Ordinary Folk

Posted on by korgrocker

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 NLT

With whom do we identify in our societies? With those who live in big luxury houses in our suburbs, or those who rent a house or flat from the local council? With those who work in a “white collar” job in an office, or as a “blue collar” worker in a factory? Do we still separate people in our minds into “working class” or “professional class”, “middle class” or “upper class”? In these enlightened days we tend to avoid classifying people for fear of offending them, but distinctions still apply below the radar. TV programmes such as “Downton Abbey” highlight the distinction between the wealthy aristocracy “upstairs” and the working class servants “downstairs” in years gone by. Well, it appears that the Corinthian church had a congregation drawn from the “downstairs” demographic because Paul wrote, “few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy” when they became believers in Christ. These were ordinary folk, and in many churches and fellowships today we will find them well represented. Nothing wrong with that of course, and there may be a good reason for churches to be populated from the less well off in society. Those who have much are less likely to realise that they need God for their salvation. They believe that by their own efforts they have added to their wealth and have no need for any form of religion. A few years ago I found myself walking around the more affluent area of a Central Scotland town with a local pastor and we prayed much, lamenting that there was no-one from this area represented in the local church. They had their neatly manicured lawns and flower beds resplendent with colour. They had luxury cars sitting in their driveways, and money oozed from every brick of their big, architect-designed, houses. In Paul’s eyes, these would have been those who thought they were “wise” by human standards. But a short distance away was a housing estate made up of what has come to be called “social housing”, populated by people who had little, who often struggled to make ends meet, and who lacked the education and employment that would have elevated them into the same league as the “have’s” just down the road. But such people were represented well in the local church, and Paul would possibly have referred to them as those the “world considers foolish”. These were the people who were “powerless” and Paul said that God would use them to “shame those who think they are wise”.

Perhaps in Paul’s days the same principle between the “have’s” and the “have-nots” applied, with those puffed up with their human wisdom looking down on those who were at the lower ends of society, the slaves and servants, considered of little relative value and therefore expendable. But Paul emphasised the fact that God uses those the world despises to do His work. There is a tendency of the earthly wise to have an overblown sense of their own worth, and in their pride and arrogance they have no time for the things of God. They instead adopt a critical view of Christians, remembering that it was Karl Marx who disdainfully referred to “religion” as being the “opiate of the masses”, implying that it was only ordinary people, who made up the “masses”, who would benefit from a belief in God. 

Paul put things into context when he wrote, “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?”(Romans 9:21). All human beings are created by God with a similar appearance – two arms, two legs etc. – and all from the same lump of “clay”. As Jesus told in the parable of the talents, we are each given different gifts and opportunities, and no-one is better than anyone else. The people in the Corinthian church were a gifted people, because they were initially chosen by God and He used them, despised by the world as they were, to “to bring to nothing what the world considers important“. In the context of eternity, a short life span on 70 or so years is but the blink of an eye, and the message of the Cross, no matter how foolish it appears, becomes the most important account that human beings will ever need to hear. Death is a great leveller, because at that point all the wealth, education, and belongings will be left behind, souls traveling on into what for many will become a distressing experience. 

Jesus founded a movement that shook up the world in the First Century and it all started with ordinary folk. A few fishermen were the first called by Jesus, and we know what the “have’s” thought of them from Acts 4:13, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognised them as men who had been with Jesus“. Ordinary men transformed by the wisdom of God. Men not puffed up by their knowledge, but instead in love with Jesus, determined to follow Him regardless of the consequences. With God in their lives they went on to establish the early church, and today there are estimated to be 2.4 billion Christians on our planet. A phenomenal number of people and far beyond anything that could have been established by human wisdom.

Today, we pilgrims are “ordinary folk” who are sold out for Jesus. We may have all the human knowledge and wisdom in the world, but along with Paul we have made this a secondary factor in our lives. Instead, we promote what the world considers foolishness, the message of the Cross of Christ, wisdom indeed.

Dear Father God. You have upended the priorities in society and we are accordingly re-orientated. Your message of hope is now ours to share and we ask for Your help in leading us to the right people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Signs From Heaven (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:21-25 NLT

Paul wrote that the message of the Cross was foolishness to the Jews because they “ask for signs from heaven” instead. But such a request for Heavenly signs is more common than perhaps we first think. We have an inbuilt desire to try and detect what is going to happen in the future, by what we observe today. Take for instance the weather. Jesus Himself referred to this in Matthew 16:2-3, “He replied, “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow; red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times!” This is something we still do today, and more often than not we find that a wonderful sunset precedes good weather in the following day. There is also a tendency to try and anticipate a thunderstorm by the humidity level at the time. Farmers apparently can sense a change in the weather by observing cows lying down in a field but what that has to do with anything is a mystery to me. Then we have of course the eco-doom-mongers who predict major changes in the weather in years ahead based on the levels of greenhouse gases, facts that have spawned a cohort of activists and extremists who try and disrupt normal life in society to further their own ideological aims. To them carbon dioxide levels are an indicator of what is to come, and they may of course be right, but with much angst, humanity seems to be hurtling towards a much warmer planet in the years ahead, apparently powerless to do much about it. The UK is painfully heading for “net zero” while countries like China and India are building more power stations burning coal, a major greenhouse contributor. So the debate continues, but in the “signs of the times” that Jesus spoke about, He was referring to something else.

The message of the Cross, shared through our “foolish preaching”, is, however, timeless. Regardless of weather patterns there is something far more significant about the spiritual realms that Jews have always been aware of. They knew that the great events and miracles in their heritage and history had a spiritual basis, something that was timeless and would never be forgotten. God had performed mighty wonders for them at various stages in their history, and memories of these were meditated upon, as encouraged by Psalm 145:4-5, “Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendour and your wonderful miracles“. These “mighty acts” were remembered, and more were anticipated by the Jews, none more significant than the coming of the Messiah. In Isaiah 7:10-11 we read, “Later, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz: “Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead””. Unfortunately Ahaz refused to test the Lord, but Isaiah told of a sign anyway, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)” (Isaiah 7:14). There were other prophecies of signs of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament as well. Isaiah 9:6, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace“. Then we have Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf“. So not only was there an expectancy in Israel about the coming Messiah, the prophets of old provided details of the signs that would precede the event, signs that would reshape history as we know it. How did Jesus’ listeners in Matthew 16, the Pharisees and Sadducees, get it so wrong? Signs were provided and if they had bothered to check them out they would have found the evidence they required.

That thought brings us on to other things Jesus said, this time about His second coming. Jesus will indeed return to this planet and we know exactly how. Acts 1:11, ““Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”” We also know where He will return from the next verse, which records that His ascension took place from the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem. But it’s the “when” that is the problem for mankind. In Matthew 24, Jesus gave us a few indicators, signs, of what will precede His return. Matthew 24:5-8, “for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come“. ‭‭Another sign was given by Daniel and repeated by Jesus in Matthew 24:15, “”The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about—the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place.” (Reader, pay attention!)”. We’re not totally sure what this is, but I think we will know all about it when it happens. And then if we read on we find that natural events will be impacted, “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29). Finally the thing that we have been waiting for occurs, “For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 24:27). All these are signs of the End of the Age, and Jesus’ return to this planet. 

The Jews “ask for signs from Heaven” but we pilgrims should also be expecting signs as well. There are two parallel series of events taking place over the times since the creation of the world, one taking place in the physical realm and the other in the spiritual. One day the two will converge with the glorious return of Jesus, but this happened once before. The Cross was a cataclysmic event in which Heaven and earth collided in a moment that set the scene for the final phase of the history of Planet Earth. With excitement bubbling up within us, we find ourselves empowered to spread the Message of the Cross because it is the believers in this Good News that will find a door open before them, allowing them to gain entry to the Kingdom of Heaven before the old disappears. Consider that this Message is like a lifeboat rescuing the survivors from a shipwreck, moments before the ship plunges into the depths of the sea, never to be seen again. Only those who grasp the Message of the Cross with both hands, believing it without any doubts, with body, soul and spirit, will find their way to Heaven and the New Earth, yet to come. Are we ready? Don’t miss the boat, Folks, and don’t forget to spread the message so that our loved ones will be with us when the time comes.

Dear Father God. You sent Your Son Jesus to this world to rescue mankind from the consequences of their sins. For this wonderful yet poignant event we are so grateful, and we pray that we will never waver from our life living under the shadow of the Cross. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Signs From Heaven (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:21-25 NLT

Paul set out the response to “foolish preaching” from the various people groups present in his world at that time. He singled out the Jews “ who ask for signs from heaven”, the Greeks “who seek human wisdom”,and the Gentiles who “say it’s all nonsense”. That pretty much encompasses the peoples and nations in the First Century world. The implication, taking this in reverse order, is that the Gentiles, people groups who lacked a Jewish background and education, and who were not Greek intellectuals, discounted the message of the Cross as mere rubbish, considering it deluded messages from this strange and even fearsome, driven man called Paul. I always imagine Paul as being a John Knox type of person, a man so committed to delivering his message that he ended up in trouble with the authorities, beaten and whipped for his trouble. Much later John Knox also ended up persecuted because of his message, even spending time as a galley slave. 

The Greeks were great philosophers and thinkers. Well, the intellectuals amongst them, because they too would have had a population that got on with life eking out a subsistence-based living. But Greek thinking has dominated much of our thought today, with men such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others influencing even Christianity. For example, Aristotle’s emphasis on reason, logic, and the study of the natural world impacted Christian thought. His concept of a universe with an ultimate purpose and a prime mover (God) resonated with Christian theologians. But Paul knew what God knew, that Greek thought was based on human wisdom alone, and by being so rejected what they considered the foolishness of the message of the Cross. We pilgrims refer to a higher power, God Himself, for the wisdom we require. 

But the Jews were a nation much blessed by God and in their heritage they experienced many “signs from Heaven”. Take, for example, all the signs Moses produced before Pharaoh. The shepherd’s staff becoming a snake. The leprous hand, the water from the Nile turning to blood, the plagues of frogs and flies, and others. But then there was the big one, the first Passover, a festival still celebrated to this day by the Jews. God warned Moses that all the firstborn sons in Egypt were about to die, and the remedy for the Israelite slaves was to smear the blood of a Passover lamb on the door posts and lintels of their homes. We can read all about it in Exodus 12. And then we have the crossing of the Red Sea, the water from rocks in the wilderness, the food from Heaven called “manna”. Later on there was the miraculous relief from death for the three Jewish young men in the fiery furnace. Daniel in the Lion’s den is another story much loved by our Sunday school children. And we continue with David and Goliath, the floating axe head, and even the time when the sun and moon stood still in the sky to give the Israelites more time to kill their enemies (Joshua 10:13). But the expectation of the Old Testament Jews for a sign can be seen by the story of Gideon’s fleece, and in my early Christian days, there was one or two church members who claimed to get guidance from God by “laying out a fleece” of some kind. Their prayers went something like, “If You want me to do this God then please let the sun appear from the clouds at 11:15 this morning”. I was never convinced personally, but then it’s all about faith I suppose.

A good example of the Jewish expectation for a sign can be found in 2 Kings 20:8-11, “Meanwhile, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What sign will the Lord give to prove that he will heal me and that I will go to the Temple of the Lord three days from now?” Isaiah replied, “This is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised. Would you like the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten steps or backward ten steps?” “The shadow always moves forward,” Hezekiah replied, “so that would be easy. Make it go ten steps backward instead.” So Isaiah the prophet asked the Lord to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!” God answered that particular request for a sign, but there were probably many requests that received no response from Heaven. 

In Matthew 16:1, we read “One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority”. Jesus’ response was very telling, “He replied, “You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow; red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times! Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Then Jesus left them and went away“. It is interesting that Jesus knew what was ahead of Him, and He used the story of Jonah in the belly of a fish as an indication, a type, of His death on the Cross. Jonah 1:17, “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights“. As we know Jesus died on the day we call Good Friday, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, the first Easter Sunday. But the message of “the sign of the prophet Jonah” went beyond that. After Jonah was vomited out of the fish onto dry land, he proceeded to Nineveh as God requested of him, and we read, “On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow” (Jonah 3:4-5). And we read the outcome in Jonah 3:10, “When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened“. The Pharisees and Sadducees had observed at first hand a demon-possessed man who was both blind and mute being healed and yet they refused to believe this was a miracle from God Himself. What more did they want?

We pilgrims have faithfully believed the message of the Cross. To us it is not foolishness at all, as Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life””. We believe that Jesus came to fulfil God’s plan for the salvation of mankind, and nothing will convince us otherwise. The “foolishness” of the message of the Cross is the most exciting and life-changing piece of news this world has ever seen or heard. We must shout it out from the rooftops so that all will hear it and experience salvation as well. We don’t need human wisdom, signs from Heaven or anything else. Our lives are focused on Jesus. Forever.

Dear Lord Jesus. We thank You for Your wisdom, grace and love. please help us to stay closest You and Your teaching because through it we grown to be the people You want us to be. Thank You. Amen.

Foolish Preaching

Posted on by korgrocker

s the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.”
1 Corinthians 1:19-23 NLT

A mini-rant from Paul about the dichotomy between human and Godly wisdom introduces the theme in these five verses before us today. In his day Paul knew of men who, by reputation, were considered philosophers and who made their mark on the culture at the time. Men such as Seneca, who was a writer and advisor to the Roman emperor Nero. Then there was Epictetus, a Greek Stoic, who was born into slavery and later founded a philosophy school in Greece. Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, attempted to harmonize Jewish scripture with Greek philosophy, particularly Platonism. He believed that reason was a gift from God and that philosophy could be used to understand divine revelation. Three “wise” men, great thinkers of their day, but of whom Paul said God had made look foolish. Oratorical skills, brilliance of mind and thought, and a scholarly background all conspire to produce … a fool. Not because of their gifts, but because their thinking was all about human matters and, in the context of God and Heaven, had no value at all. A “brilliant debater” will not get into Heaven. Regardless of his words, he will still die and find a lost eternity.

Interestingly, Paul wrote that God said “that the world would never know him through human wisdom”. No-one can get into Heaven by their own efforts. I know someone who claims to have had a revelation as to what is there, and has even gone so far as to describe what God has revealed to him about Heaven. Such knowledge, he said, revealed to him that God had made Heaven with different compartments, each for a world religion. So the Buddhists would be in one place, Muslims in another and so on. The poor man, undoubtably intelligent as he is, suffers from delusions because his wisdom is earthly in its origins, and is based on his own thoughts alone, without fact or divine revelation. Part of my own testimony involves several months of trying to find God in the Bible purely by my own efforts, until, in the end, I discarded what I had thought I had found and instead called out to God for Him to reveal Himself. My prayer one Saturday night was something along the lines, “God, I can’t work this out on my own. If You are real then You will have to reveal Yourself to me”. I woke up the next morning with the assurance that God was real and through His grace He had indeed revealed Himself. That was the start of a journey, bumpy at times, but one from which I have never wavered. There is only one way to Heaven, as we know from John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. And God in His loving graciousness has gently showed me the way, at a pace I can absorb, and He will continue to do so until I meet Him face to face. My wisdom and thinking was ineffective in its arrogance, but it was only when I came to the end of myself that God could start His work in a human being.

Paul wrote that God “has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe”. Is it foolish, to tell people everywhere about God’s saving grace? Most people we meet will say so, because their minds are limited by human wisdom. How do you introduce concepts of the spiritual world around us to people who have closed minds and who have rejected any thoughts of a “higher power”, who believe that we only live for a span for 70 or 80 years, and then enter a realm of unconscious extinction? People such as Richard Dawkins, a modern day philosopher and evolutionist, who said, “Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one.” People such as him have closed their minds against God and His Son, and instead deny any efforts to help them discover the truth. Such people will one day have a terrible shock, because they firstly will find themselves, not in a blank state of nothing, but as souls in a holding place called Sheol or Hades, and then secondly they will find themselves resurrected to stand before God to give an account of their lives. Why did Jesus describe hell as a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth? Matthew 22:13, “Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’”. The reason is that such God-deniers will have to spend eternity in a state of regret, that they rejected the One who saves and there is nothing that they can do about it. What a terrible thought!

So we pilgrims continue to be foolish in the world’s eyes as we preach to a people who are devoid of any vestige of God’s wisdom. People who are resistant to the idea of a spiritual world unseen by their natural senses, and who instead quote their human wisdom as the reason for their incalcitrance. But there is only one way that such people will ever discover God and that is through our “foolish preaching”. Paul wrote, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?” So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ” (Romans 10:14-17). So let’s double our efforts to be as foolish as we can. We never know, because such foolishness in our stories of God’s love and grace might be just what someone needs to hear and experience.

Dear Father God. There is nothing foolish about a child of God, because we have heard the divine call and have reached out to the only One who has the message of eternal life. Please help us to pass it on to the people around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Headed to Destruction

Posted on by korgrocker

“For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power. The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.””
1 Corinthians 1:17-19 NLT

Who are these people who are “headed for destruction”? In the context of 1 Corinthians 1:18, these are the people who have rejected anything to do with Jesus and His atoning sacrifice for the sins of men and women. We pilgrims are believers who have put their trust for their eternal future in His hands, but most people in the Western societies have not. Instead they rely on the “wisdom” that has a purely human origin. To the unsaved, the essential truth of the gospel equates to meaningless hogwash because the worldly mind only values and appreciates human wisdom. We all know what worldly wisdom is all about. For example, very well, and expensively, educated individuals stay awake at night trying to think through the deficiencies ands contradictions in theories such as evolution, theories that deny any involvement of God in the affairs of this world. Such evolutionists adhere to the belief that any flaws in their theories are purely transient and that with the application of more human knowledge, problems will be explained away. And when presented with facts that can only be explained by the involvement of God in the natural world around us, they still refuse to believe that there is a God in Heaven who created our world. Such people call themselves wise and intelligent, but as Isaiah recorded in a message from the Holy Spirit long ago, “Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear” (Isaiah 29:14). A couple of verses further on, Isaiah wrote, “How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”?”

Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary atheist, said, “If you’re an atheist, you know, you believe, this is the only life you’re going to get. It’s a precious life. It’s a beautiful life. Its something we should live to the full, to the end of our days. Where if you’re religious and you believe in another life somehow, that means you don’t live this life to the full because you think you’re going to get another one. That’s an awfully negative way to live a life. Being a atheist frees you up to live this life properly, happily and fully”. That’s the wisdom of the foolish, from a man who fails to understand that a natural life spent in God’s presence is free of the restraints his intelligence thinks are there, a life that is then followed by eternity spent in the presence of the One who created this world in the first place. As I said to a God-denier the other day, I look up into the skies at sunrise or sunset and see an amazing display of colour and patterns, and all I can do is say “Wow”, and thank God for the experience. The problem that this man had was that he didn’t have anyone to thank for the wonder before him. Sadly, he walked away, too “intelligent” to accept that there was an alternative to his lack of a belief in God.

In these verses before us today from 1 Corinthians, Paul underlines the stark contrast between human wisdom and God’s wisdom. The prophet Isaiah rebuked Israel for relying on the “wisdom of the wise” and the “intelligence of the intelligent” instead of God’s divine wisdom. The believers in Corinth were making the same grave mistake. Rather than trusting in the wisdom that comes down from heaven, they were depending on the kind of wisdom the Apostle James wrote about in James 3:5b, “ … Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic”.  In their spiritual immaturity, the Corinthian believers were still thinking and acting like unbelievers. 

James wrote much about God’s wisdom. “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honourable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. …  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favouritism and is always sincere” (James 3:13, 17).‭ When God populated this earth with human beings, He gave them the brains that would enable them to make wise and intelligent decisions based on His ways. But when sin entered the world, very quickly mankind decided to replace God with their own wisdom. Such foolishness can be read about in Genesis 11:4, “Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world””. We’ll not bother with God, they said, and instead we will make our own lives based on our own thoughts, inclinations and ideologies. Selfishness and a rejection of God became the basis for human wisdom, and God called it foolishness. Yet God kept loving men and women on this earth, and He sent Jesus to die for our sins, taking on the judgement and punishment that we deserve. To decide to believe in Jesus in wise and intelligent, because through Jesus we align ourselves to God’s wisdom and intelligence, which is infinitely greater than anything devised by man. So it is with sadness that God has committed human wisdom and intelligence to ultimate destruction. There will be no opportunity for Richard Dawkins, or anyone else, to say, “Sorry God I got it all wrong” when they stand before Him to give an account of their lives. 

We pilgrims know all about the power of the Cross, to save us from sin and death, and provide a life that will be spent with God in His presence. Forever. And ever. And what else can we do than thank Jesus for making it all possible? We praise You Lord!

Dear Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Thank You for ll You did and still keep doing for mankind in every generation. We pray for our families, our children and grandchildren, and the generations following, that Your presence will be with them, providing them with the intelligence that comes from above instead of the intelligence that is purely human. Thank You, Lord. Amen.

The Power of the Cross

Posted on by korgrocker

“For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power. The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:17-18 NLT

Crucifixion was a terrible way to execute someone. To nail or tie someone to a wooden structure, and leave them there until they die is an offence to us Western peoples. The cruelty of such an act exposes the darkest and most evil side of human beings, and is the opposite of God’s message of love and forgiveness. Yet for many years around the time of Christ it was a common form of execution. However, because of Christ and His death on the cross, the meaning of the cross today is completely different. 

The Jewish Passover was a festival commemorating the time when the angel of death “passed over” the homes of the Israelite slaves in Egypt, homes identified by the smearing of a lamb’s blood over the doorposts and lintels of the house. The process was set out in Exodus 12 and we read that the lamb chosen was to be a one-year-old male with no defects. But as we turn to John’s Gospel, we hear John the Baptist’s announcement, recorded in John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”” God’s plan was to provide His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrificial lamb, ensuring that the sprinkling of His blood (in a spiritual sense) would ensure that God’s judgement “passed over” the ones who believed in Jesus and who have looked to Him as their Saviour from the wrath to come. We pilgrims know and understand that it is only through Jesus that redemption can be found, and He went through the pain and humiliation of death on a cross to make that happen. 

So the message of the cross is a powerful spiritual declaration, saying once and for all time that there is a way back to God regardless of the devil’s protestations and plans. The Cross of Christ “is the very power of God”, but ignored and even ridiculed by those who fail to understand its message. Firstly, through Jesus’ death on the Cross came the power of God to forgive us from our sins. Words of Paul from 1 Corinthians 15:3, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said“. Secondly, through the Cross we are reconciled to God. Paul again from 2 Corinthians 5:19, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation”. And it is worth noting that we pilgrims are on a mission to share the power of the Cross with those around us, in the hope and expectation that they too will be reconciled to God. 

Thirdly, it is through the power of the Cross that we are renewed. As the power of sin and death is broken, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who enables us to live lives marked by love, joy, and peace. This renewal isn’t merely superficial but penetrates the core of our being and leads to a transformation of character and a renewed purpose. But there is more. A fourth benefit for us believers is through healing. Peter wrote in his first letter, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). While this doesn’t mean that God will fulfil every request for healing, it does mean that we can have confidence when we approach God in faith to request healing. This is because we are simply asking for what Jesus has already purchased for us. 

The power of the Cross brings the promise of eternal life. John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life“. We know the story of the bronze snake from Numbers 21. The Israelites were grumbling about their food, which they called manna, and we read what happened. “So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died” (Numbers 21:6). And then a couple of verses further on we read, “Then the Lord told [Moses], “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!”. That bronze pole and snake were a type of what was to come when the Son of Man, Christ Himself, was lifted up on the Cross, providing the power for people to live, with a life that is eternal. 

As believers we have a responsibility and a calling, as Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me“. Romans 6:6-8, “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him“. From Matthew 16:24-25 we read the words of Jesus Himself, “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. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it”. We pilgrims identify with Christ’s Cross, because it was there we left, nailed in place, our pre-redeemed selves. The problem of course for many believers is that they constantly return to the Cross and take down their old selves, returning again to their old way of life. But that’s another story.

We could go on. The very loving act of Jesus who willingly died a horrible death so that we could live with Him forever, is an act of love never before seen in this world. Quote from C S Lewis, “The Son of Man became a man to enable men to become sons of God“. We will be eternally grateful for Jesus and the Power of the Cross. And His shed blood will keep on pouring, a fountain of redemption available until the end of time. What a privilege we pilgrims have in knowing what we know. And we share our knowledge with others at every opportunity because there is no limit to the numbers of believers that can be accommodated in Heaven. 

Dear Father God. We love you and worship You, bewildered by Your grace and love, but eternally grateful for all You have done for us. Thank You. Amen.

Preach the Gospel

Posted on by korgrocker

“Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.”
1 Corinthians 1:13-17 NLT

Paul was confident that he had a Christ-given mandate to preach the Good News, the Gospel of salvation through Jesus. We all remember the conversion that Paul experienced on the Damascus Road, where a Light, Jesus Himself, blinded him, and turned his life round with the question. “ … Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”” (Acts 9:4b). A man called Ananias was tasked with laying his hands on Saul, so that he could see again. He was obedient regardless of his fears – ““But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem!” (Acts 9:13), and we subsequently read, “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”” (Acts 9:13-15). What a mandate Paul received! To be commissioned to take the Gospel “to the Gentiles and to kings“, the message coming straight from Jesus Himself. To the Galatian church, Paul wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). And suffer Paul did in the process of sharing the Gospel – just read 2 Corinthians 11, where we find a brief history of all Paul’s sufferings. He was imprisoned, whipped, beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked. He experienced hunger and thirst, and other privations that I hope and pray none of us will have to face. And all for the sake of carrying the Gospel into lands where the people were resistant to the message Jesus commissioned Paul to share. 

Notice that Paul wasn’t tasked with anything else in his journeys. He was not a pastor or teacher, and the baptising of converts he left in the hands of others. This was not a part of his mission, and Paul was crystal clear in only doing what Jesus had asked him to do. He was solely a missionary and evangelist, and in addition we are grateful for his diligence in writing follow up letters to the churches and fellowships that he founded, thus providing invaluable theological insights that help us in our pilgrimage to Glory. Perhaps Paul was comfortable with the thought that baptism wasn’t essential to ensure a person was saved. He wrote to the believers in Rome, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). Baptism is a public declaration that a person makes, of his belief and faith in Jesus, but the penitent thief on the cross next to Jesus never had the chance to be baptised, and yet was soon to join Jesus in “Paradise”. 

Paul also was wary of what he called “clever speech”. We have all heard preachers who are good with words, men and women whose sermons are strong on rhetoric but lacking in power. Speakers to whom people travel far to hear what they have to say, but the leave their presence unchanged. Paul avoided such an accusation, and allowed the purity of Christ’s message to hit home with the power of the Cross of Christ. Paul had an extremely good knowledge of the Old Testament and used that to good effect in his discussions with people in the towns and cities he visited. In Thessalonica Paul found a synagogue and there we read, “As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah“” (Acts 17:2-3). In the next city, Athens, Paul’s address before the Athenian council was a masterpiece. He started, ” … Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about” (Acts 17:22-23). Quite simply he got their attention by connecting their culture with the message of the Cross of Jesus. No clever speech, just Holy-Spirit-inspired words to a sceptical audience, and at the end of his preach we read, “but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council, a woman named Damaris, and others with them” (Acts 17:34). 

We pilgrims are also commissioned to preach the Gospel. The world around us is full of people heading to a lost eternity and that is the last thing that God wants for His creation. There was a time when many disciples left Jesus because they couldn’t accept His message. We pick up the account in John 6:67-69, “Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God”“. Peter hit the nail on the head when he spoke up on behalf of all the disciples, because he realised that only Jesus could give eternal life. That is our message to the lost souls around us and we pray for opportunities to tell them the Good News. Someone once condensed the Gospel into, “Hell is hot, Heaven is real and Jesus saves”. That is the Gospel in a nutshell. We don’t have to enter into intellectual discussions and debates about Christianity and what it means. We instead allow the Holy Spirit within us to give us the words that we already know, but which are tailor-made to touch our listeners with what God wants them to hear. We mustn’t forget though that although we share Jesus’ words of eternal life, it is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction in the hearts of our hearers. John 16:8, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment“. 

Father God. You are not only the Source of the Good News, but You are the Good News, We thank You that You cared enough for us to send someone to introduce us to Jesus and we pray for opportunities to do the same. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

Fears

Posted on by korgrocker

“So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city.”
2 Kings 6:14 NLT

Elisha was in trouble. The king of Aram was annoyed with him, because every time the Arameans made a plan to defeat Israel in the war that was going on, Elisha, “the man of God” got to hear about it and he warned Israel’s king accordingly. The Aramean king was convinced that he had a traitor amongst his officers and we read their defence, ““It’s not us, my Lord the king,” one of the officers replied. “Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!”” (2 Kings 6:12). Eventually the Aramean king found out where Elisha was staying, and in the night he sent a “great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city“. Their intent was to capture him and, I suspect, do him harm. Surely a time for fear and a dilemma for the inhabitants of Dothan, where Elisha was staying. 

Fast forward to 21st Century Planet Earth. News headlines of wars and threats abound. Just this morning the aftermath of the Israel/Iran spat continues with doomsday reports of Iran’s nuclear capability. The attempts by Israel to eliminate Hamas terrorists continues. The war between an aggressive Russia and Ukraine rumbles on into its third year. Press reports in the UK highlight the pitiful state of our nation’s defence capabilities. Tensions between different ethnic groups living in British occasionally boil over into strife. There has even been advice saying that households should keep a sum on money in cash available just in case there are problems with the banking system. Surely a time for fear and a dilemma for the inhabitants of the British Isles, where we stay. 

In Israel back in Elisha’s days, and in the UK today the problem is the same. We have a world riddled with evil and wickedness and the sins of mankind seem to have no bounds. And law-abiding citizens would be forgiven for quaking in fear and trepidation about what might happen next. So how should we pilgrims react in such a febrile world? The key is in what happens next in the story of Elish and the Arameans.

Elisha had a young servant and we read in 2 Kings 6:15, “When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha”. And then we read in the next two verses, ““Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire“. 

A quote from David Pawson: “I think sometimes we panic because we are only seeing what’s happening in the world that everybody else sees; if only we could see God’s point of view and see what’s happening in his sight. God is still on the throne. He is at peace, not worried about what is happening. It’s all going his way and he will end it all. When we read all the stark headlines in the press we get panicky. We say, ‘It’s coming to an end, it’s dreadful!’  Lord, open their eyes that they may see the real situation from God’s point of view“. On the face of it, world events at the moment are potentially scary in their outcomes. And on many people’s lips, even Christians, there is a plethora of “what if’s”. What if Russia attacks Poland? What if Iran develops a nuclear missile? What if …. (put in you own particular fear). But as David Pawson said, “God is still on His throne”. In His High Priestly prayer, Jesus said, “And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come” (Matthew 24:6-8). The world is going through a birthing process just now, and has been for centuries. 

So, how should we pilgrims feel and respond. This is a time for God’s people to rise up and counter the stories of anxiety and worry, “what if’s” and hopelessness, fear and panic. We note two things from our experience as children of God. Firstly God has said, “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). Jesus Himself said “ …  And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). Secondly, we are on a mission to tell others of God’s saving grace. A dog-walker I spoke to recently confessed to feeling hopeless and fearful in a world she thought was out of control, but at the same time she refused to believe that God had a remedy. People around us are without hope and it affects their ability to function as God intended, leaving them paralysed with anxiety and fear. 

We pilgrims stand on the promises of God. I recently saw a YouTube clip of a very emotional news report filed by a young Israeli journalist who had found many recent testimonies of miracles in the lives of Israeli men and women. And at the end she was asked how people should pray for her nation. Her reply was for people to pray Psalm 91 over Israel. The Psalm starts, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him”. We pilgrims rise up and echo the words of the writer to the Hebrews, “So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”” (Hebrews 13:6). One day, sooner or later, we will be called to our Heavenly home, where we are assured of a tremendous welcome. So rather than worry and stress over the state of the world, we echo the words at the end of the Book of Revelation, “Come Lord Jesus”. 

Dear Father God. We thank You for Your presence in this world, holding back the forces of evil that would destroy everyone, given the opportunity. But we are not a people who hide their heads in the sand and hope everything will get better. We pray for world events with a passion fired and fuelled by our faith and trust in You and we worship and praise You today. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

Baptism

Posted on by korgrocker

“For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.” Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!”
1 Corinthians 1:11-13 NLT

After the introductions, the first topic in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church was about divisions and a lack of unity, which were leading to quarrelling and the factional support for certain church leaders. But Paul brought them back on track, reminding them of their roots, back to their baptisms. I am assuming of course that all us pilgrims have been baptised at some time, but if anyone hasn’t then it is an essential requirement for believers everywhere. Baptism isn’t an option because it is an outward declaration of the spiritual conversion that has happened inside of a new believer. It usually takes place in front of witnesses who observe the public proclamation of a person’s faith. In some denominations, baptism has become a “Christening”, where an infant, a new baby, is dedicated to God through a simple service involving the wetting of the baby’s head. At this time the parents and “godparents” make promises to raise the child in the Christian faith, but a bit later, when the child has grown up a bit, there is an opportunity for them to “confirm” the vows made over them in a ceremony that involves a public affirmation of the original promises. The Biblical act of baptism involves full immersion in water, and that is the practice adopted for adults in more fundamental Bible-believing denominations and movements. But however we think of baptism, it is in the end a public declaration of our pilgrim faith. 

Baptism hasn’t just been a Christian requirement. There are examples of ceremonial cleansing in the Old Testament, such as in Leviticus 16:4, and referring to the requirement for a priest’s (in this case Aaron) spiritual cleanliness, “He must put on his linen tunic and the linen undergarments worn next to his body. He must tie the linen sash around his waist and put the linen turban on his head. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe himself in water before he puts them on“. This was a practice common in Judaism. But we will be more familiar with passages in the Bible such as Luke 3:3 and the preaching of the man we refer to as John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin. “Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven”. It seems a bit of a leap to go from a priestly ceremonial cleansing to a general public demonstration of repentance, but God knew what He was doing. His plan, in the build up to Jesus’s entry into this world, involved the preparation of people’s hearts and expectations, and John baptising people brought awareness of sin and introduced the public act of repentance from sins. Isaiah prophesised about John, as we read in Luke 3:4, “Isaiah had spoken of John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!” And John didn’t pull any punches in His preaching, “When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones” (Luke 3:7-8). I wonder how John the Baptist would get on today, preaching his message in the UK, but in those days “Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah” (Luke 3:15). The first named person baptised was Jesus, as we read in Luke 3:21-22, “One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy””. 

But back to the Corinthians. Paul challenged them about their baptism experiences. In whose name were they baptised? There is only one Person in whose name Christians are baptised. The process involves submerging a person in water with the declaration “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. There is something significant about this process because it is more than a public act demanded of believers. It signifies that, in the process of full immersion, we are baptised into Jesus’ death and then raised to walk in newness of life with Him. Romans 6:3-4, “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives“. Romans 6 provides more details. “Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him” (Romans 6:5-9). 

Believers everywhere are confident about receiving forgiveness for all their sins, because, after all, this is what Jesus accomplished at Calvary. We are so grateful for God’s plan and Jesus’ willingness to implement it. But sometimes we miss the next step, being “crucified with Christ”. When we receive forgiveness for our sins, we in return receive Jesus’ righteousness so that we can blamelessly come into God’s presence. We are very grateful for our forgiveness, but it’s living “crucified with Christ” and in accordance with His righteousness that is more difficult. Identifying in baptism with Christ’s death and resurrection is a fundamental part of a believer’s walk with God, and it results in a changed people. 

