Filled With Joy

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.”
John 17:13-19 NLT

There is something about the Words of Jesus that fills us with joy. But as we look around us in our societies and see issues such as drug abuse, alcoholism, mental ill-health, physical problems, despair and more, all symptoms of a people without hope, we see a people who are looking for a remedy to their pain. These are all people who have a lack of joy, because they have either never heard the words of Jesus, or have heard them and discarded them as being irrelevant to them in their miserable lives, lives without joy, hope, and any definitive sense of purpose. Of course, in Jesus’ day there was no social budget to support a section of the population who fall into the hopeless and joyless category, but the pain was still there, and people flocked to hear Jesus’ Words, because they contained the message of hope and life eternal. 

Two disciples were walking to a place called Emmaus, and we can pick up the account in Luke 24. A Man, who the disciples later realised was Jesus, came up to them and asked them, “ … What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” They stopped short, sadness written across their faces” (Luke 24:17). Graphic details of two men in pain and grief, hope destroyed, joy taken away. They said, “We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago” (Luke 24:21). As they journeyed on towards Emmaus we then read what happened next. “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). But the Words of Jesus had an amazing impact on them. We read, “They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”” (Luke 24:32). His Words restored their hope and joy.

Today, regardless of the pressures of living in democratic and capitalistic societies, we can still access the Words of Jesus and live a life of joy. Jesus’ Words are timeless and unaffected by circumstances because they sit high above any worldly and humanistic environment. But sometimes we may experience periods of a lack of joy, as our circumstances overpower us. Sometimes like David we cry out, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest! I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness” (Psalm 55:6-7). We take our eyes off our Creator God and instead focus on what is causing us so much pain. Sadly, joy and hope become lost in a sea of self-pity and misery. 

In John 15:10-11, we read Jesus’ Words, “When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”‭‭ As we soak ourselves in the Words of Jesus, joy will become more resilient within us, as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. A series of circumstances will help the fruit of joy to grow within us. The Apostle Paul, suffering and languishing in a Roman prison, wrote, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). When Paul and Silas were in Philippi they antagonised a certain section of the population and we read, “A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening” (Acts 16:22-25). That’s joy in action. There is a Christian man alive today called Nick Vujicic, who lacks arms and legs, a condition he has had since birth. One of his strap lines is, “I’ve got no arms and legs, what’s your problem“. He has no lack of joy in spite of his circumstances. And he is an inspiration to many people throughout the world.

Whatever we are facing into today we have a loving Heavenly Father who has a remedy that starts with the Words of Jesus. Those words will point us to a life of joy, but there is a problem. We have to read them first. 

Dear God. We need to read Your Word more so that we can benefit from all Your truths. Please open the Scriptures before us so that we can know and understand, and live a life of joy. Amen.

The Power of Jesus’ Name

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.”
John 17:11-12 NLT

Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians used to sing a song, “There is power in the Name of Jesus”. Many of us pilgrims will remember it, even though it is not sung so much today. But the song lyrics put their finger on an important spiritual truth. Paul wrote, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). The name of Jesus is so powerful that one day all people, all created beings, even those in the Heavenly places, even the devil and his minions, will bow their knees before Jesus, acknowledging the God-Man with the “name above all other names”. But that is all to come. In the here and now, we know Jesus as the Son of God with the Name that saves sinners. Peter, standing with John before the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court, said, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

But how do we pilgrims know that the name of Jesus is so powerful. We watch the televangelists calling out the name of Jesus over the sick. Sometimes they get better but at other times they don’t. Jesus’ name is not some magical utterance that can cure all ills, as some might claim. In fact, some factions of the Christian church maintain that the power in His name died away with the first Apostles, though I must say this is not something I agree with. To believe so minimises and belittles our wonderful God, denying the fact that He is Omnipotent. Of course Jesus said and as recorded in John 14:13-14, “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!”

The secret in the power of Jesus’ name lies with the alignment of our requests with His will. And that is where our faith kicks in. A good place to start is to pray Scripture. Nothing that we request can be granted by God unless it aligns with what is written in His Word.

The disciples enjoyed Jesus’ physical protection while they were with Him but after He had gone, their souls were kept safe from the evil one. We pilgrims too know the power of Jesus’ name because it will keep our spirits safe until we land to be with Him in His Heavenly home.

