Opinions

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?” The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.””
John 9:17 NLT

If we stood in Mr “Blind-no-more’s” shoes today, who would we have thought Jesus was? After all, we would have just been healed of an incurable condition – blindness – by someone smearing mud over our eyes. No hospital, no medics, no puffs of smoke and flashes of light, no lengthy prayers. No fuss, just a simple instruction to go and wash our faces. We would be confused because something like this just doesn’t happen that way. And to our Western sensitivities, the use of saliva being applied to our eyes is even a bit offensive.

So, if we now move our feet into the Pharisees’ shoes, what would we have thought “about this man who healed” the blind man. Here we are, important men who form the religious court of our day, and who are the ones who interpret the Law of Moses and guide the people. We ensure that the people don’t do anything that offends God and that could be construed as sin, bringing even more divine retribution to the nation. So along comes a Man who preaches a message that the only way to God and gaining eternal life was by believing in Him. And to back His message, He accomplishes amazing miraculous works of healing. But here lies our quandary – if we do say that he is from God, then we have to tear up our rule books and become His disciples. If we say He is not from God, then we have to explain how He does these miraculous signs. And we can’t. And to add to the problem, some of our colleagues are starting to believe in Him.

 Mr “Blind-no-more” was asked for his opinion about the man who healed him. If he had come right out and said the Man was Jesus, God’s Son, and the Messiah the Jews were waiting for, then he would experience the wrath of the Pharisees, and might even be stoned. But he couldn’t just let the matter go, because the Pharisees were demanding an answer. So he picked the middle ground and said Jesus was a prophet. A description that wouldn’t cause him any difficulties, or so he hoped. 

Today, if we did a survey and asked people who Jesus was, we would at best receive a response acknowledging that He was a historical figure who founded Christianity. We might occasionally find someone who confessed that Jesus was their Lord and Saviour. And, increasingly, we might find people who just don’t know, or say He was perhaps a Brazilian footballer or some other sportsman with that name. But if we asked ourselves who Jesus was, then, because we believe in Him, a whole new world opens up. In John 10:9, we read on one occasion what Jesus said about Himself, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” We may not have experienced a miraculous healing like Mr “Blind-no-more”, but we do know that it is only by believing in Jesus that we will find the door that leads into the Kingdom of God. We thank God for the miracles that He does, even today. And because we love Jesus, we go out and invite others to enter the door that leads to eternal life. There is only one door. The other world religions haven’t found it, even though they claim otherwise. 

So back to the question – who is this Man? He is Jesus, the Son of God, and it is only by believing in Him that we will find peace for our souls in this life and forever after. 

Dear Father God. Our opinion of You increases more and more as we journey through our life. We never ceased to wonder about Your amazing works. We worship You today. Amen.

“Blind-No-More”

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.”
John 9:13-16 NLT

We don’t know how many Pharisees were present when the man who had been blind was brought before them. We don’t know his name and for centuries he has only been identified by his healing, not by who he really was. In Old Testament times names were often granted to children to mark an occasion or message appropriate to what was happening at the time. In Hosea 1 we read of children being born to Gomer being assigned names as part of Hosea’s prophetic message to his fellow people. Names such as “Not-loved” and “Not-my-people”. In times nearer our own we have seen names granted for a profession, such as “Lamb” for a butcher or “Gardener” for someone who has that job. So perhaps the new name for the man at the centre of this account should be “Blind-no-more”. But whatever we call him, the people, his friends and neighbours, were so confused that they took him to the Pharisees, especially because they were very sensitive to anything that might be construed as working on the Sabbath day. That spitting on the ground and making a little mud ointment should be classed as “work” is perhaps an indication of the hold the Pharisees had over the general population. 

Mr “Blind-no-more” must have been getting fed up with repeatedly having to tell people what had happened to him, even those who had previously heard his account. This act of healing by a Man who preached a message counter to that of the Pharisees had introduced so much confusion amongst them that we are told there was “a deep division of opinion”. 

