The Simple Become Wise

Posted on by korgrocker

“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;”
Psalm 19:7-8 NKJV

In Psalm 19:7 we find this reference that “the testimony of the Lord” turns simple people in wise people. Other translations refer to the commands or decrees of the Lord. But what does “simple” mean? One definition is “someone who leads an uncomplicated life, values genuine connections and experiences over material possessions, and is content with the basics“. There is a lot to commend living life this way, because it very much is in line with what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:12, “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little“. Living a simple life in this context provides space for living life God’s way. However, Proverbs 14:15, 18 shows a different meaning to being “simple”, comparing them to the “prudent” or wise. “The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. … The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge“. In this context, the “simple” appear to be people who are gullible and easily led into error. But in both definitions for simple people, there is much that the Lord’s testimony and instructions can do to help them, and everyone else in the process because we all need more wisdom at times. So how do people transition from being simple to being wise?

Firstly, it’s a good idea to abandon any thoughts that we are not simple just because we think we are pilgrims, following God and His ways. In Proverbs 11:2, we read, “Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom“. We have to approach God with a humble spirit because otherwise we will stumble over a rock of pride and end up humbled anyway. Associated with this is the importance of having a teachable spirit, which is essential if we are to acquire wisdom. Proverbs 19:20, “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life“. When someone offers us advice, we do well to consider it because it may be coming to us directly from the Lord. He loves us and cares for us, and can sometimes use even unbelievers to offer us instructions and advice. 

Secondly, there is something in the thought that God knows best and we are foolish if we try and elevate ourselves into His domain. That is not only pride, but it is also a dangerous course of action to try and get matey with God. Psalm 111:10, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever!” Of course, that is not to say that we live our lives afraid that a Heavenly lightning bolt is poised in an angel’s hand, ready to zap us the moment we fall into sin. The word “fear” here is the way we look at God, with awe, humility, and reverence, and giving Him the place deserved by the Creator of the Universe and the One able to look into our very souls. We ascribe to Him all the glory and all the praise. 

Thirdly, if we want to become wise, we just have to ask God. James 1:5-6, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind“. It’s no good asking God for the wisdom to deal with a situation and then decide you don’t like His advice and do something else instead. 

And lastly, we have to be aware that wisdom comes with a price tag. It’s easy to go with the flow and do things the world’s way, but aligning ourselves to God’s ways, the way of wisdom, may cost us something, a cost we must be prepared to pay. Proverbs 4:7, “The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” And Proverbs 16:16, “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!”

An epilogue from James 3:17, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere“. Paul wrote, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is“. Underpinning all wise believing people is the reality that only by living God’s way, close in our relationships with Him, will truly transform a “simple” person in someone who is “wise”. There is no other way. No short cuts.

Dear Lord God. Only You have the words of eternal life. Only You can show us the way of wisdom, and we praise and worship You today with deeply grateful hearts. Amen.

Reviving Our Souls

Posted on by korgrocker

“The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.
Psalm 19:7-8 NLT

Instructions, decrees and commandments. When these come from the Lord, they “revive the soul“, they make the simple wise, bring “joy to the heart“, and provide “insight for living“. A description of complete spiritual food. But we look this morning at “reviving the soul”. 

So what is the “soul”? According to “gotquestions.org”, “the human soul is the part of a person that is not physical. It is the part of every human being that lasts eternally after the body experiences death“. So when we are born we have a physical body and a soul. We also have a spirit which, according to the Bible, seems to be the driving force behind what we do, and in places in the Bible is used interchangeably with our souls. 

The next question is about why our souls need to be revived. As we go through life, we become tainted with sin and the pressures of life, and our souls become discouraged and start to shrivel away into something a long way from which God intended and created. I would contend that poor mental health can be caused by a damaged soul. Our bodies can continue to function but without achieving their full potential that can be achieved when our souls are operating as they should. So what does a “revived” soul look like? 

