Deep Distress

Posted on by korgrocker

“Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins.”
Psalm 25:16-18 NLT

If we read the news reports today we will find stories of “deep distress” leaping out of the pages, assaulting our standards of right and wrong, inciting panic, and even sucking us into having the same feelings ourselves. We could be excused for thoughts about what a terrible place the UK is to live in. Stories of debt, council tax arrears, forced installation of prepayment utility meters, homelessness, paedophilia, murders, phone thefts – the list is endless and our senses of decency are violated day after day. Well, what we experience today was not unknown in David’s day. Of course, in those days it was a different culture, a different society, but ever since the Fall, human beings have been in “deep distress” whenever and wherever they have lived. David had problems that he said were going “from bad to worse”, putting him on what looked a downward spiral into misery and depression. What his problems were he doesn’t say, but running a kingdom was never going to be easy, with stories of intrigue, internal jostling for positions, thoughts of attack, and that was just in his palace. There were the threats from the nations around him. There was a people to govern and keep happy. Idolatry was also a problem in Israel, generation after generation. And then there were all those wives and concubines …..

All of this got too much for David and he cried out to God for mercy. In desperation, he asked God to “save [him] from them all”, and, for good measure, he confessed all his sins. David was prone to depression, and we can see that in his writings. Psalm 31:9, “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away“. And then we have Psalm 13:2-3, “How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die“. David had many personal struggles, and his affair with Bathsheba was such an example. In that whole episode he broke several commandments – the sixth (murder), the seventh (adultery) and tenth (coveting someone else’s wife) come immediately to mind. But before us men start adopting a position on the higher moral ground, claiming that we have never done any of these things, remembering the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 and 6 will soon bring us back down to earth. Matthew 5:21-22a, 28, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! … “But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart”. But with all his real and imagined potential struggles, no wonder David found himself in “deep distress”. 

Are we pilgrims in “deep distress” today? Due to poor choices or unforeseen circumstances, we might find ourselves in a place of being overwhelmed by our problems. Fortunately we have a loving Heavenly Father who will help us get back to the place where we should be. There is much in His Word that will help us, and a good place to start is in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take”. I also find encouragement in Paul’s suggestion, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Or how about 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”. Through all our problems, though, we must never lose hope. Paul wrote, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28). The one positive thing in all our problems is that we can pray. Unfortunately, we see time and time again that people in our churches who find themselves in difficulties, then stop fellowshipping with their fellow believers, preferring to stay at home. But sharing our problems with a trusted believing friend, praying together, will soon bring a solution. At a time of personal “deep distress” during my daughter’s illness, an army of prayer warriors rose up in the church my wife and I attended, and, in answer to theirs, and our, prayers of faith, she was healed so totally and miraculously that the doctors wrote on her medical notes that “this is nothing short of a miracle”. 

We have a loving Heavenly Father, who loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for us, for the forgiveness of our sins. That is how much He loves us, and He will not see His children struggle in “deep distress”  for a moment.

Dear Lord, in the midst of our times of distress, we seek your comforting presence. Wrap us in your loving embrace, and grant us the serenity to face these troubled moments. Let your divine light shine upon us, banishing the shadows of fear and doubt. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Enemy’s Traps

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose. They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land. The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. My eyes are always on the Lord, for he rescues me from the traps of my enemies.
Psalm 25:12-15 NLT

When we think about traps, what springs to mind? A nasty-looking man trap, with a strong spring and bone-crushing teeth? A snare designed to catch an animal? A hole in the ground, disguised for the unwary to fall into? A minefield sown with explosives designed to kill and maim? Or an ambush with an enemy hidden but able to suddenly assault the oncoming soldiers? There are many physical devices that constitute traps and David was probably aware of them all. In those years after David despatched Goliath, Saul attempted on many occasions to trap him and kill him, but God always rescued him. And Saul wasn’t his only enemy. But it is rare to have a physical enemy in the UK today. We live in a time of relative security. There is no occupying force such as European countries outside Germany experienced in the last world war. There are no bands of marauders intent on harming us. There are, of course, those who are more subtle in their attacks, in the office with their snide comments and gossip, and in our schools using social media to denigrate and curse those less able to protect themselves. But traps for the unwary and naïve are commonplace, as ubiquitous as human beings. 

