Preserving Biblical Truth Against Modern Challenges

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Preserve the teaching of God; entrust his instructions to those who follow me. I will wait for the Lord, who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my hope in him.”
Isaiah 8:16-17 NLT

“Preserve”, “entrust”, “follow”, “wait”, and “hope”. All words that define our relationship with God, or should do. There is something in these words and in today’s verses that provides a picture of God: dependable, unmoving, reliable, alive, active, and the One who should determine our course of life. And yet, in today’s secular societies, there seems to be great efforts to do the opposite. The “teaching of God” is eroded and distorted by some people and even denominations, so that it aligns with a worldview considered more acceptable to the people of our day. “His instructions” are largely ignored because people think they know better, and anyway, they want to live their lives following their own agenda, free of external influence. Such people certainly don’t want to follow God, because they have a distorted, or even downright wrong, view of who He is. The next verse is equally ignored because the concepts of waiting on and hoping in God are foreign to most of the people we live among today. 

Jesus taught about the ways of the world compared to God’s Kingdom in His Sermon on the Mount. He said, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Pictorial language that was picked up by John Bunyan many years ago in his book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan used the broad and narrow ways to represent two opposing paths in life: destruction and eternal salvation. The narrow way represents faith in Christ, which is straight but difficult, whereas the many broad ways represent the easy, tempting roads of the world. Early in the story, the character Goodwill introduced Christian to the narrow path. He explains that this road was laid out by the patriarchs, prophets, Christ, and the Apostles. Goodwill warned that many wide, crooked paths intersect with the narrow way, making it very easy to get lost. The broad paths represent the various worldly philosophies, sins, and distractions that lead to ruin. It’s a fascinating book to read, and can even be found brought up to date with more modern language. John Bunyan wrote the book from a jail cell in Bedford after the monarchy cracked down on religious separatists, but it had a marked effect in furthering the Protestant faith in the 17th Century and became the second-best-selling book of his age.

The “teaching of God” we find in the Bible is expounded by Godly men and, through the Holy Spirit, supported and implemented in the lives of faithful pilgrims everywhere. The Bible is, as someone once said, God’s only written work, and it has survived many generations and the tests of time to bring Godly counsel to Christians today. The problem for many today, including people in some denominations, is that Biblical teaching contradicts what they want to believe, presenting truths that are countercultural and opposed to the beliefs in the society around us. But Isaiah wrote that such teaching is to be preserved, and it is, both on paper and in the hearts and minds of God’s followers. Intuitively, someone who follows God will know what is true and what is false, because the Holy Spirit lives within them. 

In the lives of us pilgrims, the “teaching of God” leads us in His paths day by day, and the Holy Spirit is constantly at work helping us to do what we should, veer away from what we shouldn’t, and keep us close to Him. Isaiah said he would continue to wait for God to keep His promises to those who are faithful to Him. And that is where we pilgrims are today. Waiting. The Bible is full of His promises, and they will be worth waiting for, even if some are not realised until we are in His presence. In Isaiah’s day, God had turned away from “the descendants of Jacob” because of their sin and idolatry, but Isaiah would wait for Him by placing his hope in God. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We, too, put our hope and trust in You and Your Word. Please guide us along the narrow way so that we do not get lost in our journey to the Heavenly Promised Land. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Podcast Episode: Isaiah 5 Judgement And Woes

Posted on by Adrian Clark

Pip: There is something quietly relentless about the book of Isaiah — it keeps finding us wherever we are, even in the twenty-first century, still doing roughly the same things the people of Judah were doing in 700 BC.

Mara: Adrian Clark has been working through Isaiah 5 this week, and the posts cover territory that stays uncomfortably relevant: divine justice and what it demands of us, and the specific catalogue of sins Isaiah names as woes against his own society.

Pip: Let's start with the justice side of things — what righteousness actually means, and what happens when it runs out.

Judgement and divine justice in Isaiah 5

Mara: The central question here is what God's justice looks like when it finally arrives — and what it requires of people in the meantime.

Pip: The post on Isaiah 5 opens with a passage that sets the stakes plainly. The verse reads: "Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down; even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation. But the Lord of Heaven's Armies will be exalted by his justice. The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness."

Mara: What that means in practice is that the wealth and revelry of Judah's ruling class had a shelf life. Historical record confirms it — foreign invaders entered, the land was emptied, and the partying stopped. Pride gave way to humility, not as a spiritual exercise but as a consequence.