Firstly, a soul will only function as God intended if it is saved. We talk about our evangelistic efforts being about saving souls, and that is literally correct. 1 Peter 1:9, “The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls“. Jesus came with a message of hope and we pilgrims did indeed trust Him with our lives and the salvation of our souls. We read Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved“. Not that these verses are not about a physical salvation, such as being rescued from a shipwreck, but about our souls. We all know that one day our bodies will die, but our souls are eternal and a wise person ensures that their souls end up in a place where they want them to be – in Heaven and not Sheol, the place of the dead, where there will be torment and tears (read the account of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16). 

Secondly, a saved soul needs to maintain a way of life that is aligned to God’s way, bring it rest and peace. If, after salvation, our souls become corrupted by sinful living, then they will eventually die. Jesus had a soul, and He reminded His disciples about the importance of following His ways for the health of our souls. Matthew 11:28-30, “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light””. Living our lives God’s way ensures that we have a rested soul, bringing peace and wellbeing to all that we are.

Thirdly, we need to feed our souls in the same way that we feed our physical bodies. Both have needs to maintain life,  but with very different foods. David wrote in Psalm 19:7a, “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. …”. “The instructions of the Lord” are contained in His Word, the Bible, and we need to read it, meditate upon it, digest it, and apply it. I once met a person who we could describe as being a “troubled soul”, experiencing hassles and problems in their life that needn’t have been there. The asked me a question that had a clear Biblical answer, and I asked them if they had read this in the Bible. The person claimed to be a Christian so I was a bit shocked when they informed me that they didn’t have a Bible. We will never be able to properly feed our souls unless we read “the instructions of the Lord”. People in the world spend a fortune on clothes, food and cosmetics to maintain their physical bodies, that will one day wear out and be consigned to a grave, but fail to properly look after the part of them that is eternal. Inexplicable?

But we pilgrims know the importance of our souls and our relationships with God. David did and he wrote about them. So today, I wish all my readers “Bon Appetit” as they gorge on the food that will never make them fat and instead will revive their souls. 

Dear Father God, thank You for Your Word, providing food for our souls. We would die without it. Amen.

Sun Bursts

Posted on by korgrocker

“ … God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat.”
Psalm 19:4b-6 NLT

In our enlightened days, we know that it is not the sun that moves across the heavens; rather, the earth rotates on its axis causing the illusion of a moving sun. But regardless of what moves, the effect is still the same. The sun bursts into a dark world every day, bringing light and heat, without which mankind would be unable to exist. And at the end of the day, it disappears in the same way it appeared, but over a different horizon. We very much take the sun for granted. All our lives it appears and disappears, so predictably that our weather scientists are able to determine to the minute the sun cycle each day. And around the world, the times of the sun vary because of the earth’s rotation. But this will not always be so.

In Matthew 24:3 we read a question that the disciples asked of Jesus, “Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?”” Jesus then told then about a series of events that will happen as the current age draws to a conclusion, and we eventually reach Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken“. The extinguishing of the sun precedes the next event which we read in Matthew 24:30, “And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory“. The prophet Joel also wrote about the sun in the end times, as we read in Joel 2:31, “The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives”. But we can be assured that the sun will never disappear, stopping its life-supplying powers, until the time is right.

The sun provides light for our physical bodies and for all the functions necessary to sustain our planet. But there is another side which we mustn’t forget – nourishment for our souls. The sun cannot penetrate there but the Son can. Jesus said, “ … 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). There is a strange thing about human beings, in that they can walk around in their lives physically alive but spiritually dead – Ephesians 2:1, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.” Colossians expands on this theme, “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins”(Colossians 2:13). ‭‭We know that when sin entered the world a spiritual death followed, because the warmth and light of a relationship with God was cut off. But as Jesus said, because He is the Light of the world, our spirits become alive when we confess our sins and find righteousness before God, relationship restored. 

The importance of God’s Word, the Bible, is essential to maintain life for our souls. God’s Word is constant and available, just as the sun is, but in both cases we have to do something to maximise the benefits so that our lives can function properly. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 understood the importance of God’s Word. “The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand” (Psalm 119:130). But although the sun will one day disappear, We read in Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever”. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear” (Matthew 24:35). As we face into our mortality, we can be assured that our spirits will live on, refreshed and kept alive through the Word of God.

In Psalm 113:3 we read, “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised”. We pilgrims have the opportunity to obey the Psalmist’s command to continual praise the Lord’s name. This is not to say that we ignore every other purpose in our work-a-day lives, but in all that we do we consider the importance of our relationship with God, keeping His name honoured. So today, as we face into all that is before us, we praise and worship our awesome God, behaving as prophesised by Malachi, “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture” (Malachi 4:2). 

Dear Lord God. Today we worship the Son. There is none other who has the words of eternal life. Amen.

‭

God the Homemaker

Posted on by korgrocker

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”
Psalm 19:1-4 NLT

David wrote that God “has made a home in the heavens for the sun”. Of course, we remember the creation story in Genesis 1:14-18, “Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good”. So the largest light, the sun, was there to govern the day and to “separate the light from the darkness”. In David’s words, the sun was important enough to be positioned in the heavens, as a permanent feature, giving light and warmth to God’s creation. 

The word “home’ brings to our minds all kinds of thoughts. There is something comforting to return to a familiar place, kick off our shoes, hang up our jackets, and put our cosy slippers on our feet, in a place where we live and the place we call “home”. Here we can relax and recharge our physical and emotional batteries, in a place of relative security away from the hustle and bustle of life on Planet Earth. We pilgrims also are aware of our future “home” when we will cross the Great Divide into God’s place. Jesus said to His disciples (and by implication to us modern day disciples as well), “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:1-3). We find that God has a home where we will join him and claim it to be our home as well. But what sort of place will our new home be? We don’t really know with any certainty, but we are sure that it will be far better than what we have at present.

Interestingly, God’s home will not always be in Heaven, contrary to popular opinion. In Revelation 21:3 we read, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them”. Where will His new home be? On the new earth and located in the New Jerusalem. And there will be no home for the sun anymore, because John ” … saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone” (Revelation 21:1). Why will the sun not be there? Because “ … there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

We pilgrims are truly a favoured people, because God Himself will provide all the security and comfort that we have come to expect from our earthly homes. We may not have a favourite pair of slippers but there will be something far better waiting for us. And we read, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4). All the things of this world that we long to escape from won’t be a problem in our new home, whether in Heaven or on the New Earth, because they won’t exist. 

God is a homemaker. He created a home for us on this earth, perfect in every way, but along came the devil and corrupted it through sin and evil. But God made a promise in Genesis 1:27, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them“. God would not have created something He thought was imperfect. We have been created in His image, and as God is perfect, we too have perfection in Him within our grasp.

Dear Father God. We praise and worship our eternal Creator today, grateful for all You have done for us. Amen.

The Heavenly Message

Posted on by korgrocker

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”
Psalm 19:1-4 NLT

David wrote that God created the heavens and they were so wonderful that they continually display His glory. Day or night the message of who God is, is proclaimed without sound but as a visual presentation to everyone in the world. And that is true, because wherever we live on this planet, God’s glory in the heavens is there for all to see. The message of the skies “has gone throughout the earth” David wrote. But what was and is the message?

Paul wrote a clear explanation about this message in Romans 1:18-20, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God“. But such is the sin of man that they have devised an explanation for the craftsmanship in the skies that excludes God. Instead they attribute the presence of the heavenly bodies and everything else in the universe to an event that took place many billions of years ago. In recent years the “Big Bang” theory has emerged, based on observations about how the galaxies and stars are moving. The scientists, with the aid of mathematical formulae, have worked out a theory that about 13.7 billion years ago the origin of the universe was a small, intensely dense and very hot, piece of matter that suddenly exploded. However, they fail to explain where this piece of matter came from and why it suddenly exploded. But if someone, observing the heavens in all their glory, asked such a scientist about how all the stars got there, they have a natural, Godless, explanation ready and waiting to be rolled out. And sadly, this theory is bundled together with the theory of evolution, and rolled out in our schools and places of learning as fact, not theory. 

Paul called these God-and-creation-deniers “sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness”. But why do people deny the existence of God, even when there is so much evidence about Him in the heavens, where God made “a home … for the sun”? The Billy Graham organisation claims that people deny the existence of God because of pride. People want to run their lives their own way and don’t want anyone, especially God, to interfere with the way they are living. They want to be in control of everything they do, and they know that if they were to believe in God, they’d have to change their lifestyle. Instead of living by their own list of what’s right and wrong, they’d have to take seriously God’s moral standards. But we pilgrims know the consequences of such a life-choice, because we have read the last few chapters in the Book, chapters that the God-deniers claim are just fairy tales for emotionally needy people. The first three verses of Psalm 14 read, “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!” This Psalm, another written by David, is unequivocal in its conclusion that the God-deniers are fools. Of course, they have to be, because otherwise who would want to spend eternity in the company of the devil and his cohorts?

The message written long ago in the heavens, the message of the glory and existence of God, is there for everyone to observe, and one day everyone will stand before God to give an account of their lives. What will the God-deniers say? Probably nothing, as the enormity of their foolishness and pride suddenly dawns upon them, as their minds try and process all their sinful and evil ways in the light of God’s presence.

But on a positive, we pilgrims look up on a clear day or night, and are reminded once again of the wonderful God we worship. He loves us and cares for us, because we have chosen to cast aside our pride and arrogance and instead live His way. We know that it was our sins that nailed Jesus to that cross, and we bow in worship to the One who has forgiven us because we confessed our sins. God now sees us as His righteous adopted sons and daughters. How amazing is that? 

Father God, we thank You today in wonder for the extent You have gone to, to save mankind from hell. Please help us endorse Your Heavenly message to those we meet, those who are heading for a lost eternity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Heavens Proclaim

Posted on by korgrocker

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”
Psalm 19:1-4 NLT

We can just imagine David, lying in a pasture while he was looking after his father’s sheep, and looking up into the night sky, seeing an amazing canopy of small bright dots. Without light pollution, the heavens at night are breath-taking in their beauty. To add to the scene, David would have uttered a “wow” when he saw the sunsets and the sunrises, resplendent in their pinks, yellows, and reds and changing by the minute as the sun traversed the horizon. David, a thinking and deeply spiritual man, attributed the causes to God, because who else could have performed such an amazing light show? David would have been educated in accordance with the Jewish curriculum, and a God-knowledge would have been prominently contained within. But here out in the open David went from book knowledge to heart knowledge, causing him to write “The Heavens proclaim the glory of God”. Earlier we looked at Psalm 8, another Davidic Psalm, which starts, “O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens”. God’s majesty through His name is present here on earth and in consequence His glorious majesty is so great that it extends far beyond what even the most powerful telescope can determine, needing a Name above all names to do Him justice. 

The problem that atheists, those who deny that God doesn’t exist, have is that they have no “wow” in their lives. No sense of wonderment that there is a Creator God who created the universe and all that is within it, and in the process He provided a beautiful display of His presence. I’m writing this morning looking out at a grey world, rain splashing in the puddles, and missed what would have been an amazing sunrise bursting through my office window. Sin is a bit like that because it puts a fog of rain clouds in the way, blocking out the glory of the dawn, and by implication, God’s glorious presence. David would have soaked in the wonder of the skies in his long lonely hours musing and meditating on the Person behind what he was seeing, and he never got tired of what he saw. He wrote, “Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known”, declaring that God is eternal and has crafted a universe that never fails to display something new.

There is a story of two prisoners in a cell looking through the bars. One only saw mud, but the other saw stars. To so many, they go through their lives drudging and struggling through the “mud” of life, getting bogged down in what are mostly trivial circumstances, but which nevertheless drains them of any hope for the future. Other people seem to float above their life problems and always seem to have their heads optimistically positioned in higher places, up there with the stars. 

In Jesus we have a hope that is just as wonderful as the glory of God displayed in His creation. Paul wrote, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). What do we pilgrims hope for? I would suggest that through our faith in Jesus, we will one day see the glory of God on a scale that is totally beyond what our human limitations can allow. As the writer to the Hebrews said, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1). The glory of God displayed in the Heavens is a hint of what is to come, put there by a merciful and gracious God to support our faith. The disciple Philip one day said to Jesus, “ … Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (John 14:8). The following verse reads, “Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?” Through our faith and belief in Jesus we too have seen the Father, and just to make sure we don’t forget, He announces His glorious presence through His creation, not just once but every day.

Do we pilgrims look up on a dark but clear night and observe with thankful hearts yet another Heavenly display of God’s glory? Of course we do, because we know the Creator who put on the show to proclaim His glory.

Father God. Your wonderful creation is beyond understanding, but we appreciate and enjoy Your glory every day. Amen.

Unfailing Love

Posted on by korgrocker

“For this, O Lord, I will praise you among the nations; I will sing praises to your name. You give great victories to your king; you show unfailing love to your anointed, to David and all his descendants forever.
Psalm 18:49-50 NLT

David makes no secret about the focus of his worship and praise, giving glory to God “among the nations” and “to [His] name”. And the reason was that he attributed his success on the battlefield to God, and no-one else. David was a warrior king, well-versed in the techniques of war. He knew all about military tactics, hand to hand combat, the importance of being able to handle weapons, and the psychology of motivating his troops and winning battles. But with David it was very much in partnership with the Lord. David wrote earlier in this Psalm, “He trains my hands for battle; he strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow. You have given me your shield of victory. Your right hand supports me; your help has made me great” (Psalm 18:34-35). But perhaps we should note the parallel between “great victories” for King David, and the greatest victory of all when Jesus defeated the devil on Calvary’s cross. 

In the last verse of Psalm 18, David recorded factually that God “show[ed] unfailing love” to David and all of his descendants forever. The “forever” bit is something often overlooked in the years since. Many people today will stand up and condemn and abuse the nation of Israel verbally and physically. Anti-Semitic behaviour is rampant in many places in the world, with hatred of the Jews going far beyond what is deserved and we remember that Hitler murdered millions of Jews in Europe. Many more are murdered in the hearts and minds of people who are being stirred up and manipulated by the one, satan, who hates anything to do with God, and especially His people, the Jews. Today the rhetoric of hatred from Iran towards Israel is well known and reported on. But there is a very real reason – God has favoured the descendants of David with His “unfailing love” ever since and will do forever. And because an evil and wicked world, under the influence of their ruler satan, hates God, then it follows that they will hate His beloved people, the Jews. Of course, that is not to condone the behaviour of the nation of Israel, particularly in recent years, but that will not stop God loving them. There will come a time when they will be held to account, as we all will be, before the throne of God. And if we read the last book in the Bible, we will find that the Jews will suffer a terrible time before a remnant of them will be saved.

If God will never stop loving the Jews with an “unfailing love” then it follows that He will never stop loving those that have been grafted into His vine, through Jesus. Romans 11:17, “But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree”. We believers in Jesus also share in God’s unfailing love, as promised to His people, but as any gardeners known grafts can sometimes fail and Jesus warned His disciples, “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more” (John 15:1-2). Jesus continued in John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me”. 

God’s unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our lives (Psalm 23:6), this we know, and Paul expanded on this in Romans 8:38-39 when he wrote,“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord”. What a tremendous affirmation of our gracious and loving God.

God’s love is unfailing and when we stay within the bounds of His love we will, like David, be able to praise Him for the victories we experience in life. Victories in our battles with sin. Victories in our relationships, our churches and fellowships, and in our families. Victories where we see God come through with salvations, healings and so much more. We praise Him today!

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your unfailing love, so freely given and always there for us, Your people. Amen. 

The Lord Lives

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock! May the God of my salvation be exalted! He is the God who pays back those who harm me; he subdues the nations under me and rescues me from my enemies. You hold me safe beyond the reach of my enemies; you save me from violent opponents.”
Psalm 18:46-48 NLT

David is coming to the end of his song written to the Lord. A song of deliverance from all his enemies. A song full of lyrics about all that God has done for him. And in verse 46 David bursts out in a declaration of praise with a verse that has since formed the chorus of the song “I Will Call Upon The Lord”, popularised in the early 1980’s, and still sung in our churches today. 

David expressed that “The Lord lives“. David knew this as a fact because time and time again God had been there for him when he was in a place of danger, saving him from his enemies in a land of violence, intrigue and political instability. The nations around Israel worshiped “gods” of their own making, idols designed to pander to their evil ways, but powerless to offer their worshipers any form of protection or the ability to, as David wrote, “pay back those who harm me” and “rescue me from my enemies”. And the problem for the Jews, God’s chosen people, was that they too had a tendency to abandon the one true God, and join in the worship of these idols as well. But not David. He stood tall and true, never abandoning the Lord who protected and saved him from his enemies.

We pilgrims know that the Lord is real, alive, and always there for us. For many of us, John 3:16 is a verse that describes why we are believers in the living Lord. A dead “god” would not be interested in taking the initiative and providing an escape route for mankind out of a life of evil and sinful ways, and expressing an eternal love for those that an idol could not have created. God warned the Israelites about idolatry and we read in Deuteronomy 4:28 what would happen if they abandoned Him. “There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell“. An idol is a dead manmade object that has no power within it at all, and many idols are worshiped even today. Not perhaps objects that we imagine to be like statues or some inanimate object in a shrine, but belongings such as cars or similar that cost us money to buy, and take up our time to maintain, time that would be more productively spent in the presence of God and His purposes. 

We pilgrims offer our praises to the One who has saved us and delivered us from a life of sin through Jesus the Son of God. Instead of heading for a lost eternity we will instead find ourselves in God’s presence, forever saved from our enemies. And we too sing a song of deliverance, exalting the God of our salvation. Near the end of his life, the Apostle Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy, “ … the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18). And so it is with us. We too can proclaim as Paul did the certainty that God, the living God, the only true God, will bring us home safe and sound. To some it won’t be long before they experience God for real. To others it will be what seems to be a lifetime away. But happen it will as we continue to trust in the God who lives. 

Dear God. You are the living God and we used to sing a song proclaiming “Jesus is alive today”. Be exalted in our praises we pray. Amen.

The Accused

Posted on by korgrocker

“You gave me victory over my accusers. You appointed me ruler over nations; people I don’t even know now serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they submit; foreign nations cringe before me. They all lose their courage and come trembling from their strongholds.”
Psalm 18:43-45 NLT

David was accused of something. We don’t know what it was but some Bible commentators assume it was a political matter, possibly even the incident with his son, Absalom, that we can read in 2 Samuel 15. David continues to write about how God appointed him to as the “ruler over nations”, a role that inevitably didn’t please everyone and accusations over something would have been commonplace. In those days, as in the Middle East and other places in the world today, a dictatorial leader was commonplace – democracy was a concept that was unheard of. But David’s leadership was different because God had installed him on the Israelite throne, incidentally, it became a throne of prophecy about the coming Messiah, as we read in Isaiah 9:7, “His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” 

As modern politicians know, with the prevalence of social media, being accused of something comes with the territory. Our civil leaders, at whatever level, end up having to make decisions about the lives and welfare of their fellow citizens, and such decisions can be unpopular, leading to an army of keyboard warriors dispensing a torrent of criticisms, abuse, and accusations, often unrelated to the issue in question. A leader’s personal life and even appearance is dissected and commented on, with accusations, mostly false, following not far behind. And in this vitriolic environment, women are especially vulnerable to the nastiness that abounds. But it is not only politicians who are the focus of accusations. Anyone can find themselves being accused of something. For example, something gets mislaid in the office or classroom but, even with no evidence, accusations and suspicions emerge. Of particular note is the precarious situation for teachers, foster carers,  or anyone who works with children because juvenile accusations can be levelled falsely against someone just trying to do their best for a young person. Some accusation though are right and proper. A driver caught with too much alcohol in their bloodstream is accused of drink driving. A burglar caught with incriminating evidence will have to face accusations of theft in a court of law. 

However, the most devastating accusations are those that are false and have no truth or substance, and Christians are particularly vulnerable, because they portray a life of holiness. Wicked and worldly people will level all sorts of accusations against our fellow believers, because the evil and sinful people in the world around us are exposed for what they are and represent when the come into the presence of God is exposed as an evil person. The darkness preferred by the world is destroyed by the light of God. Jesus was very popular initially in Israel, because He healed the sick, fed large numbers of people, and even raised the dead. But as a sinless man, He would have made the worldly people of His day uncomfortable when they were in His company. The Pharisees in particular hated Him with a passion because He exposed their sinful natures in front of the ordinary people. And in the end a sinful and evil people crucified the sinless Son of God. As the thief on the cross said to his fellow felon, “We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong” (Luke 23:41). His words have confronted all those who made false accusations ever since, because, by doing so, they once again crucify Jesus with their sin. In 1 Peter 3:16b we read, “…  Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ“.