We also have a spiritual enemy, as we are aware. 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour“. Paul also warned us, as we read in Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places“. Just because we cannot physically see these “evil rulers” and “evil spirits” doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. There is much that we experience that we cannot see. For example, take the love of a family member, perhaps our spouses. We cannot weigh that on kitchen scales or box it up and pop it into our briefcases before we travel to work. Jesus said in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit”. We can’t see the air around us, or the winds that are so prevalent over most of Scotland, where I live. But we know that the air we breathe is there, invisible but ever-present. 

Our enemy the devil has a number of weapons at his disposal. He is a master at finding within us our weak spots and, once there, he will pick away bringing depression and destruction. And even more so in the case of believers, because he wants to destroy our relationship with our wonderful Father God. There are many ways in which he can do this, but three come to mind. 

Think about past hurts. The effects of things that happened in our childhood. Perhaps an abusive parent caused us harm. Or being brought up in a one-parent home, yearning for a father. In our fostering days, my wife and I saw at first hand the impact of alcohol addiction in families, with children in care physically harmed by their parents’s excesses and addiction. Or more recently, perhaps a broken friendship or schism in family relationships left an indelible memory in our minds. On that topic I know of four siblings who fell out over something trivial and because of it one of them never spoke to his three sisters for the rest of his life, a time period extending for over thirty years. He died a bitter man. Past hurts linger in our memories, and impact our behaviour and emotions, if we let them. Thank God that He has redeemed our minds through the blood of Jesus. The memories may remain, but they have been redeemed because we are children of God. Jesus said, “ … Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). 

Another common attack from the devil is through pride. Have we ever been wronged or have wronged someone else, and, because of our pride, we wait for the other party to make amends? Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall“. Another Proverb, “All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech” (Proverbs 8:13). The kind of pride that stems from self-righteousness or conceit is sin, and God hates it because it is a hindrance to seeking Him. Those who are proud individuals, so full of themselves, will find themselves tagged as “wicked”, as we read in Psalm 10:4, “The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead“. Pride will divert us from God’s ways because it is a sin. Pure and simple.

Here’s another way the devil will attack us. Anger is something that he will use to destroy us. We may be in a discussion with someone, but the conversation isn’t going our way, and we suddenly explode in anger. Or another driver cuts in front of us in a traffic queue and something inside us wells up in anger. Sound familiar? James 1:19-20, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires”. Of course, there are times when we must get angry, particularly when God’s name is being discredited or an injustice violates His world. Jesus got angry, as we read in Mark 3:5a, “He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts …”. We too must use our feelings of anger to motivate us to correct the injustices of life, by prayer and deed. At the moment the Scottish and UK Parliaments are discussing a law to approve assisted suicide, something that we pilgrims should become angry about, but we must channel our anger in a righteous way by perhaps writing to our lawmakers and in prayer that God will correct the wrongs being perpetrated by godless men and women. But what we must do is never let anger control us, because it will lead us into sin with potential and terrible consequences. 

There are many ways in which the devil will attack us, setting traps for the unwary. But we must regularly examine ourselves and turn to Ephesians 6, where we will find a blueprint for rebuffing the attacks and traps of the enemy. And as David did, we keep our eyes fixed firmly on the Lord. We read in Philippians 4:7, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus“. 

Dear God. We pray for Your protection to hedge us around, keeping us safe from the attacks of the evil one. And in our prayers we pray for the protection of our families as well. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Who Fears God?

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose. They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land. The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. My eyes are always on the Lord, for he rescues me from the traps of my enemies.”
Psalm 25:12-15 NLT

David asked the question, “Who are those who fear the Lord?” Most people in society don’t fear God at all, and even Christians can fail to treat Him with respect. The God-deniers live in a little bubble, isolated from the Creator of the universe, thinking that He won’t have any interest in them personally, that is, even if they believe that he exists. After all, they say, surely God should take more interest in His creation, stopping human beings from trashing His world. But all these thoughts wouldn’t have occurred to David. He lived in a different bubble, one that included the Lord, and in one that involved the worship and reverence of the One who had done so much for him. David wrote about the benefits of fearing the Lord. Friendship with God, prosperity of body and soul, and rescue from his enemies were three things that he wrote down, but there are many more. We pilgrims have aligned our lives to God’s ways because we found that when we knelt before Jesus, confessing our sins, and embarking on the journey to Glory, we found a treasure of great price. A door opened before us into a world where the Lord is King, and where we found a life of fellowship and friendship with God that will last for all eternity. We found the meaning of Proverbs 1:7a where we read, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge …“.

The word “fear” has different meanings in the Bible. For a believer, we get some idea of what “fear” means from Hebrews 12:28-29, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire”. A “holy fear” is translated “reverence” elsewhere, and it gives an idea of the true response from a believer to his Creator. The proper response to God is one of grateful worship, because of who He is. No other religion has a God who created the Universe, an infinitely immense task on its own (something He did by speaking a Word – “then God said …“), and yet then sent His Son to reconcile man to Himself by dying on a Roman cross at a place called Calvary, providing forgiveness for all sins ever committed. What an amazing God! 

To a person who doesn’t believe in God, fearing God is just an emotion and doesn’t apply to them. Religious people live a life that they think irrelevant and primitive. Their belief system is based on evolutionary and astronomic theories, and they think that anything to do with a spiritual life and a Creator God is a figment of imagination in uneducated people. But Jesus said to His disciples, “But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear” (Luke 12:5). There will come a time when God will demand all people to give an account for their lives, and we can read about that terrible day in Revelation 20. I can remember an occasion when two fellow workers were discussing the pro’s and con’s of life insurance, and after much discussion I pointed out that they should also consider death insurance, because after our natural bodies have died, our souls go on to live forever. The “insurance” that only God can supply is there, ready and waiting for anyone to sign up to, with no monthly payments, just a commitment to align their lives to God and follow Jesus. Recently, after watching people running a race in a local park, I said to someone that most of these people spend much of their time pursuing personal fitness for bodies that will wear out and be buried somewhere within 50 or so years, but they neglect the fitness and destiny of their souls that will live forever. Unbelievers have much to fear from God. When they reject Him, they, by default, will find that he will reject them one day. There will be no second chance after they cross the Great Divide and find themselves in a place where they don’t want to be. 

To sum up, we turn to a quotation from gotquestions.org, “Believers are not to be scared of God. We have no reason to be scared of Him. We have His promise that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). We have His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Fearing God means having a reverence for Him that greatly impacts the way we live. The fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshiping Him in awe”.

So there we have it. We come into God’s presence with a great feeling of awe and reverence, knowing that He loves us and smothers us with His grace and kindness. As His children, there is no better place to be.

Dear Father God. We thank You and honour You, worshiping at Your footstool. In Your presence we find all that we need for life on this earth and beyond. Amen.

The Lord’s Honour

Posted on by korgrocker

“For the honour of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins.”
Psalm 25:11 NLT

There is something sobering about the thought that we could besmirch the name of the Lord. How could we? How could we sully the name of God, the One who has done so much for us? How could we drag God’s name down to the same level as ourselves? But many do. The phrase of surprise, “Oh my god”, is ubiquitous in the UK today and it has brought down God’s name to the same gutter populated by blatant sinners who have no intention of asking God for forgiveness for their sins. Most of these people deny the presence of God anyway. The “god” of such people is the god of this world, satan. But David was concerned about honouring the Lord, not just in a private sense but also publicly before the world of his day. 

