Look

Posted on by korgrocker

“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
John 1:10-11 NLT

John wrote that the people in the world failed to recognise their Creator. And even the Jews, God’s own chosen race, failed to recognise Him. Worse, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah, even though they had been expecting Him. And to this day, people fail to realise that the Messiah and the Creator visited this world 2000 years ago, a problem that is endemic. There were as many as 400 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament so how did the Jews miss Him? Specific prophecies such as in Isaiah 7:14, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” But the key word in Isaiah’s prophecy was “look“. The Jews had developed in their minds a picture of a different Messiah, selectively taking prophecies to suit their own expectations, particularly regarding the hated Roman occupation. They desired a Messiah who would come as a Man of war, not a baby in a manger. Not all Jews thought this way, though. There was Simeon, who was waiting for the Messiah. “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25).‭‭‭ Further on we read, “Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:28-30). There was also a prophetess called Anna. “Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. …  She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36a, 38). ‭‭

But back to that keyword, “look”. Isn’t it strange that when we look at something we find that our interpretation of the scenario before us is tailored by our thoughts and desires? We read Bible verses and try and extract a meaning from them to perhaps justify a sin, particular when the misdemeanour isn’t specifically mentioned. Or we look at a person, a politician or a pastor perhaps, and expect more from them than they can provide. And we try and get someone to follow a course of action to suit our world view rather then provide a remedy for the good of all. Isaiah said that the people had to “look” for their Messiah, implying that they must see what God was doing, not what they wanted Him to do. The people who heard Anna excitedly talk about the Messiah Child, were waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. God’s plan was salvation for the world. The Jerusalem Jews were expecting a political solution.

So how do we come to recognise our Creator and Messiah? There is rarely a day when I don’t thank God for His creation. In my morning rambles around the West of Fife in Scotland, there is always some wonder that catches my eye. The colours of the Autumn leaves. The birdsong echoing through the trees. The flowers bursting forth time and again each Spring. The deer crossing my path. I look up on a clear night and see a myriad of stars. There seems no limit to what God has done. And yet there are those who fail to appreciate God’s creation. There was a day recently when I stopped by a tree that stood out because of its vivid red Autumn leaves. I pointed out the beauty to a passer-by, but he was unimpressed and continued on his way. People fail to “look” for God and miss seeing their Creator in the natural world around them.

The Messiah came and was rejected by His people. But one day they will recognise Him. We read in Zechariah 12:10, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died“. They will “look” at last and will find Him.

We pilgrims have a personal relationship with Jesus, the Messiah, though. We have, as Simeon, seen His salvation. Simeon saw what was to come. We experience at first hand the saving grace of God. And we praise Him, and continue to praise Him, this day and forever, for all he has done for us and the rest of mankind, if only they would “look”.

Dear Father God. As we share Your messages with those around us I pray that You open their eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Witness

Posted on by korgrocker

”God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.“
John 1:6-9 NLT

John, the writer of John’s Gospel, said of John the Baptist, “he was simply a witness to tell about the light”. In our societies, a witness is someone who sees an event and who is prepared to stand up in a court of law or some other solemn place and say what they saw. They “tell about” something. But in the setting before us, in the first few verses in John’s Gospel, John the Baptist was witnessing something that had yet to take place. Through the Holy Spirit within him he was foretelling what was to come. John had an unique ministry in that he introduced his cousin Jesus as the Messiah who was bringing “light to everyone”. 

The early disciples were entrusted with the ministry of witnessing as well. We read what Jesus’ last words to them in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” But these men and women had been with Jesus. They had lived with Him. They had seen the miracles, the healings. They were there, and were involved, in the feeding of five thousand men and their families. They were in the boat when Jesus came to them walking on the water. They were there behind a locked door when Jesus appeared amongst them. John the Baptist was a witness of what was to come. The disciples were witnesses to whom Jesus was and what He had done. 