We pilgrims have read this account of the miraculous healing so many times that we are in danger of becoming desensitised to the wonder of it. This was really a big deal, because someone who was born blind not only lacked functioning eyes but also they lacked that part of the brain that processes the visual images into a form where they could be understood. At an early age a child starts to see the world around him and their brain develops with the need to interpret what they see. And then think about the connection between different parts of the brain – consider what is involved in seeing a ball coming towards us and having the eye/hand co-ordination to catch it. Perhaps healing the blind man’s eyes was only a part of the miracle that happened to him that day. And so we stand in Mr Blind-no-more’s shoes and try and imagine how he felt. John’s account was a dispassionate précis of what had happened, factually correct, but I imagine Mr Blind-no-more was euphoric, excited and rushing around telling everyone what had happened to him. He wasn’t concerned that this had happened on the Sabbath day. Neither was he concerned about what other people were saying about it. As far as he was concerned, “He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!” And so we take a step back, looking on at the scene that was unfolding before us, marvelling at God’s power, grace, compassion and love.

Dear Lord Jesus. We read that this miraculous healing took place so that the power of God could be seen in the blind man. And we indeed give God all the glory for this, and the many other occasions when You Brough healing to a lost and hopeless people. Thank You for Your love and compassion. Amen.

Go and Wash

Posted on by korgrocker

“They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!” “Where is he now?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he replied.“
John 9:10-12 NLT

The events that took place that Sabbath day caused quite a stir in the blind man’s community. It was unheard of for a blind man to receive his sight and the people there wanted an explanation. They knew the man had been blind because, after all, he had been born in that community. He had grown up there, and he now had to survive by abandoning any hope of personal dignity or respect and beg for alms, for money. There was no safety net of state handouts, and people in those days who were unable to work either begged for the money they needed to live on or they died. These poor unfortunate people were not like the beggars we meet on the streets in our towns and cities here in the UK. These were desperate people who cried out for alms as their fellow countrymen walked past. 

The blind man’s life had been turned upside down by his encounter with Jesus. He had to adapt to a whole new way of living, and would now have to work for his livelihood, perhaps labouring in the fields or some other manual task. And his first challenge was to convince those in his community that he was now a different man. The people around him had to adjust as well, because the man no longer blind was a living and walking challenge to their religious complacency. The religion they followed was not powerful enough to heal a blind man, but they had heard about this Man who claimed to be the Son of God and who could heal the sick, the blind and the lame. And this Man said to them that He also had the power to assure them of eternal life if they believed in Him. 

So the people interrogated the man to try and ascertain if there was some trickery going on. “How did He do it?”, they asked. The response was factual and so matter of fact that it must have been true. The man’s testimony has leapt from these pages in John 9 for two thousand years or so, encouraging and challenging all who read them.

The man was healed because he obeyed what Jesus had told him to do. Are we pilgrims equally as obedient. Let me ask a question – what has Jesus told us to do that we haven’t done yet? It may be something lacking the drama of that Sabbath day in Jerusalem, but important nevertheless. The blind man had a choice about obeying Jesus’ command, “go and wash”. And we too have a choice. On our discipleship pilgrimage wen will often come up against boulders that block our way forward. Many will camp there and give up the journey, saying this Christian life is too hard. But us hardy pilgrims reach out to God for His grace and strength to be overcomers. The apostle Paul wrote, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). We have the power within us, to be applied with faith and fortitude. And before us the boulders will turn out to be no more than a pebble on the ground.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your strength and resources. We have not suffered in the way that Paul did on his missionary journeys, but we have challenges nevertheless. We are soldiers of Christ, able to press on His name. Amen.

Eye Contact

Posted on by korgrocker

“He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! His neighbours and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!” But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!” They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?””
John 9:7-10 NLT

A blind person has many disadvantages and amongst them is the lack of ability in making eye contact with someone they are conversing with. For those of us with normal sight, eye contact is something we take for granted, not always appreciating how important it is when we interact with someone. We receive non-verbal feedback, helping us to understand what is being said. Maintaining eye contact demonstrates confidence, giving weight to what we are saying. So often we look into another person’s eyes and it is as though we are looking into their very souls. But a blind person cannot achieve the same results in a conversation unless they learn to compensate in some other way.

