A Wonderful Inheritance

Posted on by korgrocker

“Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!”
Psalm 16:5-6 NLT

A mixture of allegorical events this morning? What was David thinking about? The Israelites were indeed given a pleasant land by God, and David, as king, would have inherited its domain from the previous king, Saul. There was a time when David could even relax a bit, secure that God was looking out for him – 2 Samuel 7:1, “When King David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies”. And we can just imagine David getting up in the morning and looking out over the land around him, feeling blessed by God’s provision. It was indeed a “wonderful inheritance” and one promised to Moses during his blazing bush encounter with God. God said to Moses, “So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live” (Exodus 3:8). 

But David also looked to God as his spiritual inheritance. In a sense He was, and is, everyone’s inheritance – well, for believers that is. We have come to know God because of an “inheritance” granted us through His Word, the Bible, and word of mouth by faithful servants who have shared the Gospel with us. David came to know God more directly, through spending long hours with his harp and flute watching his father’s sheep. And praise welled up inside David, as he declared that God was his “cup of blessing”. 

Do we pilgrims agree with David, and similarly declare that God has indeed blessed us, and, more, is our “pleasant land”? Do we enjoy our relationship with God? Or is it something we do by rote, going through religious motions on a Sunday, our minds dwelling on the roast dinner cooking in the oven at home? I’m sure that anyone reading this today knows that they are blessed by God and they too find within them a well of praise and worship, even a hint of excitement perhaps, as they drink the cup full of God’s blessings. To a worldly person, they have no idea of the blessings that could be waiting for them if they only opened the door into a relationship with God. The demands placed upon someone today, the busyness, the emotional draining, the struggle to fund their lives – all of this conspires to blind a person’s eyes to the reality that in a corner of their lives is a gateway into a new life. A life with God. An inheritance that is theirs for the asking. The invitation to this new life can often be seen in the wayside pulpits located outside churches, or even on the side of buses. Imagine receiving a letter one day, asking you to collect your inheritance from a lawyer somewhere, but not even bothering to turn up to find out what it is. Such is the response from people today, and in the process they are missing out on the same “cup of blessing” that David enjoyed, a cup that never runs dry.

And of course we remember that the “wonderful inheritance” we enjoy is not just for this life on earth. There will be a day when we find that much of what we glimpsed and yearned for will burst into an amazing panorama of God and all that He is, in a place we call Heaven. We have an “inheritance” that is without end and without limit.

Paul wrote, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). We believers have the potential to do mighty things for God with the resources that He has made available to us in the “pleasant land” located just a prayer away. We might not feel we have much power, as the demands of life drain us. We might not even believe that this verse is meant for us, preferring to think that it is only there for the real saints. But Paul wrote something profound and life changing about the “inheritance” we have available to us. Let us pause and reach out to God today, even daring to believe that His “cup of blessing” is limitless and will never run dry.

Dear Father God. You are the Source of all that is good in the land where You have placed us. Thank You for the many blessings poured out upon us. Amen.

Multiplied Troubles

Posted on by korgrocker

“I said to the Lord, “You are my Master! Every good thing I have comes from you.” The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them! Troubles multiply for those who chase after other gods. I will not take part in their sacrifices of blood or even speak the names of their gods.”
Psalm 16:2-4 NLT

Just a few words previously, David wrote about the “Godly people in the land” but here he is now pushing back at “those who chase after other gods”. He exposed a dichotomy between believers in God and the unbelievers around him who believed in false gods. If I was an extraterrestrial alien looking at the behaviour of the Israelites spanning a few hundred years, I would have observed a bountiful and merciful God who had miraculously fed a large number of Israelite slaves, after parting the Red Sea to facilitate their escape from Egypt, for a period of forty years. I would have observed how time and time again God had helped them overcome their enemies, after bringing them into a land this same God had promised to them, and He even parted the River Jordan, then in flood, to allow everyone to cross over to the other side. And yet I would have now been very puzzled, because so many of the descendants of the favoured people had now rejected the very God who had helped and supported them. What had gone wrong? 

The alien would have probably shrugged his shoulders (if he had any) at this point and moved on elsewhere, not wanting to have anything to do with such an irrational people. But the answer to the question can be found in a single, three-letter word – sin. David observed that in his day, those of his fellow Israelites who had abandoned the God of Israel would soon find the trouble that God had warned them about. In Deuteronomy 28 there is a list of all the troubling curses that will be incurred by those who choose to reject God and stop following His laws and precepts. The curses start with Deuteronomy 28:15, “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you“, and the chapter continues with a list of troubles that will come upon them. As we read on we find that troubles do indeed multiply. The lure of the sinful practices that accompany the worship of idols was so strong that many Israelites chose the way of evil, but soon afterwards they experienced the fruit of their idolatry.

Today, a secular society finds that life is afflicted with modern day equivalents of multiplied troubles. I’m saddened by David’s statement referencing the “sacrifices of blood” that were taking place in the name of the other gods, wondering if the same sacrifices are continuing today in the abortion clinics and in our hospitals. I observe a society increasingly at odds with itself, with strange ideologies emerging, with economic woes endlessly appearing both at the macro and micro levels, with people trampling over each other in their race to fulfil their selfish desires. By default, those people who do not follow God will reap their rewards at the altars of their own false gods. 

Paul wrote in Romans 1 about “… God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused” (Romans 1:21). Paul continued, “Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:22-23). But here’s the thing that applies to the times in which we live, “So God abandoned them 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). It’s a terrible thing to be abandoned by God, and what He said through Paul has come to pass, with “multiplied troubles” appearing in the idolaters lives. Paul finishes Roman 1 with these verses, “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“. Soberly, we know that their troubles won’t end at death, with another appointment waiting to be kept and the ultimate judgement taking place.

David wanted to have nothing to do with the people who “chased after other gods” with good reason, and neither must we pilgrims. We of course continue to try to draw the idolaters back from their sin with our stories of what God has done for us, and the Good News of what Jesus did for every human being at Calvary, should they choose to believe in Him. These days, idols might not be a wooden or stone edifice located in a home or shrine somewhere, but they exist in peoples’ lives. If we asked an unbeliever today if they instead have an idol, they worship, they would probably say of course not. An idol can be anything the takes the place of worshipping God. An idol can be another person, particular an actor or a pop star, (popular saying – “he worships the ground she walks on”). Or perhaps a motor car, or a mobile phone. Some people spend a lot of time playing computer games. The list is endless.

It might be a good idea if we pilgrims ask God if there is anything in our lives that shouldn’t be there, things that could lead us into idolatry. Paul’s instructions were clear – he wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:14-15 “So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true“. And having decided we move on, in worship to the only God worth the name.

Dear Heavenly Father. We pray, “lead us not into temptation”, and today we pray that we will not be tempted to run after idols, of any persuasion. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

True Heroes

Posted on by korgrocker

“I said to the Lord, “You are my Master! Every good thing I have comes from you.” The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them! Troubles multiply for those who chase after other gods. I will not take part in their sacrifices of blood or even speak the names of their gods.”
Psalm 16:2-4 NLT

David’s thoughts seem to be leaping about in these verses. After acknowledging that God is the Source of all his good things, David moves on to consider the Godly people around him, defining them as his “true heroes”. The dictionary defines a hero as “a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities“, but does that definition apply in David’s thoughts? Certainly, to be a God-follower in an environment where other gods proliferate, takes courage, and “noble qualities” are required. But the outstanding achievements are more associated with successful exploits in battle, such as when David defeated Goliath, or when Samson  “ … found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it” (Judges 15:15). 

So, how can a Godly person become a hero? In the various Bible translations, the words “Godly people” and “hero” are only used by the NLT. Other translations refer to “holy ones” or “saints” being “noble” or “excellent”, but we get this picture of David’s admiration of people, God-believers, who stand firm in the face of a wicked and sinful environment, with idolatrous practices rife, and societal behaviour distinctly anti-God in their content. David took “pleasure in them”, he wrote.

In Biblical times, many examples of people acting as “true heroes” are recorded. Just turn to Hebrews 11 to find a few examples. But the essence of being a hero is having faith in God, because that will lead to a life spent at variance with increasingly secular points of view. We read in Hebrews 11:1-2, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation“. Look at the abuse Noah must have experienced when he spent 100 years building his ark, in faith that this was God’s will for him and his family, and there are other examples of the “true heroes” in the rest of the chapter.

In David’s view, perhaps we pilgrims are heroes in today’s world, but are we anything special? Today’s society is very tolerant of people who are considered to be on the fringe in terms of beliefs and behaviours, as long as it does not impact the way that they go about their lives. But when the behaviour of those with particular ideologies clashes with mainstream views then there can be a process involving the law courts to resolve the issues. In my view the heroes of the faith in today’s society can be found protesting outside abortion clinics, even if it means arrest and fines, or in turning their backs on denominations that violate Biblical principles, even if they have been members for a considerable time. Today’s heroes of the faith stand up for righteous practices in the workplace even if it means dismissal from their jobs. Recent legislation has seen justice being pursued in law courts over the right to wear a cross necklace at work, or a baker refusing to bake a cake with homosexual overtones, for a gay couple. These are the “true heroes” today.

So, fellow pilgrims, we are men and women of faith, standing up for what we believe in an often hostile and sinful world. We live lives of faith, believing that  ” … it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). In the face of evolutionary science now taught as fact in our schools, “ … we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen” (Hebrews 11:3), believing this because of our faith.

David had a lot of admiration for the “Godly people” around him, and he called them “true heroes”. I know people, Godly people, who I would count as being heroes. I’m so grateful for their courage and inspiration. Some have passed and I remember one man who is now part of that Hebrews 12 great cloud of witnesses. He was a hero to me and I know to others, and I thank God for him, and his unstinting and unwavering witness here on Planet Earth.

Dear Father God. You know the man I am referring to, and I pray that his witness will carry on, even though he is no longer with us. And I pray for the Godly people who I know, that You will uphold them in their lives of faith. Amen.

Good Things

Posted on by korgrocker

“I said to the Lord, “You are my Master! Every good thing I have comes from you.””
Psalm 16:2 NLT

We all have our own understanding of what we think a “good thing” is. We might consider a treasured family heirloom, or a gift from a friend. We might also think about good things that happen to us, like a legacy from a deceased relative, a tax rebate, or so other gift of money. And in a moment of romantic enthusiasm, a young wife might look at her husband and consider him a “good thing” (or vice versa of course). I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day and many today will look on their relationships, real or hoped for, as being “good things”. But any positive experience we have can be considered good because that is something we can discern and enjoy. And David, the Psalmist, attributes all his good experiences to God. Perhaps he was looking around at his property, his many wives, his silver and gold, or was there something far more significant?

On the other hand, we humans also experience bad things. We lose a job, or get involved in a road traffic accident. We catch a nasty illness, or break a leg skiing. A child gets sick and dies. These we would refer to as bad things, so if good things come from God, where do they come from? Simplistically, people would refer to the bad things in life as coming from the devil, sent to annoy and harass us because we have perhaps misbehaved in some way.

The good and bad experiences in life are all part of living as human beings. A world, fallen because of sin, is not a predictable place to live in, apart from one factor – God. And that is the point that David was making. God is the source of the good things in life, whether or not the people who receive them know Him. In Matthew 5:45b, Jesus said, “ …  For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike”. In other words, God has taken steps to ensure that this world, and everything within it, is sustained by “good things” originating with Him.

To come back to our verse from Psalm 16 today, David starts by acknowledging his relationship with God, his Lord and Master. To him, this is real, vibrant, and life-changing. David’s relationship with the Lord has made him a different person to what he could have been, and the result brought him a totally different perspective on life. When a “good thing” happened to David he had Someone to thank for it, and he realised that even if bad things happened to him, he could turn to God for the comfort and solace he needed. David was a man who lived a life of closeness with God, and although there were times when he failed, he always returned to his place of safety. 

James wrote, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (James 1:17). David knew this of course, and he also wrote Psalm 23, the last verse of which reads, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever”. 

We all know people who, although not believers, claim to be “good” people, and because of that they see no need to repent of sins. They live lives blissfully ignorant, or so it seems, of the concept that Paul wrote, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But we pray for them, that God will open their eyes. We pilgrims are tasked with presenting the Gospel and we know that it is up to the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin. Referring to the coming Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment”(John 16:8). 

In the meantime, we pilgrims look around and see the goodness of God. All our lives He has pursued us with His goodness. All our lives He has blessed us with so much, even when at times we fail to see it. And He will continue to do so until we draw our last breath. In Heaven, we will see the Source of all “good things” at last and, prostrate before Him, we will be able to truly thank Him for all He did in our lives. We will be amazed, I’m sure, about the extent of all the “good things” that God has done.

Dear Heavenly Father. On our knees this morning we offer up our prayers of thanks, in praise and worship of the One who made it all possible at Calvary. Thank You. Amen.

Safety in God

Posted on by korgrocker

“Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge.”
Psalm 16:1 NLT

A short verse this morning that starts our contemplation of Psalm 16. Safety is something we all yearn for, but in our physical lives it is not always achievable. There is something wired into human beings that desires a safe place and we often talk about “home”. There is something reassuring about entering our front doors, turning the lock and relaxing in what we perceive as a safe place. People with substantial means can afford to employ people to keep them safe, or they can afford to live in places where they think that their wealth will defend them.  But there are many in the world that don’t have that safety and security, people with limited means living in hostile nations, people who are tent dwellers, or refugees, and so on. 

David was a man who knew what it was like to be in places of danger. He always seemed to be fighting someone, both inside and outside Israel, and not just Goliath. There was a time when he found safety in a cave, “So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there” (1 Samuel 22:1). David also made Jerusalem a place of safety, “So David made the fortress his home, and he called it the City of David. He extended the city, starting at the supporting terraces and working inward” (2 Samuel 5:9). Of course, at other times, David did not need to run and hide in a place of safety, because, with the Lord with him, he was able to fight off his foes and ensure his own safety following victory in battle. In fact, David prayed to God many times for safety and God answered his prayers, and, as we know, David died of old age, not being killed by his enemies in a vulnerable place.

But there is a spiritual side to David’s appeal to God for safety as well. We read in Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe“. We also read in Proverbs 29:25, “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety“. As we read these and similar Scriptures, a picture builds of the ultimate place of safety as being in God. 

With Jesus came the ultimate route to a safe place for our souls in Heaven. There will be no conflict or danger there, just peace and love in a dwelling place where no door locks are required. We pilgrims of course know the way to find that place of safety for our souls. 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“. 

With God we find the safety for which our souls crave, and a place we can call home. That’s what the saints of old called Heaven – they used to say that when they die they will be going “home”. David realised that and he finished Psalm 23 with, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever“. We can’t move on today without reading a few verses about our ultimate place we will call home. Contrary to popular opinion, there will come a time when God will create a new Heaven and a new Earth, where a new Jerusalem will be formed. God’s people will live there, not in Heaven, and we read in Revelation 21:3, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them”. In Heaven we will have spiritual bodies, but eventually we will have physical bodies like that of Jesus, bodies as God originally intended, bodies that will never wear out, and we, in our new bodies, will find a new home with God on the new earth. 

Too much to take in? Suffice to say that God is indeed our place of safety, now and forever.

Dear Father God. There will be a day when You will come to live on the new Earth with Your people. We look forward to the time when there will be no more death, crying and sickness, and we repeat the words uttered by many saints over the years – come Lord Jesus. Amen.

Standing Firm Forever

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? … Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.”
Psalm 15:1, 5 NLT

David winds up his list of required characteristics for those who wish to worship the Lord in His sanctuary. Inevitably, he turns to money, which can be a trap for unwary believers. Paul wrote to Timothy, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10). The requirement that those who lend money should not charge interest is perhaps, at least superficially, a problem in this day and age, where borrowers expect to be charged interest. But if we dig down a bit further into this requirement, we find Exodus 22:25, “If you lend money to any of my people who are in need, do not charge interest as a money lender would“. So perhaps David was just meaning that money should only be loaned interest-free to poor people in need. Obviously, in Biblical days, it was expected that interest would be received on investments. Jesus said to the third servant in His parable of the Ten Servants, “Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?” (Luke 19:23). So, perhaps, David was meaning that those who loaned money should be charitable when it came to the poor, and not guilty of usury, the charging of interest at exorbitant rates, to everyone else. Banking today charges one rate of interest on loans, but a lower rate on deposits, the difference between the two rates providing sufficient money to fund the bank’s operations. But sometimes the size of banking profits makes us pilgrims wonder about usury.

David went on to write about those who accept bribes for lying “about the innocent”. Perhaps David was repeating Exodus 23:8, “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.” We read about how the guards at Jesus’ tomb were silenced, bribed by the Jewish religious leaders, in Matthew 28:12-13, “When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep””. Bribery was common in those days, and still is today, with corruption in some nations reaching epidemic proportions. Bribery is a sin, there is no doubt about that, and anyone guilty of giving or receiving a bribe excludes themselves from being able to worship God.

In Psalm 15, David lists all the characteristics that need to be present to qualify someone for God-worship. The person concerned must:
Live a blameless life 
Not do anything unrighteous
Speak the truth
Not slander or gossip about anyone
Not wrong their neighbours
Not speak evil of their friends
Despise and avoid those who openly sin
Honour their brothers and sisters in Christ
Keep their promises, come what may
Be charitable and fair when lending money
Refuse to give or receive bribes

David concludes with the thought that the believer who ticks all these boxes will stand, upright and strong, a God-worshipper beyond reproach forever.

Dear Heavenly Father. We understand that there are things we have to do in our lives to qualify us for being able to worship You. We pray with the Psalmist, “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”. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
 

Promises

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? … Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honour the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts.”
Psalm 15:1, 4 NLT

We spend another day looking at the qualities required for those desirous of worshiping the Lord in His presence. David wrote that those who make promises must keep them “even when it hurts”. From God’s perspective, the Bible is full of His promises. Take 1 Chronicles 16:34 for example, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever“. God promised to never stop loving human beings, and yet, when we see the hurt that we have caused Him, we perhaps think that this is one promise too far. Look at Genesis 6:6, “So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart“. What a poignant response to the way the ones He loved were treating Him. But nevertheless, God never stops loving us.

We too have an opportunity to make a promise to God. The writer to Ecclesiastes noted, “When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5). The writer implied that those who fail to keep a promise are fools and shouldn’t have made a promise at all if there was any doubt that they would keep it. Notice too that the writer said “When” and not “If”. Promises should be made to God, and especially the one that we made when we knelt at the cross in repentance, asking for forgiveness. 

There are too many examples of broken promises in the world today. Take for example our politicians, quick to make all sorts of promises in the run up to an election, but forgetting they ever made them once elected. Another common example is a promise made by a couple getting married, only to find that the promise, “to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow“, is abandoned at some point down the road when the going gets tough. Apparently, 42% of marriages officially end in divorce, but many more happen in people’s hearts, I’m sure.

David wrote that a prerequisite to being able to worship the Lord in His presence is being able to keep a promise, no matter what it takes. From Gotquestions.org, “Promises can be beautiful and honourable and made for the good of others. But they must be kept. As we are imperfect humans, we should only make promises with care and introspection so they do not turn into sin. Promises can be easily broken or made with the wrong motivation, which may result in damage to ourselves or others”. So there we have it. But we pilgrims are promise keepers, no matter what, because we want to worship our amazing Saviour in His sanctuary.

Dear Father God. We make this promise today, that we will follow You all the days of our lives. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

Faithful Followers

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? … Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honour the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts.”
Psalm 15:1, 4 NLT

We continue to explore the attributes necessary for a believer to worship the Lord and enter into His sanctuary. We despise the “flagrant sinners” and now we turn to honouring the “faithful followers of the Lord”. It must be easy, one would think. After all there are many people who call themselves Christians and we only have to walk into a church on a Sunday morning to find them. There they are, seated in the pews, looking towards the minister speaking from an elevated platform called a pulpit. Or they might all be standing singing a song or hymn, accompanied by the sounds of a pipe organ, or in more modern times, a small band of musicians complete with guitars and drums. Surely we won’t have any problems honouring them. But if only it was that simple. There are many people who call themselves Christians but Jesus said, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter” (Matthew 7:21). 

So how do we discern who the “faithful followers of the Lord” really are? In fact, are we ourselves counted in their number? And do we really know and understand what God’s will is for each one of us? Jesus continued in Matthew 7:22-23, “On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’” I know a successful pastor who said to me once that this Scripture worries him personally. Surely this bar is far too high for believers in God to reach, let alone jump over. But doing the will of God is to believe in Jesus, to receive the gift of the forgiveness of sin made possible by His death on the cross and to be declared righteous before God. Our standing before God is not about us but it is all about Jesus. Those who do tremendous things for God, even in His name, but who don’t know Him personally, are in danger of rejection on judgement day.

But we’ll consider the question again. How do we discern who the “faithful followers of the Lord” are? I would say we pray for that discernment and, if in any doubt, treat other Christians as though they were indeed “faithful followers of the Lord.” Not all members of a denomination other that the one we follow will be true Christians. Some “Christian” fellowships may not be following the same “Lord” that we do. And there are sects around like the JW’s who consider themselves to be Christian, but are they really, in the true sense? They think so, but does the Lord? 

We don’t want to get tied up with this, and instead we follow what Paul wrote in Romans 12;10, “Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honouring each other“. We start with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in the fellowship where we worship. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3-4, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too“. The body of Christ where God has put us will have many different people. Different ages, backgrounds, skin colours, professions and so on, but before the cross we are all equal. And before Jesus we honour them, whether or not they are faithful. How faithful they are in following the Lord is between them and God, but regardless, we pilgrims honour our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we will be blessed through doing it.

Dear Father God. There are those around us who profess to be Your followers and we remember that they too are Your blood-bought children. Help us to concern ourselves with them, praying for them and loving them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Flagrant Sinners

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honour the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts.”
Psalm 15:1, 4 NLT

David lists three more character necessities for those who want to worship the Lord in His sanctuary. We must “despise flagrant sinners”, “honour the faithful followers of the Lord“, and “keep [our] promises”. To be clear, we pilgrims can worship God anywhere but there is a sweet spot where we can do so from a position of having a clear conscience, free from the little accusing whispers in our minds that get in the way of true worship. Once there the sweet spot takes us to a connection with the Lord that somehow seems to take us into Heaven itself. 

But who are these “flagrant sinners” that David warned us against? Other translations refer to a “vile” or “evil” person but however we consider these words, there is something or someone here that we must avoid. The word “vile” describes a deliberately wicked, morally worthless person. “Despise” comes from a term which can also mean “to hold in contempt” or “to disdain.” These are strong words and highlight the importance of our being set apart from contact with such people, as we continue to journey on our walk of holiness. But Paul said “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” so does that mean we should despise everyone, because everyone sins? Of course not, because to do so would turn us into monks, shut away in a monastery away from contact with other human beings. The key word here is “flagrant”, describing those people who are open in their sin and who flaunt it in everyone else’s face, impervious of the offence that they are causing. We can find many examples of this on social media, where disgusting sinful rants emerge far too frequently, rants that abuse our political leaders, rants that target the sexuality of people they think they know, and so on. 