Dear Father God. There is indeed power in Your name over all the dark deeds of the evil one. We are so grateful. Amen.


Protect Them

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.”
John 17:11-12 NLT

Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer with a focus on His disciples. He prayed for their protection by the power of His name. But there were many in the religious society of their day that hated them, and we can see through the early chapters of Acts the abuse they suffered for sharing the Good News about Jesus and His death and resurrection. In Acts 12 we read about how Herod Agrippa had one of the Apostles, James, the brother of John, killed, and he then arrested and imprisoned Peter, presumably with the intention of killing him too. So what was the protection Jesus was referring to, if not the life of His disciples?

Under the Old Covenant, we see how God protected His people from physical harm. There is an amazing story in Daniel 3 about the three Jewish exiles, Shadrach, Meshach, and Adebnego were saved from a very hot furnace. We read in Daniel 3:27, “Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!” In Daniel 6 we read about how God saved Daniel from becoming supper for a pride of lions. He said, “My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty” (Daniel 6:22).

In the New Covenant, God’s protection is for our spirits from any attack of the enemy. Jesus said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 2 Timothy 3:12, “Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution“. Paul wrote about our spiritual resources in Ephesians 6. In this, his last epistle, Paul was facing death, and yet he could write, “Yes, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18).

We pilgrims have no need to be anxious about our future. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). Jesus prayed for His disciples’ protection and I have no doubts that, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, they are all in His presence today.

Dear Father God. Thank You that once we are in Your hands we are there forever. Please continue to lead and guide us in Your truth. Amen.


My Prayer

Posted on by korgrocker

“My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory.”
John 17:9-10 NLT

In His prayer, Jesus now zooms in to pray for His disciples, “those You have given Me”. We must turn to Luke 6:12-13 to find out how they were selected. “One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles …”. In those days there were a number of men who were His followers, but Jesus spent a night in prayer with His Father to make the choices He did. We can only imagine what happened that night. Did Jesus present the men He knew by name, one by one, waiting each time for His Father to respond? Surely, being divine, Jesus would have had God’s view and would have been able to make the decisions on the spot? But when He came to this world, Jesus laid aside most of His divine privileges and had to do what we have to do – pray. And the result of that prayer turned the world of the first century upside down, with eleven of the original twelve men becoming the first Apostles. But if we were praying that night, would we have chosen Judas Iscariot? Jesus even selected the man who would later betray Him. But His Father knew how His plan of salvation would work out. 

But what is effective prayer? In its most basic form, it is no more than a conversation with God. Joyce Meyer said, “Prayer is such a basic foundation of a Christian’s relationship with God. It’s how we communicate and fellowship with Him“. I like the quote by Francis Chang, “When you pray, your prayers are heard by the same God who answered Moses’ prayers for water in the desert, the God who gave Abraham and his barren wife a son, and the God who made the slave Joseph second in power only to Pharaoh”. Jesus knew all about prayer and He famously taught His disciples how to pray. And our father God hears our prayers. He is always willing to listen, in fact far more than we are willing to pray.

In His prayer, Jesus said that at this point He wasn’t praying for the world around Him. Instead He was praying for His disciples. He was praying for a specific need, the future of His disciples, as we shall see several times in this chapter in John. Too often our prayers lack the focus they should have, as we lapse into lazy requests or general platitudes. Too often we pray “Bless Auntie Mary” prayers rather than pray the specifics of where Auntie Mary needs to be blessed. And of course our faith that God hears our prayers and will answer them is a fundamental part of our prayer.

Notice that Jesus’ prayer was devoid of the jargon that we often burden our prayers with, as though we think that God will answer prayers loaded with “thee’s” and “thou’s” and “We beseech thee …”. Some have called this the “language of Zion” but God really listens to us as we pray honest and humble prayers in everyday language. Remember the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, as recorded in Luke 18?

Prayers are an essential part of our pilgrim lives. Let us never the importance of conversing in prayer with our Heavenly Father.

Dear God. We confess our poverty of spirit and lack of diligence in prayer. Please forgive us, we pray, and help us grow in our relationships with You. In Jesus name. Amen.

The Message

Posted on by korgrocker

“I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.”
John 17:6-8 NLT

In these last hours Jesus had the assurance that all His hard work and loving commitment during the preceding three years had not been wasted. His disciples knew who He was and what His mission was about. But the disciples didn’t just know about Jesus, they believed in Him. There is an important distinction. Many people in this world know a lot about God, but they don’t believe in Him. As a young Christian, I used to work next to an atheistic humanist who had been brought up as a Roman Catholic. He knew a lot of Scriptures, and he used to torment me with difficult verses that he perceived as a contradiction to the Christian message. But even the devil knows Scripture, as Jesus found out during His temptation in the wilderness. Our minds can be full of useful information about God but until we believe it and it infuses our very souls, it is a wasted resource.

Jesus came to this world with a message, a message rich in God’s love and grace, a message that would provide a “way back to God from the dark paths of sin”, quoting lyrics written by an old hymn writer. The Gospel message is truly good news for all mankind, but it is not enough to know it. It has to be believed and applied in people’s lives. 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“. Peter’s Acts 2 sermon included these verses, “ … Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God” (Acts 2:38-39). Both these passages of Scripture cannot be read and forgotten because they articulate the message that Jesus brought. But neither can they just  be recited as an assurance that the person is now a believer. The key is “believing in your heart”. Jesus’ message is a call to action, to a life of repentance and sanctification. 

Jesus passed on His message to His disciples, but not with the expectation that it would stay there, a private information source for their own benefit. It was always about passing on the message to others, and for them to then do the same. Jesus’ message is for all mankind. Mark’s Gospel records Jesus’ words about His message, “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). In Matthew 28 Jesus said, “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He indicated that there will be an “end” one day. Earlier Jesus said, “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). 

We pilgrims have a message to proclaim, the Good News about Jesus and bearing in mind the profound statement we find in John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. There is no other message by which we can be saved. There will be many who claim otherwise, but we pilgrims continue with Jesus’ message of salvation, interlaced with our own personal testimonies of what Jesus has done for us. What else can we do? As Jesus said on His Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem,  “ … If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!” (Luke 19:40). God chose to use ordinary men and women to do His work in spreading the Gospel. A risky strategy? Yes, humanly speaking. But God is patient – he has all the time in the world. 

Dear Father God. You entrusted Your precious message of salvation to us pilgrims and as we reach out proclaiming this message to those around us we pray that You bring in the fruit of new Kingdom life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Glory

Posted on by korgrocker

“I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.”
John 17:4-5 NLT

“Glory” is not a word often used in secular language. It might perhaps be associated with an outstanding sportsperson, or used to describe a beautiful sunset. But in that latter natural phenomenon, seen in our created world, we perhaps get a hint of the glory of God. In the spiritual world that we have yet to experience in all its fullness, the glory we will see will be breathtaking in its beauty. Words are incapable of describing the glory of God though, because how can a mind limited by its humanity ever be able to describe the fullness of God in all His glory? 

The glory of God is all of who He is. His attributes, His character, His love and grace, His … the list is endless. And we will spend eternity in His presence never fully able to plumb the depths of God’s glory. But in the here and now, no human being will ever be able to see God’s glory. That demands a capability totally beyond us. But that didn’t stop Moses from asking. Exodus 33:18, “Then Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory!””. God’s response was, “ … “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. …  But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live”” (Exodus 33:19-20). 

How could God ever reveal His glory but at the same time, emphasise its magnitude and importance in a way so significant that human beings can get a glimpse of it? In the Old Testament, this often happened with fire and smoke, earthquakes and other natural phenomenon. Today we have to look a bit harder, but God’s glory can still be found. This morning I watched the sun rise and the colours, the different shades of pink, were breathtaking and moved me to praise our wonderful Creator God. As an aside, I always feel sorry for atheists, because they see such beauty but have no one to thank for it. They get a glimpse of God’s glory but fail to understand what it portrays. 

Jesus prayed that His Father would “bring [Him] into the glory [they] shared before the world began”. How could a human being pray such a prayer, unless He was also divine. And there is now in Heaven a Human Being, sharing in the glory of God. One day we too will find ourselves in, what the Christians of a bygone era called, “glory”. If that doesn’t bring some excitement to this war-torn world, then nothing will. 

Dear Father God. We sing the hymn, “Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son, endless is the victory, thou o’er death hast won”. Our words cannot fully express the glory for which You are due, but please accept our feeble attempts. Amen.

