[0:00] My Lord, days that God hath numbered, I was made to walk with Him.
[0:24] Yet I look for worldly treasure and for sin, the King of kings. But mine is open, my Redeemer, though I fall, His love is sure. For Christ has paid for every failing, I am His forevermore.
[0:55] Hi, this is the pastoral video number 10 on Friday the 22nd of May. As you can see, I'm outside, not in St. Columbus. I'm actually in the castle of Esplanade. I just wanted us to do a little bit of a tour today and see the city, how empty it is, how empty the Esplanade is, how empty the streets are.
[1:16] There are no cars, no tourists, it's kind of weird, but it's kind of good. This is my city, this is Edinburgh. The emptiness we see around us in the city is like a spiritual picture of the emptiness of people without Jesus Christ in their lives, without that life and energy that He gives.
[1:37] Because there are 500,000 people in the city and less than 5% of them go to any church whatsoever. And we long to see the life of Jesus Christ and the gospel and the message of Christ transform people's lives and fill their hearts with energy and life and fill our churches with living communities.
[1:58] And it's important to be reminded that God's kingdom is progressing and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So now we're going to go for a little walk to the core of my own.
[2:37] Hi, so here we've come now to the quarter mile, one of my favourite parts of the city. The old Royal Infirmary is being renovated and has been being renovated for the last 18 years or so.
[3:05] I think Ross was one of the last babies to be born in the Simpson. So I've followed the development of quarter mile with great interest over these years, but now it's stopped.
[3:16] There's nothing happening, there's no builders at work. But it does remind us that the kingdom of God is also a renovation work, is a transformational work, and He's bringing life to people at this time.
[3:31] And He isn't stopped, and God hasn't stopped His work because of lockdown, and He hasn't been furloughed, and He isn't surprised by these events. His kingdom is still coming. We are still asked to remember that He is working in our hearts and in our lives, and please use this time and pray that this will be a time that challenges people to think about eternity and to think about their need for Jesus.
[3:57] All the people we've been praying for, the people we love, the people we believe are in the city who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, would come in as a result of these days of lockdown. And our churches will be full of life, and that we will be renewed ourselves. Thanks.