In his book, God and Stephen Hawking (2011), Dr. John Lennox notes a current objection to miracles that says: ‘Now we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible’. To which Dr. Lennox responds: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false’.

Indeed, God’s people understand that ‘the laws of nature’ are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. However, such ‘laws’ don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’.

A wedding in a small, impoverished village. In John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11, we read of a wedding that Jesus and his close followers attended in Cana in Galilee. A critical situation had arisen: the wine had run out. And Mary, Jesus’ mother, who seems to have been involved with the preparations for the wedding, had turned to him and asked him to do something.

At first sight Jesus’ response might seem harsh: “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?…”

However, woman was a customary address at the time. We find other examples of it, when he spoke to a woman at a well in Samaria (John 4:21). It was the form of address he used when he spoke to his mother as he was dying on the cross, putting her in the care of John, the beloved disciple (John 19:26). He also spoke this way with Mary Magdalene in the garden after his resurrection (John 20:15). On no occasion did he address women with harshness or indifference.

Furthermore, his response: “What concern is that to you and to me?…” is a Hebrew idiom. While literally it means, ‘What to me and thee’, we need to consider the context. So, on the lips of the evil-possessed in Mark 1, it means, ‘What have we in common with you?’ (1:24). Here, as one commentator observes, the probable meaning is, ‘Your concern and mine are not the same’.

Jesus was indicating to Mary that he was no longer simply her son but was now about to begin his public ministry when he would be increasingly revealing who he really is and what he had come to do. His response to Mary’s “they have no wine”, would be much more profound and more significant than simply alleviating the pressing need at a wedding.

Yet as the story unfolded his response reveals his compassion and his extraordinary power.

Water jars. In verse 6, John tells us: Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification,… As John’s Gospel was written in the first instance for a Jewish readership, it is fair to say that John, who uses symbolism throughout his writing, wants us to understand the purpose of the water: it was for outward and ceremonial cleansing of people who were physically and spiritually unclean.

The wine. Jesus directed the servants to draw from the water jars and take it to the steward, the wedding master of ceremonies, for tasting. Recognizing the fine quality of the wine he spoke with the bridegroom, complimenting him for leaving the best wine, contrary to custom, until the last.

We are left in no doubt about the quality and superabundance of Jesus’ action. He had provided for a bridegroom in his dilemma – saving him from potential legal action, for at the time the bridegroom was responsible for the cost of the wedding. Jesus also provided a generous wedding gift: the new couple could have sold the balance of the wine to start their new home.

Some critics have responded to Jesus’ action in turning some 120 – 130 gallons of water into wine as a purposeless ‘luxury’ miracle. It’s said this miracle is unlike every other supernatural act of Jesus. On every other occasion he showed God’s concern for those in physical need.

What then do we glean from this remarkable event?

In verse 11 we read: Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in (on) him. None of Jesus’ actions were simply designed to assuage human suffering. Yes, they do reveal God’s compassion, but they also point to the fact that in Jesus the transcendent God has come among us in person. In John’s Gospel Jesus’ extraordinary acts are spoken of as signs revealing his glory.

Furthermore, because this sign is not followed up with John’s usual spiritual discourse, we need to look more carefully at the detail of the narrative. As we observed, in verse 6 John had indicated that the water in the six stone jars was used for the Jewish rites of purification.

Given the direction of John’s narrative to the hour when Jesus said he would be glorified – in his crucifixion – we can say that the water, now turned into wine, symbolized the day when Jesus would generously provide the perfect, once and for all time spiritual cleansing for the sins of an unclean humanity – through his shed blood on the cross.

Significantly, John the Gospel writer tells us that the disciples believed in him. They did not simply believe that he was divinity walking amongst them: they put their trust in him.

Jesus’ turning the water into wine was the first occasion John records when Jesus chose to intervene and act outside ‘the laws of nature’. It was the first of the signs authenticating him as the Word of God, the Son of God incarnate.

Prayer: Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason

In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, leading new atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Richard Dennett and the late Christopher Hitchens challenged the authenticity of religion. In 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald reported Richard Dawkins saying, ‘The time has come for people of reason to say: enough is enough. Religious faith discourages independent thought. It’s divisive and it’s dangerous’.

