The Burden of Guilt

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Oh, what a sinful nation they are— loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick. You are battered from head to foot— covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds— without any soothing ointments or bandages.”
Isaiah 1:4-6 NLT

The burden of guilt. It is a heavy burden to bear, and many are bearing it in our world today. God has created mankind with a conscience, designed to be aligned to Him so that their lives are without guilt. Man was never able to carry the burden of guilt. The psychiatrists may come up with band-aid solutions that might make someone feel better for a short while, but the issues are still there and before long the burden of guilt returns. Some people turn to some form of distraction, such as alcohol or drugs, “retail therapy”, or sexual gratification, but the burden of guilt remains in the cold light of the morning. 

Isaiah, bringing the Word of the Lord in our verses today, called out evil, corruption, God-rejection, sickness, and punishment, all self-inflicted conditions because of one single cause – the people had turned away from God. How had it come to this? As the previous verse in Isaiah 1 recorded, “Israel doesn’t know its Master”. They had become complacent in their land. The crops continued to grow. The rain came at the right time. Children were still being born. Affluence had dulled their spirits, and the effort of keeping a relationship with God had somehow become crowded out by living. 

The root of the problem was, of course, sin. The current generation in Isaiah’s day had been brought up without a knowledge of God, because their parents didn’t know Him either. This was because their parents were Godless as well. But this wasn’t a sudden decision, made one day to forget God and His ways. The sin and evil had come into their lives as God was forced out, getting worse generation by generation. Now, the storm clouds of war, famine, pestilence were starting to emerge on the horizon, and Isaiah brought a warning straight from God Himself. 

There was a remedy to their condition and David wrote about it in Psalm 32:5, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone”. 

We pilgrims are not immune to the same problems the Israelites faced. It starts on a Sunday morning, with the thought that we might skip church just once. Then we find ourselves too busy to pray or read the Bible. Then sinfulness creeps in, and we finally find that we are well and truly on the slippery slope that leads to destruction. Yes, there are those who say that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. There are even those who claim eternal life from the “once saved, always saved” doctrine, and then proceed to live out the rest of their lives in a world full of sin and depravity. But always in the background is our loving Heavenly Father, calling out our names, warning us of the consequences of sin. We pilgrims know all this, of course, but somehow we can find it easy to rationalise our return to a world that invites the punishments the Lord warned the Israelites about in 740BC. 

Sin is rebellion against God. Pure and simple. And as sin builds, so does guilt. The burden gets heavier and heavier, bringing sickness, mental ill-health, and ultimately death. But today, should we find that we are carrying a burden of guilt, we come before God with a repentant heart, believing as David did, that He will forgive us. In 1 John 1:9, the Apostle John wrote, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. And so, we return to our knees once again, feeling His forgiveness wash away our burden of guilt.

Father God. Please forgive us for all our sins and for trying to hide our guilt. As we roll our burdens off our shoulders before Jesus, Your Son who died so that we can be forgiven for our sins, we experience an inner peace that cannot be found anywhere else. Thank You for saving us. Amen.

Isaiah’s Message: Rebellion and God’s Unfailing Love

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’”
Isaiah 1:1-3 NIVUK

Isaiah started his massive book of prophetic writings with a vision that spanned the years from about 740BC to 700BC, across the reigns of the four kings quoted in the first verse of chapter one. So in a sense, these initial verses in Isaiah form an overview of what was to come, and he didn’t hold anything back. We don’t know who Isaiah’s father was apart from his name, Amoz, but Isaiah based all his prophetic messages on the covenant between God and His people, Israel, and, straight away, we see a charge laid against the Israelites for failing to understand who their Master was. It is quite a poignant start, as any parent will understand, in that the Lord declared that He has reared His children but then they rebelled against Him. 

How many parents today can echo the same theme, as their teenage children find that they want to plough their own furrows and move on, rebelling against their parents’ authority. They may drop out of college, or school. They may get into the wrong company and start on the slippery slope into moral and physical ruin, riven by drugs and caught up in crime. There was a Biblical character who did just that, and he became the subject of one of Jesus’ parables. We read, “Jesus continued: ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them” (Luke 15:11-12). Here we have it: a rebellious son bringing heartache and shame to his father, with a lack of respect and honour. Straight away, we can see Jesus’ take on the complaint made by God 700 years before. But the story continued in the next verse, as predicted, “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living”. The Israelites rebelled against their Father in Heaven, the One who created them, and the younger son rebelled against his father, who brought him up. 

But after a while, the son found that a life of debauchery failed to satisfy him, and eventually he ran out of the means to keep living that way. There was nothing like hunger pains and the demeaning task of feeding pigs to bring common sense back into his life, and the son returned to his father. But what was the first thing that he thought about, through the fog of hunger that was clouding his mind? His father. He must have gone over and over in his mind what he would say in that moment when he knocked on the front door of his father’s house, and we read, “When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants”” (Luke 15:17-19). 

But what about his father? He didn’t stay inside, mourning and moping, wondering what he had done wrong in his child-rearing days. Instead, we read in the next verse that he kept watch, “ … But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him”. Back in Isaiah, we overlay the actions of the prodigal’s father over the way the Lord must have felt after rearing his children, the Jews, only to find them rebelling and going their own way. The prodigal’s father had the pleasure of welcoming a repentant son back into his house, but God had yet to see the fruit of His patience with His rebellious children.

The Lord’s complaint against Israel compared the limited knowledge of an ox and a donkey, animals that knew the source of all they needed for life, with the lack of knowledge of the Jews, who failed to understand who their Source was. Worse, they proceeded to work out their rebellion by pushing God away. So God looked on, yearning for them in the same way that the prodigal’s father yearned for sight of his own son.

We pilgrims were redeemed from a life of sinful rebellion against God. After all, what is sin, other than rebellion against God? God, as any loving parent would, set out the right way to live before His children. He warned them that choosing any other way would only lead one day to ruin. We pilgrims know the same, but we are thankful for the Holy Spirit within us, gently whispering in our ears, “Not that way; go this way”. Yes, we too get it wrong sometimes, but God, the Father, is always looking out for us, heading back into our arms.

Heavenly Father. We thank You that You are always there for us, and always ready with open arms to welcome us back home. We worship You today. Amen.

Reviving the Holy Kiss: Unity in Modern Christian Fellowship

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All God’s people here send their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 NIVUK

A kiss amongst Christians is unfortunately a problem in our Western societies, or at least in the UK, because it can be misconstrued or misinterpreted due to the societal views and taboos that exist. It can be just about considered acceptable between a man and a woman who know each other, but when observed between those of the same sex, the fault line exposed by an onlooker’s views on gender issues rises up and can cause problems. Not all the time, of course, because multi-cultural Britain has come to understand and accept customs appropriate to certain people groups and religions. But in our traditional churches and denominations, the holy kiss does not appear in the liturgies or even in more social settings. In fact, in some churches with larger congregations, any form of greeting can be missing. It can be easy to slip into the meeting after it has started and slip out without talking to anyone, let alone give someone a handshake, hug or even a kiss.

But things were different in those early Christian days, when Paul and the other Apostles were turning the Mediterranean societies upside down with their message of the love and forgiveness of God and of Christ crucified for their sins. In those days, a holy kiss was a non-sexual, sincere greeting of brotherly affection, unity, and love amongst the early believers, signifying a “set apart” spiritual family bond. A kiss was an acceptable form of greeting among people in the Middle East and was even a cultural norm, used to greet guests or family members. It was even a common greeting showing respect to those in authority or when reconciliation was required between two parties. But what set the Christian holy kiss apart from the secular equivalent was that it was “holy” and had a deeper spiritual meaning for early believers, particularly as it crossed racial and cultural boundaries. 

So, in a setting where there were different factions, as was the case in Corinth, Paul’s encouragement to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” would have been a sign that any differences had been settled and unity between believers was again present. This he followed up with his final words, “may … the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. Such fellowship was not possible in an atmosphere of antagonism, disunity and chaos.

Paul encouraged the believers in Rome to do the same, as we read in Romans 16:16, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings”. It must have been standard text for Paul, being word-for-word the same as in 2 Corinthians 13. Again, the greeting appears in 1 Corinthians 16:20, “All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss”, and 1 Thessalonians 5:26, “Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss”. But it wasn’t just Paul who wrote this greeting. It appears at the end of 1 Peter, “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ”. 

In the Old Testament, there were occasions where a kiss was used in a similar context, such as in 1 Samuel 10:1, “Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?” In this case, it was in an act of reverence, as Samuel recognised God’s presence with the man before him. And we all remember the kiss that sealed Jesus’ fate when the soldiers came to the garden to arrest Him. Matthew 26:48-49, “Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: ‘The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.’ Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him”. Why was the signal to be a kiss? In those days, it would have been a natural way to honour someone and to demonstrate brotherly love.

So today, we pilgrims reflect on how we greet one another and consider the “holy kiss” in an appropriate setting. It is not always acceptable to everyone, as in the case of a young man I knew who recoiled from human contact of any sort, because he was somewhere on the autistic spectrum. As an aside, though, it has been wonderful to see God at work in him, bringing healing that enabled him to gradually overcome his phobia. 

In greeting someone there is an opportunity to share a common bond that centres in God. It may be with a hug, or a handshake, or even a “holy kiss”, but its inherent meaning is one of mutual love and respect. The early church considered such a greeting to be important, and today we would do well to emulate their sentiments and intentions in our modern churches and fellowships.

Dear Father God. With one mind we greet one another, knowing that we do so in Your name and to Your glory. You created families, and we are part of Yours through Jesus. Thank You. Amen.

God’s Love

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All of God’s people here send you their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 NLT

Scriptures about God’s love and peace can be found throughout the Bible. Take, for example, Genesis 1. We read the creation account and towards the end we find this, “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. … ”” (Genesis 1:26a). What motivated God to create human beings? There was, and is, only one possible explanation: His love. A baby is born today, ready to be lavished with the love of its parents. The waiting is over, the birth happens, and then we see the wonderful picture, repeated many times, of a little scrap of humanity being cradled in his or her mother’s arms, love gleaming in mum’s face through the drying tears following the pain of birth. Didn’t God go through the same loving experience when He birthed Adam and Eve? Wasn’t His love gleaming through the creation story? And then we find the same God, heartbroken, but reaching out over the millennia, to His wayward children, corrupted by sin, rebellion, and denying their very Father. However, God had a plan to be executed through His Son, Jesus. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. The once and forever act of love remains hanging in the air as an invitation to God’s creation, regardless of generation, geography, or gender. 

Paul wrote about the “God of love” being with the Corinthians, and so He will be as well with us today. Paul also wrote that much-quoted passage in 1 Corinthians about love and its fundamental importance in human life. We are made in God’s image, and His love is a fundamental, probably even the most important, part of His character. Everything that we do, as it is with God, must be founded on love. Paul finished his second letter with the blessing “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. Grace, love and fellowship. Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. There is something in this verse that grabs our attention, and intuitively, we look upwards to the Source of love.

There is peace to be found in God, and in these war-torn days, with evil and depraved men with fingers hovering over nuclear buttons, with misery consequently tearing at the hearts of God’s creation, peace can be found. But where is it? There is only one place, and that is in Jesus. John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”. “There is a way back to God from the dark paths of sin”, as the old chorus says. God will never turn anyone away from His presence as long as they seek Him with all their hearts. 

Father God. Thank You for Your plan for the salvation of mankind. We look to Jesus and find in Him the love that ripples down from above into our hearts, ready to be shared with those around us. Thank You Lord! Amen.

Encouragement and Peace in Christian Fellowship

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All of God’s people here send you their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 NLT

We continue today with a second look at Paul’s final thoughts in this, his second letter to the Corinthian church. He asked the believers to “encourage each other” and “live in harmony and peace”. Was this an impossible ask, or was it achievable amongst the disparate believers in Corinth? From a natural perspective, any group of people will eventually fall apart because it is not long before there is a falling-out, and the group members will go their separate ways. Selfish desires, differences in intellect and perspectives, different agendas, and so on soon reveal themselves with fault lines that grow until the gaps are unbridgeable. However, some groups with a clear set of rules and a common goal will survive, as with a golf club or another hobby-based vision. Or, better still, a group focused on Jesus. 

Among Christians, there is a clear bond that draws each person ever closer to one another and to Christ. I always envision a triangle, with God at the apex and believers at the other two points. As they look up to God and get closer to Him, they inevitably get closer to each other. If they neglect their relationship with God, they will move further apart. It is also a good analogy to use in marriage counselling. Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians to “live in harmony and peace” implied a common bond, as they “grew in maturity,” meaning they were becoming more and more like Jesus every day. 

In Romans 12, Paul used the analogy of our physical bodies as the body of Christ. Romans 12:4-5, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other”. Paul revisits the analogy in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ”. But in the next verse, he emphasises that no matter our differences, we are all still part of the body of Christ. “Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptised into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit”. And further down the page, we read, “In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honourable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honourable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honour and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honoured, all the parts are glad” (1 Corinthians 12:22-26). In these verses, one word emerges, and that is “honour”. We should honour one another as a priority in our relationships, because that is how we live together as a body of believers. 

It is therefore obvious that a properly functioning body of believers will only live in harmony with each other if they care for each other in the same way as we care for our own bodies. So if we cut ourselves, we clean the wound and put on a plaster. But what we don’t do is ignore the hurt, as otherwise the wound may become infected and lead to a more serious condition. In the same way, in the body of Christ, if a member is hurting, we tend to the hurt so that it doesn’t worsen and lead to an infection that could ultimately destroy the body.

To “live in harmony and peace” requires effort and diligence on the part of the church members. Otherwise, the believers become separated from each other, and the church ceases to function as God desires. This can be seen in some declining churches, where members meet only on Sunday morning for an hour or so, and leave their fellowship there. Then, when a crisis erupts, there is no cohesion, and the opposite of “harmony and peace” appears. To be a fellowship of believers in the way Paul was encouraging the Corinthians requires diligence and effort. They would have had to work hard to bind with one another and live out his instructions, particularly, as his letters have shown, there was much going on with the potential to tear them apart. 

Are we pilgrims a part of a fellowship, living in “harmony and peace” with each other? If not, we must ask ourselves the question “Why not”? Our relationships with one another start with our relationship with God and cross cultural and racial boundaries. To be harmonious starts with Jesus. Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others”. But here’s the thing. The next verse nails it, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus“. Any group of believers that lacks harmony and cohesiveness will find that personal and corporate peace is elusive. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). The peace of Christ didn’t die out with the Apostles. It is still there for us, from the fount that never runs dry.

So are we pilgrims experiencing a lack of peace today? As we look up to Jesus and gain His perspective, we will soon find the way back onto the right track.

Dear Heavenly Father. As with joy, You are the Source of peace. Thank You for the peace we can experience as we live in harmony with each other. Amen.

The Joy of the Lord: Strength for Life’s Trials

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All of God’s people here send you their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 NLT

So Paul finally reaches the end of his second letter to the Corinthians, as he signs off with “I close my letter with these last words”. And his “last words” were an encouragement to any Christian community, detailing as they did wonderful spiritual words like “love”, “peace”, and “joy”, Holy Spirit gifts available to all believers.

“Be joyful” was an instruction that was definitely counter-cultural in the dark days of the first Christian church plants, because believing the Gospel message took place against a backdrop of idolatry and immorality, where being different, following the one true God, directly challenged the idolatrous societies in which they lived. As a consequence, they suffered much for believing in Jesus. But one thing that the world could not remove from them, or us today, is the joy we have within, joy that originates in God Himself through the Holy Spirit. 

In the 5th century BC, the Jewish exiles were rebuilding Jerusalem, and at some point, the wall was finished, the gates were installed, and all the people met together to hear the Book of the Law of Moses read to them. But when the truth of God’s Word penetrated their hard hearts, there was much weeping and sadness. The enormity of their sin and rebellion which had lead to their exile in the first place, was finally understood. Nehemiah 8:9, “Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.” For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law”. In the following verse we read, “And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”” Why were the Israelites weeping? Because they were going through a season of repentance for their sin. Their relationship with God was in the process of being restored.

The joy of the Lord is the gladness of heart that comes from knowing God. Such a joy has nothing to do with happiness, which is based on superficial things like owning something or having a day out. Joy for a believer is a feeling deep inside that no matter what they are facing, it will always be there. Because of its supernatural origin, the joy of the Lord—our gladness of heart—is present even through the trials of life. We know we are children of God, and no one can snatch us away from Him, and we are heirs to “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade,” and no one can steal it from us. 1 Peter 1:4, “and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay”. This was the treasure Jesus spoke about in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

We pilgrims have been set free, delivered from the clutches of the enemy. We are no longer bound to him by our sin. The joy of this deliverance is life-changing and eternal because we know what we have been set free from. No fear of hell ever again. In the hymn “In Christ alone” there is the line “No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand” and we can live our lives singing that out because it is truth for pilgrims like us everywhere. 

What about the joy of our salvation? Peter wrote, “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). King David found that after his sin with Bathsheba, he had lost his joy. A brief foray into happiness had a price, and we read his prayer in Psalm 51. Verse 8, “Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice”. And he followed on in verse 12 with, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you”. In Luke 15:7 Jesus said, “In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” 

On our Christian journey through this life, we grow in maturity and experience more and more joy. Jesus said, “When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” (John 15:10-11). Are we pilgrims experiencing overflowing joy this morning? If not, what has stolen it away from us? Worries, anxieties or troubles of any kind? If we can put our hand up to such spiritually debilitating conditions, then we must pause for a moment and adjust our priorities. We must look up to God and not to the issues we experience in this world. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). There is a short poem which reads, “Two prisoners looked out from behind the bars. One saw the mud, the other saw the stars“. Are we mud or star people? I suspect that there wasn’t much joy found with the mud looker.

Dear Heavenly Father, from whom all joy originates. We are in this world for just a short time, so please help us to look up to You, our Source of joy, rather than to this sad world that lacks any sort of joy. Thank You. Amen.

Maturing in Faith: Embracing God’s Truth

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth. We are glad to seem weak if it helps show that you are actually strong. We pray that you will become mature. I am writing this to you before I come, hoping that I won’t need to deal severely with you when I do come. For I want to use the authority the Lord has given me to strengthen you, not to tear you down.”
2 Corinthians 13:8-10 NLT

There is a connection between God’s truth and the maturity of a believer. And there is a further connection between weakness in a believer and the Lord’s strength and authority. A human being can go through life in the kingdom of the world, blissfully unaware of the Kingdom of God, apart from a few vague and intangible feelings that there must be something spiritual out there. But all this changes when a believer opens the door into a new world, a spiritual world of which they have become a part. This turns out to be a life-changing event because once someone is aware of God and His Kingdom, through His Son, Jesus, there is no going back. Going forward is the only option, and to do that, God’s truth is required to lead a believer on to maturity. Of course, there are those who recoil in horror at the extent their lives will have to change, and they turn their backs on God and somehow shut out all thoughts of Him, perhaps with the vague notion that there will be plenty of time to open that door again. We pilgrims know that becoming a believer is a life-changing experience and one that will extend beyond the grave into a vast unknown spiritual domain, where we will be with God in a place Jesus called Paradise. 

Paul wanted the Corinthians to become mature, and to help them, he provided several warnings that the immaturity they had been exhibiting would need to be confronted. He hoped that this would not be necessary, but the threat was hanging in the air. There were those whom Paul called the “super-apostles” present in Corinth who were subverting the believers’ faith, as they spread lies and insinuations about Paul and his colleagues, but they would not be able to stand when Paul was able in person to demonstrate the power and authority of Christ. 

Paul wrote, “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church” (Ephesians 4:13-15). The goal of “unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son” seemed rather elusive in Corinth, because they were being led astray both by their own unconfessed sins and the presence of sinful men who were misleading them by preaching a message that they wanted to hear, rather than needed to hear.

This can be a problem in our churches today, because the temptation is for the pulpit to avoid certain difficult subjects that are nevertheless required to help a believer grow in maturity. In one church I know about, there was a prominent and vociferous member who had a relative who was homosexual, and who was very sensitive about any Bible passage that revealed the truth of God’s view. At one point, this person even had the audacity to complain that these Bible passages were wrong, resulting in a sensitivity on the part of the church leadership, leading them to avoid any mention of the verses in question. The problem is that too many church people have become offended by Biblical truths and teachings, and have decided to move to another church where the teachings are less confrontative. One church I was in had a prophetic man who preached confrontational messages, but we also had a lovely pastor who helped the congregation through any difficulties that arose. Another reason why a church needs a five-fold ministry team. 

Biblical truth is necessary to help a believer grow towards the goal of being mature in their faith. But there are some basics that the author of the Hebrews wrote about: “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognise the difference between right and wrong” (Hebrews 5:12-14). That was where the Corinthians seemed to be – in the place of “need[ing][ someone to teach [them] again the basic things about God’s word”. They needed to be able to discern what was right and wrong and deal with the consequences, but were unable to do so.

Paul’s heart was to see the Corinthians set back on the right track. They had been “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching” and needed to once again come back to the Cross of Christ, where their sins would be forgiven. A place where Paul’s fear “ … that when I come I won’t like what I find, and you won’t like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarrelling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behaviour” (2 Corinthians 12:20) would be groundless.

We pilgrims know that the place where we will find God and the truth of His Word is not on YouTube or one of the “God” channels on TV, good as they are sometimes. The only places where growth towards maturity can be found are in the nurseries that God has established – his churches (as long as they are Bible-believing) – and in the study of the Bible itself. Through it all is the need for prayer, asking God for His truth to be manifested in all that we hear and read. 

Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your Word and the truth it contains, truth that will guide us through a world of strident voices intent on diverting us away from our road towards maturity in the faith. Please help us, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What is Truth?

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“We pray to God that you will not do what is wrong by refusing our correction. I hope we won’t need to demonstrate our authority when we arrive. Do the right thing before we come—even if that makes it look like we have failed to demonstrate our authority. For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth. We are glad to seem weak if it helps show that you are actually strong. We pray that you will become mature.”
2 Corinthians 13:7-9 NLT

In His trial before Pilate, Jesus was asked a question: “Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognise that what I say is true”” (John 18:37). Pilate’s reply was timeless, and it starts the next verse with “What is truth? …”. Truth is something that has two facets – absolute and relative. Most of what goes on in our world that is defined as “truth” is relative, because it is only through God that absolute “truth” can be realised. 

A secular view on “truth” prioritises empirical evidence, scientific inquiry, and human reason over divine revelation or dogma. It holds that truth is discovered, not revealed, and is constantly updated through investigation and doubt, focusing on verifiable facts and human welfare rather than supernatural explanations or absolute religious certainties. But this definition of “truth” is purely relative, and it is liable to change, making it unreliable. Something that is defined as being true today can be found to be not true, or false, tomorrow. 

But before we get sidetracked into a philosophical discussion about Pilate’s statement, “What is truth?” it is far more rewarding to obtain God’s perspective. Paul said in our verses today, “For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth”. That is our position as pilgrims because, along with Paul and countless others, we believe that God is truth. Famously, Jesus said, “… I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). About the Holy Spirit, Jesus also said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (John 16:13). About God, the psalmist wrote, “The very essence of your words is truth; all your just regulations will stand forever” (Psalm 119:160). So, for us pilgrims, it is a safe assumption to believe that any words that emanate from the Bible are words of truth. Come to that, Jesus said, about God’s Word, “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth” (John 17:17). Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16). 

To us believers, we look at Jesus and know in our hearts that He is truth, embodied in Him as a Person. No one can find a word spoken by Jesus that was false. No one can find any sin in Him, or any action that would prove to be sinful. And because He was God, His statement that He is the truth is immutably correct. So anything that God says, or has said, is absolute truth and cannot be changed, and will always happen as He has said. 

God’s truth is trustworthy but in our world system, there is a person who embodies the opposite of truth, the devil. Of him, Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees, said, “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). In Scotland, and as I write this, we are in the run-up to the Scottish parliamentary elections, and when this blog is posted, the outcome will be known. But one thing we electors remember is that little trust can be placed in the statements our wannabe politicians make. To garner votes, they will make all sorts of outlandish statements, most of which are unachievable and, therefore, can be labelled as “lies”. If we enter the world of social media, we will soon find many posts that purport to be truthful statements, but which are based on the poster’s false or skewed interpretation of events. Truth is a scarce commodity in our world, but that is not surprising because Jesus referred to the devil as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31). 

We pilgrims know about the truth because we believe in Jesus. John 8:31-32, “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free””. We have been set free from the bondage to lies and the relative “truths” that abound in this world. We carefully consider all “truths” presented to us by referring to the Word of God, which is the only Source of truth that this world will ever possess. By looking at the world around us through God’s Biblical lens, we can make right decisions when necessary, discard the half-truths and lies, and keep our feet firmly established on the narrow way that leads to Glory. But there will be many seductive statements that will attempt to throw us off course. Remember what the serpent said to Eve – “Surely God didn’t say …”? If something that is said to us sounds right, but nevertheless seems at odds with God’s Word, then we discard it. The devil will never give up trying to lure us into sin until we are home, safe and sound, in the arms of our wonderful Saviour.

Dear Father God. You are truth. So we pray for protection from the lies of the evil one – “deliver us from evil” – and help for our journey in the years ahead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What It Means to Be Born Again in Christianity

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognise that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.”
2 Corinthians 13:5-6 NLT

In a previous blog we asked the question, “Who or what is a Christian”? And to start with, we defined some basics such as “A Christian is someone who belongs to Jesus Christ, by trusting in Him, following Him, and being transformed by Him”. We also mentioned the importance of being “born again”, understanding what that means and reading what Jesus Himself said in His conversation with Nicodemus. John 3:5, 7, “Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. … So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again’”. There are some “Christians” who deride the “born again” element in believers, whom they assign to a fringe element of fundamentalism populated by bigots and right-wing extremists. But being “born again” is that wonderful moment when a new believer suddenly bursts into a new experience where they find a spiritual world they didn’t know existed before. Some people take a long time to make the transition from spiritual darkness into the wonderful light of God’s Kingdom. Others have a Damascus Road experience, but whatever the process, Jesus said that being “born again” is necessary to become a Christian. It is so sad that there is a schism in the Christian faith, in the same way that there is a schism between those who believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and those who don’t. 

A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ, someone who tries to align their lives with the teachings of Jesus. It is a hard road to adopt because there is much opposition from society around us and more from within us, as our sinful person (our “old man”), rebels against living the Jesus way. Luke 9:23, “Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me””. The Cross to which Jesus referred was His own, a place where He laid down His own life in obedience to His Father. We pilgrims also have crosses, where we have laid down our lives in following Jesus wherever He takes us on our journey to Glory. 

A Christian is someone who has been redeemed from slavery to sin. Through Christ, a Christian is justified—declared righteous—not by their own works, but by grace. Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us”. Ephesians 2:8-9, “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”. These self-revealing verses mark the start of the Christian neophyte’s journey through life and form the basis of faith in God.

A born-again believer is a person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Acts 2:38 describes how the Holy Spirit is a gift from God. “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””. 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? …”. Paul also wrote, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (Romans 8:14), with the implication that those who are not led by the Spirit are somehow not part of His family. 

A Christian goes through a process of sanctification in their lives, as they become and behave more like Jesus and start to display the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” 

Finally, a Christian is adopted into God’s family. John 1:12-13, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God”. What a wonderful privilege it is to be a child of God. But as with all families, there are times of difficulty, and children will wander off and get into danger. We read the parable of the Prodigal Son, and become deeply touched by a picture of the Father waiting for the wayward child to return into His arms. God, our Father, is always there for us, the perfect Parent, who sadly but willingly lets His children follow their own ways, but who is always ready to welcome them home.

We pilgrims are children of God, followers of Jesus and a part of His family, both in this life and the life to come. We examine ourselves regularly, praying as David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24). God is faithful, and He will answer that prayer, because He loves us too much not to.

Dear Loving Heavenly Father. Please forgive us for our waywardness and rebellion. We are Your children, and we live our lives as representatives of You in our families and communities. Please help us to grow up and become more like Jesus, Your loving Son and our elder brother. In Your name we ask. Amen.

What It Means to Be a True Christian

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognise that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.”
2 Corinthians 13:5-6 NLT

Something here in our verses today will bring us up short and cause us to pause our lives while we ask ourselves a question. Am I a Christian with genuine faith? But before we can answer it, we have to define what it means to be a Christian. Many think being a Christian is all about following Christian morals and being a “good” person. Such people can go to a church on a Sunday, listen to the sermon, sing the hymns, and say the prayers, but somehow there is a lack of any connection with God. No relationship there, in the way that we pilgrims know God. Occasionally, a crisis will drive them to their knees, but for most of the time, they live their lives as they always have, sinful and unchanged. But being a Christian is more than that, as we shall see.

Paul asked the Corinthians to “examine themselves to see if [their] faith is genuine”. He went on to define genuine faith by saying that if they fail to understand that Jesus is among them, then they “have failed the test of genuine faith”. It’s all about Jesus. Paul implied that it was all about knowing Him and sensing His presence with them day by day. 

So, back to our question. Who or what is a Christian in the way that Paul was implying? From our verses today, Paul used the word “faith” twice, and that is a central principle in answering the question for ourselves. Unfortunately, the word “faith” has become corrupted today because it is used to define a number of different religions, by calling them “faiths”. So, according to the authorities, we live in a “multi-faith” society that includes Muslims, Hindus, and others, as well as Christians. There have even been ”multi-faith” services held in our churches, and our current King in the UK considers that he is the defender of “faiths” rather than being the traditional head of the Christian church, the defender of the faith. The University of Edinburgh goes further and offers not only “multi-faith” support for students but also offers seminars in fringe topics unfamiliar to us pilgrims, such as Yoga, mindfulness, and Tai Chi. Confusion reigns, therefore, over the use of the word “faith”. 

A Christian is someone who belongs to Jesus Christ, by trusting in Him, following Him, and being transformed by Him. So straight away, the Corinthians had a measure for their belief. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved”. Is that something the Corinthians were doing, or had done? We don’t know, but we can apply this to ourselves. Jesus said that true believers in Him are “born again”. John 3:5, 7, “Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. … So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again’”. This is a divisive verse amongst Christian communities today, because many fail to understand what this really means about their faith. The wording “being born again” even causes offence to some people because it implies a radical experience of salvation. But it is a spiritual process, sometimes rapid, as it was with Paul on the Damascus road, or gradual over a period of time, as it was with C S Lewis. Regardless of the way we pilgrims came to believe in Jesus, the reality of our faith in Him prevails. 

For the Christians in Corinth, it appears that some subversive elements had crept in, something that was probably not unheard of in those days. The Apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here” (1 John 4:1-3). These verses from John complement the verses that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and again the word “test” appears. And straight away, we can think of churches today that fail this test. For example, I can think of a cult that only believes that Jesus was a prophet, and yet they call themselves “Christian”. 

There are other characteristics of Christianity that we must continue at another time, but in the meantime, we declare that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. We love Him and worship Him because of who He is and what He has done for us.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for Jesus and His sacrificial death on Calvary’s Cross. We fall on our knees before Him today, in love and adoration. Amen.