The word “despise” can mean that we should avoid, as a general rule, contact with these “flagrant sinners”. I say as a general rule, because there are some who find that they have a ministry of grace to these people. It depends on how strong their faith is. We read in Jude 1:23, “Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives”. There are many who have dedicated their lives to working with the “flagrant sinners”, people like Jackie Pullinger working with drug addicts and dealers in Hong Kong. But we must be careful. Paul wrote, “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). So it makes sense to beware of places where we know there is a temptation too great for us to avoid. Think of a person who is an alcoholic entering a bar with a pocketful of cash.

David advised that those who want to worship God must avoid anything or anyone that gets in the way, even if it means taking an extreme position in the process. Whatever we fill our minds with, such as what we watch on TV, or listen to on the radio, or during conversations with people we meet, or find on YouTube or elsewhere in the Internet, will divert us away from the ability to worship God in the way he desires. There will be nothing sinful present in God’s presence or in His worship.

Dear Heavenly Father. Please help us to avoid people and places that will divert us away from worshipping You in spirit and truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Gossip

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? … Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbours or speak evil of their friends.”
Psalm 15:1, 3 NLT

David continues to list who can, and who can’t, “worship God in His sanctuary”. Verse 2 of Psalm 15 noted that those with “blameless lives” and those who “speak the truth” have the necessary qualifications, but now we launch into territory where David lists specific exclusions that will stop any form of true and sincere God-worship. There will be those of course who venture into the grey border between speaking evil and speaking the truth. Sometimes our minds play tricks and lead us into places where we suddenly find ourselves saying things that we shouldn’t, but a Holy-Spirit sensitised spirit will soon recoil and lead us back to safety.

But what about those people in our churches and fellowships who are hardened gossipers, not realising that they are saying or doing anything wrong? After all, they say, everyone knows this about a certain person, and they are just saying what everyone else is thinking. There is something juicy about a morsel of gossip, as Solomon wrote in Proverbs 18:8 (AMP), “The words of a whisperer (gossip) are like dainty morsels [to be greedily eaten]; They go down into the innermost chambers of the body [to be remembered and mused upon]”. Jesus said something scary, as recorded in Matthew 12:35-36, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak”. The Apostle James wrote about the role a gossiper’s tongue has in the speaking evil department, “And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself” (James 3:6).

So with that as a background, those, who gossip about another person, or who harm them with their words, or even extend their malice and evil to words about their friends, are in a dangerous place where they exclude themselves from being able to worship in the presence of the Lord. But having said that, who is really free from talking negatively about another person? We all do it. We are all guilty of such a sin. There is something about human beings, that they tend to criticise, judge and speak negatively about another person. Often this is because we see in others negative behaviour that is actually something we are guilty of ourselves, and so we justify our own deficiencies by talking about theirs. We have a tendency to observe how someone else will dress and form an opinion, verbalising it to others. We will judge another person’s behaviour, even illuminating it with the help of carefully chosen Scriptures. But there is no other response to all of this than two words – STOP IT! 

We are a redeemed people, free from the punishment for sin, but our humanity, our “old man”, will constantly try and drag us back into a place where we lose our ability to worship the Lord. Before we speak out a negative or evil thought about another person, we must carefully weigh up what we are thinking of saying, in case we are becoming a gossip. And we pray for God’s help in being able to see others as He sees them. We don’t know why a person behaves in the way that they do but God does. And He loves them anyway. Solomon bluntly wrote, “Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble” (Proverbs 21:23). Jesus extended this theme to our thoughts and actions when He said, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). 

Dear Father God. Please forgive us for the times when we have been guilty of gossip. Please help us to discern our thoughts and change them before we speak them out, and please help us to see others as You see them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.