The Hope you need

     The tension between what we see with our eyes and God’s promises to us are one of the big tests in being a Christian. Andy Wood brought that out as he preaches on Lazarus’ resurrection from the grave. It all looked over, Lazarus was dead, but Jesus had said he will rise again, so Martha and Mary were in this tension- Jesus’ promise of resurrection and the current reality of death. God will bring us to that place of tension at different times in our lives. 

I’m in that tension right now. In the summer of 2024 some of us started a street café outreach on Holyrood road in the centre of Edinburgh. Offering free tea and coffee and talking about Jesus to those who seemed open. We were located on the pavement and behind us there was an empty church building, all boarded up. I kept on looking at that building and I realised it had been empty for a long time. It was called the Old Kirk and I discovered it was owned by Edinburgh University. I’ve talked about this building before, hopefully most of you remember. I kept on having a sense that the Lord was going to give us the use of the building. It was I suppose a feeling. I had a picture in worship once of the building being used as a place of praise and worship one day. Some of us prayed several times next to the building and Pearl had a vision of light pouring out of the building. Lora Beth, the prophetess from America came last year and she felt the building would be like a Garden of Eden, a place of growth and life. Others saw us in the building. The Lord gave prophecies to us, promises. 

Here is a photograph of the building.

And here is a look inside. This is the first floor with the skylights above. It’s a big space!

It looks drab, boarded up and derelict. 

Dead and buried you could say.

And yet God had said, I believe, that He will give it to us to use for worship and outreach and it will be a place of life.

All through the first half of 2025 I was contacting the Estates Department of the University asking about the building, asking to use it. There was little response. Until, I approached Peter Mathieson who is the principal and he said ‘great idea, let us show you around.’ Some of us were shown round the building twice last autumn. Everything seemed to be lining up. It seemed to be on its way.

But then I started getting word that people in the Estates Department weren’t happy. In February they asked for a meeting, so I went with an architect, David Hewitt and the two of us had a meeting with four reps from the University Estates Department and they said ‘sorry- we can’t allow you to use the building, there is too much mould and dry rot in it, health and safety rules don’t allow us to let you have it.’

So that’s the situation. I wanted to tell you, because we have prayed for it. But is that the end? Well we are in that tension between what God had promised on the one hand and what our eyes and ears and logic tell us on the other hand. God has said one thing, but it looks dead, not possible.

Jesus said facing the impossible situation of his dead and buried friend ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God.’ The glory of God is revealed in him doing something impossible, in a resurrection. But the glory of God, the resurrection is only possible when people believe. If you believe, you will see the glory of God. 

I’m still believing for that building and I want to encourage you to keep believing and praying also. I’m believing for God to move and for him to give us the building and then for great light and life to come into the building. I’m believing for it. God has promised and He cannot lie.

The Bible tells us and my own experience backs it up, that God moves in a different time frame to our time frame. Abraham and Sarah had to wait a long time for God’s promised child- Isaac. This church had to wait 7 years for the prophecy of an instant noodle harvest to come to pass- 2014 to 2021. But God did it in his time. After a lot of waiting! 

So I would encourage you to believe with me for this building, the Old Kirk on Holyrood Road. That God would open the grave so to speak and put new life into it. 

And maybe you have promises that you are still waiting for. God is faithful, he always keeps his promises, in his time.

Lets pray.