Indeed, in January 2009, the atheist society in England ran a campaign on London buses: ‘There’s Probably No God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. Similar campaigns were run in Washington, DC in 2008, in Bloomington, IN, and elsewhere. It would seem voices like this contributed to the significant fall in church association over the last two decades.

Yet in recent years, with the cultural changes and values that have emerged, people are experiencing disappointment, depression and loneliness. The new atheism has not offered an agreed morality or real purpose in life. Morality based on human convention has led to an ethical relativism.

Thinking people are now asking if their worldview needs to be reviewed. With this there is a rising interest in the Jesus story and its global influence. Interestingly, Tom Holland in Dominion traces influences of the Jesus story on the West, including the values of right and wrong, justice and compassion.

With the great advances in technology, people feel isolated and sense their lives are going nowhere. They have no substantial grounds for hope. How important it is that we reintroduce the authentic story of Jesus found in the records of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The real story is unknown by the majority of people today – young and old.

So, how might we begin?

In 2002 Phillip Johnson published The Right Questions. Johnson who died in 2019, had been Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley for over three decades. He wrote that at the heart of the cultural changes today is the sharp divergence between two very different world views: ‘the Christian view that states, as in John chapter 1, verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word…”; and scientific materialism which says, “In the beginning were the particles”’ (p.136).

In an earlier chapter, he had observed that “In the beginning was the Word” is dismissed as a ‘non-cognitive utterance of religion’ and therefore one that cannot be evaluated in terms of ‘true or false’ (p.63). On the other hand, he also draws attention to an unquestioned assumption that stands behind scientific naturalism, namely that ‘the laws and the particles existed, and that these two things plus chance had to do all the creating’ (p.64).

In this context Johnson pointed out that everyone needs to ask ‘the right questions’ – especially with respect to the assumptions that stand behind scientific materialism. For example, he draws attention to President Clinton’s announcement in June 2000 with the breakthrough in understanding the human genome: “Today, we are learning the language in which God created life, we are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift” (p.37). And Francis Collins, the scientific director of the government’s Human Genome Project, said: “It is humbling for me and awe-inspiring to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our instruction book, previously known only to God” (p.38).

Johnson commented that both statements ‘seem to say that the genome research actually supports the view that a supernatural mind designed the instructions that guide the immensely complex biochemical processes of life’. He also noted the negative implications, namely that ‘Clinton and Collins seemed to be repudiating the central claim of evolutionary naturalism, which is that exclusively natural causes like chance and physical law produced all the features of life…’ (p.38). Yet he also noted that most leading biologists reject the notion of God and God’s involvement.

But can the clear statements of the opening lines of John’s Gospel be easily dismissed as a prop for those who need such a foundation for life? In the beginning was the Word, we read, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God… And in John 1:14 we learn, And the Word became flesh and lived among us,…

In his prologue John speaks of the pre-existence of the Word of God. From all eternity the Word has been enthroned in the magnificence of the glory of heaven. But John also speaks of the incarnation of the Word: he is a Person who took up residence with us. John was either spinning a falsehood or witnessing to a truth that is beyond human invention. The Gospel of John together with the other three Gospels reveal a transcendent figure.

Dr Edwin Judge, esteemed emeritus professor of history and philosophy, Macquarie University observed: ‘An ancient historian has no problem seeing the phenomenon of Jesus as an historical one. … The writings that sprang up about Jesus also reveal to us a movement of thought and an experience of life so unusual that something much more substantial than the imagination is needed to explain it’.

When we ask the right questions, we discern that there are some essential assumptions undergirding scientific or philosophical naturalism that continue to frame the objections to the Christian faith in the corridors of learning and the media – assumptions that cannot be tested and which in themselves require a step of faith. On the other hand, the step of faith in the statement that there is a creator God, is not a blind step. Its essence is grounded in a verifiable historical figure – Jesus.

It is the good news he brings that we need to embrace ourselves and introduce to others around us today. Over the next weeks I will be exploring Jesus’ seven signs we find in John’s Gospel – for they uniquely reveal a central part of the Jesus story: his power and compassion, his divinity and his humanity.

Prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

You might like to listen to The Perfect Wisdom of Our God from Keith and Kristyn Getty.

© John G. Mason

King Lear, one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, tells the story of a king who voluntarily set aside his titles and property in favor of two of his three daughters, only to find himself reduced to poverty and homelessness because they reject him.

“Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,” King Lear sighs. “How sharper than the serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”

While some parents might identify with these sentiments let me ask, how often do we express our gratitude to the LORD? He is so good to us, far beyond our imagining. Do we thank him daily for his countless mercies?

The opening lines of Psalm 95 read: O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.

Singing is a great way to express our love for God. We sing when we are happy and there is joy in our hearts. Have you ever heard the singing of the Welsh Rugby Union supporters? They can’t stop, and their singing is enthusiastic – especially when they’re winning.

The opening lines of Psalm 95 are the words of people who know God as their creator and savior. We feel the repetition of the verbs: sing, make a joyful noise,… How different this is from times when we drift into church late, pre-occupied and apathetic.

Furthermore, Psalm 95 suggests that singing is not just a matter of joy in the LORD. We also exhort and encourage one another. And so our songs need to be strong on Bible and not insipid and sentimental. Our songs are not intended simply to arouse some spiritual ecstasy: they are instruments of instruction.

And as the psalm unfolds we see why we should sing: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also… (Psalm 95:3-4).

One of the distinct features of biblically grounded Christianity is the insistence that there is a living, personal God at the heart of the universe. God not only created all that there is: he also continues to sustain it.

Significantly, the more scientists discover, the more extraordinary the universe seems. There are chemists and physicists who tell us what the Scriptures reveal: the universe has not come into existence by chance, but rather is the work of God’s design and purpose.

Consider the personal pronouns in verses 4 and 5: In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it; for his hands formed the dry land. These are personal images.

The word hands speaks of a God who is not some robotic brain behind the universe. When we plumb the depths of the cosmos we find not so much a mathematical equation or scientific formula, but a divine personality.

All this tells us something else – God sustains and directs all things. It’s important to know this and remind one another of it, for it helps us make sense of our lives. We see that we’re not just part of a meaningless journey going nowhere.

The New Testament gives us all the more reason to see how true this is. In his public ministry Jesus showed that he has divine authority and divine power. At a word and in a moment he healed the sick, raised the dead, and stilled a storm. The New Testament speaks of Jesus as God incarnate who holds all things in his hands.

It’s sometimes said that people who go to church leave their brains at the door. But worship of God is not a mindless activity. Songs of praise are not simply a strategy to create the right psychological atmosphere. Vital faith in the LORD always awakens joyful singing because there are sound reasons for this response of thanksgiving.

And there is another great reason for singing to the LORD. Our lives have a purpose, a goal. And that purpose and that goal are bound up with knowing this God who is our refuge. No wonder Psalm 95 insists that we make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

But in verses 7 and 8 the Psalm brings a solemn warning: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness …

At the very point when we might want to dance and shout, the psalm takes a solemn turn. God himself now speaks asking us if we are really listening to him! Our actions might seem worshipful but our real self remains unchanged towards God.

Meribah and Massah marked places at the beginning and end of the wilderness journey, when God’s people Israel forgot his goodness in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. On both occasions the people doubted God’s promise and his power. When the going got tough in the desert, they faltered and bitterly complained. ‘We were better off as slaves in Egypt,’ they said.

The Letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 in chapters 3 and 4. The writer knows how easy it is to forget God’s extraordinary love and goodness. It’s true even for people who have been bought and bound to God through the perfect sacrifice offered by the Lord Jesus Christ. For it was through the obedience of Jesus Christ that God implemented a masterstroke when he satisfied in full all his righteous requirements for a fallen world, thus opening up a new and perfect way into his presence for all who repent and believe the gospel. As Hebrews observes, Christ offers much more than the temporary rest Joshua offered. Christ offers a rest that is timeless and filled with true joy (Hebrews 4:8-10).

Psalm 95 exhorts us to sing to Lord with joy in our hearts. It also warns us against turning our back on the salvation he has won for us. We who live on the other side of Jesus’ death and resurrection, express our joy in him and trust his promises. Having grasped his great gift with thanksgiving, let’s not turn away.

Thanksgiving. How often do you think about God’s mercy with thanksgiving in your heart and a song of praise on your lips – not only when you go to church, but also when you rise in the morning and go to bed at night?