Eternal Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”
John 17:1-3 NLT

The John 17 prayer of Jesus is rich in content relevant to disciples and pilgrims today, but verse 3 needs to be unpacked to find out why there is an apparent contradiction. The verse starts with the assertion that Jesus chooses people to whom He will grant eternal life, people who have been given to Him by His Father in Heaven. Did this just apply to His disciples or does this have a more far-reaching meaning? Jesus’ work of course continued through the work of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. But specifically chosen? We of course can refer to Deuteronomy 7:6, “For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure“. In the New Testament, Paul wrote, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5). So this brings a picture of God cherry-picking those He thinks would perhaps fit well into Heaven and ignoring everyone else. 

In the next part of verse 3, Jesus prayed, “And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth”. This seems to introduce an element of personal choice, giving human beings the opportunity to believe in Jesus and, through repentance at the cross, to find the treasure of eternal life. Paul wrote to Timothy, “This is good and pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time” (1 Timothy 2:3-6). So has God chosen everyone, leaving to each person the decision to accept salvation and eternal life? 

So we have an apparent conflict between the sovereignty of God and human will, that has introduced two schools of theological thought over the centuries. Perhaps the solution to the potential conflict lies in the character of God. He is sovereign over all, and as He said to Moses, as quoted by Paul in Romans 9:15, “For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose””. God knows the end from the beginning, being outside of time, so He knows in advance who will respond to His offer of grace through Jesus, becoming “chosen” in the process.

Dear God. That You for choosing us, the followers of Your Son Jesus. Amen.

The Hour Has Come

Posted on by korgrocker

“After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.””
John 17:1-2 NLT

John 17 is often referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. He started off by touching base with His Heavenly Father, by saying that “The hour has come …” Jesus was saying our loud something that both He and His Father knew, that very soon He would be arrested and the final events of His earthly life unfurled. This chapter records Jesus’ longest prayer and it starts with the request for His Father to glorify Him. What does that mean, other than Jesus returning glory back to His Father by His submission and humility, His willingness to see through His mission, His sinless life and the defeat of the forces of darkness for ever through the cross? Jesus said to Philip earlier that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9), and so in a way, albeit limited by their humanity, God’s glory was to be seen to all who met Jesus. Then Jesus prayed about the authority given to Him by His Father. We of course remember what Jesus said to Thomas in John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. That profound statement is a decisive and eternal statement that focuses all faiths and beliefs down to one single point that is the gateway to eternal life, Jesus Himself. So when Jesus said that He grants eternal life to all those given to Him by His Father, He clearly stated that this was not just a one off, but an eternal ministry, started during His time here on earth, and continuing right up to today and beyond by the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Some of Jesus’ last post-resurrection words can be found in Matthew 28:18, the Great Commission, “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth“. 

We pilgrims obey the command, “Go and make …” continuing the work Jesus started, honoured to be included in His mission of salvation through grace, and reassured by, ” … I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). Jesus’ time as a human being on Planet Earth was just about up but for us pilgrims the “end of the age” is still before us. Thankfully, through His Spirit, Jesus is indeed still with us. 

But there will come a time too when we pilgrims can say our hour has come. This may be the end of a ministry, or the end of our lives, but we too can in our individual ways give glory to God. I was privileged to be able to share the last hours with a dear Christian friend, who was facing into a death blighted by cancer. But He never complained and he faced his last hours in a way that gave glory to God.

Jesus, through His life, gave glory to His Heavenly Father, and through it to Himself also.

Father God. We too give You all the glory today, through our lives submitted and committed to Jesus. Amen.

Trials and Sorrows

Posted on by korgrocker

“But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
John 16:32-33 NLT

Jesus said to His disciples that in this world they will “have many trials and sorrows”. And it didn’t take long before this prophetic warning came into fruition. Acts 5:40, “ … They called in the apostles and had them flogged …”. Acts 7:59, “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit“. Acts 8:1, ” …  A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem …”. Acts 12:2, “He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword“. As we read the accounts of the first years of the early church we do indeed find that Jesus was correct in what He said. But what was there about these early Apostles and disciples that drove them on in spite of all the opposition they faced? Jesus followed His prophecy with the words, “But take heart, because I have overcome the world”. The men who had been with Jesus, and many others in those early years, were empowered by Holy Spirit and nothing was going to stop them from spreading the Good News about Jesus. The documented accounts of Paul and what he faced into on his missionary journeys came under the category of “many trials and sorrows“, and we can read all about them in 2 Corinthians 11. But Paul gave us a glimpse of his relationship with God when he wrote, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Romans 8:38). Through the power of Holy Spirit in his life Paul was able to put to one side the “trials and sorrows” and instead consider his life unimportant compared with his mission for Christ. He knew that one day his spirit would join his Saviour in Heaven.

What is the source of the opposition to believers who are going about their lives doing the Lord’s work? One would think that the love and grace of God is indeed Good News, and His message would be welcomed by everyone rather than having to face into the alternative destination after death. But we can trace the source of the opposition back through the clouds of evil, sin and wickedness to the devil himself. He will do anything to persuade Christians to deny their faith and it must be an immense source of frustration to him to find that Christ’s followers do the opposite by continuing to share the message of hope. You see, he cannot offer eternal life with our wonderful God. All he can offer is an eternity of misery , of “weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth”, as Jesus so succinctly put it. 

What does all this mean for us pilgrims? Someone once commented that if we don’t experience opposition in our Christian lives then our witness must be ineffective. Here in Western culture, there is a general acceptance of any faith or ideology, with governmental pressure and equality laws attempting to keep a lid on any attempts to proselytise others. But even this has limits. We can stand in our High Streets with a placard displaying the Gospel message, but do the same outside an abortion clinic and an arrest will soon follow. Doing the same outside a registry office when a same-sex marriage is taking place will invite the “trials and sorrows” that Jesus warned us about. But we have the knowledge that Jesus has “overcome the world”. Paul wrote, “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:14).

We pilgrims are on a journey to our promised land, the “Glory” spoken of by the saints of old. We are in it for the long haul, but nothing will stop us from sharing our faith with other seekers after truth. Will it?

Father God. You never said that being a believer would be easy, but the reward of hearing the words “Well done” on the other side of the Great Divide is enough for us. Please continue to help us on our journey of faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I Am Not Alone

Posted on by korgrocker

“But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
John 16:32-33 NLT

Jesus was talking to His disciples after they all had left the Upper Room, where the momentous events of the Last Supper and Jesus washing His disciples feet had taken place. They were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, which was located on the Mount of Olives, about half a mile outside Jerusalem’s city wall. This was a favourite place for Jesus and His disciples. Luke 22:39, “Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives“. Jesus knew what was coming because it was in the Garden that His arrest would take place, and he warned the eleven remaining disciples that they would all do a runner and leave Him on His own to face the soldiers. But this could surely not be the case, because Peter and the others said otherwise. Matthew recorded, “Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” … “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same” (Matthew 26:33, 35). Of course, such a heroic last stand by the disciples was not in God’s plan, because dead disciples would have been no use in the propagation of the Gospel and the establishment of the early church. 

Matthew’s Gospel records that a token resistance commenced. “But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear. “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?…  But this is all happening to fulfil the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures.” At that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled” (Matthew 26:51-53, 56). And Jesus was arrested, a lonely figure facing a terrible few hours, being unjustly and falsely accused, tried by a kangaroo court, convicted through lies and executed by the Roman authorities.

But Jesus said to His disciples, “Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me”. The presence of God has greatly helped many men and women over the years ever since. The first martyr, Stephen, told his audience, just before he was stoned to death, “ …Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand!” (Acts 7:56). Today, we pilgrims are never alone. Every time we pray three other People join us – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Whatever our circumstances are, we can lift our eyes to Heaven and feel the presence of God. Just as Jesus was not alone on that fateful evening, neither are we. God will stand with us through our circumstances. The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you” (Deuteronomy 31:8). That promise made so many years ago still reverberates through the lives of believers today. 

So, dear fellow pilgrim, what are you facing into today? A medical condition? A crisis at work? A marriage or relationship breakdown? Whatever it is, you are not alone. Matthew finished his Gospel with these words, “ … And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). Notice that Jesus didn’t say “sometimes”. He said “always”. He will always be with us as we walk on in our journeys of faith.

Thank You God that You will never leave us or forsake us. Security in You trumps anything the world can provide. Amen.