But what about us pilgrims? We are told to be witnesses to Jesus as well. Of course, we were not there in John the Baptist’s shoes. Neither were we in Israel when Jesus walked the highways and byways, seeing His miracles and hearing His teaching. But we can be witnesses to all that Jesus has done for us. We can tell others of the changes the Holy Spirit has made in our lives. We can testify about events and even miracles that God has done for us. And even a new Christian, taking the first steps in their pilgrimage, can tell of God’s saving love and grace. We have so much to be a witness for.

There were times when the people failed to understand who Jesus was or what His teaching was about. The spiritual leaders of His day did their best to rubbish His teaching and even ended up complicit in His early death. Jesus was counter-cultural, a radical who overturned the status quo in His society and, for a brief three years, touched earth with Heaven itself. And because of Him, the world changed radically, as witnesses to Jesus and His earthly mission propagated the Gospel throughout the world. We pilgrims will also be ill-treated and maligned. We too will be ridiculed and ostracised. But we are witnesses to all that God has done for us, and we can share our messages of hope, seasoned with God’s acts of grace, to all those around us. Each one of us is “simply a witness to tell about the light“.

Dear God. We look back over our lives and find so much that You have done for us. We are so grateful. Amen.

The Other John

Posted on by korgrocker

”God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.“
John 1:6-9 NLT

John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin, and was born to elderly parents, as we read in Luke 1:7, ”They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old”. But John’s dad, Zechariah, had an angelic encounter and was told he was going to have a son, ”But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John” (Luke 1:13). Zechariah received some amazing information about his coming son in the following verses, such as “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth” and “he will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah”. Luke also wrote that John would “prepare the people for the coming of the Lord”.  John’s coming was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, “Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! (Isaiah 40:3).

The Jews in those days were very much aware that there had been no prophetic voices for 400 years, ever since the prophet Malachi. No messages from God. No encouragement that He was even there. And to make things worse, the people were oppressed by the occupying Romans. The fiercely independent Jews longed for the day when they had their own country again. John lived his adult years in the desert eating “locusts and wild honey”, and then there was the day when he emerged into history dressed like an Old Testament prophet in coarse camel hair and a leather belt. His message was simple, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2). And, in true Old Testament prophet style, he denounced the religious leaders for their hypocrisy and self-righteousness. But John’s mission was also to introduce Jesus. He said, “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). Later on in Matthew’s Gospel we read that the people thought John was a prophet, and some even the coming Messiah. John’s life was tragically cut short by the wishes of an evil woman; he left this world violently, as many of the Jewish prophets did. But his ministry had achieved what God desired – he introduced Jesus, the Messiah. What a privilege!

What do we pilgrims learn from John? His zealous commitment to share the Good News of Jesus was total. It didn’t matter to him what others thought, he just did what God had commissioned him to do. The message for us pilgrims is the same. We are commissioned to tell the Good News about Jesus. Of course, we can’t all step into John the Baptist’s shoes, though some of us will be called to a special role to fulfil God’s plans. But we are all called, like John, to a life dedicated to God. We don’t know, but the next person we share the Gospel with might become the next Billy Graham. We all have our own unique places in our towns, our cities, our communities, and we pray that God will lead us to the next divine encounter, where another child of God is born.

Dear Father God. Lead us to divine encounters we pray, so that we can share the Good News of Jesus. Thank You. Amen.

