% of high school romances survive into adulthood. Just think of those two teenagers Romeo and Juliet. Romans 12:3 encourages us to not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.

Sober self-examination protects us from being placed on a pedestal or thrown into the dumps. Some half-empty cup people like to use self examination to trash themselves listening to the day and night voice of the accuser: “I’m no good; I’ll never do better; I might as well give up. I am unlovable and worthless.” The Holy Spirit convicts but never condemns.

Philippians 1:6 promises that he who had begun a good work in us will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Thank God as Psalm 103:10 puts it that he does not deal with us according to our sins. We can trust the promise of 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Any self examination must stay right there at the foot of the cross.

Thank God for the finished work done on Calvary hill. That is why Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” God does not want us lost in narcissistic self-absorption. Excessive navel-gazing will cause us to slowly sink in psychological quicksand.

E Stanley Jones said that the tyranny of self preoccupation brings an unhappy, disrupted self. Have you ever noticed that the most miserable people always want to talk about themselves. Nothing else interests them.  Self-preoccupation leaves us lonely, isolated, and emotional cut-off from genuine intimacy as God intends for our families & marriages.

Robert Murray McCheyne, the famous Scottish devotionalist, memorably said: “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.” Glance at your self while gazing on the cross.

22. “Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them.”

Fools blindly refuse to examine themselves. Don’t be like them. Husbands, perhaps your wife has a point when she keeps bring up that issue she wants you to look at.

23. “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.”

 I have watched Bishop Peter in my five years so far at All Saints take careful care for the sheep at All Saints. You can imagine that this Herd verse has been an important verse for raising our three Hird sons and now our four Hird grandchildren.

 I will never forget my dear wife Janice Hird asking me how our visiting Hird grandchild was doing. I said ‘great’. She is being very quiet. Yes indeed, they were quietly putting Vaseline on the wall by our front door. The Bible is right: pay careful attention to your herds.;) Self-awareness and herd-awareness go together. Self-identity and family identity are closely connected.

You can see how deeply family wounds shaped the key people in the Jesus Revolution movie: Pastor Chuck Smith’s control needs related to fear of his failure, Lonnie Frisbee’s fear of abandonment and Greg Laurie’s fear that everyone will leave him in the end. 

24-27“for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations. When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in, the lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats with the price of a field.  You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed your family and to nourish your female servants.”

Proverbs 27:14-27 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/pro.27.14-27.NIV

How many of you want to grow in the area of self examination this Lent? Let us pray: