Free From All Blame

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:7-9 NLT

Something significant is embedded in these three verses. Have you noticed that the Corinthian believers have not done anything to contribute to their salvation as they “eagerly wait for the return of the Lord”?God has supplied “every spiritual gift” for them. Paul wrote that God will keep them “strong to the end“, “free from all blame”, and that He is faithful with an invitation “into partnership with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord”. And that is the same for us believers today. Our amazing God gives and gives, and never stops giving, all through His grace, love and mercy. 

As we read on in this epistle, we find that there was much that the Corinthian believers could have been blamed for, but we won’t get ahead of the text. The well read verses in Ephesians 2 set out why – “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“. I meet so many people who think they will stand before God blameless because of their self-assessment that they are “good people”. Such a person comes to my mind. I met a young woman some years ago who was in a lesbian relationship. I was sharing my testimony with several people at the time but this young woman was vociferously confident that if there was a God then she would be acceptable to Him because she behaved well in her society and had done nothing to be ashamed of. Some other people I have met cannot even be bothered to think about the enormity of going to Hell, having a misguided, devil-inspired, view that Hell won’t we all that bad a place. In fact, one man I met thought it would be a place of partying. But I keep chipping away at these sinful bastions of humanity, in case there will be an opportunity to introduce someone to Jesus. 

But I’m sure we pilgrims are all “good people” as well. After all, we have been called out of the darkness of sin into the light of God’s grace. But that is the issue. Like everyone else, we lived a life of sin, our “goodness” falling far short of God’s standard. There was a day when someone introduced us to Jesus. Or it might even have been a day when we had our own Damascus Road experience. It might have been a time such as experienced by John Wesley, who was a clergyman in the Church of England but a self-confessed spiritual pauper. In a church meeting in 1738 someone was reading the introduction to the Book of Romans by Martin Luther, and in that moment, Wesley described feeling his heart “strangely warmed”. He felt a deep sense of God’s love and assurance that his sins were forgiven through faith in Christ alone. But regardless of other people’s experiences of God, our testimonies of how we discovered God’s grace are deeply personal and can impart an important message to those who are yet to be saved.

There was that day when we came to the cross of Jesus, confessing and repenting of our sins, and feeling that peace within us, knowing that we were now blameless before God. We too experienced hearts that were “strangely warmed”, assured of our salvation and eternal life with God Himself in Heaven one day. But to be blameless, we also had to be given Jesus’ righteousness through God’s grace. Just stop and think for a moment. No matter how dark our lives had been, we could be “free from all blame” through Jesus. What a wonderful Saviour! Just a note of caution however, and a sobering thought. If we now stand before God, righteous in His sight, what does that mean for the way we live our lives? It’s somehow easier to repent of our sins, than live a life of righteousness, God’s way? Hmmm…

David wrote, “For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not turned from my God to follow evil. I have followed all his regulations; I have never abandoned his decrees. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin” (Psalm 18:21-23). In the New Testament we read, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight … ” (Ephesians 1:4). We pilgrims were destined to be God’s children, without any baggage of blame and sin. We pilgrims are indeed blameless in God’s sight, but it would be grossly dishonouring to Him if we proceeded to live a sinful life, ignoring our responsibilities as His children. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light“. Peter went on to describe our status and responsibilities in God’s Kingdom – “Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give honour to God when he judges the world” (1 Peter 2:11-12). As “God’s very own possession” we have the responsibility to live our lives God’s way. Some would say that we are not under such a heavy burden, because we have been set free by the Holy Spirit. Although there is some truth in that, having been set free from the Law, but in my heart can I really not live a life honouring to God? There is a critical balance between legalism and freedom, and one we work out with our amazing and gracious God, day by day.

Father God. We love You, our wonderful Heavenly Father. Our worship is Yours by right, and we are deeply thankful for being Your children. Please help us to live lives honouring to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.


 

Eagerly Waiting

Posted on by korgrocker

“Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:7-9 NIVUK

What do we pilgrims feel about the return of Jesus? Does the thought full us with dread or a pleasurable anticipation? I suppose it all depends on our circumstances, exposing the dilemma facing us Western Christians. We have so much in terms of material wealth that we have a reluctance to let it all go. Even those who complain about their lack of money and difficulties in making ends meet in a society experiencing a cost of living crisis, probably have more possessions available to them than many of the Corinthian believers. It is all relative. Of course there are many, too many, people who suffer from poor mental health and who would welcome relief in a new world that would accompany Jesus’ return, each set free at last from the depression and other conditions that blight their lives. But in the main we fill our lives with more and more “stuff”, clogging up our clarity of thought and vision of a new order in God’s presence. 

The early First Century Christians were convinced that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. In fact, in their expectations He could return at any time, and His imminence focused their minds. They woke up in the morning, thinking “is this the day”? In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Paul reassured the believers that those who have died while they wait for Jesus would not be disadvantaged. He wrote, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him”. But the days passed and Jesus did not return. But that did not stop them living as though He would come in the next hour or day. And so they eagerly awaited His return, not lacking “any spiritual gift” and assured that Jesus would “keep [them] firm to the end”. 

But here we are two thousand years or thereabouts later and Jesus still hasn’t returned. In Matthew 24:3 we read of a conversation between Jesus and His disciples. “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” The first part of their question referred to the Temple and Jesus’ prophecy that it was going to be destroyed (this subsequently happened in AD 70). But the disciples were also concerned about the end of the age. Jesus’ answer started in the next three verses with a discourse following of the end time events, “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pains”. History records the signs Jesus warned us of, signs that He said were just the “birth-pains”, preceding the End Time events. Recent happenings in the Middle East have caused some speculation that we are in the same situation as the First century Christians, awaiting Jesus’ imminent return. Even some well known and respected pastors have been inclined to comment through social media postings that we could be just about at the time of the “End of the Age”. But Jesus later said, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (Matthew 24:34. That has obviously not happened so there have been several opinions expressed by theologians over the years about what Jesus meant. We must remember the dual question asked by the disciples and possibly Jesus was referring to the  destruction of the Temple when He said this. Or He might have been referring to a future generation that would still be alive when He returned. But come what may, as a Bible commentary states, “Both views, as well as many others, agree that in at least one sense, Jesus is right now at the gates, ready to return. Nothing stands in His way, and He waits only for the Father to send Him, at the moment only the Father knows. He could arrive at any time”. 

In Matthew 24:42, we read that Jesus said, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come”, and in the next chapter Jesus gave three illustrations of the importance of being ready for His return. We have the parables of the Ten Virgins, the Three Servants, and then the Sheep and the Goats. The conclusion in the first parable included the five virgins who were not ready for the return of the Bridegroom, and we read, “Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’ “But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’” (Matthew 25:11-12). And Jesus finished with, “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return” (Matthew 25:13). But the story of the Sheep and the Goats is more than a parable, more than just another Biblical story. It is a stark warning of what is to come and what Jesus will be expecting to find when He returns. 

So back to the question I started with. What do we feel about the return of Jesus? The Corinthian believers were “eagerly awaiting” His return. Are we, and if so, what are we doing about it? We can’t just sit on a Sunday pew, comfortable in our Western Christianity, praying that nothing will disturb our status quo. We have to do the things Jesus has asked of us. And if we dread His return we must look closely at our relationship with Jesus, and pray that He will once again empower our lives through the Holy Spirit within us. 

Father God. We repent of our lukewarm faith, without power and effect. Please forgive us for our spiritual lethargy, and help us once again to find our first love, that time when we first encountered You and were infused with the excitement of knowing You. May we too be like those early believers, eagerly awaiting Your return. In Your precious and holy name. Amen.

Our Testimony About Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NIVUK
“I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NLT

Paul could see so much good in those early Christians in Corinth. He provides the picture of a people who seem to have a new confidence enhanced by the spiritual gifts they had received. They received an ability that came from being “enriched in every way with all kinds of speech and knowledge”. But that wasn’t unusual with the early believers. In Acts 3 we can read of a “man who was lame from birth” and who was carried to the Temple gate every day to beg. Then there came those epic words from Peter, “ … ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong” (Acts 3:6-7). Of course, the people who knew the disabled beggar “were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” and this gave Peter and John an opportunity to preach the Gospel in a part of the Temple called Solomon’s Colonnade. But this displeased the religious authorities and “They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day”(Acts 4:3). Peter and John were brought in for questioning the next day before a meeting of the Sanhedrin and they were asked, ” … By what power or what name did you do this?” (Acts 4:7). Now here’s the point of this story – the next verse started, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people!” ‭‭Peter started a discourse empowered in the same way as the believers in Corinth. They were all full of the Holy Spirit and the “gracious gifts He has given [them]”. After Peter’s defence before the Sanhedrin, the two disciples were removed from the assembly and we then read something very telling, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus“. That’s what Paul could see in those early Corinthian believers – men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, giving them powers that could only come from God.

Of course we remember the verses where Jesus told His disciples about the Holy Spirit. Jesus was recorded as saying, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12). The same saying of Jesus is in Matthew 10:19-20, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”. Both versions of what Jesus said stress the importance of recognising the Gift of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. I meet Christians who lack the confidence to speak out when an opportunity is presented, because they feel they won’t know what to say. In faith, we all know what to say, because the Holy Spirit will speak through us. 

Believers everywhere, pilgrims like us, have the responsibility, ability and, we pray, the opportunity to provide and speak out our testimonies about Christ. We don’t have to learn a script. We don’t have to stutter and be ashamed about what we know or about our faith. God will lead us and guide us in every situation we come across. How did we come to know Jesus? How has Jesus helped us in our daily lives? It is all there within us, just waiting for the Holy Spirit to form the words and speak them out through our lips, as Jesus said. Some of the best evangelists are new Christians, full of excitement and the Holy Spirit, desperate to tell someone about Jesus. Do we still have that same excitement that we once had?

But we should also take note of something else. In Peter’s discourse before the Sanhedrin he quoted a Scripture from Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone“. The point is that Peter knew a Bible verse that backed up what he was saying. In the culture of His day, Jesus took it as read that the disciples would have had a degree of Bible knowledge, being schooled at least to a basic level as every Jewish boy was. We pilgrims will not have a religious education to the same degree. We may have been ignorant of Sunday schools when we were small. We may never have entered a church until we met Jesus. But that doesn’t matter because we can read the Bible, and the Holy Spirit will be able to put scriptures into our testimonies because they are stored away somewhere in our memory. But having said that, our God is also a miracle worker. There have been times when some thought or impression has emerged in my mind, and I’ve wondered where it came from, but it has been very relevant to the situation before me. 

Paul reassured the Corinthian believers of the authenticity of his testimony about Christ, and I’m sure his readers had the same. This is something that we pilgrims must also be serious about, also having a testimony about Christ, proclaiming all that He has done for us. It is not just about going to church on a Sunday, and behaving like everyone else for the rest of the week. We must shine like beacons, showing the Light of God to all around us, through our behaviour, speech, attitudes and faith. We present a counter-cultural view of societal life that everyone will see and take note of, and we look for opportunities to share our testimonies with anyone who will listen, using as a bottom line the words that Peter said in Acts 2:38-40, “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!””. We do indeed live in a “crooked generation” and must urge those in our society, those we know and don’t know, about the importance of salvation, and where will spend eternity.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for our testimonies, and we pray for Your presence to bring them to life in the ears of our listeners. It’s all about our Lord Jesus, and all that He has done for us, and we praise and worship You today with deeply thankful hearts. Amen.

God’s Gracious Gifts

Posted on by korgrocker

“I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NIVUK
“I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NLT

Now that the greetings are out of the way, Paul thanks God for the Corinthian church. In spite of all its problems, and the difficulties that Paul knew he had to address, Paul could straight away see the good and the potential in these people. And he thanked God for them. Such a view of people, imperfect sinners that we are, is God’s view through His grace “given [us] in Christ Jesus”. That is the most precious gift God has given mankind, one that is eternal and all encompassing. One that is the only possible way to reconcile mankind to God, and that is Jesus, His Son. When we think of gifts, our materialistic minds immediately picture something valuable that we have been wanting for a while. But such a gift is only temporal and will disappear, because it will be left behind when we leave this earth. The only lasting gift is Jesus, because it is only through Him that we can receive the greatest gift of all time – eternal life in God’s presence. And it is all about Jesus and His grace. 

From God’s Gift of grace, flow many other gifts, and all because Jesus, when He left this world, gave us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who dwells within each one of us. Paul noticed that it was through this Gift of Grace, that the church in Corinth had been enriched, and he mentioned in his letter that they were an eloquent group of people blessed with the right words to say from a knowledge base enhanced by their experience of Jesus. There is a noticeable difference between a church or fellowship moving in the light of God’s gifts, and one that isn’t. Someone mischievously once asked a church if they would notice if the Holy Spirit had left them. It was a sobering thought for the congregation, but a good question though and one that many a church would do well to dwell upon. Pope Leo XIV, in his first public address after his recent election, emphasised the Holy Spirit’s role in guiding the Church and the lives of believers. A extract from his inaugural sermon to over 80,000 people went like this, “But when the Holy Spirit comes [people] receive a new way of seeing things, an interior understanding that helps them to interpret the events that occurred and to experience intimately the presence of the Risen Lord. The Holy Spirit overcomes their fear, shatters their inner chains, heals their wounds, anoints them with strength and grants them the courage to go out to all and to proclaim God’s mighty works“. Is that our experience of the Holy Spirit in our churches and fellowships? It seemed to be in the Corinthian church, at least to start with, and here was Paul reminded the believers there of the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit. But we pray too that the words from Pope Leo don’t just resonate with the Roman Catholic estate, but also stretch into churches everywhere, and especially those that have chosen to try and compromise with a society that has sadly fallen out of step with the truth and purity of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit can’t dwell in such a place.

What about us pilgrims? Have we become complacent and find that we are missing the excitement of the first days when the Holy Spirit transformed us inside? When we felt a bountiful supply of joy and love welling up within us? Or do we daily go out very consciously aware of the Holy Spirit empowering us and equipping us for all that we expect to meet, in the office, or in our contacts with random people we are going to meet? The Pope has got it, because he knows that the Holy Spirit transforms lives today, just as He did when He visited the gathered disciples in that Upper Room, with a sound like a roaring wind accompanied by tongues of fire. The Pope painted a picture straight from Scripture, of the Holy Spirit being the Healer, the Overcomer, the Anointer, and the One who provides strength and courage in an age of despair. And the result? We pilgrims, full of the Holy Spirit, can go out and “proclaim God’s mighty works” just like the early disciples did, shaking up the status quo in the Middle East in the process. 

Something the Pope said struck a chord with me. He said that the Holy Spirit shatters internal chains. So many people go through their lives stuttering along, held back by the state of their inner beings. Even we pilgrims can be suffering from fears, anxieties, depression, poor mental health, and many other things that modern psychologists fix a label to. Aspergers, ADHD, PTSD, and other acronyms define a person who can then be tempted to stay in that state, comfortable to remain compatible with the diagnosis, behaviour defined accordingly. But that is not how God sees us. We won’t have any of these conditions in Heaven, because there will be no more sickness, no more pain. So why are we children of God comfortable with them in the few years before we cross the Great Divide? With the Holy Spirit within we have no need to be chained to such conditions.

God’s gracious gifts can all be traced back to the Source, Jesus. He is the greatest gift of all. Ephesians 2:4-5, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved”. God has given mankind all the resources and gifts they need to be able to be His children. So when we have a tendency to opt out of living God’s way, we must remember that the Holy Spirit is within us, resourcing us to face down all that this evil world throws at us.

Dear Father God. Through Your Spirit we have all the gifts for life that we need. Please help us to use them well and effectively, enabling us to be the pilgrims You have called and chosen. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Grace and Peace (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

In his greeting to the Corinthian church, Paul finished with “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace”. Yesterday we considered grace, as we receive it in bountiful measure from our Heavenly Father, and as we show it to others as we meet and greet others in our churches and fellowships, and extend it to those in our societies. Today we are going to consider “peace”. Jesus said to His disciples as He was preparing them for His departure from the world, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). Anything that Jesus said or did was important, but this was a gift to the men who had been with Him for the past three and a half years, a gift of enormous value, a priceless legacy, as they would find out in the years ahead of them. 

One meaning of the word “peace” is the absence of war. As I write, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue, with the added danger of Iran being drawn into conflict. But in addition there are ethnic battles going on in other parts of the world, including the strife bubbling up between supporters of different religions and political groups. Even here in the UK trouble breaks out through marches and other forms of protest, emotions running high and police being needed to “keep the peace”. A constant debate goes on in our universities and on social media as to what constitutes “free speech” and what has crossed the line into hate or racial crimes. “Peace” in our societies seems absent and elusive, and men and women everywhere are fearful, for their future and the future of their children and grandchildren. People become anxious and worried, a state of a lack of peace, when they are unsure and uncertain about the outcome of what is happening around them. In fact, some people become fearful when they take a plane journey or even when they try and cross a busy road, even to the point that they stay at home, as happened during the Covid pandemic, afraid of all sorts of outcomes, most of which are statistically unlikely. The more resilient and optimistic amongst people try and rationalise their feelings by putting their trust in their wealth, possessions and even governments, but there still remains nagging doubts and a plethora of “what if’s”. 

In the Old Testament, the concept of peace was well known. There are verses that support the idea of a lack of conflict between nations, between people and between God and man. When all three boxes were ticked then the Jewish people lived in a state of “peace”. It was, and still is, the custom of the Jews to use the greeting “shalom” when they met with each other. We see its use in scriptures such as 1 Samuel 25:6, “Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own!” This verse was a forerunner to the episode where David asked for supplies for his men from a man he had been protecting, a man called Nabal. Instead of showing them favour, Nabal shouted insults at David’s messengers and sent them away empty handed. Nabal’s wife saved the day with a truckload of supplies, and David’s response was, “ …  Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands … Then David accepted her present and told her, “Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband” (1 Samuel 25:32-33, 35).

Peace was an important state to be in, and ever since the Fall, peace has been in short supply. But Jesus wasn’t meaning a kind of worldly “peace”. The best kind of “peace” that the world offers just doesn’t remove feelings of anxiety and fear. Worldly peace is never with us for long, if at all, but the peace that Jesus offered is eternal. Hebrews 6:18-19, “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary“. Back in John 14, the chapter starts with Jesus’ words, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me“. God has promised us that in Him we can find the peace that we need in our souls. But it requires faith to believe His promises. The terrible worriers amongst us will always be lacking peace, but that is really a display of a lack of faith. In John 14:2-3, Jesus followed His statement about not letting our hearts be troubled with, “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“. Regardless of what this world throws at us, in God we have the source of peace, eternal peace. Jesus Himself. 

As pilgrims, we therefore walk by faith, not by sight, and we believe and apply the advice Paul wrote in Colossians 3:15, “And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful“. So when we start to become fearful through world events, we instead turn to the Source of peace, God Himself. He will never let us down. Psalm 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!“

“When peace like a river” was a hymn written by Horatio Spafford after his four daughters were lost in a shipwreck. The words continue, “whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul“”. That’s God’s peace in action. Could we have written that hymn? We must pray that we become so assured in Jesus and His peace, that we too can weather the storms of life. If God is our strong tower (Proverbs 18:10), then what do we have to fear? In God we can find the peace that our souls yearn for, forever.

Dear Heavenly Source of Peace. We praise You today, and pray for more faith and grace in our lives so that we can sing the hymn with conviction – “It is well with my soul”. Amen.

Grace and Peace (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

Of course, these three initial verses in 1 Corinthians were a standard greeting for Christians, representing the custom at that time for a letter to start, rather than end, in that way. Believers have always needed bountiful supplies of God’s “grace and peace” in their daily lives, as one crisis after another engulfs this wicked world in which we live. But what do we mean by these two words? Taking the word “grace” to start with, we believe it is God choosing to bless us rather than curse us as our sin deserves. It is His benevolence to the undeserving. That really sums up God’s answer to the dilemma facing human beings everywhere. Through our sinful behaviour and thinking, we propagate the evil that defines mankind (remember “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”?) and we human beings deserve judgement, but for a time we enjoy God’s grace. It wasn’t always available, as we can find out in Genesis 6:5-6, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart“. That poignant conclusion to these two verses, that God’s heart was broken, has always deeply affected me, because it exposes God’s disappointment with the way that His creation, so full initially of promise and companionship, has become corrupted and nothing like what he originally intended. But God did not extend His grace to the people living at that time, as we read in the next verse, “And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them””. Thankfully God had a plan, and there is always a “but” – “But Noah found favour with the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). And we see God’s gracious response in Genesis 8:21, “And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things“. ‭‭When God makes a promise He keeps it.

We believers are living in the light of God’s grace, and because of it we are where we are, favoured and blessed children of God. Ephesians 2:8, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God“. The Old Testament blood offerings were in God’s plan for His people so that they could show their faith in Him through their sacrifices. But in the New Covenant, Jesus became the ultimate blood sacrifice. Hebrews 10:3-5, “But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer”. And here’s the amazing manifestation of God’s grace, “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time” (Hebrews 10:10). 

But we must consider how God’s grace is shown to us. Starting with Jesus, we remember His forgiveness, His gift of the Holy Spirit, abundant life (John 10:10), a place in Heaven; the list goes on. We worship a good God, and we must never minimise what He has done for us; we are a people who deserve judgement rather than favour.

Grace comes from God alone, and as a consequence we show grace to others. Galatians 6:1-2 provides a glimpse of how we must treat our fellow believers, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ”. How often do we rather avoid such a person, missing an opportunity to be gracious to a fellow believer? Another way we show grace to others was touched on by Paul in Romans 12:7-8, “Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honourable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone“. We must never look for a way to get our own back on that arrogant driver who nearly involved us in an accident because they did something stupid. Or get upset with someone who wrongs us in a public place with their behaviour. Or think of ways to respond in kind to the office bully. We forgive them because God first forgave us. That’s grace in action. And we remember that there will come a time when they, as well as us, have to stand before God to account for the way they have behaved.

And so we pilgrims are a gracious people, showing grace to others because God has been so gracious to us. We remember the parable of the wicked servant that we find in Matthew 18. A servant who owed his master an impossibly large sum of money was forgiven the debt, but another servant who owed him just a little was pursued aggressively for repayment. We all know the story. The account of the first servant, who was forgiven so much, but who declined to forgive his fellow servant, didn’t end well for him. Matthew 18:34-35, “Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart””. We must be a gracious and forgiving people, because of God’s grace and forgiveness given so freely to us. The very thing that was blocking our entry to Heaven, our sin, was removed from us when we believed in Jesus, when we embraced His forgiveness and were cleansed by His blood. That’s grace. 

Dear Heavenly Father, so full of grace and love. We praise and worship You today for all You have done for us, and for Jesus, who made it all possible. Help us to extend Your grace to those around us because the people we meet need it as well. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Calling His Name

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

In the start of this letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote God “made you holy by means of Christ Jesus”. He then continued by saying that all people who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will also be made holy. Sanctification wasn’t just for Corinth – it is available to all believers everywhere. A major part of being a Christian is the requirement to make Jesus Lord. In Acts 10:36b we read, ” … there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” However, there is a problem in that although Christians are quite prepared to say that Jesus is Lord, this is most usually only a partial commitment. We say Jesus is Lord of a certain part of our lives, but we will continue to control and retain ownership of the other bits. And as a preacher once said, unless Jesus is Lord of all then He is not Lord at all. 

But before we get too far ahead, what does “Lord” mean? In the UK we have the House of Lords, an upper chamber of unelected politicians, there with a variety of titles that start with “Lord”. Landowners became known as “Lords” in medieval times, as feudal rulers, wielding power and authority over the surrounding populations. Today a Lord retains, at least in part, some degree of power and respect. Near where I live there is a Scottish Lord, who can trace his ancestry back to the days of King Robert the Bruce. He too is a landowner living in a large mansion on the banks of the Forth estuary, and who owns property and farmlands in the South of the County of Fife. But more generally, the word “Lord” is used today mainly as a form of respect.

In Jesus’ day, the word “Lord” was used in respectful recognition of the ruling and religious authorities, such as in Matthew 8:2, where Jesus was being shown respect as a rabbi by a leper, “Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean”“.‭‭ Then there is the poignant scene in Matthew 15, of the Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter who asked Jesus to heal her. We read, “Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.” But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”” (Matthew 15:24-25). Through Jesus’ ministry, the word “Lord” became much more than a word of respect, building until those words of Thomas, “My Lord and my God! … ” (John 20:28). There came that time when the Lordship of Jesus took on a divine meaning.

In Peter’s Act 2 sermon, we read, “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:36). In this verse Peter associated Jesus as being the Lord in an eternal and divine sense, and, importantly for the Jews, that He was the Messiah they had been waiting centuries for. 

So when Peter said that Jesus is Lord he was also saying that Jesus is God. And His Lordship wasn’t just retained for the benefit of the Jews. To the Gentile Cornelius and his family Pater said, “This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). Paul went further in his Roman letter, “Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”” (Romans 10:12-13). So we have gone a full circle, from Jesus being the second Person of the Trinity, leaving Heaven to become a human baby conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, His becoming a rabbi and respected with the term “Lord”, to finally be recognised as Lord God after His ascension, and bestowed with the ultimate title of Lord of lords, as written in Revelation 17:14, “Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all Lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him”. ‭ 

For us pilgrims there is an eternal significance to our relationship with the Lord. Jesus said it to Nicodemus in John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”. Paul summed this up in Romans 10:9, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved“. So, we have a challenge. Those three words, “Jesus is Lord”, are not just to be recited. They have to be worked out in our lives, and we have to bring every thought, every deed, under the Lordship of Jesus. We commit ourselves to obey Him. We mustn’t forget that one day everyone will have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. As I write this today, the UK Westminster Parliament has completed a momentous week, passing laws that will decriminalise abortion, and will also allow people to commit state-sponsored suicide. The lawmakers who voted in this way will one day have to kneel before Jesus to explain themselves. A terrible thought because there is only one answer to the unrepentant sinner, and that is “guilty” with an eternal punishment following. And the Bible says that in the process they will have to declare that “Jesus is Lord”, calling out His name. Will they find themselves doing that for all eternity? We don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.

We pilgrims remember those verses at the end of Hebrews 12, “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“. That’s what we must do, on our knees and calling upon the Name that is above all names, Jesus Himself.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your grace and mercy, so freely given in this season of favour. We worship You today, and every day. Amen.

The Sanctified Ones

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

Paul wrote that the believers in Corinth were chosen and called by God for a specific purpose – they are to be His holy people. Paul went on to write how this was going to happen, “He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus” and, this is the good bit, “just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours”. So Paul wrote that all believers everywhere are “God’s holy people“, and that includes us pilgrims, nearly two thousand years after Paul put pen to paper (actually, he probably dictated his letter to his “brother Sosthenes” who theologians think was his scribe, or at least had some part in crafting the letter). 

So what does it mean to be one of God’s own holy people? In some translations, we read the letter was addressed to those, “sanctified in Christ Jesus”, using a word with a special meaning for Christians – to be sanctified is to be set apart for God. This happens when someone becomes born again, that point when they become a believer and follower of Jesus. In His High priestly prayer, Jesus said about His disciples, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:16-17). There is only one Source of absolute truth, God Himself, so it is only He with the authority to make anything holy. But being sanctified is not just a New Testament experience. The Israelites were also commanded to be such in Leviticus 20:7-8, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you“. The Jews were a people set apart for God, and it is remarkable that through millennia, God’s people still exists intact as a distinct nation. The Bible sets out a number of things set apart, or “sanctified” for God’s purposes, not just His people. We read about the items used during the sacrifices in the Temple, for example. But in this world, there is a distinction between worldliness and Godliness, and this is something we pilgrims work hard to honour. We must remember who our Father in Heaven is and be clear about what that means. “So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters” (Hebrews 2:11). There is something precious and very important about being in God’s family and with Jesus as our older brother.

Another outworking of being sanctified involves our physical bodies. I regularly see people, mainly younger ones, looking after the physical fitness of their bodies, as they jog and run around our parks and streets. Others frequent the gyms that seem to have sprung up everywhere, that offer a variety of pieces of equipment, all designed to develop and strengthen our muscles. Nothing wrong with any of that, but sadly people also use their bodies for things that are not quite so honouring to God. Paul warned the Corinthian church about the importance of their bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body“. These verses are the conclusion to a passage referring to the practice, rife in Corinth at that time, of people using the services of prostitutes. But it is not just the physical act of prostitution that is wrong but also any practices that head in that direction, such as the use of pornography. We are set apart from the world and all its temptations and practices, as a holy people, saved and sanctified in accordance with God’s will.

“God invites us sinners to come to Him “just as we are” and receive His mercy and forgiveness. When we are saved, the Holy Spirit begins His amazing work of transforming us into the image and likeness of Christ. To be sanctified means that God loves us too much to let us stay the same” (quote from gotquestions.org). It is a serious business being a believer and follower of Christ. Peter wrote, ” … for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy”” (1 Peter 2:9-10). As God’s people we have attained royal status and that has responsibilities. We don’t live in the way that we used to. The stark contrast between the two kingdoms is clearly set out by Paul in Ephesians 4:21-24, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 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”. The good news is that the Holy Spirit, working within us, undertakes the process of cleaning up our lives and sanctifying us, but we have to co-operate with Him. He works through those gentle whispers, those pricks from our consciences, those verses we read in His Word, all the while helping us to see that what we might be doing is sinful, and not appropriate behaviour for someone who is a child of God. Thankfully, God in His mercy, doesn’t set out a detailed list of rules and regulations that we have to follow all from day one. It takes a lifetime, and more, to become holy as God wants us to be. His grace prevails every day.

So we pilgrims stay close to God and His thoughts and ways. Paul wrote, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Retraining our minds to only think thoughts that are sanctified is a challenge, but it is a challenge we much accept. In our own strength we don’t have a hope, but with the Holy Spirit’s help, we cannot fail.

Dear Father God. You are the amazing God who graciously and lovingly helps us through our perilous days on this planet and in this life. It is help that we need but through Jesus we have all we need. Thank You. Amen.

Called By God

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

Yesterday we considered Paul’s assertion that we have been “chosen by the will of God”. Today we look at Paul’s next statement, presented as fact, that those in the Corinthian church had been “called by God”. In other translations, this epistles starts with ” … Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, …”, indicating that being called and being chosen are much the same. However, being “chosen” doesn’t somehow have the same active meaning as being “called”. Back in my school days we sometimes used to assemble at lunch times for a game of football. Two captains were chosen and they in turn selected their teams, calling out the best footballers. Sadly, I was rubbish at football so was always the last choice but once chosen the teams battled out their game, being called to play football. We talk about being “called” into a profession, like nursing. Or being “called” to be a missionary or minister. The implication is that in the job scene, being “called” is being chosen to work in a profession that is perhaps shunned by others because it is too difficult, messy or just doesn’t fit with personalities or characters. Take being a pastor for example. A person may be a believer, but the thought of having to shepherd people perhaps just doesn’t appeal to that person because they just aren’t a people person, and instead prefer to administer or teach. Paul was called to be an Apostle, implying that having been chosen he now had to live a life represented and dominated by working out his calling.

We look at the “calling” of James, John and Peter, to see how they became Jesus’ disciples. In Luke 5:10-11 we read, “His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus“. At Jesus’ suggestion, the soon-to-be disciples had just had a miraculous catch of fish, convincing them that they had to follow the Master. A bit further down in Luke 5 we read about the calling of Levi (Matthew), “Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him” (Luke 5:27-28). The first four disciples were chosen into a calling following Jesus for three and a half turbulent years, years that, with the other disciples, established their later role as the early church fathers. 

What is our call as believers in God? We know that we were chosen “before the foundation of the world”, but we are also called to be someone. In Ephesians 4:1 we read, “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God”. All believers, pilgrims everywhere, have a calling, and in Ephesians 4 Paul continues, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace”(Ephesians 4:2-3).‭‭ The life of a Christian is a calling, but it is more than a job of work, it is a lifestyle that will continue for all eternity. In another epistle, Paul wrote, “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:9). So our calling involves living a life of holiness. That may conjure up in our minds pictures of monks or nuns dressed in their habits, but that would be incorrect. Today’s believers are facing into seemingly insurmountable challenges as we are bombarded with the products of this evil and wicked world, deflecting us away from the calling to be holy. Being chosen leads to being called to do and be someone. 

1 Peter 2:9 reads, ” … for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light”. Consider this, there we were as unbelievers, bumbling along in our sinful lives in an evil and dark world until we somehow heard a voice calling us. It may not have been an audible voice from Heaven, but through a series of contacts, conversations and situations we found ourselves looking at a wonderful world as a believer. The calls continued and one day we transitioned into God’s world of light. God’s goodness indeed. And Peter reminds us that our calling is to “show others the goodness of God”.

So are we pilgrims working out our calling as believers in Jesus? I suspect we all are, possibly at different rates, or in different ways, but with an active faith like we have what else could we be doing? But that is not to encourage complacency, because we know that the heart is deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17:9). Day by day we come before God in our prayer times, as we study His Word, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in the times ahead.

Dear Father God. There was that day when we heard Your voice calling us and we responded at the foot of Jesus’ cross as we confessed and repented of our sins. We thank You for Your grace and mercy and Your love that never fails us. Amen.

Chosen By God

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

We’re going to take a break from the Psalms for now and spend some time in the Corinthian letters, which Paul wrote in the middle of the First Century AD. A few years earlier Paul had established the church in Corinth, and while away in other places, probably including Ephesus, he wrote the first epistle, followed by the second, three or four years later.

The authorship of the Corinthian epistle was clear, because the letter starts with the name of the author. Paul established the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey, as we read in Acts 18. Paul tried to convince the Jews there about Jesus, but eventually gave up – Acts 18:6, “But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles””. Paul therefore started the church in the home of a man called Titius Justus, who lived next door to the synagogue. It seemed to be quite a successful church plant with even the leader of the synagogue becoming a believer. Reading further, “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God” (Acts 18:9-11). ‭‭

Paul started his first letter by reminding the Corinthians about his credentials, “chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus”. Paul was different from the other early Apostles because he met the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road, on his way to arrest some early believers. We can read the account of how that happened in Acts 9, with the commissioning of Paul recorded in Acts 9:15-16 through a believer called Ananias. “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake””. A clear endorsement of Paul’s apostleship and he did indeed suffer much as he travelled around the Middle East on his missionary journeys. But what choice did Paul have, after such a dramatic encounter and conversion? Paul would never be the same again and all that zeal directed and focused on doing the early believers harm was now to be re-focused on spreading the Gospel. Paul was an extraordinary man, and very worthy of the title “Apostle”.

Paul was chosen “by the will of God”. But in a sense that also applies to all believers. In Ephesians 1:4-5, Paul wrote, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure”. Jesus said to His disciples, and by extension to us as well, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name” (John 15:16). In our arrogance, sometimes, we claim that we “saw the light” and chose to become a believer, but God knew otherwise, as we saw from Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:4. Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners“. Jesus didn’t have to do that. Perhaps we think sometimes that surely God must have had a Plan B for reconciling man to Himself, less demanding and dramatic, but God knew best, as always, and His Plan A was a demonstration of love so profound that it caught the devil on the hop and defeated him once and for all. But most importantly God provides an opportunity today for people to respond to Him, with grateful hearts in this season of grace, and discover His love for them, as they embrace Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins.

Regarding us pilgrims, Peter in his first epistle wrote, “ … for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). We pilgrims are royalty, chosen by God. What a wonderful place to be. God loved the world, and Jesus died as the outworking of that love. We pilgrims now have the opportunity to tell people about what happened two thousand years ago, and we take note of the sermon preached by Peter in Acts 2. At the end we read the corollary, “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40). Peter didn’t try and convince his audience that God loved them, asking them to respond to that love. Instead he warned them of the consequences of refusing to believe in Jesus and in the process living a life the same as the sinful people around them. God has put before all human beings an open door with a sign hanging on it inviting everyone to step inside. Inside they will find the road to eternal life and a personal experience of God’s love, the consequence of being chosen by God.

Dear Lord God. We know that You choose us and love us, Your children, and we are so very grateful. But many around us are totally unaware of what lies before them beyond the grave. Please lead us to people with open hearts, people willing to stop, listen, and take note that this season of Your grace won’t last forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.