But we pilgrims know this, I’m sure. And as we go about our daily business, people around us will know that we are a people who know Jesus. We are transformed and we shine like beacons of God’s glory in a world full of the darkness of sin. And being children of God, becoming day by day more like Jesus, we spend more and more time with Him. We have not been baptised into anything or anyone else, and we must uphold the purity and holiness resulting from being baptised in God’s triune name. And as we just pause and think, reflecting on all that Jesus has done for us, we experience again the wonder of our baptisms, that feeling inside confirmed by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We love You Lord! We worship and adore You, today and forever. 

Father God, where do we start in our gratitude? But there again where do we stop? We never stop thanking You and day by day we pray that we will love You more dearly and clearly. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Divisions In The Church

Posted on by korgrocker

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: one of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’”
1 Corinthians 1:10-12 NLT

Divisions in the church? Sadly there have been many over the centuries, with apparently unresolved differences leading to breakups of denominations, that in themselves were formed by similar previous divisions, and so it went on, right back to the heady days when the early church was formed in Jerusalem. In the last three hundred years or so the Presbyterian movement that formed the Church of Scotland has divided into sub-denominations, such as the Free Church of Scotland, the United Presbyterian Church, the United Free Church, and there have even been some mergers between previously-divided churches. What a mess! But the Early Church was not immune from division. We read about the doctrinal or theological differences forming the Gnostics, the Marcionists, the Montanists, and so on. And here in the Corinthian church we see the basis for conflict and division, as different factions emerge, each following a different leader known about at the time. Some even distanced themselves from such pettiness, only to introduce another well meaning but further division in that they “follow Christ”, something we should all be doing above all else, by the way. How is it that people can never seem to agree and end up creating different denominations, churches and fellowships? And even at a local level, discord between church members is destructive and something the devil encourages.

Paul appealed to the Corinthians and asked, ‘that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought”. Sounds good on paper of course and he was sincere in his request but it is sad that the church there in Corinth had lapsed into so much disagreement. How can believers become “perfectly united in mind and thought”?  If we asked the same of believers today are we likely to get a positive response?

 Jesus said something significant about unity. In Jesus’ High Priestly prayer we read John 17:11, where Jesus prayed, “Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are“. That is an awesome prayer. Is it possible to be united just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity that forms the God we worship? Such unity shouldn’t be impossible but it obviously is, to look at the different factions that make up the believers today and in the last two thousand years. In His prayer, Jesus returned to unity, as we read in John 17:21-22, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one“. Oh Jesus! We are so sorry that Your Church, the Bride that You are returning to one day, has become so fractious and divided. What a tragedy!

Today, I live in the centre of a Scottish city called Dunfermline, and at one time there were fourteen different church buildings within a 1/4 mile radius from a central point in the High Street. Even today, there are eight within a short walk from my home. Hardly a witness to an aspiring and inquiring believer, who was faced with such a bewildering selection of churches. And that is the issue that Jesus was praying about because through unity between believers a strong witness goes out to the world around them. The next verse in John 17 reads, “ … May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me”. When Christians are united in Christ, the world sees two things clearly: Jesus was sent by the Father, and Jesus loves His church. 

In Romans 15:5-6, Paul wrote, “May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. There’s a reason why there should be unity between believers – to give glory to God. As Christians, we must aspire to the unity of faith, and we again refer to Paul’s writings. He said, “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:3). I can almost hear him say that as he agonised over the churches and fellowships he had planted, a spiritual father if there ever was one. But he hit the nail on the head when he referred to unity in the Spirit. We have all the power of the Holy Spirit within us that will help us overcome disagreements that inevitable will occur in the family of God. 

But we pilgrims should not look for unity with people and churches, even denominations, that have abandoned the purity of God’s Word and instead replace it with compromises to try and make them more acceptable to the secular society around them. We see that in the Church of Scotland, as it embraces worldly views on gender and same sex marriage, degrading and abandoning Biblical truths and accelerating its denominational decline. We should also avoid being involved in churches that are led, or have been established, by charismatic figures with no accountability, and with their own agenda and ideology. The JW’s come to mind. 

But back to the Corinthians. They were building factions within their church by following different leaders prominent at that time, leaders such as Apollos, Paul and Peter, and that was leading to quarrels between them. Paul’s appeal to them was to pursue unity, a unity founded on relationships with Jesus and His truth. It is only though Jesus that we can find our way to the Father, as he said in John 14:6, “ …I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. The way to avoid “divisions in the Church” is to start with Jesus and all He has done for us. One day we will have the daunting prospect of standing before Him, to give an account of our lives. Romans 14:12, “Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God“. 

If we find ourselves in a place where we disagree with other believers or our leaders, what should we do? We start with Ephesians 4:3 and do our best to resolve differences. If this is unsuccessful, then we prayerfully consider what other options there are, asking God to lead and guide us. And in the case that difficulties remain unresolved we must sadly find a home where we can worship God “in spirit and truth”. And we remember that one day perfect unity will prevail as we join the Heavenly congregation John wrote about in Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”” In the end it will be all about Jesus. There is no-one else worthy of our praise and worship, and to whom all the glory is His by right.

Dear Father God. We are so sorry for the times when we have quarrelled and left churches by putting our own interests over the interests of others. Please forgive us we pray and lead us to the place where You want us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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