Light in Our Darkness

Posted on by korgrocker

“You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud. You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.”
Psalm 18:27-29 NLT

Psalm 18:28 reads, “You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness“. There was something personally illuminating about this verse when David wrote it. His relationship with God was something precious and it gave him a warm glow within. David knew that with God in his life, there was no need to stumble around in darkness, tripping up over every obstacle and challenge that he encountered. He knew that all he had to do was to ask the Creator of light to illuminate whatever David was facing so that God’s ways were clear. 

One of the first things God did when He formed the heavens and the earth was to create light. Genesis 1:3-4, “Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness“. This was an essential part of our created environment, because without it the world would be a very different place. The physical delights of our world, the colours in the flowers and the sunsets, would have been meaningless, though, without the creation of light-sensors, our eyes. What a marvellously complex piece of our human bodies these are. Of course, as our physicists inform us, light is just another frequency band on the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, and back in my school days we experimented with various objects to determine light’s properties. Today, light is also being used in data conduits, to satisfy man’s seemingly insatiable appetite to transfer huge amounts of data around the world. But it all started with a simple command from God – “let there be light” – and God was pleased with the result, calling it “good”. 

But as we pilgrims know, light doesn’t just exist in a physical realm. There is a spiritual meaning as well. In Old Testament days, God’s people were experiencing a terrible spiritual darkness, and Isaiah prophesised, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine” (Isaiah 9:2). Isaiah could see in his spirit a time coming when God would once again introduce light to this fallen world, and hundreds of years later the Messiah came, saying, “ … I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12b). 

Spiritual darkness is symptomatic of a life being lived outside of, and without, God. And so, there are many people, even some who call themselves Christian, who are walking around in the same darkness that afflicted the Israelites in Isaiah’s times. There is a timeless proverb – Proverbs 4:19, “But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over“. The sad thing is that these people fail to recognise and understand what this darkness is all about. They will stumble around in a fog of misunderstanding and pointlessness, seemingly aware of something “spiritual” within them that yearns for satisfaction, and they will attempt to meet this need by material or hedonistic means only to find that the spiritual vacuum is still there in the cold light of morning. But another proverb – Proverbs 4:18, “The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day”. There is only one way to bring light into our spiritual darkness and that is through Jesus and His righteousness. So we pilgrims do our best to take the hands of the blind around us and lead them to the Light, Jesus Himself.

The old Apostle John wrote, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). There is no dubiety or anything tricky about these three verses. There is a relationship between God’s spiritual light, the truth about Jesus, and the forgiveness of sins. And anyone can come out of the darkness into His marvellous light. Anyone. Anytime. Anywhere.

Father God, the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth, we thank You for Your physical and spiritual light, providing a complete solution to the needs of mankind. We are so grateful. Amen.

The Humble

Posted on by korgrocker

“You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud. You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.”
Psalm 18:27-29 NLT

Humility is not a word revered by most people these days, but then, as now, the same dichotomy between humble and proud people features in the difference between the two kingdoms. In God’s sight, the humble are exalted, and the proud are humiliated. In the world’s sight, the humble are trodden on and the proud elevated. But what is being humble all about? One dictionary definition, with a secular viewpoint, says, “humility is a low self-regard and a sense of unworthiness”. Another expands with, “humility involves having an accurate opinion of oneself and expressing oneself modestly as situations demand”. But as is often the case, a real life example brings out the true meaning. If we look at Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel when he said, ““Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favour with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus” (Luke 1:30-31), it was not one of pride at being especially selected by God Himself. Instead she modestly and humbly said, “ … “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her” (Luke 1:38).

David wrote that God rescues the humble, but why would they need rescuing in the first place? Perhaps a comparison between David and his adversary Saul brings out a man who depended on God for his position and situation in life, and one who relied on his own strength, ignoring God. One became King, the other was killed in battle. David was rescued many times from his enemies because he displayed the quality of humility favoured by God. 

Regarding Psalm 18:27, the Amplified version of the Bible reads, “For You save an afflicted and humble people, But bring down those [arrogant fools] with haughty eyes“. We pilgrims have all met “arrogant fools” haven’t we? In fact, we might at one time have even been one ourselves. A dictionary definition of pride is “a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements”. Straight away we can see the difference with humility with the word “own”. A humble person depends on God and looks to Him as the Source of all they are. A proud person looks only to himself. The root of pride is of course sin, and we need to be careful in striking the right balance between God’s ways and our ways. So even though we might achieve great things, we point to God and His provenance as the real reason for our success. But sadly, we have a tendency to adopt a feeling of pride in our achievements, excluding God in what we do. 

David wrote that the proud will be humiliated, and we see an extreme example in Acts 12. Herod Agrippa, the last king of Judea, granted an audience to the people of Tyre and Sidon, and we read what happened after Herod gave a speech, “The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!”” (Acts 12:22). But his pride took over and we read in the next verse, “Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died“. Was Herod humiliated? Sadly, very much so.

Peter wrote, “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honour” (1 Peter 5:6). James said much the same thing, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honour” (James 4:10). Jesus warned, “But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12), and of course we mustn’t forget, “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth” (Matthew 5:5).

God upended the world’s view of people when He expressed a preference for those who meet His criteria of humility. It’s a choice that we make, when faced with situations where pride is in danger of rearing its ugly head over the parapet of our lives. At a time when the world’s opinion of us is one of praise, we instead point to our Father God, and give Him all the glory. We quietly get on with our lives, batting aside all attempts by ourselves and others to take the glory for ourselves. When we feel that warmth of pride starting to emerge within us, we snuff it out before it blossoms into sin. If we don’t then God will deal with us in a much less comfortable way.

Dear Lord God. You have granted us ways that allow us to serve You, with talents and abilities much admired by others. Please help us to keep the lid on any thoughts of pride in our achievements and instead give You all the glory for all You have done in our lives. We praise You today. Amen.

Our Reciprocal God

Posted on by korgrocker

“To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.”
Psalm 18:25-26 NLT

David wrote that God responds to our faithfulness and integrity in our dealings with others, with faithfulness and integrity to us. In the Amplified version of these verses, we receive a little more clarity, “With the kind (merciful, faithful, loyal) You show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless, With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute“. I suppose it is quite logical really – if we are kind to others, then God will be kind to us as well. We know all about that from Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life“. In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). We also know from the Lord’s Prayer a principle about treating others – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Putting it bluntly, to a certain degree, God will treat us in the same way as we treat others, that is, until we consider the Cross. Are we not very glad that God hasn’t treated us as our sins deserve, instead considering us righteous through our repentance of sins, and forgiveness from Jesus? Thankfully, God does not immediately punish us every time we commit a sin, or think a sinful thought. 

David continued with thoughts about purity. Again, I suppose it is quite logical, that an impure person will not be able to see God’s purity. This will only become clear when the person looking at God is pure himself, which is perhaps why we only see God as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely“. Back in the Beatitudes, Jesus taught, “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The converse therefore has to be true, in that an impure, sinful, heart will blind our eyes to God.

We pilgrims live in a season of God’s grace, in that He amazingly forgives us our sins, and declares us righteous before Him. But that grace shown to us has to be extended to those we meet and greet every day. Jesus told the story of a man who owed his king a debt far beyond what he could ever repay. Threatened with imprisonment for himself and his family until the debt could be repaid, he begged the king for forgiveness, and the story continues with the man being forgiven for the whole debt by the king, who took pity on him. But the same man then went and demanded from one of his fellow servants repayment of a comparatively insignificant debt. Unfortunately the man had his fellow servant thrown into prison until the debt was repaid. we pick up the story in Matthew 18:31-34 “When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. ‘Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed”. Ominously, the story ends with Jesus saying, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart“.

There is a different economy in the Kingdom of God based on forgiveness and righteousness. Because we pilgrims have been forgiven a debt that would be impossible to pay in our own strength, we have a different perspective on all those around us. Rather than looking on in judgement, we look through a Heavenly lens, illuminating grace and love. And we apply the fruits of our forgiveness to those less fortunate, showing them a glimpse of our Heavenly Father’s heart.

Dear Father God. Thank You that we can stand righteously before You, having been forgiven a debt far beyond our wildest expectations. In amazement at Your grace and favour, we worship You today. Amen.

Blameless Before God

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord rewarded me for doing right; he restored me because of my innocence. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not turned from my God to follow evil. I have followed all his regulations; I have never abandoned his decrees. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin. The Lord rewarded me for doing right. He has seen my innocence.”
Psalm 18:20-24 NLT

David was in a good place when he wrote these verses. He recorded how God had blessed him, with words such as “reward”, ”restored”, “innocence”, and “blameless”, and David was sure that he had not followed evil ways and he had “kept [himself] from sin”. He was also feeling good because he had “followed all [of God’s] regulations” and had “never abandoned His decrees”. But is that reality or wishful thinking? Looking at David’s life as recorded in the Bible, there were times when his claims of being blameless were true, but another time when he broke several commandments all at the same time (read the account of David and Bathsheba). David flip-flopped through his life much as we do, with the human predisposition to sin emerging from time to time, taking us away from God’s protective shield. 

But Paul had a different perspective, as we read in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. In David’s times there was a legalistic regime in place under the Old Covenant, where people could claim to be righteous if they followed all the rules and regulations laid down by God to Moses. But in what we call the New Covenant, we read (Romans 3:24), “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins”. We pilgrims know all about God’s grace with the wonderful divine exchange of Jesus’ righteousness for our sins. David claimed to be blameless through his adherence to God’s “regulations” and “decrees”. We pilgrims are blameless because of Jesus. 

Dear Father God. I don’t know where we would be if it wasn’t for Your Son Jesus. Expressing our gratitude doesn’t even scratch the surface of what You deserve. We can only bow before You in worship. Amen.

He Delights in Me

Posted on by korgrocker

“He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me. He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.”
Psalm 18:17-19 NLT

David considered his circumstances and marvelled at the way God had rescued him from the attacks of his “powerful enemies”. Not only did the Lord support him , but He led him to “a place of safety” and all because “He delights in [him]”. The Amplified version interprets Psalm 18:19 as, “He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me”. What an amazing accolade, to say that God is pleased with someone. But how would we know? We might have a personal impression that God “delights in” us but the thing about divine accolades is surely that the Heavenly beneficence is public. But the only way that people will know that God delights in us is in the way we behave. There will be no neon lights in the sky proclaiming God’s pleasure with Joe Bloggs or anyone else. A Heavenly light display such as that was retained for God’s own Son at His birth – “Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, … Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,” (Luke 2:9, 13). But there was another time when a voice from Heaven proclaimed how pleased God was with His Son, as we read in Luke 3:22 at the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, “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 today God’s pleasure with someone can be seen publicly in the way they behave. A contentious thought perhaps, but one that many people overlook. For example, if a Christian looks miserable, are they demonstrating God’s pleasure with them? If a believer makes comments that are negative how does that fit in with God’s favour? We pilgrims are God’s testimony of grace and His love to a wayward and evil generation, and our demeanours must reflect that. I was once walking through a pedestrian tunnel under the River Thames in London with many people coming towards me, hurrying to work, and I was struck by the staring, fixed and sad looks on most of the faces I could see. Faces displaying a lack of God’s blessing and favour. Faces trapped in a world of sin and without hope for the future. I was reminded once again that God wants us pilgrims to reach out with messages of Good News, which start with first impressions. Are we smiling or does our facial expressions mirror those of the people around us?

In Psalm 5:12 we read, “Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield”. I suppose it goes without saying, that God has no incentive or need to bless an unrighteous person, although such people are included in His blessings, as we read in Matthew 4:45b, “ … He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. That is God’s grace in operation. But to fully appreciate God’s beneficence, we need to acknowledge Him and believe in Him, something that the worldly people around us fail to do.

For a believer, the reality is that God will delight in us as we follow His ways. He is with us every step we take, cheering us on when the going gets tough, encouraging us when adversity strikes, blessing us with provision for our needs. But if we feel that God’s favour has left us, then we return to the Cross where we touch base once again with our Saviour, Jesus. Only He has the words of eternal life. Only He can bring hope to the hopeless and favour to the lost.

Dear Father God. With grateful hearts we praise and worship You today for all Your Heavenly favours. It’s all about You and Your glory, and we humbly bow before You today, conscious of all that You have done for us. Amen.

Deep Waters

Posted on by korgrocker

“He reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me.”
Psalm 18:16-18 NLT

David recorded that he was in a weak, defenceless moment, ”in distress“, when his enemies attacked him, but his plight attracted God’s attention, with the result that “He reached down from Heaven” and rescued David. David recorded that the “Lord supported [him]”. The language David used to describe his predicament and how God came through for him, was graphic and very descriptive, but David wasn’t literally in “deep waters” I’m sure. But he felt as though he was, with his anxiety and fear in danger of drowning him in a sea of emotional turmoil. The reality is, though, that he knew God would rescue him, no matter what the circumstances were.

There is a Bible story about a man called Jonah, who was literally in distress because of “deep waters”. We read in Jonah the account of how he was running from God and ended up being thrown into the sea to stop a storm – “Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!” (Jonah 1:13). Every child I’m sure knows the next bit, “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). In the second chapter of Jonah we read in his prayer from inside the fish, “You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves” (Jonah 2:3). Graphic details follow of Jonah’s experience in the sea, “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head” (Jonah 2:5). Like David, Jonah prayed earnestly to God because his life was in danger, and this part of the story ends with Jonah being vomited out onto the beach. 

In the comparison between the two accounts, David was in deep emotional waters, and Jonah was in deep physical waters. But there was no difference between the two circumstances in the sense that both men needed to be rescued. And it was only God who could make that happen. 

We pilgrims may also come up against circumstances over which we have no control. Perhaps an issue at work, or college. Perhaps physical danger through an accident. As wars sweep our planet, perhaps there are many who regularly cry out to God for their safety. Perhaps a mental health issue prevails in a person’s life, dragging them to a place where suicidal thoughts dwell. But wherever, or whatever the issue, God is always there for us. And we know that ultimately He will rescue us to a place of safety, when He calls us home. There will be no more crying or dying there. With God we will live forever in a place called Paradise.

Dear Loving Heavenly Father. You have rescued us through Your Son Jesus, from the consequences of sin. Thank You. Amen.

They Were Confused

Posted on by korgrocker

“He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet. Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind. He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him and rained down hail and burning coals. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals. He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; great bolts of lightning flashed, and they were confused. Then at your command, O Lord, at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.”
Psalm 18:9-15 NLT

David wrote that “great bolts of lightning … confused” the people, his enemies. Lightning still frightens people today of course, but nowhere near as much as it did in Biblical times. We “more enlightened” people in the 21st Century understand how lightning develops and how the effects can be avoided, to an extent.  However, we can’t stop it and we can’t control it, and the reason is because it is something that happens because of the physical properties of the planet on which we live. I would suggest that God’s design for Planet Earth has been corrupted by sin, and there is a consequence for the evil that takes place upon its shores. We know of course that God’s design, His creation, was perfect because we read in Genesis 1:31, “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day”. Interestingly, there is no mention of lightning, earthquakes, disease, famine and any other negative event in the Creation account. Just perfection, even extending to human beings. But after sin entered the world, a curse was introduced. Genesis 3:17, “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it”. So perhaps lightning is part of that curse.

Elihu, one of Job’s friends, said this, “See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea. …  He fills his hands with lightning bolts and hurls each at its target. The thunder announces his presence; the storm announces his indignant anger” (Job 36:30, 32-33). Elihu’s perception was that God used lightning as a punishment for an evil people. At the very least it would “confuse” or frighten them, providing a warning that there was, and is, a God in Heaven who one day will judge the evil and wickedness that takes place on the earth. But lightning also demonstrates God’s power and authority, right from His throne. Revelation 4:5, “From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold Spirit of God”. This was a vision given to John of God’s power and authority, because human beings were unable to create such a phenomenon on a Heavenly scale. Yes, people can create sparks, but what are they compared to God’s lightning bolts?

But David wrote that the peoples were confused by the lightning bolts. Other translations introduce a different perspective, building a picture of God’s enemies being “routed” or “vanquished”. Certainly a well aimed lightning bolt or two would soon disrupt an army on a battlefield. But today, the confusion is a good description of something out of mankind’s control. In a society that thinks they can do anything, something uncontrollable like lightning confuses them. After all, they say, we can split the atom, we can produce devices that fly, we can create mobile phones and so on, so why can’t we control the weather? And at that moment confusion creeps in. Doubts form, and people wonder about whether or not there might indeed be a higher power beyond their understanding. 

We pilgrims believe in, and follow, a limitless God, who power is far beyond human comprehension. After all, what is a lightning bolt compared to the plethora of created heavenly beings, the stars and planets, that populate the universe? We should therefore be grateful that lightning is constrained as it is. There are many confused people walking around our streets, not sure how or when their lives will end, and the inclusion of Heavenly power events just adds to their confusion. But we pilgrims look on at the electrical storms and are reminded of our amazing Creator God who allows the occasional lightning bolt to confuse and frighten those who deny that He exists. The superstitious cover up the mirrors and cutlery, but we know differently, and offer up our praise and worship to the all-powerful God.

Dear God. You are the powerful One, the Name above all names, the King of all kings, the Lord of all. Amen.

Clouds of Darkness

Posted on by korgrocker

“He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet. Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind. He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him and rained down hail and burning coals. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals. He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; great bolts of lightning flashed, and they were confused. Then at your command, O Lord, at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.”
Psalm 18:9-15 NLT

These verses today dramatically portray God’s judgement on Planet Earth, judgement for all the sin and wickedness that just cannot be allowed to continue forever. There are two occasions in the Old Testament where God has catastrophically destroyed people and their infrastructures because of sin, and we can read the accounts of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Flood, in Genesis. At other times God has judged His people by sending them into captivity. On an individual basis, God’s judgement is ongoing, with unrepentant sinners being “ … abandoned … to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies” (Romans 1:24). Paul continued, “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too” (Romans 1:28-32). Does all this sound and look familiar as we observe what is going on in our societies?

 Our holy and righteous God will not tolerate evil and wickedness forever. We read in Genesis 6:5-6, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart”. We pilgrims probably have difficulty believing that our God could be so distressed over “human wickedness” but those four words “it broke His heart” sum up the impact sin has had, and continues to have, on our loving and gracious Creator God. 

Darkness is described by David as “dark storm clouds” and we read the fulfilment of this in Revelation 16:10, “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. His subjects ground their teeth in anguish”. The events foretold to happen in the End Times will not be pleasant! 

David’s poetic language nevertheless acts as a warning to all humanity. There will come a time soon when the Gospel will have reached the furthest corner of the Earth, and then the end will come. This will initiate a series of events culminating with the destruction of Planet Earth and the introduction of a new order, populated by all those people, past present and future, who, through Jesus, meet God’s criteria of righteousness and holiness. Through the Holy Spirit, David prophesied of this time of judgement coming and his apocalyptic language portrays times of terror and anguish too hard to bear.

The End Times will be met with mixed emotions by us pilgrims. If we are caught up in them – they could arrive in our lifetimes – we will welcome the end and mourn the troubles, but Jesus reassured us of a good outcome for His people, as we read in Matthew 24:13, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved“. Jesus later said, “In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones” (Matthew 24:22). We trust Jesus, however, because only He has the words of eternal life.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You that even now You are preparing a Heavenly home for each of us. We proclaim our faith in You and look forward to seeing you one day soon. In Your precious name, Amen.

Earthquakes and Fire

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the earth quaked and trembled. The foundations of the mountains shook; they quaked because of his anger. Smoke poured from his nostrils; fierce flames leaped from his mouth. Glowing coals blazed forth from him.”
Psalm 18:7-8 NLT

After acknowledging that God heard David’s cries and prayers for help, David let his imagination dwell on the different ways that God could deal with the problem of his enemies. Earthquakes and fire appear in David’s poetry, themes again appearing in Isaiah, “But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust. Your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind. Suddenly, in an instant, I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire” (Isaiah 29:5-6). Earthquakes and fire are just two of God’s remedies for dealing with a sinful and wicked earth, and we’re so grateful that He is holding back His judgement. He didn’t in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, as we read in Genesis 19:24-25, “Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulphur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation”. In case anyone thinks that the Genesis account was just mythical, evidence has been found of an ancient city destroyed by intense heat. Dating methods have placed it in the right historical period. 