Pip: And the post is careful to define what righteousness actually is, not just what it punishes. It draws in Micah 6:8 — "to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" — and Proverbs 21:3, which puts righteous action above religious ritual.

Mara: The follow-up post, "The Judgment to Come," extends the same argument into the present tense. It quotes Isaiah 5:24-25, with its images of fire consuming straw and mountains shaking, and connects that to Jesus's words in Matthew 24 — that no one knows the day or hour, but the call to keep watch stands.

Pip: The remnant thread is what gives it shape. Jeremiah, offered safe passage to Babylon, chose to stay with those left behind. That choice frames the question put to readers directly: are we warning our generation, or are we huddled quietly in the pews?

Mara: The post puts it this way — pilgrims today are effectively that remnant, the faithful lineage through which restoration moves forward. The responsibility that comes with that is not passive.

Pip: Which brings us neatly to what, exactly, the people of Judah were actually doing that warranted all this.

The six woes: a catalogue of sinful living

Mara: Isaiah 5 doesn't just pronounce judgment in the abstract — it names specific behaviours, and the post on the six woes works through each one.

Pip: The anchor passage covers several of them at once: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

Mara: That inversion of moral categories is the one the post treats as most urgent for today — the point where a society stops being confused and starts actively recategorising what God condemns as acceptable, and what God approves as ridiculous.

Pip: The post on hedonism in Isaiah 5 fills in the social backdrop — wealthy people in Jerusalem who had turned drinking and pleasure into a full-time occupation, from early morning to late at night, to the point where they simply stopped noticing God at all.

Mara: And the six woes post ties the alcohol culture directly to injustice: those who are "champions at mixing drinks" end up acquitting the guilty for a bribe and denying justice to the innocent. Excess and corruption travel together.

Pip: Paul's line from Romans 12:2 gets the last word — don't let the world squeeze you into its mould. The J.B. Phillips version is the one quoted: "let God re-mould your minds from within."

Mara: Righteousness as a daily practice, judgment as a present reality, and a faithful remnant called to be visible — that's the thread running through all of it.

Pip: Isaiah was writing to people who couldn't see what was coming. The question for next time is whether we're any better at looking up.

Beware of False Apostles: Insights from 2 Corinthians

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.”
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 NLT

The Corinthian church seemed to have been infiltrated by men who called themselves apostles but weren’t, because they made false claims. They were first-century equivalents of fraudsters who found a way to fleece a gullible congregation with the smooth, eloquent words they used. In their approach, they created what was effectively a different Jesus, because they preached a false gospel with content that perhaps watered down the bits the Corinthians were struggling with or even one that contained errors that were more aligned with the Gnostics or Docetism, or perhaps even encouraging the congregation to adopt the Jewish practices that some of them had abandoned. Paul associated these men with being the devil’s servants, men who followed in the footsteps of the serpent in the Garden, with plausible arguments such as the one that deceived Eve. “Surely God didn’t say” was perhaps replaced by “surely Paul didn’t say”, leading to a subtle but significant change in the Gospel that Paul preached, the one given to him by Jesus Himself. 

These men have modern-day equivalents in the form of those people who wheedle their way into the confidence of gullible people and end up defrauding them of their savings or performing unnecessary work on their houses. There are all sorts of scams out there, and often they sound so convincing that even tech-savvy people are tricked into installing malware on their smartphones or computers. And it begs the question that if the fraudsters can be so successful in their modern-day scams, what is stopping the devil from doing the same in the spiritual world? 

Jesus warned His disciples, and by extension all disciples ever since, about the dangers of false apostles. He said, “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Jesus continued in the next verse with “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” In today’s church, with its established denominations, there are fewer opportunities for false apostles, prophets, and other forms of leadership to enter a church. I belong to the Elim Movement, a Pentecostal organisation, with churches dotted all over the UK and beyond. Anyone able to preach at one of these churches has been carefully vetted and will usually have been through some formal training at an Elim-recognised Bible college. Error or falseness is a rare event. In addition, the Elim congregations usually have a sufficient number of mature Christians who will soon weed out any form of false teaching. However, some years ago, I was briefly in an independent church with a pastor who seemed to preach all the right messages and was well respected by the congregation. There were a few anomalies with his leadership team, but all seemed good. But then a problem emerged – the pastor had a gambling addiction, and the church collapsed soon afterwards when it came to light. So Jesus’ warning about good and bad fruit was spot on. 

In Revelation 2:2, Jesus commended the church in Ephesus for dealing with false apostles. “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars”. It might have been helpful to know more about how they weeded out the false apostles, but the devil is subtle in his approaches, and he will erode the margins of doctrine and theology, even Bible verses, introducing error drip by drip. 

There was an episode during Jesus’ ministry when His disciples became concerned that someone outside His group was using Jesus’ name to cast out demons. Mark 9:38, “John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group’”. We read what Jesus said in response in the next two verses, ““Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us”. From this example, we discern that there may be men and women in other denominations who are preaching the same Gospel we do without error. They may have a different approach or use different words, but their fruit is all good. 

Paul ended our verses today with the warning that the spiritual fraudsters, the false apostles who had infiltrated the Corinthian church, would receive “the punishment their wicked deeds deserve”. One day, we will all have to stand before God to give an account of our lives, and anyone who has peddled a false gospel will suffer severe consequences. The minister preaching Universalism at a Glasgow funeral I referred to in an earlier blog would possibly fall into this category. Of course, there are men and women in this world who sincerely fall into error and propagate it through their messages and prophecies. They are not fraudsters, as we understand the term, but they are still promoting a false gospel. 

How do we pilgrims avoid falling into error? We do what the people of Berea did. 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”. That is the only way to avoid the subtle and persuasive words of the false apostles. By reading our Bibles.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your Word, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit within us who is able to lead us into all truth. Help us to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, who is the Truth. Amen. 

The Time of Perfection

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.”
1 Corinthians 13:8-10 NLT

Prophecy, tongues and knowledge are spiritual gifts that will be eclipsed by love, which Paul said would last forever. The three spiritual gifts he listed will become useless one day, “when the time of perfection comes”. But if we unpack what Paul meant, we find that what he wrote was really common sense. We know that even in our enlightened Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, the spiritual gifts are woefully inadequate in providing a complete view of God, His character, His plans, His thoughts, and His Kingdom. Although the most gifted Old Testament prophets delivered prophecies that were full of hints and glimpses of what was to come, some remarkably close to the mark (see Psalm 22, for example), they were only a part of what eventually happened. And then we know that Jesus Himself was unable to reveal the timing of an event that His disciples were keen to discover – when the world will end. We read in Matthew 24:3, 36 “Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?” … “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows”. Of course, I’m sure that when Jesus returned to Heaven, He would have found out what was planned, but, as a human being, even the God-man, such a revelation was kept from Him. 

It is sad that some movements and denominations, even individual churches, believe that perfection came with the canonisation of the Bible in the fourth century AD, and they therefore believe that all the spiritual gifts that Paul wrote about have no further use now. So in their church services, there will be no manifestations of the Holy Spirit gifts, lowering their expectations of what God can do. But there is much that the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer, because He is the Power Source that drives us and helps us, as we walk on in this life. I often ponder about Ephesians 3:20, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think”. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father” (John 14:12). Was all this power just for the first-century church? I don’t think so. Jesus went on to say in the following verse, “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father”. What happens today is imperfect, but we don’t give up aspiring to receive the Holy Spirit gifts, as we await the coming of the Perfect. 

“Come Lord Jesus”

There can only be one such Time, and that is the return of Jesus to this world. Ultimately, this Time is described in Revelation 21:1-2, 6 , “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. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband”, … “And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life”. Jesus will return to this world one day; we don’t know when, but we do know the manner of His return and where it will happen. Acts 1:11, ““Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!””. So if we had a video of Jesus rising into the clouds on the day of His Ascension, a replay in reverse would show us His return. Revelation 1:7 continues the theme, “Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him— even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen!”

In the new Heaven and the new earth, Perfection will be with us, forever. And so we pray, echoing the last recorded words of Jesus in Revelation 22:20, “He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

Dear Lord Jesus. We echo the words of John, when he wrote, “Come Lord Jesus!” We honour You, the Perfect, today. Amen.



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Eating and Drinking

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other. If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.”
1 Corinthians 11:33-34 NLT

Eating and drinking are two activities necessary to sustain human life. Without consuming water, a human being will die after a few days. A lack of food will cause a person’s body to extract the nutrients it needs from its own tissues, but there comes a point when those reserves run out. Both of these thoughts are rather gruesome but well-known by anyone living in certain deprived countries. Here in the privileged West, we open the fridge door or turn on a tap, and we find our basic needs are met. In the Corinthian church, what started as an introduction to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper turned into a one-sided fellowship meal, where each family brought its own food and proceeded to eat it in front of those who had nothing—no sense of unity, no sense of sharing and preferring one another in the true Christian way. So, Paul brought in a chapter of correction, teaching the right way to share the Lord’s Supper and pointing out their errors. Paul finished this chapter with “I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive”, indicating that there must have been other issues connected to the Lord’s Supper, but not important enough to include in his letter. How could the Corinthians have got things so wrong? Thankfully, Paul was on hand to bring in the correction needed. 

But there is also a need for spiritual food and drink, and the same principles apply. Our souls need to be fed, and if deprived of spiritual food, they will wither and die. What is this food? We find it in the Bible, which is a treasure trove of unlimited spiritual resources. We find more through prayer and worship. Through fellowship with other believers. In fact, we feed our souls by spending time in God’s Kingdom. The early Israelites were fed for forty years with a constant supply of manna. This was a superfood containing all the nutrients necessary for human life. But there is a manna that came through Jesus and which is still with us today. It is available in unlimited quantities and is free for all to eat. If we read John 6:35, we find out the Source of this soul-superfood, “Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. Jesus continued, “Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh”. This was teaching that most of the people of His day failed to understand, because Jesus wasn’t talking about cannibalism, but about Him being spiritual food for those who believe in Him. Earlier in John 6, we read about the feeding of the five thousand, about how a young boy’s packed lunch of five barley loaves and two fish was multiplied to not only feed everyone but to ensure that they were full (John 6:12). Such was the magnitude of this miracle that the people wanted to make Jesus King. They understood the physical benefit of a miraculous food supply, but they failed to realise that Jesus was showing them the spiritual meaning, that His supply of bread was unlimited, and by eating it, their souls would become full.

There are many people today who are going about their daily lives depressed and without hope. Their souls are running on empty, and they have no resources that will feed them. They wake up in the morning, perhaps hoping that their circumstances will change in the day ahead, but return to their beds in the evening still unfulfilled. These are the people we pilgrims must introduce to Jesus. We are like the four lepers we can read about in 2 Kings 7. These lepers were starving, as were the Israelites, because of the Aramean siege of Samaria. They decided to visit the enemy camp to see if they could find mercy there and perhaps a crust or two of bread. But when they arrived, they found an empty camp and a plentiful supply of food and wine. After gorging themselves, we read in 2 Kings 7:9, “Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace””. As we pilgrims enter our day, we must remember that we have found “good news”and our souls have been filled by God’s spiritual manna. We must find an opportunity to tell the people around us where they, too, can find the food they need to nourish their souls. 

Dear Father God. We must never keep the Good News about Jesus to ourselves. Please fill us today with a fresh supply of Your Spirit, so that we can be equipped to share the hope that we have with the hopeless. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Role Models and Red Lines

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:33 – 11:1 NLT

Do we pilgrims have any “red lines” in our lives? Is there anything about what we do, how we spend our time, and govern our thoughts, that is non-negotiable and something that we would not be prepared to abandon? Paul had his faith in Christ and all that that entailed. His “red lines” included his desire to share the Good News about Jesus with everyone he met, his life of prayer and devotion to God, and his pastoral care for the churches he founded. He was not distracted by family needs, particularly by marriage, as we read three or four chapters before in our verses today. Paul was a driven man, totally devoted to his “red lines”, which didn’t even stop when he was imprisoned. His life was structured yet flexible enough to adapt to any situation or circumstance that he encountered. He wrote to the Philippians, “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13). 

At the start of our new chapter in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul encouraged the Corinthians to imitate him because he was a Christ-imitator. This might have been difficult for some in Corinth, because different preachers there had their own followers. In 1 Corinthians 3:4-5,  Paul wrote, “When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world? After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us”. But Paul wasn’t looking for people to follow him, or perhaps even to behave like him. He exhorted the Corinthians to imitate his devotional life and his works of service. Not everyone could preach like Paul. Not everyone had his theological training, refined and powered by a miraculous and personal encounter with Jesus. However, they could establish the structures and principles that would guide them on their journey to Heaven. And regarding the last verse of 1 Corinthians 10, we read about Paul’s desire to introduce everyone he could to God’s saving grace. “I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved”.

Paul developed the same thoughts in Philippians 2, something that we pilgrims would do well to read and re-read. Regarding our relationships with others, this is what he wrote in verses 3-4, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too”. And then he followed it with, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had”. We, too, must imitate Christ in all that we do.

So, back to our “red lines”. Most people need to install some form of structure in their lives as they go about their daily business. There is an observation that I often hear from retired people, in that they never know what day of the week it is. The structure afforded by employment has gone, and unless they put something else in place, the days will merge into a featureless mist of wasted time and opportunities. We pilgrims would be well-advised to spend time in days that otherwise will drift away from us by reading our Bibles and praying to our wonderful Heavenly Father. For me, this is a “red line” so important that, if circumstances prevent me from having a “Quiet Time”, my day loses its lustre. There is something significant about turning our thoughts to the Heavenly realm in prayer and meditation at the start of a day, and asking for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit to empower me for the day ahead. And then I personally try to supplement my morning devotions with a prayer walk when I can bring other issues before God, and look for opportunities to introduce people to Jesus. Another “red line” for me is attending church on Sundays, as well as prayer meetings and Bible studies if available, and if my circumstances allow. But we are all different, and we must all ask God for His guidance and help to establish some spiritual “red lines” in our lives, remembering that there is no condemnation for any of God’s children.

Dear Heavenly Father. There is no substitute for spending time with You, and we are so sorry for the wasted days when our humanity gets in the way. Please help us establish good habits in our busy days, when we can structure our lives around You and Your Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Milk or Solid Food

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT

In the first verse of 1 Corinthians 3, Paul delivered a mild rebuke to the Corinthian church. We know from the previous chapters in this Epistle that Paul didn’t doubt that the congregation were saved believers in Christ. He wrote, “I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4). So their salvation wasn’t the issue. But sadly, the believers there were still living in their old worldly ways. They probably attended the Sunday services, behaving as Christians do, singing the hymns, praying the prayers, full of piety and outwardly spiritual, but behaving as they always did, full of worldliness, for the rest of the week. As a new Christian attending my first church business meeting, I was severely shaken by the behaviour of one or two people who had strong feelings about the pastor’s remuneration. All of a sudden, what had been a calm and Godly meeting descended into worldliness with anger, resentment, and even swearing. People whom I had looked up to in the Sunday services were shown in a different light. Paul’s rebuke to worldly Christians in Corinth wasn’t just for a single church. It has emerged in every generation, in every church ever since. We look around our churches and see the outworking of God’s grace flowing so freely, but how we live in the light of that grace on a Monday morning can be something different altogether.

Paul continued to use the analogies of milk and solid food. Babies start their lives being fed with milk, which is a liquid food containing all the nutrients in a readily digestible form by the delicate stomachs of newborn children. But there is a spiritual equivalent. A church I once attended had a Gospel service each Sunday evening, and visiting evangelists supplemented our own preachers in delivering the message of Christ, and Him crucified, to the congregation present. I can remember a child once asking me after one of these meetings if people had to seek salvation and pray the sinner’s prayer every week, referring to one or two individuals who always responded to the altar call after the Gospel message. Sadly, the people concerned needed a weekly dose of the Gospel to feed their souls, spiritual milk still on their menus. Was it that these people had not truly come to a place where they believed in Jesus? Was it because they had not yet received the Holy Spirit? Possibly not, but instead they continued to live in the flesh, meaning that they were living for self and their bodily appetites instead of living in the power God had given to them in the Holy Spirit. The writer to the Hebrews said, “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right” (Hebrews 5:12-13). 

So what is the “spiritual milk” desired by the believers in Corinth? As the verse in Hebrews records, it is “the basic things about God’s Word”. So the leaders in the Corinthian church had to teach over and over the basics of being saved, how to pray, reading the Bible, and following that with how to apply what they had learnt in their daily lives. Paul writes extensively about this in Ephesians 4. We read, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:21-24). Paul continued in the next verse, “So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbours the truth, for we are all parts of the same body”. And then verses 28-30, “If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good, hard work, and then give generously to others in need. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption”. A good start for any new Christians is to read Ephesians 4 over and over again, until the “milk” it contains becomes a part of their inner beings.