Our eyes are a primary source of information, feeding our minds with all that we see. Jesus said, “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is” (Matthew 6:22-23). We need to process all that comes in through our eyes in a healthy way, discerning what is bad for us so that we can filter it out and leave the good. Eyes that focus on sinful images will end up darkening our souls and shutting out the good things we need to focus on.

A blind person in many ways is unable to allow bad things to enter their eye gate. They can’t watch pornography, or movies that are unwholesome. But their lives are the poorer for being unable to see the good things in life. A sunrise or sunset. The wonderful beauty of flowers in Spring. God created us to have eyes that see all that He has made. 

In the account of the blind man, the man’s neighbours were finding it hard to recognise him, because he was now engaging them with his eyes. Whereas before he looked anywhere except at them, he was now focusing on their faces and this new ability transformed him so much that his neighbours were having difficulty recognising him.

God sees all and we cannot escape his gaze. He sees right into our souls, knowing every detail of our lives. And we can look into His face, in faith that the contact through our eyes is a part of our communication with Him. John’s spiritual eyes saw amazing scenes in Heaven, as we read in Revelation. And we too can enjoy a glimpse of Heavenly realms, through the reading of Scripture. Unless our eyes read the Bible we will learn nothing about God and His ways. And in faith we pray, “seeing” with our eyes the positive outcome of our prayers. But in our spirits what are we seeing today? If very little we lift up our eyes and make eye contact with our Heavenly Father. There we will find all we need to see.

Dear Father God. Thank You for all Your good gifts, all Your answers to our prayers, and for Jesus, our wonderful and gracious Saviour. Amen.

Faith in Action

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!”
John 9:6-7 NLT

Imagine myself in the position of the blind man. I could hear a man having a conversation with some other men about the cause of my blindness. Then one of the men, who seemed to be the leader, came over to me and I heard Him spit on the ground. A few moments later He smeared something gritty and unpleasant on my eyes. But there was something about this Man. He told me to go and wash off whatever was on my eyes in the Pool of Siloam. I knew where it was of course, so slowly and carefully, I made my way there, occasionally assisted by people on the way. People were asking me why I had mud on my face, but I carried on regardless. I finally got to the Pool and made my way into the water, finding a way although there were others there too. I started to wash the mud off my eyes and a strange thing started to happen. For the first time I was conscious of light appearing before me and as I washed it got stronger and stronger until I was aware of my surroundings. I could see! As it that wasn’t amazing enough, I knew what things were even though I had never seen them before. I had been aware of people but I could now see them. And the colours! Words could not express how I felt. I just had to get back and find out more about the Man who had smeared that mud on my eyes. 

But words cannot adequately describe the experience of the blind-no-more man. It wasn’t like a sore finger that healed. This was a miraculous event that transformed the lives of the man, his family, and all those who knew him. No more having to beg. No more having to depend on his parents and well-meaning friends and family for the basics of life. No more times of self-pity and even anger, as others seemed so much more blessed than he did. But what if he had refused to go and wash his face in that particular pool, instead heading for the nearest source of water, using that instead? What if he had reacted angrily to the indignity of someone smearing mud on his face? But there were no shortcuts. The man dutifully did as the Man had told him – go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. That took faith.

In 2 Kings 5 there is the story of Naaman, an important man in charge of the king of Aram’s army. He had leprosy, and ended up at Elishah’s door, expecting to be healed of his affliction. Elisha told him to go and wash 7 times in the River Jordan. Though initially reluctant to follow Elishah’s instructions, he was persuaded by his army officers to do what he was told to do, and through the grace of God, Elisha’s faith, and his obedience, he was healed.