Elijah too came up against earthquakes and fire, as we read in 1 Kings 19:11-12, “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper“. An amazing demonstration of God’s power re-confirmed Elijah’s mission. 

So what do we pilgrims think of earthquakes and fire? We know the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:7, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world”, and we look around and see this happening. We might even suspect that David’s words were a prophetic message foretelling God’s judgement, but Jesus continued in the next verse, “But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come“. Earthquakes were very much part of the apocalyptic vision recorded in Revelation. We read in Revelation 16:17-18, “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!” Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck—the worst since people were placed on the earth“. There was fire involved as well in the last days. Revelation 16:8, “Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, causing it to scorch everyone with its fire“. 

Earthquakes and fire are considered part of God’s judgement on the evil and wicked people who have populated Planet Earth. Up until now, we read that, “The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. … ” (Numbers 14:18a). ‭‭We are so thankful that God’s anger and judgement has been delayed because otherwise we would not be around today. As we read through Revelation we can see a series of world events that take place before the Time of the End in Revelation 20, but in Hebrews 9:27 we read, “ … each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment“. In these days on Planet Earth we live in a season of God’s grace. The Revelation 16 times of earthquakes and fire have yet to come. David did indeed prophesy about what was to come, and we pilgrims are in a place of God’s favour and grace, which we strive to share with others.

Dear Father God. To many people their lives will not end well as they stand before You on Judgement Day. But thank You that You have entrusted us with Your message of hope. Please help us to spread the word that “Jesus saves”. Amen.

The Ropes of Death

Posted on by korgrocker

“The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.”
Psalm 18:4-6 NLT

David painted a picture of a life-threatening situation with phrases like “ropes of death” and “floods of destruction”. But he followed his distressful experiences with cries and prayers for help which God heard from Heaven. Looking back at some of David’s experiences while being chased around the Middle East by King Saul, when he was forced to take refuge in all sorts of hideaways, we can appreciate the strength of his feelings. We can read about one of David’s experiences in 1 Samuel 23:7-8, “Saul soon learned that David was at Keilah. “Good!” he exclaimed. “We’ve got him now! God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself in a walled town!” So Saul mobilized his entire army to march to Keilah and besiege David and his men“. Because of the threat of being betrayed by the inhabitants of this walled city, and we read on, “So David and his men—about 600 of them now—left Keilah and began roaming the countryside. Word soon reached Saul that David had escaped, so he didn’t go to Keilah after all. David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him” (1 Samuel 23:13-14). So, in Psalm 18 David expressed poetically the close experience that he had had with death, if Saul had captured him. 

But take these verses in Psalm 18 about “ropes of death” and “floods of destruction” and overlay them on our lives today. First of all, the great majority of us do not walk about in fear that a 21st Century equivalent of King Saul is after us. But we do have many fears that threaten to do the same. Fears of financial ruin because of the loss of employment. Fears of an early death due to illness or disease. Fears of homelessness because our landlord wants to increase the rent beyond what we can afford. Fears of …. (add your own selection). And the result of our fears is that we worry. Sadly, it is almost as a last resort that we follow David’s example and “[cry] out to the Lord” and “pray to … God for help”. Jesus had some sound advice in His Sermon on the Mount. We read in Matthew 6:25-27, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” And the chapter finishes with “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today“.

Jesus wasn’t saying that we, as believers, will be immune from the problems that blight the lives of so many. Instead He said we should follow God and His ways, because by doing so we will find ourselves on a pathway along which our worries and anxieties will diminish. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus“. 

 “Ropes of death” and “floods of destruction” can never get in the way of our relationship with God. Yes, we may experience many troubles in this world, but Jesus said that He had overcome the world. Even now, there may be those amongst us who feel as though they are facing a fork in the road. To the left is the route of worry and anxiety, with our view firmly fixed on all the trials and troubles this world has to our doors. To the right is God’s way, the right way, where the trials and troubles still exist but we lift our eyes upwards to God and experience His peace and provision. He may or may not do something about our worldly situation but instead He will stand with us as we face our problems. Jesus said, “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:31-33). So there we have it.  “Ropes of death” and “floods of destruction” don’t appear in the Kingdom of God.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your provision and love. Regardless of our circumstances, we will worship You this day and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.