“1 all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.“NIV

I confess, I look at this verse with not a little sadness, as well as longing. I miss the days when we could assemble in this way. (But let’s be honest, we often took it for granted, did we not?).

I am grateful, of course, that we can still gather as one on-line, and I commend you for the loving, caring unity you have continued to display throughout this long and difficult season. It’s wonderful to see.

The undeniable (and indestructible) truth is that we are ‘’one’’ people in Jesus (Ephesians 2:15) whether or not we can meet in one place.

By the way, I couldn’t help but think it significant that this great Bible ‘convention’ took place ‘’in the square before the Water Gate.’’ Paul, in Ephesians 5:26, writes about ‘’the washing with water through the word…’’

A friend, who had been a backslider from the faith, and came home to Christ in his 50’s, bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t remember as much of the Bible as he wanted to. He read it greedily, but couldn’t retain it. ‘But I suppose it’s like water going through a sieve,’ he said. ‘It cleanses as it goes.’

PRAYER: Lord, may your Word continue to have its cleansing effect in our lives, and may we put ourselves repeatedly in ‘the shower’ – in the place where its waters can pour over us.