How did David know that he had “many, many sins”? Probably because he lived a life close to God, and therefore the gulf between the sinless Lord and sinful David was very visible to him. I have known several people who claim to be “good” people and see no reason as to why they should repent of anything. They pay their taxes. They don’t steal from shops. They don’t try and avoid paying for train or bus fares. They are polite and respectful to their neighbours and fellow workmates, and even keep to speed limits (more or less). But they, like everyone else, fall into Paul’s net, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). And David was very aware of what “God’s glorious standard” was, purely because he spent so much time with his Lord. The people of Jesus’ day initially embraced Him and His miracles, enjoying having a stomach full of bread and fish, and perhaps seeing a loved one healed of a debilitating illness. But being in close proximity to the Son of God was an uncomfortable place to be because he was sinless, and because of that He exposed their sinfulness.

God’s standard for human beings is unreachable for those who want to achieve it in their own strength. Through Moses, God gave the Israelites a blueprint for how to become perfect in His sight. And yes, for a time, usually brief, the Jews of ancient days were able to live by the Law and they showed God the love He required. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, “[He] replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind'” (Matthew 22:37). That was the purpose of the Law, but Paul wrote, “The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). “For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:19). 

But we pilgrims know all about trying to reach God’s perfection through our own strength. So many Christians think that they can tick the right boxes by going to church on a Sunday, laudable though that is. But what about on a Monday morning, when they have to get up for work? A husband growls at his wife for something trivial. The wife snaps back and a row develops, and the time spent in God’s presence the previous day quickly evaporates into the mundane human world of sin and wickedness. We pilgrims, however, and like David, “have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God”. We do that in our daily lives, living in the light of our confessed sins, and doing our utmost to walk in repentance. Isaiah wrote, “For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are. We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord. We have turned our backs on our God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have been, carefully planning our deceitful lies” Isaiah 59:12-13). 

With David we cry out to the Lord for forgiveness for our “many, many sins“. It doesn’t matter if we feel our sins our trivial or great, insignificant or noticeable. Before God, all sins are significant and need to be repented of before the Man on the Cross. His blood will cleanse us from all sin, and grant us His righteousness.

Dear Lord. We humbly thank You for the forgiveness granted us so freely. We worship You in praise and adoration today. Amen.

Keeping His Covenant

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Psalm 25:8-10 NLT

God made a covenant with Israel, as David knew when he wrote, “The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands”. This verse implies that those who don’t keep His covenant, obeying what it means, will fail to live with God in the ways that He intended. It also means that such covenant-breakers will fail to experience His “unfailing love and faithfulness”, leaving them outside the “shelter of the Most High” (Psalm 91). A scary thought I’m sure for God-fearing Israelites, but when we look back at their history we find many times when they generally failed to “keep His covenant”. The prevailing covenant in David’s time would have been the Mosaic covenant, given to Moses many years before. This was a conditional covenant, summed up in Deuteronomy 11:26-28, “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before”. 

God also made a covenant with David, promising long life for his kingdom. 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever”. And we pilgrims know, of course, the Man who subsequently sat on the throne of David, 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!” The Angel Gabriel also told Mary, Jesus’ mother-to-be, the same message, “He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David” (Luke 1:32). 

We pilgrims are very grateful – actually our feeble attempts at gratitude hardly give it justice – for Jesus coming to this world and giving us a New Covenant. Jeremiah prophetically wrote down, ““The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. … “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33). Although Jesus said He would fulfil the Law of Moses (the Mosaic Covenant – Matthew 5:17), he also promised a New Covenant. Luke 22:20, “After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you“. The New Covenant was given first for the Jews and then the whole of mankind, but what was this covenant? In many ways the whole of the New Testament is based on the premise that Jesus, the Son of God, came to this world to shed His blood to take away the sins of the world. Hebrews 7:22, “Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God”. The New Covenant is the promise that God will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him.

But what does all this mean for us pilgrims? We now live in the wonderful Kingdom under God’s grace.“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9). And this salvation is gained through faith in Jesus, that He died for us at a place just outside Jerusalem called Calvary so that our sins can be forgiven. What an amazing giving and loving God, that he would do all of that just for you and me! We have the wonderful promise, originally given to David, that He will lead us “with unfailing love and faithfulness“. He did then and He still does today.

