I don't know about your year but this one has been hard for many of those in Desiring Truth. A year of sickness, attack, opposition, tragedy - a year of hopes seemingly dashed, a year of times when the darkness threatened to become so all-encompassing that the light seemed hard to find.

My heart was heavy this morning thinking through all that I have been hearing in these past few weeks; things happening inside the professing church, things that cause the name of the Lord Jesus to be maligned, things done and said by people who call themselves Christians yet trample the Lord's name underfoot.

I read Numbers 6:24-27 just the other day and was caught by the last verse. I'm sure I have read it many times before but somehow God wanted to show me something else, something new in it

I have just returned from my trip to Israel, full of the joy of the Lord - amazed at His grace and compassion, filled with the wonder of this unchanging, glorious, covenant keeping God and zealous to proclaim His excellence. I learned much - about myself, which was sometimes hard but also so liberating; about Israel, a land and a people with such a passion and purpose and about the Museum of the Bible, a vision so exciting and challenging that it almost takes your breath away in its scope.