There are indeed many ways of destroying the ecclesia, and unfortunately, we can truly see the prophecy of Paul coming to pass in these last days. Independent of the pressures from the world around us, all too often the problems we encounter within our ecclesias are inflicted from within.

Every time I read this passage in Psalm 38:17, my mind goes back many years to a still, quiet evening in Germany. I was at Bergen-Belsen, almost by accident, as I was in the area on business with a largely free evening. There, in the peaceful surroundings of rural farmland, I came across those verses, engraved on a white limestone slab from Jerusalem, which had been placed there on the occasion of a visit by Chaim Herzog, at the time the President of Israel.