Entering the Sanctuary (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts.”
Psalm 15:1-2 NLT

David asked the question, “Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?” There is of course two scenarios – one in this life and the other in the life to come. In this life we believers want to worship the Lord wherever we can find Him. It doesn’t have to be in a Temple, or on Mount Zion, or even in a church. He can be found anywhere and everywhere. And in the life to come we will be in God’s presence and will join with the angels and all the saints in worship so incredible that it will be nothing like we have ever experienced.

But consider that the sanctuary David wrote about was Heaven, where the Lord will be worshipped, and where there will be no soul present that is still polluted with the stains of sin. We pilgrims know that one day we will join the Lord there because we responded whole-heartedly to the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus and all He did for us at Calvary. In Heaven the worship of the Lord will be absolutely amazing and we who worship Him in this life look forward to it. Sadly, there are many people, however, who don’t lead blameless lives and, in fact, don’t know Jesus at all, but they think they will end up in Heaven when they die. Will those people still find themselves able to worship the Lord, or will they be somewhere else?

Anyone who goes to a funeral will often find many who are deluded in their thinking. They have come to believe that their departed loved ones are in Heaven with the Lord and they find comfort in the thought that they will also join them there one day. They even go further and think that their loved ones are benignly looking down on them, pleased or otherwise about what they are doing. The departed spirits will go somewhere of course, and they may even be looking down at those left behind, but I always come back to the story Jesus told of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Luke 16: 22-23, “Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side”. The souls of our departed loved ones, and everyone else come to that, end up in one of two places. Those that know and love Jesus, those who are His wholehearted followers, will end up in a place called Heaven, or Paradise (look up the conversation the thief on the cross next to Jesus had with the Lord). Those who are unbelievers, the agnostics, the atheists, followers of other religions or those who don’t believe that our souls will survive death, will end up in the place of the dead, called Hades or Sheol in the various Bible translations. We know from the Luke 16 account of the resting place of the Rich Man that the place of the dead will not be a pleasant place. But it is logical really. David asked “Who may worship in Your sanctuary, Lord?” Those who don’t know the Lord will not really want to worship Him. What would be the point?

Jesus was asked a question about eternal life which we can read in Matthew 19:16, “Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”” Jesus replied to the young man who asked the question with an answer outlining the commandments that must be followed. We read the man’s reply in Matthew 19:20, ““I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?”” Jesus’ reply was for him to sell his possessions and give away the proceeds to the poor, something, as it turned out, that he was unable to countenance. In the subsequent conversation with His disciples, they said it was impossible to achieve a life spent in the presence of God by human efforts alone. Jesus agreed, and we read in Matthew 19:26, “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible””.

David asked the question, “Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?” The same question still hangs in the air today and we should perhaps ask a similar question of those we meet, “Where will your soul go when you die – the place of the dead or will it join the Lord in Heaven?” In this life we have a powerful choice between being a believer in Jesus, with all that that means, or being against Jesus as an unbeliever. Making the right choice is the most important decision we can make in our lifetimes because it determines where we will spend eternity. Jesus was very clear. In John 14:6 we read, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me”. The times are short and many of my friends are reaching the age in life when this question needs to be answered soon. Remember, those who fail to make the decision for Jesus will end up in a place they find they don’t want to be by default. 

At the end of Revelation 20 we read, “And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire“. Why did people have to be “thrown” into that place? Because when they saw what was coming they recoiled in horror and did everything they could to avoid going there. But it was too late. Their resistance had to be overcome with force. A stark and horrible warning that we pilgrims have to be clear about when we share our testimonies of what Jesus has done for us. There is a time coming when the results of a person’s choice will be realised. There is no escape. There is no third way. And we pilgrims have been entrusted with a Gospel that not only presents God’s love, but also His judgement. 

Father God. We have reviewed some sobering thoughts this morning and we pray for Your love and grace to flow even more in our lives and the lives of those we meet. Please help us present the Good News about Jesus to those who are heading for a lost eternity in a way that exposes Your heart for them. We love You Lord and always will. Amen.

Entering The Sanctuary (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts.”
Psalm 15:1-2 NLT

David asked a difficult question, as he started to write Psalm 15. It was a straightforward question, that highlights the differences between a sinful man and a holy God. A gulf impossible to bridge, or so we think, because mankind is unable, by his own efforts, to reach the standard of holiness required by God. There will be nothing that is impure or unholy allowed, or even able, to be in God’s presence. God gave Moses instructions about how God could be accessed in the Tabernacle, because just to walk in when he felt like it would have dire consequences. Leviticus 16:2, “The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover”. The rest of Leviticus 16 provides instructions about how the High Priest and the people can be purified of their sins, a process of which we’re grateful we don’t have to follow today. But David was aware that a person’s sins would exclude them from God’s presence, hence his first answer to the question – “those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts”. But such an answer created more questions. Who is really absolutely blameless? Who speaks absolute truth? 

During the time ever since David took up his pen, the same questions have hung in the air. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had derived a code of conduct based on the Mosaic Law, with additions from the Rabbis, through which they believed they could achieve personal righteousness. But Jesus knocked that thought on the head in His Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:20, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”

How do we become righteous? We start off with the verse part way in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:16-17, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him“. And Paul guides us to the next step, “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24). Through repentance of our sins, through our faith and belief in Jesus, and through God’s grace, we embark on our journey to Heaven “justified freely by His grace”.

It is only righteous people who can enter God’s presence. We pilgrims enjoy “imputed righteousness”, righteousness that is credited to us because we have been made right with God. Jesus took on the punishment for our sins and gave us, in exchange, His righteousness. What a Saviour! A double exchange that cost Him everything and gave us right standing before God forever. This is a message that is News so good that we cannot but share it with anyone who will listen and at every opportunity.

Dear Lord Jesus. We love You, we worship You, we praise You, we thank You. Your grace has saved us forever. Amen.

Mount Zion

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel? When the Lord restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice.”
Psalm 14:7 NLT

The place “Zion” produces emotions in people ranging from joy to loathing. The Jews associate “Zion” with Jerusalem, and “Mount Zion” is a hill on the south east side of Jerusalem, where once King David built a citadel. But there are Muslim nations who regard the “Zionists”, the Jews, with contempt, and continue to profess a desire to eliminate them from the face of the earth. 

To the Jews, Zion has both a physical and spiritual meaning. After Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem, it became the place about which Jeremiah wrote, “For there will be a day when the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry out, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the Lord our God’ ” (Jeremiah 31:6). The Temple acquired a special significance because after its dedication we read, “The Lord said to him [Solomon], “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honoured forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart” (1 Kings 9:3). Where else could the Jewish nation go to worship God than in the place where He could be found? Isaiah went further and associated the Israelites with the name “Zion” – Isaiah 60:14, “The sons of those who oppressed you will come bowing down to you [in submission], And all those who despised you and treated you disrespectfully will bow down at the soles of your feet, And they will call you the City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” So many refer to the Jews by their alternative name, “Zionists”. 

There are many references to “Zion” in the Bible but we pilgrims associate “Mount Zion” with the place from which Jesus will rule and reign. We read in Revelation 14:2 something that John observed in his vision, “Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads”. We will one day find ourselves at Mount Zion, “No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering” (Hebrews 12:22). Wonderful things will happen there, as we will find out one day.

So, what do we pilgrims make of “Mount Zion”? Most of us do not have a Jewish heritage, so the geographical place, “Mount Zion”, or the Temple once located in Jerusalem, will not have the same significance. But we look forward, with anticipation, to a future “Zion” where we will find Jesus. John, in his vision, ” … saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). And there will find God Himself, who ” …will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4). We have read the end of the Book and we know what will happen. And so we look forwards and upwards, as the vision of “Mount Zion”, and God Himself, start to appear over the horizon. The Heavenly clock is ticking. One day we will be in His presence, with Him on “Mount Zion”.

Dear Lord Jesus. What else can we pray than the single word “Maranatha – Come Lord Jesus”? Amen.

Tale of Two Peoples

Posted on by korgrocker

“Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying to the Lord. Terror will grip them, for God is with those who obey him. The wicked frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the Lord will protect his people.”
Psalm 14:4-6 NLT

Graphic language from David. He sets out the difference between those who acknowledge God and have a relationship with Him, and those who are evil and don’t. A very clear distinction emerges between two groups of people, one group, probably the larger, oppressing the smaller group of people who are relatively and apparently disadvantaged and oppressed, a scenario that has been repeated time and time again throughout history, but with one difference – the smaller group are God’s people. And for that reason the evil people should beware. Their actions are unacceptable to God and when He acts, “terror will grip them” because the Lord will protect His people. 

But David wrote, “They eat up my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying to the Lord”. What was he getting at here? The Message translation reads, “Don’t they know anything, all these impostors? Don’t they know they can’t get away with this— Treating people like a fast-food meal over which they’re too busy to pray?” (Psalm 14:4). The picture emerges of evil people who contemptuously dismiss others who don’t follow their ways, quickly terminating the social occasion and moving on to spend time instead with their evil peers. A fast food meal is a sad and sorry way to fill an empty stomach, with processed foods often pre-cooked, heated up and served in a box and eaten with fingers. They provide little proper nutrition and too many of them can even be harmful. They are eaten quickly, with little enjoyment or consideration for the God who provided food for life. And so it is with the way unbelievers tend to regard God’s people. A meeting which they terminate quickly, rudely and overbearingly, not considering that the people before them have touched God and are His people. And worse than that, they will perhaps also take steps to introduce difficulties in the plans of God’s people, just out of spite.

A sad tale of two peoples, but for those who have rejected God, the evildoers, their lives will not end well. David wrote that “terror will grip them”, something that will happen either in their current lives or when they stand before God to give an account of their lives. David returned to this theme in another Psalm, where we read, “For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land” (Psalm 39:9). Paul adds a few more details in Romans 2:6-8, “He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honour and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness”. 

So why do people reject God and carry on in their evil ways? It’s all about the pleasures of sin, and the human tendencies and traits that underpinned an old song, “I’ll do it my way”. People don’t want to live a life during which they perceive they will lose their freedom of choice and independence. An evil person wants to behave in any way he chooses and although bounded by the laws of the society in which he lives, when that society is godless as well, then he’s happy. The sad thing is that there are many people who think they are living a “good” life and, if there is a God, they will never be turned away at the pearly gates.  They claim that it would be an injustice if a loving God would overlook and disregard what they consider to be their goodness. But if they only lifted the Bible for a moment and started to read, they would soon discover the truth and start to feel an ominous terror emerging in their souls. But, as David wrote, they will “never learn“. 

We pilgrims, however, will never give up in our love and care for the evil people around us. We may not perceive the evil within them but God sees all, and He asks us to be as gracious and patient as he is, extending His message of salvation while there is still time. Peter wrote in his second letter, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9). God never intended anyone to end up destroyed and consigned to hell. That will be the place He originally intended to be the final home for the devil and his angels, but, think about it, where else can God send those people who, because they are evil, cannot be accepted into Heaven? A sobering thought, and to find themselves in the company of the devil for all eternity is enough to strike terror into anyone. But God will protect His people, as David wrote, and we are so thankful for that. So we continue into the day ahead, with thankful hearts, repenting of our sins, and praising the God whom we love so much.

Yes Lord. We love You. We praise You. We thank You. You are the One who blesses and loves Your people, forever. Amen.

All Have Become Corrupt

Posted on by korgrocker

“Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!”
Psalm 14:13 NLT

A damning indictment of the human race from David. He equates those who say “There is no God”, or fail to seek Him, with people who lack wisdom and are corrupt. The corrupt, he writes, also fail to do good. He wrote that “The Lord looked down from Heaven” to make this observation, but does the word “entire” include righteous people as well? But then, who of us is really righteous? Imagine the grief that God must have felt, as sin entered the human race and made everyone “corrupt”. We remember Paul’s words in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. 

The dictionary defines “corrupt” with references to dishonest dealings with money, but it is more than that. Any object can be corrupted by a malign action. Imagine a perfect mirror corrupted by a scratch. Or a sculpture or other work of art desecrated, corrupted by a deliberate act of vandalism. But here’s the thing, imagine a perfect human being, created in the image of God, but then corrupted by sin, the consequence of a devious thought introduced by the devil in a conversation that has had lasting connotations. What a tragedy! 

Corruption started in the Garden with the introduction of sickness and death, moral contamination and spiritual decay. The sin that blighted humanity caused spiritual death – Ephesians 2:1, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins“. In Genesis 6:11-12 we read what Noah’s generation was like, “Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt” and God decided that he would start again with Noah and his family, eliminating the corrupt from the earth. 

And so it would have continued, with every person deemed “corrupt” before spending eternity in hell, because there can be no corruption in Heaven. The Jews were given the Law to help them escape the consequences of corruption, but God’s intention to save His people was rejected by many of them. So God finally provided the ultimate solution to sin’s corruption by sending His Son, Jesus, to save the world. 2 Peter 1:3-4 summed up God’s amazing grace, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires“. Jesus was and still is the “great and precious promise” allowing all who believe in Him to live a Godly life.

But before we pilgrims start to feel a bit smug because we think we have escaped the consequences of corruption, be aware that such thoughts are sinful and are in danger of relegating us back into the company of the corrupt. We need to keep short accounts with our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus. They paid the ultimate price for our freedom, remember that!

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for coming to this world to save us from the corruption of sin. Amen.

Only Fools

Posted on by korgrocker

“Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!”
Psalm 14:1 NLT

The Bible, particularly in Proverbs, says much about “fools”. One verse I particularly like, as being very applicable to modern times, is Proverbs 18:2, “Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions”. In these days of strange ideologies, where people stand up and stridently declare their views, “their own opinions”, one cannot but think that the word “fool” fits them very well. But then, we can’t call them that, because it might hurt their feelings. The Bible, however, has no such constraint, and God’s Word stands inviolate. But back in Psalm 14:1, David, the Psalmist, calls those who deny the existence of God, “fools”, and such an opinion, or belief, exposes their real problem – their corrupt ways, their evil actions and their lack of doing good. Those who deny God do so because otherwise they would have to face into their sin and its consequences. 

Much of what the people in the world think about God is misconstrued, twisted, invented and even libellous, but such false knowledge isn leveraged to build a picture to justify people’s actions, or lack of them. But for many others, they look around and see no evidence of God at all because, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Many of our scientists stay awake at night trying to plug holes in their theories of how the universe happened without God. So the conclusion of most is that there is no God, but if He does in fact exist, the knowledge is of no relevance to them. After all, they might say, knowledge of God won’t pay their bills. 

We pilgrims, of course, declare that God exists, and we know that we have a personal relationship with Him. We know Him as the Creator of the Universe. We know Jesus who died on a cross at Calvary to take on the punishment for our sins. We know that our God sent His Spirit to be with us, and live within us, a Helper and Counsellor always there for us. And we praise and worship God with thankful hearts, grateful for His love, grace and mercy. We keep short accounts with Him, always aware of our humanity and propensity to fall into sinful ways. Always humbly confessing our sins before Him who one day will judge the world.

It is so tempting at times to investigate the views of those who air their own corrupt opinions. We spend time thinking through the logic of devil-inspired arguments and ideologies, in case we have missed something. And before we know it our own view of God becomes skewed. There are many believers who post their own opinions on social media. They make videos of convincing scenarios that burden and confuse their viewers. They preach strange ideas that lead many astray, their charisma overcoming the doubts of their followers. Jesus warned about such people in a passage that describes what will happen in the End Times, and we read in Matthew 24:11, “And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people“. So, we must be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth”. In the end, it is God’s Word that prevents us from becoming fools, and we must be on our guard against false teaching. Paul had strong words for the church in Galatia, “Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross” (Galatians 3:1). 

So we pilgrims exercise caution when we hear a message or see a video. We carefully select books to read, always being vigilant to discern error. However, the denial of the existence of God may not just be an outward declaration from those unbelievers in the societies around us. Their secular and atheistic influence can also insidiously creep upon us until the God we say we believe in is a long way from the truth. Everyone believes in a god of some kind, and the devil is out to so corrupt us that we end up believing in a false god as well. That is a terrible place to be because we end up believing our own opinions rather than in the true God we know and love. The world may consider us fools, but better to be a fool for Christ than a fool denying His existence.

Dear Father God. In the eyes of the world we may appear foolish, but rather that than be numbered with real fools. Thank You for Your grace and mercy. Amen.

Being Rescued

Posted on by korgrocker

“But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.”
Psalm 13:5-6 NLT

David wrote that he would rejoice because God had rescued him. But from what? In this Psalm there were two previous references to “enemies”, with more in the preceding Psalms. David certainly had a problem with his safety in the face of those who wanted to harm him. However, there is perhaps a suggestion that David had enemies inside of himself, disturbing and unsettling him. There was probably much that David needed rescuing from, which was why he constantly called out to God for help, and here he is rejoicing because God has rescued him. And we know of course that David then, and we pilgrims today, have an enemy, “the devil [who] prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8b).

It is rare for us pilgrims who live in the UK to have enemies, coming at us with the means to do us physical harm. We are fortunate to be able to live in a country where society is relatively stable and people generally behave in a harmonious way. But that is not to say that we don’t have “enemies”. We will always be in a place at the cutting edge between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light. Between the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God. So we will have “enemies” who disagree with us because of our faith and will abuse us when we take a stand against the ways of the world. And the dichotomy between the two kingdoms will only increase as the UK becomes increasingly secularised. At the present time, the rights of people to follow their faith is protected, but only if their faith can accommodate the legislation in existence. Think protests about abortion being held outside clinics. The clash between the two kingdoms will only get worse as the country becomes increasingly anti-Christian.

We pilgrims, of course, were also once a part of the kingdom of darkness, living a life riddled with sin, but one day the call of God penetrated our souls. He effectively rescued us by offering us an escape route away from a life of sin and darkness. We were like those who “stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them” (1 Peter 2:8b). We all know the fate of sinners, those who are disobedient to God’s Word, but we were rescued. 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light”. We responded to the call and became citizens of the Kingdom of God. And more than that – we are now priests in a holy nation, a Kingdom without sin.

But wherever we are, we can always call out to God for Him to rescue us in situations where the two kingdoms clash. And now that we are Kingdom people we are God’s ambassadors to a dark and fallen world. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”” What a responsibility! God is using us pilgrims to advance His Kingdom, and pushing back the boundaries of evil in the process. There are people around us who are uncomfortable living a life that is against God and His ways, and they just need someone to help them apply for citizenship of God’s Kingdom of Light. And once there they too will join us in rejoicing because God has rescued them. So we pray that God leads us to those He has chosen. We pray for our fellow pilgrims, that they too will stand firm for the Kingdom and will be obedient to His will. We pray that God will rescue and redeem our leaders and politicians from the clutches of the enemy. And in it all we rejoice because God has rescued us.

Dear Lord. You know our every thought and what is going on inside of us. Please help us never to follow in the ways of the wicked, and instead follow You in every moment of our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.  

God is Good

Posted on by korgrocker

“But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.”
Psalm 13:5-6 NLT

Some words to describe God appear in these last two verses of Psalm 13. Lover, Rescuer, and the declaration that God is good. In response, the Psalmist declares his trust, rejoicing and singing. A lovely picture of the relationship between David and his Lord, and one we would do well to emulate. What is our relationship with God like? Can we testify about His unfailing love or His goodness? Has God rescued us from some crisis or other in our lives? Do we go about our days singing our praises to the One who is good? Or do we struggle to even pray some mornings and start the days quickly drawn into a maelstrom of busy-ness and stress, God soon pushed to the rear of our thoughts if He even appeared in the first place? But it is because of God and all that He is to us, that means we can have a different perspective powering our lives. 

We pilgrims have found the sweet spot that somehow reconciles living in two kingdoms. In the one, we enjoy a relationship with God, where we can converse with Him, sing to Him, and enjoy His presence, full of His love and goodness. In the other, we find ourselves in a secular world that doesn’t know God and instead worships a system underpinned by sin and evil. A “what’s in it for me” society out of sync with God’s plan. I honestly don’t know how Godless and unbelieving people can ever survive in the societies in which they live. The only “goodness” they experience, if at all, is a shrivelled caricature of the goodness that can only be found through a relationship with God. And we pilgrims have an opportunity to bring God’s kingdom into the world around us, salt and light in a world of darkness, a world desperate for illumination and relief to people just as their Creator intended. 

But we know that God is good. There is nothing bad about God at all. His holiness and purity ensure that His goodness is also pure and holy. I love how Psalm 23 concludes, “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”. God’s goodness is always there for us, pursuing us through the otherwise dark days that lack anything good about them. We go through life with all of God’s resources empowering us, the Holy Spirit within us, the certainty of God’s love and goodness there within reach, refreshing our otherwise thirsty souls.

We can’t, of course, retain the benefits of God’s goodness all to ourselves. Paul wrote, “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith” (Galatians 6:10). We are dispensers of God’s goodness to those around us. How can the lost folk in our communities ever know that God is good unless they experience His goodness for themselves? We are shining lights illuminating the world around us, but what good is it if we hide our lights “under a bushel”, thus appearing just as dark as everyone else? 

David couldn’t hold in His response to God, and because of His goodness, David sang. Songs of praises and worship. Songs of thanks. Songs that describe all that God had done for him. What songs are we singing today? But no matter how or what we sing to God, we can be assured that angels are joining in, swelling the songs of praise to our wonderful and gracious God. Sometimes we can even hear the refrain in the Heavens – if we listen. 

Dear Heavenly Father. Sometimes we do hear the song of angels worshipping You before Your throne. We pray that we have the opportunity to join in the Heavenly anthems, adding our worship, that is rightfully Yours to receive, and tuning our spiritual ears to hear the Heavenly choir. Amen.

Sparkling Eyes

Posted on by korgrocker

“Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.”
Psalm 13:3-4 NLT

David, once again, is giving God a hard time. Is he getting frustrated with God for a lack of answers to his prayers, or a lack of action to sort out the problems he is having with his enemies, whoever they are? But whatever the issue, David does seem to be trying to twist God’s arm, by telling Him that unless He does something about the situation then He will lose the “man after His own heart” that He had already installed as King, or, if the Psalm was written in the days when David was on the run from Saul, who was the King designate.

David prays that God will “restore the sparkle to [his] eyes, or [he] will die”. It has been said that our eyes are windows into our souls. And it is true that when we look into someone’s eyes we see life. We see a living person with eyes that tell what is going on within them. If someone won’t look us in the eye then we know they have something to hide. In their eyes, we see their mood, be it happy or sad, anxious or self-assured. David obviously suspected that his eyes were giving out signs of worry about his enemies, or stress about the situation in which he was in. And, understandably, he wanted to return to that state of health and vitality, where his eyes sent out a message of positivity to those around him. 

