THE UK: BEHOLD! I'M DOING A NEW THING.
"Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
Isaiah 43:19
I spent 2 weeks in Europe this spring, traipsing house to house on trains, cars, and our own two feet. A quick survey of the land - the sweeping landscapes, fields of sheep, and ancient stone structures whispering thousands of years of history.
The U.K. is a nation so deeply divided. The influx of immigrants and different religions has felt overwhelming to some in the church as the tide of the government shifts towards a post-Christian brutality. In the midst of a mass exodus from England - many of the nation's most affluent are fleeing to the U.S. and Canada - and a shaking of a nation deeply inbred and embedded in the land for centuries - what if the chaos is an opportunity?
This verse in Isaiah continued to surface everywhere we went - on the wall in friend's homes, on church walls...
Behold, I'm doing a new thing.
For the church in the U.K., even in the midst of the shaking, a new thing is happening. In the midst of the the same tides of immigrants and refugees bringing Islam and oppression is a hungry generation who are experiencing the first opportunity in hundreds of generations to hear the name of Jesus. The relocated, persecuted African church has quite literally reversed the plummet of Christianity within Europe.
And the native body of Christ, though weathered and deeply shaken by secularism and compromise - I saw her clinging. I saw a remnant of the Church digging deep for hope. I saw them rooting themselves within the Biblical promise that Jesus can and will restore everything that seemed lost. The purity, innocence, wisdom, and wonder of the British people can and will be renewed once again by the blood of Christ.
The U.K. carries centuries of history of revival and reformation. Our greatest hymns, the wildest preachers and revivalists like Whitfield and Wesleys, the greatest reformers like Wilberforce, found their origin in these rolling hills and smoky alleyways of London.
What if this story isn't over. What if it has just begun?
What if another revival is around the corner - a revival flowing from this land yet again, with still greater global impact.
If the U.K. taught me anything, it's that despite the stinging reality of the grip of sin and death on this earth, the reality of the gospel demands us to live in the Truth that the Lord is the reigning King. And in this kingdom, the King is always regenerating, redeeming, and renewing.
Don't you see it? It springs up!
The cross has made a way in every wilderness.
The resurrection has made a way for a river in every desert.
There are no dead ends, no "give ups" in this Kingdom. With repentance, humility, and our submission to Christ...
Just new things.