The ninth commandment, found in Exodus 20:16, reads, “You must not testify falsely against your neighbour”. David wrote again about being falsely accused of something in Psalm 35:11-13, “Malicious witnesses testify against me. They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good. I am sick with despair. Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them. I denied myself by fasting for them, but my prayers returned unanswered“. 

In the end, though, what matters in society’s sea of falseness is God. He knows our hearts. He knows what is right and wrong, and those who pursue a life of righteousness, holiness and truth will be vindicated. False accusations will burn up in the fires of hell to be no more, forgotten for all eternity.

Dear Father God. You are the Truth and we stay close to You, because we are saved through Jesus. False accusations may be levelled against us but You know the truth and You will vindicate us one day. Thank You. Amen.

Cries for Help

Posted on by korgrocker

“They called for help, but no one came to their rescue. They even cried to the Lord, but he refused to answer. I ground them as fine as dust in the wind. I swept them into the gutter like dirt.”
Psalm 18:41-42 NLT

Gruesome language from David in our verses for today. Not words that apply literally though; instead an allegorical representation of what David would perhaps have liked to do to his enemies. David was showing his disdain for his enemies when he wrote about grinding “them as fine as dust”, because dust is considered useless and of no consequence, a nuisance to be discarded. But what David felt about his enemies was not in itself a problem to them. After all, what people we don’t know think of us is not really of any consequence. What matters is having a relationship with people, such as our friends and family, that contains mutual love and respect. 

We turn to God and wonder what He thinks of His enemies, all those people who deny that He exists, or refuse to obey His commands. Does He consider them as “dust” in a world full of people numbered ” … like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore …” (Genesis 22:17)? In the brief life spans of human beings they have an opportunity to make choices about their relationship with their Creator God. But afterwards they may indeed become like “dust … swept … into the gutter like dirt”. There will come a time when God’s enemies will be in a place where they effectively don’t exist anymore. Like dust, they will be useless and will have lost the opportunity to spend eternity in a wonderful place called Heaven. Instead they will find themselves in a terrible place, regretting forever their wrong choices, hence the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42). They are dust, unloved, unnoticed and ignored.

In our societies, people without a relationship with God will nevertheless have a faint but tangible impression that there is a “higher power” somewhere, overlooking our planet. These people, however, will have rejected a personal and loving relationship with Him, putting themselves in the focus of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:23, “But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws’”. But notwithstanding this, such people, in a time of crisis, will call out to God for salvation from whatever they are facing. And they find that, as David recorded, “He refused to answer”. Why should God answer the prayers and cries for help from people He doesn’t know?  David had a great relationship with the Lord, and He had many testimonies of answered prayer, such as earlier in Psalm 18:3, “I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies”. But David noted that when his enemies called upon the Lord, He refused to answer. 

God always answers prayers, including cries for help, if we pilgrims are patient enough and sensitive enough to hear God’s voice. God’s answers fall into three categories – “Yes”, “No”, and “Maybe” or “Not Yet”. How long it will be before His answers to our prayers and cries for help come about is up to our faith. Jesus said, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Matthew 21:22 adds the word “faith”, “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it”. We understand, of course, that our prayers must align with God’s will if we are looking for a positive answer.

In John 9 we can read the account of the occasion when Jesus healed a blind man. In the ensuing, rather scathing and hostile conversation with the Pharisees, the blind man said, “We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will” (John 9:31). That verse showed an insight into God’s ways that applies to all who call upon His name for salvation. David’s enemies cried out to the Lord for help but “He refused to answer” because God didn’t know them – they were sinners. 

The Bible is full of references to the conditions necessary for God to hear us. Proverbs 15:29, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous“. 1 Peter 3:12, “The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil”. And a few words from the old Apostle John, “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:13-15). 

Dear Father God. We know that You listen to our prayers and always give us an answer. We understand that what we hear may not align with our human thoughts, but we trust You in knowing what is best for us. Please increase our faith, we pray. Amen.