Sometimes God will ask us to do something, and in the process, He will strengthen our faith. All through the Gospels we can see how Jesus tested a person’s, or a people’s, obedience leading to a miraculous sign. There was no way a pot of water could become a very good wine, but the servants obediently dipped in a ladle and in front of their eyes it became wine. They could have refused, considering it an insult to their intelligence. The blind man could have refused to walk through a Jerusalem crowded with people because he had mud on his face and probably looked a bit weird. The man lying on his mat at the Pool of Bethesda, could have ignored Jesus’ instruction to get up and pick up his mat and walk away. Perhaps God has asked us to do something to unlock a healing or some other requirement that we have been praying about. But in the process of being obedient to God’s command we might have to cast aside our pride. Naaman, an important man at the head of an army, is told to go and wash in a muddy river not once but seven times. And in front of all his subordinates. That took courage. So, what is God asking us to do today? Sorry, did I hear You right, God? You really want me to …?

Dear Father God. Please increase our faith to equip us to be totally obedient to You and be You want us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Ointment of Mud

Posted on by korgrocker

““It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him”. … Then he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!”
John 9:3, 6-7 NLT

Why did Jesus make mud with His saliva, using it as a salve or ointment for smearing on the blind man’s eyes, when He could have just healed him with a word? Or He could have laid His hands or fingers on the malfunctioning eyes. Why the mud? There have been a number of theories as to why Jesus healed the man this way. Jesus healed another blind man in Bethsaida, and we can read the account in Mark 8:23-25, “Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?” The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly”. This was a two stage healing, starting with Jesus spitting in the man’s face followed by Him placing His hands on them. A theory promoted by some in those days was that saliva had healing properties, so perhaps Jesus was using it to help the blind man’s faith. But we don’t really know what was going on in Jesus’ healing ministry. No two healing events were the same so, try as we do to think one up, there is no formulaic recipe for copying Him. 

Vision difficulties today are common and the medical profession can often help by using optical corrections such as spectacles or contact lenses. Cataracts can be removed and replaced with an artificial lens. Degenerative or age-related conditions can often be delayed with the skills of the doctors. But someone born blind is, unless there are exceptional circumstances, beyond healing by our medics. But nothing was too hard for Jesus – He had the ability to restore sight whenever the opportunity arose. And we should also take note that through the power of the Holy Spirit, blind people have been healed today. There are well documented accounts available for those who look for them. Also note that healing a man blind from birth was more than introducing sight to his eyes. There is the infrastructure behind the eyes that processes the visual information to enable what is seen to be interpreted correctly. In healing the blind man, Jesus also reprogrammed the man’s brain.

There is a condition much worse than physical blindness and this is spiritual blindness. People with this condition are those who have rejected God and who deny the validity of anything spiritual, and particularly anything to do with God. We read what Paul wrote about the cause of spiritual blindness in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God”. Those who fail to respond to the invitation to the Good News about Jesus are committing themselves to a future spent in a place of total blackness, where any form of sight is no use at all. One day, any believer who is physically blind will receive a new pair of eyes, with perfect vision. And he or she will be able to gaze on the face of God in awe and worship. It will be an amazing experience for all of us. In Revelation 21:23 we read, “And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light“. Jesus proclaimed to His people that “….. I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12). Both sighted and unsighted people are in the same place before the Cross of Christ.

Dear God. You are a God of light and there is no darkness within You. We worship You today. Amen.

Power of God

Posted on by korgrocker

““Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.””
John 9:2-5 NLT

That poor man had been born blind in a culture that left him with no option but to be a beggar. A sad situation where the man would have had no self respect and he would have been reliant on others for most of life’s basic requirements. But Jesus assured the disciples that the man’s blindness was not caused by sin. Instead, He implied that on this occasion there was an opportunity to demonstrate that the “power of God” was able to cure this otherwise incurable condition. Should the man be able to see would be a miracle that the Pharisees and the other religious leaders could never be able to explain away.

There is a connection between this man being blind, living his life in a world of darkness, and Jesus being “the light of the world”. In a physical sense the blind man was walking in a dark world that could only be illuminated by the “power of God”. In a spiritual sense, the far more common condition of sin could only be remedied by belief in God and the One whom He sent, Jesus, His Son. There is an immediate connection between physical and spiritual blindness and Jesus demonstrated for that, and subsequent, generations that it is only the “power of God” that is capable of bringing a remedy. 

