Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Voice in the Wilderness: God's Presence in Your Desert Places
    A Voice in the Wilderness: God's Presence in Your Desert Places
    A Voice in the Wilderness: God's Presence in Your Desert Places
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    A Voice in the Wilderness: God's Presence in Your Desert Places

    By Charles H. Dyer

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    'The Bible is not a sterile Book immaculately conceived in some sort of mystical, holy vacuum. Though God is the ultimate Author, He used human writers as His instruments. And to interpret properly His Word we must enter their world. The bleating of sheep on barren hills, the mournful wail of a ram's horn trumpet on the temple steps, the harsh clang of sword hitting sword in epic battle hang like tapestries in the background of every page.' - Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness. Life's struggles can make us feel as if we're wandering in the desert, thirsty for hope and healing. Using Isaiah 40 as a backdrop, best-selling author Charles Dyer takes us on a journey through ancient Judea for a vivid reminder that others before us have known suffering - and, just as God was present for them in their pain, He will walk with us through our wilderness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMoody Publishers
    Release dateAug 1, 2004
    ISBN9781575678573
    A Voice in the Wilderness: God's Presence in Your Desert Places
    Author

    Charles H. Dyer

    CHARLES DYER (B.A., Washington Bible College; Th.M. and Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary) served for ten years as provost of Moody Bible Institute before becoming professor-at-large of Bible and host of The Land and the Book radio program. He is the author of numerous books, including A Voice in the Wilderness, What's Next?, The Rise of Babylon, and The New Christian Traveler's Guide to the Holy Land. His most recent book is Character Counts: The Power of Personal Integrity.

    Read more from Charles H. Dyer

    Related to A Voice in the Wilderness

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Prayer Consists of Attention: On Reading as a Spiritual Practice

      May 9, 2022

      I realized that all words, even those contained in secular literature, have the potential to become prayers. The post Prayer Consists of Attention: On Reading as a Spiritual Practice appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Man of Science, Man of Faith

      Sep 22, 2017

      Man of Science, Man of Faith
      14 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Apr 5, 2024

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      10 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Iľja Rákoš

      Dec 23, 2020

      I’d been out of the hospital following (let’s call it) treatment for COVID-19 about a month. My hospital ward of 50 patients had one oxygen concentrator. Despite my blood-oxygen saturation levels of 90%, that device wasn’t coming my way anytime soon.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Nov 27, 2020

      I I believe b that we are living in the end times as we read about in all the books of the Gospel and listen to what Jesus had said. He warned of pestilences and famines. I believe that Covid-19 is one of the pestilences, as well as all the locusts t

      7 min read

    • Article

      Absolute Mystery

      Sep 22, 2017

      I HEAR THE WORD, of course. I go to Mass some Sundays, listen to Al Green’s Greatest Gospel Hits, and have lived in or near the Bible Belt for the better part of the past decade. Even still, the word God has never quite fitted itself to my ears. And

      7 min read

    • Article

      Talking in Tongues

      Mar 22, 2019

      Talking in Tongues
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tales Of A Country Parish: From The Vicar Of Savernake Forest

      Feb 9, 2022

      Short Books £12.99 Many of us, during the darkest days of the pandemic when churches were locked, clung to a regular online holy event to guide us through the grimness. We weren’t just watching the streamed Sunday service from the local vicarage’s ki

      2 min read

    • Article

      An Apex of Babble

      Mar 6, 2019

      An Apex of Babble
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Other Bibles

      Feb 27, 2024

      The Other Bibles
      12 min read

    • Article

      Q&A Elaine Pagels

      May 23, 2019

      Q&A Elaine Pagels
      5 min read

    • Article

      Surviving YOUR WILDERNESS

      Oct 21, 2019

      “ If you’re going through hell, keep going!” So said Winston Churchillduring one of the worst crises in world history. And these words of wisdom still apply to anyone passing through a trial today. Maybe you are passing through a difficult season i

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Hope Restores in Every Situation

      Jan 1, 2021

      Every one of us goes through dark valleys and troubled times. But in Christ Jesus we have hope. And hope restores in every situation—no matter how dark it may seem. To say the last year has been challenging would be an understatement for most of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ask The Teachers

      Sep 20, 2023

      ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX is the abbot and head teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her most recent book is Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet, which explores how we can face the challenges of ou

      6 min read

    • Article

      My Pastor Saved Me From Suicide

      Nov 5, 2018

      Today’s contributor shares how the spiritual, healing ideas in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook freed her from despair and the temptation to commit suicide.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Idolatry

      Sep 1, 2022

      My grandfather Dave Pinsky’s disregard for the practice of Judaism as a religion was so calm and perfect that he didn’t seem to express his feelings about piety and rabbi-craft except implicitly, by living his profane life. Without warning, Zaydee Po

      14 min read

    • Article

      TELL ME A Story

      Mar 31, 2023

      TELL ME A Story
      21 min read

    • Article

      Reader Testimony

      Dec 31, 2021

      For as long as I can remember, I have had so-called symptoms of Bi-Polar mood disorder. I can also claim symptoms of PTSD. At risk of giving anything not of God any kind of recognition or sense of pride in itself, I hesitate to write too much about t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Poem Of The Week: Upon Wedlock, And The Death Of Children By Edward Taylor

      Jun 20, 2022

      Upon Wedlock, and the Death of Children A Curious Knot God made in Paradise,And drew it out inamled neatly Fresh.It was the True-Love Knot, more sweet than spiceAnd set with all the flowres of Graces dress.Its Weddens Knot, that ne’re can be unti’de.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Word Search

      Jul 22, 2022

      Word Search
      2 min read

    • Article

      Whale Of A Poem

      Jun 14, 2021

      Whale Of A Poem
      3 min read

    • Article

      Sing Out Loud!