But there are two parties to a covenant. God has promised our eternal salvation through grace, through the blood of Jesus. Paul wrote, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (Romans 8:11). Our responsibility is to exercise faith in Jesus, the One who fulfilled the requirements of the original Mosaic covenant on our behalf and brought an end to the required sacrifices through His own sacrificial death. We pilgrims now share in the inheritance of Christ, as we read in Hebrews 9:15, “That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant“.

We pilgrims are highly favoured and very blessed. And so grateful, that we have so much in response to so little from our side of the Covenant. The most valuable possession that can ever be considered and imagined is ours for free. It costs us nothing, but it cost Jesus everything. What can we do other than praise and worship Him. Today and every day.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on our lives. You have provided us with more than we could ever have imagined. We praise and worship You today. Amen

Leading the Humble

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Psalm 25:8-10 NLT

David wrote, “He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way”. This simple and informative sentence is also profound and fundamental, and essential for the health of pilgrims everywhere. Quite simply, to continue our journey in the right way, receiving God’s teaching to help us, means we have to be humble. Three words that are the opposite of “humble” are “proud, arrogant and conceited”, and, unfortunately, I have come across many people, particularly in employment, whose actions and personality are described perfectly by these three words. There again, I suppose that everyone, at one time or another, has behaved in the same way at some time in their lives. But in our secular world, humility is considered with negative connotations, associated with words such as meekness, and humble people are often considered as being inferior to their more arrogant and assertive peers. 

So what does it mean to be “humble“? There are two New Testament Scriptures that make it clear that humility is something we have to work at. 1 Peter 5:5-6, “In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honour“. And then we have Ephesians 4:2, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love“. And of course we mustn’t forget what Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth“. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:12 that humility is something that we put on much like when we get dressed, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”. So being humble is a mindset, a life-choice, and humility something that a pilgrim must adopt if he  or she is to grow to be more like Jesus. 

Humility is not an option for Christians, because some commentaries even state that it must be a prerequisite before we can even be saved. A humble person is one who has put to death their “old man” and replaced it with the “new man” Paul wrote about in Ephesians 4:22-24. “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy”. A proud person, puffed up with a sense of their own importance, will never empty themselves to the point that God’s grace will flow and provide His resources for their journey. An un-humble person will be full of themselves and they go round singing the old song “I’ll do it my way”, but, unfortunately for them, they can’t. It has to be God’s way, or no way.

Jesus gave His disciples, and us, an example of what being humble looks like. In John 13 we read the story of how He left the dinner table where He was enjoying the Passover meal with His disciples, and adopted a servant’s role to do the most menial and demeaning job a servant could be called to do. He washed His disciples feet. Peter objected because, after all, this was His Lord and Master, and anyway, rabbis don’t go around washing people’s feet. After all the feet had been washed (including those of Judas, by the way), Jesus gave an explanation. John 13:14-15, “And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you”. So we pilgrims look around at our peers, our friends and family, and must ask ourselves the question – have I washed any of these feet? Not necessarily literally of course, but do we have the attitude that we look out for ways in which we can do something similar? 

Perhaps we pilgrims, myself included, need to do a regular checkup and set ourselves a humility test. Unless we pass the test we will limit God’s grace in our lives. God will lift up those who are humble – Luke 14:11, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted”. 

Dear Lord, help me to be humble. Grant me the grace to see my own flaws and shortcomings, and to recognize that my gifts and talents are not my own but a gift from you. Help me to prioritise others’ needs and well-being above my own desires and ambitions. May I be more concerned with serving you and others than with pleasing myself. Forgive my pride and arrogance, and fill me with your humility. Amen.