Light and Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
John 1:1-5 NLT

Continuing our theme concerning the Word of God, who is Jesus Himself, John wrote that He is Light and Life. We read back in Genesis 2:7 how life was birthed, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person“. And ever since, life has been ubiquitous, taken for granted even and the Creator of life ignored by most. Jesus Himself proclaimed His illuminating presence as we read in John 8:12, “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”” So why is it so hard for people to realise that they do indeed walk in darkness? Stumbling around in the gloom is not a new phenomenon, limited to the 21st Century. At a time of national peril in 700 BC, Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah. Isaiah 9:1-2, “Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.” People today are living in a perilous time, of “deep darkness”. The wars in Ukraine and Palestine continue to dominate the news. Terrible floods in Australia and an earthquake in China have found their way into the news headlines. And there are many more disasters and conflicts waiting in the wings of world history and still to emerge to darken the world even more. The people of this world are truly living in dark times.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus proclaimed the mission for His followers, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father“. The people around us need to hear Good News. God’s News of a Man who brought Light and Life into this world. A Man who set aside His Godliness and came from Heaven because of His love for a world that was without hope and heading for a lost eternity. The Man was the Son of God Himself. We pilgrim believers carry torches that burn with God’s eternal glory, the message of hope that Jesus left us to share with our friends and communities. We are torch bearers in a relay race that has extended over centuries.

A carol we sing every year has this second verse. The lyric writer, Charles Wesley, and obviously a John’s Gospel reader, wrote it in 1739:

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Risen with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the new-born king”

Dear Lord Jesus, we proclaim Your light and life to all those around us at the start of this New Year. Your light is eternal, and is never extinguished. Your life is available to all. We worship You today. Amen.

The Word

Posted on by korgrocker

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
John 1:1-5 NLT

The first five verses of John’s Gospel are all about Jesus, and John set out the foundational truths about who He was, who He still is and who He has always been. Jesus is the Word of God. But there were many sceptics then and still are today, who struggle over the concept that a human being could also be God. People in those days saw a man who started life as a baby, who grew up as any other Jewish boy in a deprived area of Israel, and who spent years learning and applying carpentry, presumably following in his earthly father Joseph’s footsteps. Yes, they saw the miracles. Yes, they heard all that He said. But to be God as well? That needed a leap of faith, sadly beyond the reach of the closed minds of most people of His day. 

John wrote that the Word, Jesus Himself, was eternal, just like God. He had always been, and was there when the world was created. In fact, John said that the world was created through Him. But it was God’s plan to bring salvation to the world He created, and that plan involved a Word who became a man. A man who lived and died and is now in Heaven, seated at the right hand of His Father. 

Right at the start of John’s Gospel, we have a stumbling block, because nobody can go on to read, and benefit from, the rest of the twenty one chapters in John without accepting, right at the start, that Jesus was, and still is, the incarnate Son of God.

Father God. We pray today for the revelation that Your Son, Jesus, was, and is, both human and Divine. For those of us who may be weak in faith, I pray that You reveal Yourself to us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Final Words

Posted on by korgrocker

”You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.“
2 Peter 3:17-18 NLT

Peter has come to the point in his letter when he finally decides he has written all that needs to be written. There’s nothing more to be said. A final warning to his readers to “be on guard”. Watch out, he wrote, because there are wicked people out there who are preaching error and leading people away from the truth about Jesus and His Gospel, distorting and twisting His message of Good News and hope for the future. Perhaps we are tempted to think that this was an early church phenomenon, and Biblical preaching and teaching today is much less prone to error. But thinking this is just what the devil likes. Complacency leads to apostasy, and an ineffective Christian life. We pilgrims must never cease our journey. We must never become becalmed in a morass of distractions, diverted from our mission.

Peter exhorted his readers to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ“. To grow takes effort, and God wants us to mature as Christians. A “baby” Christian cannot stay in that infantile state forever, but sadly many do. Just as a human baby looks to their mother, “baby” Christians expect their pastors or ministers to do everything for them, feeding them a palatable diet that they can enjoy. And when such attention is unavailable they look elsewhere for their spiritual input. They think that another church will supply their needs. Or perhaps they find a spiritual “creche” somewhere else, and go there instead.