Prayer. God our Father, whose will is to bring all things to order and unity in our Lord Jesus Christ; grant that all the peoples of the world, now divided and torn apart by sin, may be brought together in his kingdom of love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Raise up your great power, Lord, and come among us to save us; so that, although through our sins we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your plentiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the sufficiency of your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

You may like to listen to the Keith and Kristyn Getty song, Speak, O Lord as We Come to You.

© John G. Mason

In a world where there is so much uncertainty and tumult we need wise, cool and clear minds amongst God’s people, and prayer for leaders. Let me take the second point first.

Prayer for Leaders. In his First Letter to Timothy, chapter 2, Paul the Apostle writes: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

Paul expects that God’s people will regularly pray for all people, including those in positions of authority. He has in mind leaders at every level of government.

Something we often forget is that for the first three hundred or so years after the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, his followers were regularly persecuted under Roman rule. The Roman historian Tacitus, for example, records that the Emperor Nero used Christians as scapegoats for a devastating fire in Rome (Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome XV.44).

In Paul’s day God’s people had every reason to hate the state, yet Romans chapter 13 and First Peter chapter 2 call us to respect the civil authorities for what they are: God’s provision for the good order and protection of society in a fallen world.

Through the ages God’s people are called to pray for leaders. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer reflected this in his prayer book during the reign of King Edward VI. In an update of the 1552 Service of The Lord’s Supper we pray:

‘Almighty and ever-living God, we are taught by your holy Word to offer prayers and supplications and to give thanks for all people… We pray that you will lead the nations of the world into the way of righteousness; and so guide and direct their leaders, especially N, our (King/President/Prime Minister), that your people may enjoy the blessings of freedom and peace. Grant that our leaders may impartially administer justice, uphold integrity and truth, restrain wickedness and vice, and maintain true religion…’

Cool, Clear Minds. The Book of Psalms provides a constant reminder of the ups-and-downs of life that we experience. We are constantly reminded that the wisdom and strength we need are found in the Lord God.

For example, the opening lines of Psalm 46 read: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:1-3).

Psalm 46 encourages us that God is the sovereign lord over every aspect of life – over nature in the opening verses and, as it continues, over enemies of God’s people and over the world with all its tensions and conflicts. Written in a time of crisis, the confident faith in the Lord’s ultimate control is most encouraging.

Furthermore, while we might fear the instability in nature and are concerned with the tensions and conflicts of the world and the all-too-often lack of quality leadership needed to promote justice and peace, we can be assured that God not only knows what is happening, but is in the midst working out his greater purposes: The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;… But we are assured of God’s final word: he utters his voice, in judgment on the nations.

It’s clear that the Bible knows about suffering and evil, especially human evil and its devastating effects on the world. We see that God’s presence is neither disconnected nor dislocated from such evils.  Rather, in speaking of God being in the midst of them, the psalm tells us that he is not the cause of evil, and neither is he removed from it.

In verse 4 we read: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God….  Under God the waters no longer rage but are found as life-giving streams for his people under siege.

The reference to the city of God, Jerusalem, takes up a significant theme of the Old Testament that accompanies God’s unexpected choice of David. In the Old Testament Jerusalem survives as long as God is in her midst, protecting her and her people. Indeed, because the city represented God’s presence in the world, it became the envy of others.

As Psalm 68 metaphorically observes: O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan! Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode,… (68:15f). Mount Zion is the size of a hill in comparison with the heights of Mount Bashan.

Furthermore, the prophet Isaiah points to a time when Jerusalem will be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it (Isaiah 2:2). The New Testament speaks of the new Jerusalem, not as an earthly city but as a heavenly city where God will live with his people – where there will be peace and joy forever (Revelation 21:1-3).

It is not surprising then that the Psalm moves to a climax with a command, Be still, and know that I am God (verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people, but rather God’s word to the turbulent seas and rebellious world. It is a command that foreshadows Jesus’ words to the stormy seas: ‘Peace! Be still (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority of Jesus when he commanded the deceased Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ (John 11:43).

Verse 10 continues: God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth.

If such a God is with us, we can have every confidence that when we turn to him he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times, God is our refuge and strength.

As the Psalm concludes: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Prayer. Almighty Father, we commend to your goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You might like to listen to The Perfect Wisdom of Our God from Keith and Kristyn Getty.

