Shining as Believers: A Call to Action

Posted on by korgrocker

“If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
2 Corinthians 5:13-15 NIVUK

Paul wrote that Jesus died for all. Not just the Israelites, the Jews living in the First Century, but also for the Gentiles, people like you and me. Jesus died the death that we were supposed to have died because He took on the punishment we deserved for all our sins. What are they? Anything that is in opposition to God. There are no “little white lies” or half-truths. Every wrong thought and deed has been brought under the cleansing blood of Jesus. Isaiah wrote, ““Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). The Bible has a theme running through it, about God pursuing people everywhere because He loves them. Peter wrote, “ … He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9c). And He achieved that aim through Jesus, “that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”. Jesus died our death so that we would be able to live His life. What a Saviour! 

We pilgrims, therefore, have an obligation to live our lives God’s way, without self-centred ambition and in a way that hides our spirituality from those around us. We are not monks shut away from the world behind the walls of a monastery. We are out there, shining like a beacon in a dark and hopeless world. We must live in a way that is Christ-centred, and no longer focused on our self-centred ways. Paul wrote, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:3-5). In it all, we must each consider the question, “Who is at the centre of our lives, me or Jesus?” But what does “shining like a beacon” look like? It is a counter-cultural manifestation of human qualities soaked in the Holy Spirit, not the spirit of the world. So, we pilgrims will not join in with the negative talk amongst friends. We will not join in with the office gossip or smutty jokes. We will not rubbish the government (read Romans 13). We will not get involved with worldly ideologies. Instead, we will speak the truth about God and all He has done for us.

“Because He lives
I can face tomorrow”

Paul wrote, “that those who live should no longer live for themselves”. Of course, everyone “lives” until the day they die, but that is not the “live” that Paul was meaning. Peter wrote, “For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). To a Jewish leader called Nicodemus, “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” … “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life” (John 3:3, 5-6). Our bodies will one day wear out and die, but our spirits will continue to live forever. There are men and women who claim to be Christians but who deny that it is necessary to be “born again”. The term has somehow been associated with a fundamental minority who have become radicalised into believing something more associated with sects. But we pilgrims “live” a spiritual, born-again, life, the Jesus way, following in the steps of the Master.

Jesus died on that Roman cross, and if that was all that there was, then we are a sad people. Paul wrote, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). But he went on, “For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world” (1 Corinthians 15:13-19). Indisputable logic from Paul, emphasising the importance, the cornerstone, of our faith. Jesus died and rose again, and through Him we can also look forward to our resurrection one day.

The Cross is validated by Jesus’ resurrection, and through Him we have victory over death. The grave no longer has any hold over us, because we pass through it into eternal life. We pilgrims serve a living King, victorious and glorious. Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we remain connected to the Vine, who is Jesus, living the life that He has granted us through His grace and mercy. 

We serve the risen Jesus. He is alive today, tomorrow, and forever. So today, we must turn up the wick on our beacons, shining brighter and brighter, bringing Jesus’ life into the lives of those around us. 

Father, we pray for forgiveness for our sins, in deep gratitude for Jesus and His death and resurrection. With His life within us, we share the Good News, the truth about our faith, to those we know and even to those we don’t. We pray for our friends and families that the light and life of Jesus will illuminate their lives as well. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Our Testimony About Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NIVUK
“I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NLT

Paul could see so much good in those early Christians in Corinth. He provides the picture of a people who seem to have a new confidence enhanced by the spiritual gifts they had received. They received an ability that came from being “enriched in every way with all kinds of speech and knowledge”. But that wasn’t unusual with the early believers. In Acts 3 we can read of a “man who was lame from birth” and who was carried to the Temple gate every day to beg. Then there came those epic words from Peter, “ … ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong” (Acts 3:6-7). Of course, the people who knew the disabled beggar “were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” and this gave Peter and John an opportunity to preach the Gospel in a part of the Temple called Solomon’s Colonnade. But this displeased the religious authorities and “They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day”(Acts 4:3). Peter and John were brought in for questioning the next day before a meeting of the Sanhedrin and they were asked, ” … By what power or what name did you do this?” (Acts 4:7). Now here’s the point of this story – the next verse started, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people!” ‭‭Peter started a discourse empowered in the same way as the believers in Corinth. They were all full of the Holy Spirit and the “gracious gifts He has given [them]”. After Peter’s defence before the Sanhedrin, the two disciples were removed from the assembly and we then read something very telling, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus“. That’s what Paul could see in those early Corinthian believers – men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, giving them powers that could only come from God.

Of course we remember the verses where Jesus told His disciples about the Holy Spirit. Jesus was recorded as saying, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12). The same saying of Jesus is in Matthew 10:19-20, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”. Both versions of what Jesus said stress the importance of recognising the Gift of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. I meet Christians who lack the confidence to speak out when an opportunity is presented, because they feel they won’t know what to say. In faith, we all know what to say, because the Holy Spirit will speak through us. 

Believers everywhere, pilgrims like us, have the responsibility, ability and, we pray, the opportunity to provide and speak out our testimonies about Christ. We don’t have to learn a script. We don’t have to stutter and be ashamed about what we know or about our faith. God will lead us and guide us in every situation we come across. How did we come to know Jesus? How has Jesus helped us in our daily lives? It is all there within us, just waiting for the Holy Spirit to form the words and speak them out through our lips, as Jesus said. Some of the best evangelists are new Christians, full of excitement and the Holy Spirit, desperate to tell someone about Jesus. Do we still have that same excitement that we once had?

But we should also take note of something else. In Peter’s discourse before the Sanhedrin he quoted a Scripture from Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone“. The point is that Peter knew a Bible verse that backed up what he was saying. In the culture of His day, Jesus took it as read that the disciples would have had a degree of Bible knowledge, being schooled at least to a basic level as every Jewish boy was. We pilgrims will not have a religious education to the same degree. We may have been ignorant of Sunday schools when we were small. We may never have entered a church until we met Jesus. But that doesn’t matter because we can read the Bible, and the Holy Spirit will be able to put scriptures into our testimonies because they are stored away somewhere in our memory. But having said that, our God is also a miracle worker. There have been times when some thought or impression has emerged in my mind, and I’ve wondered where it came from, but it has been very relevant to the situation before me. 

Paul reassured the Corinthian believers of the authenticity of his testimony about Christ, and I’m sure his readers had the same. This is something that we pilgrims must also be serious about, also having a testimony about Christ, proclaiming all that He has done for us. It is not just about going to church on a Sunday, and behaving like everyone else for the rest of the week. We must shine like beacons, showing the Light of God to all around us, through our behaviour, speech, attitudes and faith. We present a counter-cultural view of societal life that everyone will see and take note of, and we look for opportunities to share our testimonies with anyone who will listen, using as a bottom line the words that Peter said in Acts 2:38-40, “Peter replied, “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.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!””. We do indeed live in a “crooked generation” and must urge those in our society, those we know and don’t know, about the importance of salvation, and where will spend eternity.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for our testimonies, and we pray for Your presence to bring them to life in the ears of our listeners. It’s all about our Lord Jesus, and all that He has done for us, and we praise and worship You today with deeply thankful hearts. Amen.