God Does Right

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Psalm 25:8-10 NLT

David wrote that “the Lord … does what is right”. Of course He does, we say. What else could the God and Creator of the Universe ever do, because if He didn’t we probably wouldn’t be here at all because chaos would have prevailed. But then we think, God does what is right from his perspective, not ours. So someone who enjoys being a sinner might not be very happy at all about God doing what is right, especially when they come to stand before the Judge, sitting on the Great White Throne! There are, of course, those who would dispute that God does right, as they survey the mayhem going on around them in the world. They hold God accountable for all the bad things that are happening in the world and, they say, surely a righteous God would not allow such suffering, because it is not right that children, for example, get caught up in wars or catch infectious and debilitating diseases. But such superficial thoughts come from a general lack of understanding and knowledge about God. 

Human thoughts about righteousness are based on morals and justice. The laws of the country in which we live set out what is right and what is wrong, so that all those in the society will benefit. So there are laws against breaking a speed limit, because someone might be hurt through a speed-related collision. Or it is not right to provide a false testimony in a law court, because someone might be fined or incarcerated because of it. But where do these laws come from? Here in the UK, most of them are based on a morality that originated with God. From way back He commanded that the Israelites must not murder anyone, or steal something that belongs to someone else. Laws based on this are accepted as common sense and breaking them will result in a punishment of some kind. We also have to remember that we are all made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and so we will have within us some of God’s DNA, giving us a conscience even if we are ignorant of the law.

God “does what is right” because He is perfect and His righteousness is perfect too. So in all matters, God’s standards of morality, justice, and so on are set at a standard that is perfection. But achieving God’s gold standard of righteousness is impossible for human beings because of sin. Thankfully, through Jesus, we can attain God’s righteous because He has cleansed us from all our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God“.  We call it the Divine Exchange, in that Jesus took on our sins on Calvary’s cross, and in return gave us His righteousness. What a bargain! An eternal gift of God that is beyond any price. 

But such a divine act of love cannot pass without a response, and we must live our lives accordingly. We cannot just continue in our sinful ways without taking the necessary steps to live God’s way instead of our ways. Some people give up the journey, saying that it is too hard to try and live God’s way. They become quite fatalistic about God’s righteousness, thinking that their destiny was probably pre-determined meaning that there was nothing much they could do about it, and as a result they don’t bother themselves about God and His righteousness. There was a priest in Israel called Eli and he had two sons who ministered with him. Eli’s sons were scoundrels who abused their positions as priests and Eli was too weak to do anything about it, other than offer them a mild rebuke. Even after a man of God pointed out to him the error of his ways, Eli still failed in his responsibilities. So God spoke to the young Samuel in a nighttime conversation and Eli, the priest at the time, asked Samuel what it was all about. We read in 1 Samuel 3:18, “So Samuel told Eli everything; he didn’t hold anything back. “It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied. “Let him do what he thinks best””. We can be like that sometimes, giving up on doing something that we know we should do, but we lack the will and courage to do it. But Paul wrote some encouraging words in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up“. Hebrews 12:12-13, “So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong“. Because of God’s love, we have all the resources we need to live in the light of God’s righteousness. Romans 8:37, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us“.

We pilgrims are on a journey to become more like Jesus. Romans 8:29-30, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory”. Let us not give up. Our challenges and difficulties in this life are insignificant compared with the time we will spend with Jesus in eternity.

Dear Father God. In times of trial and uncertainty, grant us the strength to persevere. Help us to remember that our struggles are not signs of weakness, but opportunities to grow in faith. May we find your guidance and strength in every step we take, even when the path seems unclear. Help us to trust in your plan for us, even when we don’t fully understand it. Grant us the courage to not give up, but to continue seeking your will, knowing that your love and grace will see us through. Amen.