Jesus told His disciples that there were things to do that could only be done while it was daylight. Once the night had come, these tasks would no longer be possible. Because Jesus was the “light of the world” perhaps He was implying that once He had left the world the opportunities to perform the “works of God” would leave with Him. That would certainly have been the case except for one thing – the sending of the Holy Spirit. We read in John 14, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. …. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognise him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you” (John 14:12-13, 16-17). 

Sadly, there are many Christians today who believe that the “power of God” was only for the apostolic age and they deny that God’s power is manifested anymore in works of healing. But Jesus left us with His Great Commission, and we read in Mark 16:15-18, “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptised will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”” We Christians agree that we must share the Gospel, the Good News about the saving love and grace of God, but the Commission goes on to describe manifestations of the “power of God”. Speaking in tongues, casting out demons and healing the sick were specifically mentioned by Jesus. We have the power of God through the Holy Spirit who lives within each and every believer. And so, we believers have a challenge. The Holy Spirit works through us to do the works of God – if we let Him.

Dear Father God, please forgive us for taking those elements of Scripture that we feel comfortable and safe with, but ignoring or forgetting the rest. We have Your Heavenly resources at our disposal, and through faith we can use it to Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Born Blind

Posted on by korgrocker

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”
John 9:1-3 NLT

The disciples asked a question that has perplexed generations of people – why are some people born with a physical problem? Jesus was walking somewhere with His disciples, and they asked Him for an explanation for the poor blind man’s disability. In those days it was common to think that a disability was a judgement for sin. Therefore it followed that the man who had been born blind was guilty of some terrible sin or other, and, if not him, perhaps his parents were at fault. But in their limited understanding and fuelled by a natural curiosity and desire to solve a mystery, the disciples asked the Master. Surely He would know what the problem was and why it happened.

But that was all very well for the disciples, journeying as they were with the Fount of all knowledge, but what about today, as we read about babies being born with a physical problem. A hole in a heart. Debilitating conditions such as cystic fibrosis. Missing limbs, or deafness. Or blindness like the man in the account we are reading. The list is endless and anguished cries of pain from distressed parents must often reach the heavens and beyond. The sad situation when a new life with so much potential is born struggling even to make a start in this world of ours. And some mums do feel guilt. They rack their minds to try and make some sense of it all, in case they had done something they shouldn’t have done during those formative weeks and months with the new born baby in their wombs. Some parents even shake their fist at God in a frustrated and angry attempt to focus blame.

We pilgrims look at someone with a disability, and wonder about the cause. But we forget that disabilities are a matter of degree. We all have, to some extent, a disability. Poor vision needing correcting glasses. Insulin for type 1 diabetics. Many suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. It is thought that over ten million people in the UK have arthritis. So a disability is just a matter of degree. With the man born blind, we read that his disability “happened so the power of God could be seen in him”. Another reason for having a disability could perhaps be for the outworking of the scripture in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.” But in it all, we know that no disability appeared in God’s plan for mankind. He created perfection, but sin destroyed what God intended. The consequence of living in this fallen world is before us every time we experience the aches and pains and sicknesses that so commonly afflict us.

In 1 Corinthians 15:53 we read, “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” One day God will transform our human bodies, complete with all the imperfections we know so much about and many of us have to live with, into a resurrected body, a perfect body just like Christ’s. And we will join together in the worship of our wonderful Creator, enjoying Him and our new bodies.

Dear God. We understand the impact sin has had on this world, and we thank You for Jesus, who came to overcome the works of the being who has brought so much distress to this world. We believe in Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Father Abraham

Posted on by korgrocker

“Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.”
John 8:56-59 NLT

The people with Jesus in the Temple failed to realise that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, partially divine and partially human. It was just too much for them to get their minds around. In the past, visitations to the Jews from Heavenly realms had taken place through obviously supernatural figures like angels. Such occasions were either on a personal, one to one basis, such as to Zechariah by the angel Gabriel – “While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. … Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news!” (Luke 1:11,19). Sometimes a Heavenly visitation was to a group of people – consider the shepherds in Luke 2:9, “Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified,”. In the Old Testament, we read the passage about how the Lord Himself appeared to Abraham – “The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day” (Genesis 18:1). Isaiah received a vision of the Lord in the Temple, as we read in Isaiah 6:1, “It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.” But in these and other occasions, it was clear to the person or people there at the time that they were receiving an indisputably Heavenly visitation, if not from God Himself then one of His angelic messengers.