© John G. Mason

In April 2017, The Spectator (UK) carried an article by Douglas Murray who asked, ‘Who Will Protect Nigeria’s Northern Christians?’ Murray pointed out that the Fulani (militia) are watching everything closely from the surrounding mountains. Every week, their progress across the northern states of Plateau and Kaduna continues. Every week, more massacres – another village burned, its church razed, its inhabitants slaughtered, raped or chased away…

‘For the outside world, what is happening to the Christians of northern Nigeria is both beyond our imagination and beneath our interest… Villages have been persuaded to keep records of the attacks to show anyone who cares. One of the very few from outside who does – Britain’s own Baroness Cox – came here recently. Her vehicle was spotted by the Fulani, who came out hunting for her and only just missed their target. Because of attacks like this, almost nobody comes. Just one more reason why these atrocities do not attract the West’s attentions…’

Murray was writing of the region where three years before (2014) the Boko Haran had abducted two hundred and seventy-six schoolgirls. A report in April this year (2024) indicted that ninety-one are still missing. Murray commented in 2017: ‘If the international community meant anything by its promises such as the UN’s ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine, then what is happening could not go on. But the international community is uninterested…’

Atrocities like this cause our hearts to cry out with the repeated words of Psalm 13, How long, O Lord…?

Indeed, over the years one of the questions that constantly arises is how to respond to the carping criticism against Christianity about suffering in the world. It’s an important question. Yet it is also one of the toughest to answer for anyone who believes that God not only exists but is also all-powerful and all-compassionate.

Our sense of right and wrong and our cry for justice suggests we live in a moral universe.

If we lived in a world that had come into existence simply through a process of spontaneous change, logically we would be nothing but particles, bumping around in some sort of meaningful connection. Our conscious state would be nothing more than electrical discharges in the human brain.

Indeed, when we think about it, it’s difficult to be morally indignant about behavior that results from quarks smashing together. The issues of evil and suffering and the cry for justice are irrelevant if our existence is simply the product of an evolutionary framework.

Is this a reason for the international and media silence about the plight of suffering in Northern Nigeria and elsewhere? Yet the reality is that most of us have a sense of justice, often ill-defined, but nevertheless it is there.

Difficult though the subject of suffering is for anyone who believes in God, the Bible assures us that our cry for justice is right. It is right to condemn all wicked violence, the taking of innocent life. The Bible condemns the perpetrators of such deeds. Indeed, the Bible helps us to know evil when we see it.

So will justice ever occur? If we agree that we live in a moral universe, the picture the Bible paints makes a lot of sense and is very satisfying. Winston Churchill once observed that there had to be a hell, to bring the likes of Lenin and Trotsky and Hitler to justice. The good news is that one day God will call everyone to account.

But there is a sting in the tail. If we want justice to be done to others, we must agree that we too need to be brought to account. Yes, we long for justice and vindication, but we too are guilty before a good God.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn observed: ‘If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?’

So, why doesn’t God step in now? The Bible’s answer is that God stays his hand for the present because he wants to give all men and women, like the Prodigal Son in Jesus’ parable, the opportunity to turn to him in repentance. The good news is that God will pardon and deliver us when we turn to Jesus Christ. His judgment may be slow as we count time, but it is very sure as we read in the Second Letter of Peter, chapter 3 (2 Peter 3:9-13).

In the concluding verses of Psalm 13, we see the energy of David’s faith as he presses on in the Lord: But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt wonderfully with me (13:5-6).

We now have a far greater understanding of God’s love than David, for we live of the other side of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus came between God’s good creation ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. In Revelation, chapter 21 we read: God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Does this mean we do nothing about the atrocities perpetrated against God’s people now? We have this responsibility – to pray for our suffering brothers and sisters, to find ways of letting them know of our awareness and even to find ways of providing support. And, as we are able, to let others, including leaders, know of the plight of the persecuted peoples. As Edmund Burke, 17th century English philosopher and statesman remarked: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (men and women) to do nothing.

Prayer. God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and divided world. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war; so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one family and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Raise up your great power, Lord, and come among us to save us; so that, although through our sins we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your plentiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the sufficiency of your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

You may like to listen to He Will Hold Me Fast from Keith and Kristyn Getty.

© John G. Mason