It is by God’s grace that we can grow and He allows us the time and space to mature as Christians. Sometimes I check in again with those verses at the end of Acts 2. ”All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We have distorted the purity of the Gospel with our liturgies, our “all about me” Christian worship songs, our pews providing fellowship limited to the back of a person’s head, our programmes to raise funds for the church organ or new roof instead of furthering the Gospel to those in need. The Christian life is all about Jesus and following Him and His teaching. We have wonderful resources in the Bible and its many translations, and we must study it with the devotion the early believers had. We must pray so fervently, that something significant happens in our prayer meetings. Acts 4:31, ”After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness“. We must look after each other, in times of fellowship not just restricted to a hand shake after the Sunday meeting. God’s grace abounds when His people are flowing in His ways.

Peter encouraged his readers to grow in grace and knowledge, and that will require a shift in our Christian world view and life style. Paul summed up this way of life in Colossians 3:1-4, ”Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory“. The Bible teaches us much about the “things of Heaven”, and we must appreciate the reality, as believers, that we are now citizens of Heaven. We must adopt the laws and customs of our new world. It is here that our eyes are opened and we realise the sinful and worldly ways that we have left behind. The transition from the old kingdom to the new will take a lifetime, as we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. 

Dear Father God. We thank You for Your servant Peter and his letters so full of Your grace and love. We pray together today that Your Words will be food for our souls. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Twisting Scripture

Posted on by korgrocker

“And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.”
2 Peter 3:15-16 NLT

Almost as an aside, Peter rushes to the defence of his spiritual brother Paul, who was a trail blazer when it came to theology in the early years after Jesus was crucified. Paul’s life was overturned on the Damascus Road, and regarding his message, we read in Galatians 1:12, “I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.” In the first and second chapters in Paul’s Galatians letter we get a hint of the preparatory process Paul went through before he was able to set out that “direct revelation from Jesus Christ”, and God’s plan for mankind, but it was, at that time, probably so radical, particularly to Jews, that he suffered much abuse, not only because of his message, but also his theology. People in his day misinterpreted what he said, and, as Peter wrote, “twisted his letters to mean something quite different”. But the same process goes on today. 

The Bible is not difficult to understand. The Gospel message is perhaps too simple for some. The problem is that when we get to a passage or verse of Scripture, that might not fit in with our sinful world view, we try and make it say something that it doesn’t. The Bible was written over many years and the last contribution to it was nearly two thousand years ago. In those days the culture was different. The geography was different. In our technological age, however, Western Christians are sometimes left puzzling over what God thinks, but the answers we seek are in the Bible somewhere, if only we look. A modern approach to Scripture involves “liberal” thought, where people miss out or reinterpret Biblical truths to suit their own point of view, or try and make it more palatable, so they think, to the secular society around them. So someone of a particular sexual orientation will ignore what difficult verses say. Jesus’ teaching about marriage makes some people feel uncomfortable, so they say it was for that culture but it doesn’t apply today. And then we find the Anglican bishop who even denied that the virgin birth actually happened.

As an aside, an Anglican vicar, David Goodhew, summed up the dangers of liberal theology, when he said, “churches trimming faith to fit in with culture have tended to shrink, and those offering a ‘full-fat’ faith, vividly supernatural, have tended to grow.” A religious observer, commenting on the previous quote, wrote, “Christianity is not dying – rather, it is becoming more conservative. Congregants don’t want to be preached to about politics. What they want is the full-fat version of faith.” There is no point in going to a church that has effectively become secular in what it offers to society around them. We can find all the secularism we want in the local pub. Only Bible believing churches will survive, because they regard the Bible, in its entirety, as the inspired and eternal Word of God. Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever“.

Paul aptly summed up the Bible when he wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We ignore this verse at our peril, something that Peter emphasised, as he wrote that life for those twisting Scripture will not end well. And the same end is waiting for those who ignore the parts of Scripture that fail to fit in with secular thought.

To avoid misinterpreting Scripture we must rely on the Holy Spirit within us to lead and guide us and bring to our minds exactly what God intended. So we precede reading a difficult passage with a prayer, and we allow the Holy Spirit to do what Paul wrote, teaching “us to do what is right”. And we definitely don’t ignore those Bible passages that challenge us.

Dear Father God. We pray for Your Spirit to open our eyes to the truths embedded in Your Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Lord’s Patience

Posted on by korgrocker

“And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.”
2 Peter 3:15-16 NLT

The Lord is patient, Peter wrote, because He wants to see many people come to Him for salvation. Would His patience have run out earlier if more people had responded to the Gospel? Is there still plenty of room in Heaven? These are questions based on human logic, and not the great, infinite, patient, and eternal capabilities of God. Peter was also obviously aware of the Apostle Paul’s letters so they must have been widely circulated in the Middle East and even beyond in those days. One such Pauline scripture, perhaps even the one Peter was referring to, was Romans 2:4, “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” We need to take note of the fact that God in kind. Other religions view God as being harsh, stern, unloving, impersonal, but the God we pilgrims worship is kind, loving, merciful, always there for us, wanting a personal relationship. He is a Father to His children. God’s kindness and patience are interrelated. However, in Romans 11:22, Paul wrote, “Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off “. We need to trust God in both His kindness and His patience. We may not totally understand, but that is what faith and trust is all about.

Earlier in 2 Peter 3, Peter wrote, “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). Peter is building a picture of God’s loving and patient kindness, based on His desire that He wants to give mankind as much of a chance as possible to come to repentance. A picture to refute the growing accusations that perhaps Jesus had forgotten to return to earth, or that he had changed His mind. Throughout the Bible there are references to God’s patience, such as while Noah was building the ark. Even though God had decided to destroy the people of the day, He patiently waited for up to another hundred years so that Noah would be saved. “So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!” (Genesis 6:13). Noah was 500 years old when he became the father of his three sons, but 600 years old when God shut up the door to the ark and opened the floodgates. 

We pilgrims are also to be patient and kind. Colossians 3:12, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” These are all God-qualities, that are built within us as fruit of the Holy Spirit. Like God, we are to be patient. Patient with those around us. Patient in the face of irritations and trials, of which there are many in our lives. But the original meaning of patience was not a stoical passivity but an active endurance. To be patient is exampled through Jesus, who suffered much on this earth, and yet He was and is the Son of God. God’s plan for man’s salvation was birthed long before it was implemented, as we read in the great prophecies in Isaiah. And yet God waited patiently until His purposes and place, and history itself, coincided in a cross at Calvary.  Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” The right time is now, folks. 2 Corinthians 6:2, “For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.” Today, not tomorrow, or next week. We don’t know when we will have the opportunity to draw our last breath, but God is listening even now.

Father God. You want to-one to perish and all to be saved. We pray for our friends and families, that they will indeed hear Your voice, Your gentle whisper, connecting with their very souls. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Make Every Effort

Posted on by korgrocker

“And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.”
2 Peter 3:14 NLT

Peter starts off this verse with a passive “wait”. As we pilgrims look forward to the new heavens and earth, we wait. I don’t suppose we have any choice, because only God knows the future and will make things happen according to His plans and purposes. But in that we can play our part. The previous verses in 2 Peter 3 implied that we have a role in hurrying along the coming “day of God”. We pray, we share our messages of hope, we praise and worship the coming King. We do all we can and we wait, but Peter came up with another specific requirement. He wrote “make every effort” to do something else – “to be found living …”. We need to get ready for the coming Lord, and in an active way that will impact every remaining moment of our lives. 

Firstly, Peter wrote that we should be found “living peaceful lives”. That has two element to it – living at peace with those around us, but more challenging perhaps, living at peace with ourselves. The first is perhaps one in which we can work at quite easily. We avoid doing anything that will upset anyone else. Paul wrote in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men“. The writer to the Hebrews went a step further, “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). It will take effort, but it is achievable. There will of course always be those looking for a fight, but as the Proverb says, “A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare” (Proverbs 15:1). With the Holy Spirit within us, we are empowered to live at peace with those around us. So when we face a difficult situation, we pray for the right response. When someone provokes us, we remain silent. When we have the opportunity to stand up for ourselves, perhaps if wrongly accused, we gently and non-confrontationally, state our case. When Jesus was before Pilate, we read in Matthew 27:12, “But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent“. Jesus also said, “And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said” (Luke 12:11-12). So as far as we are able, we live at peace with those around us.