      Oct 18, 2019

      For one woman, a chickadee’s joyful song inspired a fresh view of our ability to let God’s goodness and joy shine in our lives – a lesson that brought about a quick healing of illness shortly after.

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Voice in the Wilderness

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Voice in the Wilderness - Charles H. Dyer

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is Britain’s equivalent of Grandma’s attic. The building houses a hodgepodge of odds and ends collected by Queen Victoria and her husband when they ruled an empire that circled the globe. Massive hand-carved chairs sit next to delicate pieces of porcelain. Graceful statues stare out at grotesque wax carvings of graves and ghosts. The outlandish mix of art and artifacts gives the entire museum a quirky, Dr. Seuss-like quality.

      Wedged among the thousands of gifts is an unusual plaque that originally hung in a church in London. The plaque, with its ornate carving, is displayed in the sculpture wing of the museum because it was sculpted by John Bacon the Younger. Few stop to look at the plaque. Even less take the time to decipher its Old English script, with its s’s written like f’s. But those who do read it discover a poignant tale of sorrow and love.

      The benefactor commissioned the plaque and had it placed in the chapel to memorialize her sister, Anna Cecilia Rhodes. Anna was born in 1764 and died in 1796 at the age of thirty-two. A life cut short by death is indeed sad. But the last half of Anna’s short life was marred by personal pain. When she was just seventeen, this beautiful young woman contracted smallpox. And quoting from the plaque, the disease stripped off all the bloom of youthful beauty. Her loss of physical beauty was followed by a dreadful nervous disorder that withered those fair prospects of earthly happiness.

      Physical deformity. Emotional heartache. A life cut short by death. One senses the suffering and sadness that seemed to squeeze this young woman in its viselike grip. Where does someone go for answers when life punches them in the gut, knocking them to their knees? Amid the ashes of personal tragedy, how can an individual rediscover meaning and purpose for life?

      We have no direct answer from Anna, but her sister opened her heart in a closing poem to share her source of comfort and hope. Anna’s sister, in spite of her tears, found inner strength through her knowledge of the nature and character of God. Read—and reflect—on the words she had carved into the bottom of the plaque:

      Alas! how vain are feeble Words to tell

      What once she was, and why I lov’d so well;

              None else but he who form’d the Heart can know

              How great her Worth, or how extreme my Woe!

             Blest Calv’ry, on thy crimson Top I see,

           Suff’rings and Death, with Life and Love agree;

      Justice severe and smiling Mercy join,

      And thro’ the Gloom we see the Glory shine.

      Whatever your burden, whatever your discouragement, whatever your loss, God stands ready to comfort you in your greatest hour of need. He who form’d the Heart does indeed know—deeply and intimately—your personal struggles and pain. My prayer is that this book will take you on a journey of comfort and hope so that thro’ the Gloom you may be able to see the Glory shine.

      I can trace the beginning of this book back to a personal wilderness experience about ten years ago. My dad had to enter a hospital for heart bypass surgery, and I flew home to Pennsylvania to be with my mom. The surgery was successful, but his recovery did not go as well as planned. For several days Mom and I sat in the waiting room while Dad struggled to recover. Between the short visits in the intensive care unit (ICU), we had a lot of time to sit … and think.

      Those were difficult days, but I discovered two anchors that kept me from being tossed about spiritually and emotionally. The first was God’s Word, especially the comfort I received from Isaiah 40. God’s promises were tested, and they were found to be true. I had always appreciated Isaiah 40, but during those troubling times it became God’s personal message of hope for me.

      The second anchor was the encouragement of God’s people. The pastor from my parents’ church, along with a number of other friends and neighbors, stopped by to talk and pray. And they were a great encouragement. Their visits were not long, but they were long remembered.

      At the time of Dad’s surgery I was working at Dallas Theological Seminary under President Chuck Swindoll. I say that to help explain two other significant events God used to encourage me during this time. The first happened during one of our early visits to ICU following surgery. As we walked past the nurses’ station, a nurse called out to me, Oh, your doctor in Dallas called to check up on your dad!

      I had no idea what physician from Dallas even knew I was in Pennsylvania, so I asked the nurse, What was his name?

      Oh, she said, it was a Doctor Swindoll.

      That brought a needed smile to our faces!

      Then, when Dad finally recovered enough to leave ICU, I returned to Dallas. When I got back to my office at the seminary, I found a note on my desk. It was a simple note from Chuck, written in his own distinctive handwriting. His short message overwhelmed me with its love and concern. That note, in its tattered envelope, remains one of my most cherished possessions.

      My Dear Friend:

      You have been through a long and lonely journey these past several days. I understand. I’ve been there with my dad.

      So many, many times you have come to my mind. Each time I’ve sent a word upward … and sensed the reassurance that Our God is in the heavens … He has done what pleases Him.

      We’re all grateful your father is enjoying such a remarkable recovery. What a great feeling is relief! With a smile that says, Welcome back.

      Chuck

      God’s Word … and the comforting words of God’s people. Together they link arms to support us through life’s struggles. The goal of this book is to bring these two elements together in a way that will comfort and encourage you. Much of the book will focus on Isaiah 40, that grand message of comfort that meant so much to me in my time of need.

      But as you read through the pages of this book, you will also meet other pilgrims who have traversed that

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1