But here we have an ordinary looking Man teaching in the Temple and engaged in a dispute with a group of religious leaders about His pedigree and His message. Jesus was not wearing a luminous glowing robe. His presence was not that of an angel. He was as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53:2b, “ … There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.” But unlike Abraham, the people failed to discern that the Person before them was from God. Jesus was a divisive Person; people either believed in Him and followed Him as His disciples, or they rejected Him, rationalising that He was an imposter or worse. There was of course the sitting-on-the-fence position where the people were unsure about Jesus, but were almost convinced – “they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?”” (John 7:37b). 

According to the Apostle Paul, Abraham was the father of the Jews. Romans 4:1, “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God?” Paul went on to write that Abraham didn’t rely on his good deeds for his salvation. Romans 4:3 “For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”” There was much in the Genesis account of Abraham and his faith that pointed forward to a Descendant who would fulfil God’s promise to mankind. In Genesis 18:1 we read that the Lord appeared to Abraham, and some theologians believe that this was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Himself.

We pilgrims have a spiritual example through Abraham. Paul wrote in Romans 4 that the custom of circumcision, so significant to the Jews, makes no difference when it comes to the importance of faith in God. And we read in Romans 4:13, “Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.” In the end it’s all about God and His grace and love for mankind. We are all accountable to God for the light that we have received. Man made customs and liturgies are meaningless without faith in God.

Dear God. Thank You for the man Abraham, who lived so long ago. His faith in You has encouraged all of Your children through the ages, and I pray that such faith continues to bless us as we continue out journey to our own promised land. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Knowing God

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus answered, “If I want glory for myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who will glorify me. You say, ‘He is our God,’ but you don’t even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But I do know him and obey him. Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.””
John 8:54-56 NLT

Jesus told the Pharisees and other religious leaders in the crowd listening to Him that they don’t even know God. The religious people in Jesus’ day probably knew a lot about God but had never come to know Him personally. They had this sense of pride in their knowledge of their Bible. They could recite huge tracts of Scripture. They knew all the rules and regulations, and the Laws of Moses, like the backs of their hands. They lived their lives in a way that was, to them, above reproach. God to them was measurable and containable, kept in a box bounded by their knowledge. And the other less tangible parts of a relationship with God were rationalised within the limits of their knowledge about Him. 

But when it comes to knowing God, the same accusation could be levelled at many religious people today. They think that they are “good” people because they keep the laws of the land, give money to charities, go to church on a Sunday every now and then, and don’t curse and drink to excess. They don’t beat and abuse their spouses and work hard at their professions. “Surely God likes me and would never reject me when it comes to matters of eternal life”, or so they think. 

But Jesus was very clear during His time here on earth, that there was only one way to please Father God, and that was by believing in Him. We of course know John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Later Jesus said to Thomas, one of His disciples, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6-7). 

But believing in Jesus does not mean believing the facts about Jesus. It is believing that He came to this world to die for sinners, past, present and future, in His death taking on the punishment for our sin, and instead giving us His righteousness. In the process we come to love Him personally because the enormity of what He did for us at Calvary sinks deep within our souls. The understanding that Jesus, the Son of God, loved me so much that He was willing to die in my place, and that through Him I will receive the gift of eternal life, has turned my life around from being a detached and uninvolved “believer” into someone who knows God as a loving Father. My life is now not about being a “good” person, but about living a life pleasing to the One who loves me. Yes, the fruit of that will be goodness, but that comes from, not for, a relationship with God.

The Pharisees knew much about God. But they were unable to do what Paul did. About the Pharisaical obedience to the Law, he wrote in Philippians 3:7-9, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith”. The Pharisees before Jesus that day in the Temple had an opportunity to believe in Him, but missed it. We must make sure that we don’t miss it either, by taking subtle steps towards replacing our relationship with God with a liturgy that takes less effort.

Dear Father God. We love You because You first loved us. We worship at Your feet today. Amen.