Youthful Rebellion

Posted on by korgrocker

“Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.”
Psalm 25:6-7 NLT

Oh dear! Those youthful years, teenage challenges and sins, trial and error, hormonal changes. Years spent casting around for meaning and morals, years marked by rebellion against anyone in authority, including parents. Difficult years, as an adult desperately tried to emerge from a child into the light of further education or employment. Oh dear! Those youthful years. Why did David ask God not to “remember the rebellious sins of [his] youth”? Because he, like us, still had the memories lurking in the dark recesses of his mind, always ready to emerge and cause pain. “If only I hadn’t …” is a thought that surfaces if we let it, bringing shame and regrets in the process. So David, like us, committed “rebellious sins” in his youth.

Of course, we pilgrims have confessed all our sins. We read and followed 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. So the sins of our rebellious youth have been forgiven and dealt with, and if we ask God to forgive us for them again, then His reply is “What sins”? We remember the verse, “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12), which is a good way of saying that God had wiped our sin-slate clean. So why did David bring it all up once again? Probably for the same reason we do, but perhaps David’s approach was better, because he made a statement, written down to remind him and perhaps God that his sins were not to be remembered.  

But what were those rebellious sins? They are not just limited to those tender in years. There are many who behave like children all their lives, and we see such people represented in our political and business classes today. Isaiah wrote, ““What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins”. Those who watch the goings-on in the UK parliaments will see increasing secularism dominating the proceedings, the Christian roots of British society long forgotten, binned with all thoughts of Heavenly morality, and, as a consequence, their sins “piling up”. It’s not a democratic and God-less state that we need but instead one based on the principles of the Kingdom of God, and a population embracing revival once again. Thankfully, one day God will rule and reign here on earth, firstly Jesus for a thousand years, and then God Himself in the New Jerusalem that we read of in Revelation 21. There is no democracy in God’s Kingdom. 

We pilgrims are never rebellious of course. Well, never rebellious to God, although we might rebel against the God-less laws that are infiltrating our societies. So we will sometimes find fellow believers demonstrating against laws that conflict with God’s Word. We are led by the Holy Spirit in our day-by-day lives and with His wisdom we navigate the secularism so prevalent. We are like guerrillas, believers infiltrating the kingdom of darkness, seeking to disrupt the works of the devil, and doing what we can to promote the Kingdom of Light. The going is tough sometimes, because the forces of darkness want to close us down, but we are on the winning side. 

Rebellion and sin are close bedfellows, because the focus is against God and His ways. And we remember what Paul wrote in Romans 8:5-6, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace”. We pilgrims are led by the Holy Spirit, and through our relationship with Him, the “rebellious sins of youth”, or at any other stage in life, will disappear. We dedicate our lives to God and he will lead us in His ways.

Dear Father God. Once again we thank You for cleansing us from all our sins. We commit our lives to You, this day and every day for the rest of our lives. Amen.

Unfailing Love

Posted on by korgrocker

“Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.”
Psalm 25:6-7 NLT

Twice in these two verses, David mentioned the Lord’s “unfailing love”. Love is just one of God’s attributes, along with His justice, holiness, righteousness, and even His anger. But we pilgrims know all about these but only in an imperfect way. In Genesis 1 we read, “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. …”. So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26a-27). If we are made in God’s image then we will have His attributes as well, although sin has corrupted them greatly. 

So what is God’s love? Paul gave us a good definition of human love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance”. God’s love is all of this but taken to the nth degree, and the Bible is the story of God’s love for mankind, with a crescendo coinciding with the first coming of Jesus. We all know the Scripture, “for God so loved the world ..”, and there was no greater demonstration of God’s love than that. To think that the Creator of the Universe would stoop so low as to visit this planet at all would have demonstrated His love for us, but then to die for us so that we could receive forgiveness for our sins in the Divine Exchange was, and still is, beyond human understanding. David wrote, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). It’s this pursuing thing that we humans greatly underestimate. God’s love is something that is active and vibrant, and the very thought must drive us to our knees in grateful worship. 

Paul wrote about the pinnacle of God’s “unfailing love” in Romans 5:6, 8, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. … But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”. There were other examples of God’s love for His people in the Bible, and perhaps the most poignant and telling is the story of Hosea, who God asked to prophetically marry a prostitute, demonstrating His love for the adulterous nation of Israel. Time and time again, God’s “unfailing love” leaps from the pages of Scripture, a love that never died or failed.