But, secondly, what about inner peace? There is a worldly route to inner peace and tranquillity, the “gurus” will claim, through meditation, mindfulness, the use of therapists and other strange and, in the end, useless methods. There is only one route to inner peace, peace with ourselves, and that is through Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace. Inner peace is wholeness in mind and spirit, and it includes our consciences. Many people suffer dreadfully from a lack of inner peace because they are full of guilt and their consciences are constantly nagging them, dragging them down. They can become ill with symptoms caused by their mental chaos. So they end up with a psychiatrist who may help for a while, but in the end it is only God who can heal an inflamed and enraged conscience. Confession and restitution can work wonders in restoring an inner peace. In the world around us there is much that can cause us anxiety and destroy that inner peace. Wars, political instability, secular ideologies and so on. But these are all temporary phenomena and boulders put there by the enemy to trip us up and destroy our peace. We pilgrims look beyond the circumstances at the horizon where we see the emerging light of a new dawn. 

Peter wrote that our lives must be “pure and blameless in his sight”. It’s all about holiness and there is a connection with peace. Our lives must be found to be holy in His sight and there is only one way – Jesus. We reach out again to Him today, connecting with the Prince of Peace, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, our wonderful Saviour.

Dear Prince of Peace. We thank You for Your words of eternal life, bringing us a future and a hope. Amen.

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All Things New

Posted on by korgrocker

“Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”
2 Peter 3:11-13 NLT

Noah took a hundred years or so to build the ark. He wasn’t in a hurry, obviously! But God patiently waited before He brought judgement on the nations with the Flood. Could Noah have hurried the “day of the Lord”, if he had built the ark a bit quicker? Quite possibly. Peter wrote that his readers should “[look] forward to the day of God and [hurry] it along”. Does this mean anything to us pilgrims? Are we living our lives, as Noah did, in expectation that the “day of the Lord” is just around the corner, and we should be doing all we can to hurry it along? Is such a thing even possible? 

Jesus gave us an indication that once the Gospel has reached every corner of our world then the “end will come”. Matthew 24:14, “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“. There have been extraordinary efforts to meet this goal. The Bible has been translated into many languages. Quote from Wikipedia, “As of September 2023 all of the Bible has been translated into 736 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,264 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance“. But that in itself won’t satisfy Jesus’ statement because the Good News, the Gospel, has to be “preached”. But it’s a start. Will this goal ever be reached? With God’s help it will be, and we can’t be far from when “the end will come”. 

We will certainly know when the Gospel has been preached throughout the world, because Peter told us what would happen next. Fire will destroy the heavens and the earth. That will really be global warming on steroids! But there will be nothing left, paving the way for the “new heavens and new earth He has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness”. To find out all about this we turn to Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.” Peter wrote that the existing heaven and earth was destroyed by fire. John just noted in his vision that it had “disappeared”. But either way, the earth and sky we know was replaced by a new heaven and earth. If that was not enough, though, we read on in Revelation, “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband“. What a creation! More details can be found in my book, “The End Times”. 

We pilgrims know how the story ends, and that must change our world view. We may perhaps come to the conclusion that saving the planet is a pointless exercise, if it is going to be destroyed by fire anyway. Peter wrote that we must hurry along the coming “day of the Lord” and look forward to the new heavens and new earth that “He has promised”. We pilgrims take the long view as we lift our eyes above the horizon and see coming the glory of the Lord. Is there a hint of a glow I see just over the hill?

Dear Lord Jesus. Please help us as we preach Your message of Good News to those around us. Maranatha! Amen.