In Matthew 6:22-23, we read what Jesus taught about our eyes. He said, “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” What Jesus was saying was that someone with a healthy eye was a person who understood the things of God and who could discern right and wrong, and knew all about living God’s way, saved by His grace. Conversely, a person with an unhealthy eye represents most people around us, who know nothing about God and don’t want to know anything about Him either. They want to continue to live in their sin, effectively living with unhealthy eyes in a world of darkness. These are spiritually blind people and, sadly, we can even find them in our congregations and fellowships, people who Paul warned Timothy about, “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” (2 Timothy 3:5).

So, dear fellow pilgrims, how are your eyes this morning? Sparkling or dull? Bright or dark? David seemed to imply that it was God’s responsibility to make his eyes sparkle. But is it? We can obviously pray as David did, for restoration, and God will indeed answer our prayers, perhaps by taking us to a cross at a place called Calvary. There His Son died for our sins, taking on the punishment that we deserved instead. And as we stare into His loving face, we feel “the things of earth [going] strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”. We will find that our eyes are sparkling again, our spirits revived, perspectives restored, sins forgiven.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You that we can look forward with sparkling eyes, to a life with You for all eternity. We pray that those around us can see in our eyes a reflection of the Heavenly shores, twinkling in the distance. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Anguish In My Soul

Posted on by korgrocker

“O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?”
Psalm 13:1-2 NLT

David starts the thirteenth Psalm with a lament concerning the “anguish in [his] soul”. It was almost as though he was outside of himself looking in and sees a condition in his soul that was causing him acute distress. So, in a semi-detached sort of way, he was able to write about his feelings and apportion the cause to God forgetting that he was there. He was in a place of discomfort, unease, stress and anxiety and he asked the question “How long?”. “How long” is this going to continue? Will it continue “forever“? And who was this enemy David was referring to anyway? A physical foe, armed and ready to end his life? Or were there gremlins in his head, causing his distress?

Have any of us pilgrims been in such a place a David was? Where the heavens seem impervious to our prayers? Where everything seems to be falling apart? Where we wake up depressed and tired, dreading the day ahead? And we cry out as David did – where are You God? Are we facing enemies, real or imagined, that always seem to put us down and who we seem unable and powerless to stop? 

Such conditions will also cause “anguish in [our] soul[s]”, as they did with David. Daily “sorrow in [our] heart[s]” speak of a continued battle with the causes of depression and anxiety, something which many never seem to overcome. The bottle of pills seems to be the only remedy for many and a drug-induced calm takes over lives. The anguish in our souls is a human condition that threatens to take us down an ever-deepening spiral that dulls our minds and takes away our potential for a spirit-filled life.

There was a prophet called Elijah who had made a stand against the prophets of Baal and won, but he too succumbed to “anguish in [his] soul”. Following threats against his life from Jezebel, the queen at that time, he ran away, as we read in 1 Kings 19:4, “Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died””. After being refreshed with food and drink supplied by an angel, he journeyed to Mount Sinai, where God asked him “What are you doing here Elijah?”. He response in the next verse was, “Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”” (1 Kings 19:10). Was Elijah experiencing “anguish in [his] soul”? God answered with a miraculous demonstration of His power through wind, fire and an earthquake, and then came the “still small voice”.

God is always there for us. He was for David and He still is for us today. Like Elijah, it may take us forty days of journeying in dark places of sorrowful anguish. It may be that we are looking for the miraculous when all we need is that “still small voice”. But however we feel just now, God is right there beside us, reaching out to us through the self-imposed walls that we have hidden behind. We analyse our feelings but draw the wrong conclusions. The enemies we face are powerless before God and He lives within us. 1 John 4:4, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world”. So today we take down the walls and stride into the day, assured of God’s presence within us through His Spirit. 

Dear Father God. By Your Spirit we are overcomers – please help us never to forget that. In Jesus’ name. Amen.