God made covenants with His people, covenants of love and commitment such as with Moses that we can read in Exodus 34:6-7a, “The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. …”. The thing about God is that, once a covenant is made between Him and His people, He never breaks it. The human party to the covenant, as the Israelites demonstrated time and again, would often break their side of the covenant, but God never did. In Exodus 34:10a we read, “The Lord replied, “Listen, I am making a covenant with you in the presence of all your people. …”. That Mosaic covenant, sealed with the blood of animals for forgiveness of sins, was superseded by Jesus, as we read about Jesus, God’s Son, in Hebrews 9:15, “That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant”. God’s “unfailing love” was such that He sent His Son as the ultimate blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Now that’s “unfailing love”, the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for all eternity. 

Dear Father God. Your love for us knows no bounds. We can never thank You enough. Amen.

The Teachable

Posted on by korgrocker

“Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”
Psalm 25:4-5 NLT

David asked the Lord to teach him, but what was the curriculum and method of the teaching? After all, David was skilled in most of what he put his hand to. Perhaps there’s a hint in the previous few words, “Lead me by Your truth”, because the teaching that David required was to be based on God’s truth. There is more information in Psalm 86:11, “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name”. The curriculum for learning God’s ways must be unlimited, so how long would it take to complete the course?

A prerequisite before we apply David’s request for God’s teaching to our own lives is that we must be teachable. How open are we to receive any sort of teaching let alone that from God? How did we get on at school or college? Can we accept correction or embrace new ideas? And do we rely on someone else to deliver us teaching in a form we can understand and accept? Or, do we individually ourselves rely on the master Himself to teach us through the Holy Spirit within us? If we are to learn God’s ways we must be teachable, and prepared to stick the course even when there going gets tough. There was a time when Jesus’ teaching was too hard for some of His disciples. About His teaching, “Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? … At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him” (John 6:60-61, 66). So, we must be open to what God has for us because He wants us to become more like Him. Paul wrote, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29), so if God chose us to be like His Son, Jesus, then we had better be prepared for much teaching. 

In a secular setting, to be taught about anything, we need to go one of two routes; either a formal educational path delivered and monitored by teachers and tutors, or a self-help route, where the student uses published resources to learn what is required. There may of course be a combination of both in certain educational environments, but there is then usually an exam followed by a certificate or diploma for the successful candidates. But in the Kingdom of God, things are different. We went to be taught the ways of God but the course curriculum will be different for each one of us. But the bottom line is that we want to be more like Jesus and to get there we have to follow and obey His teachings. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). A secular education has one major difference to being educated by God and that is about ourselves. In the world an education does not ask anything of us and we can continue to live our lives as we always have done, sin and all. In the Kingdom of God, being taught costs us our lives because we have to hand them over to God. That’s what taking up a cross is all about. There is one other thing that we must be aware of and that is the length of the course. We do not embark on, for example, a two year diploma in whatever. Instead the course we enrol on for lasts for the rest of our lives. And one day we will cross the Great Divide and receive our diploma, hearing the Master Himself say “well done. ….”. 

Jesus also told us that we must be teachers. Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. As disciples ourselves we are taught by God’s Word, through prayer, and through the pastors and teachers who lead our churches and fellowships. And we communicate what we have learnt to those around us, those who have perhaps started on the course a bit later than we did. Are we pilgrims teaching anyone? Before we go down the tubes, admitting that we aren’t, don’t forget that as we shine in our families and communities, we are unconsciously teaching them. But we must be prepared nevertheless, to sit down with a friend or family memory and share the Word and our testimony with them, praying with them and encouraging them. We tell them our stories about Jesus and all that He has done for us, helping them too along the narrow way that leads to glory.

Dear Lord, we praise you for being the author of all truth and thank you for our ability to be able to learn. Please help us humbly pursue wisdom and learning for your glory and to serve others. Lead us by your Spirit, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.