We pilgrims know that we have to feed our souls. Every time I recite the Lord’s Prayer, I thank God for “our daily bread”, thanking Him for the food in my stomach as well as the food in my soul. It is easy to focus on the first but neglect the second. Our human bodies have a built-in mechanism to demand that any pangs of hunger be satisfied, but not so often with our souls. So we build into our daily schedules a routine that we call our “Quiet Time”, where we come into God’s presence with prayer and the reading of His Word. It is in His Word that we find the “solid food” our souls desire. But occasionally we know that sometimes a glass of “milk” can help to bring us back on track when our soul is violated by our sins. God’s grace and His willingness to forgive us for our sins are timeless while we still breathe, but one day our souls will ascend into God’s presence. What do we want Him to see? Something malnourished, still dependent on spiritual milk, or souls built up by a diet of “solid food”? The choice is ours.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for Your grace and love. We look forward to that day when we will share in the Heavenly banquet that Jesus is preparing for us. On our knees today, we confess our sins of worldliness and pray that You will lead us to the spiritual pastures where we can find the solid food we need. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God’s Secret Plan (2)

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 NLT

Yesterday we considered the analogy of a door fronting an absolute priceless treasure trove, the key being the Message of the Cross. Behind the door we find treasure, not gold and diamonds, but spiritual treasure, of much more value, and that treasure is described in the Bible. Every time we open the Book, we find truths about God and His ways, and nuggets of incredible value pass right into our souls, equipping and empowering us for a life to be lived God’s way in His Kingdom. 

So in a sense, to write about “God’s secret plan” is to write about the Bible and all that is contained therein. The spiritual treasure there is tailor made for each one of us and we embark of a journey of salvation day by day as we read all about God. But there are some generalities that apply to each one of us, and Paul helpfully set them out with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his epistle to the Christians in Ephesus. We start with Ephesians 1:3, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ“. This verse sums up the content of the “secret plan” and it exposes just how generous God is by His providing “every spiritual blessing”. He holds back nothing, and through the Holy Spirit within us we are potentially invincible in all we do. If we can just get our minds around Ephesian 3:20 for a moment. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think“. We hold within us all the spiritual resources we will ever need and we are only limited by our faith and opportunity. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 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!” (John 14:12-14). What did Jesus mean by that? If we rush out into the street with an expectation that we will suddenly see the new car we have asked for, we will probably be disappointed. Even though God has supplied the power, the secret lies in asking “in [Jesus’] name”. It is only when we know His will that we can apply the power. Also, the key lies in “every spiritual blessing”. Even though God is interested in our natural world – after all He created it – it is in the realm of the spirit that His work will mainly be done, and in the hearts and minds of His followers. 

Of course, Jesus did many miraculous works when He walked the highways and byways of Palestine. What did He do? He raised the dead, healed the sick, casted out demons, fed multitudes, and walked on water. But these were signs of His power granted to Him and used in accordance with His Father’s will. He spent long hours in communion with His Father in prayer and fellowship, and received direction for the day and days ahead. We see the same power at work in the incident when Peter and John healed the crippled man begging at the gate of the Temple. The evidence can be found in Acts 3:6, “But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”” How was this possible? We see another key in Acts 3:13, “For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him“. The very act of healing the crippled man brought glory to Jesus, and everything that we do in His name will do the same. But we stay close to Jesus step by step, and He will lead and guide us to the times when He needs us to apply the power that God has provided for us, the “spiritual blessings” Paul wrote about. A man called Ananias appears in Acts 9, tasked with the laying on of hands so that Saul, soon to be renamed Paul, would have his sight restored. After some dialogue with the Lord, Ananias obediently went to the place where Saul was staying and we read, “So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptised” (Acts 9:17-18). Are we pilgrims in a place like Ananias, ready and equipped to do the Lord’s bidding?

In our own lives we have the resources we need to become more like Jesus. Romans 8:29, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters“. What a privileged and awesome responsibility we have, to be a brother or sister of Jesus. In our own strength we have no chance in achieving the level of perfection God demands. Instead, God has supplied for us the “spiritual blessings” that we need to achieve the holiness we require, and it is through His patience and grace that we have the necessary time. If we ask in Jesus’ name for this to happen, there is no doubt that He will answer our prayer. Peter wrote, quoting Leviticus, “For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy”” (1 Peter 1:16). And as we go about our daily lives, we ask one question – is what I am doing bringing glory to God? 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God“. 

So we have opened the pages of the Book, and have found some treasure, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms”. And we can see how the contents of “God’s secret plan” is unlike the treasure we find on earth, the silver and gold and precious stones. God’s treasure, as he planned right from the beginning, has a transformative effect and impact on the lives of ordinary human beings. When we cross the Great Divide, any earthly goods will be left behind, but God’s treasure will last for all eternity. Jesus gave us a warning in Matthew 6:19-21, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be”. So the question for us pilgrims is about where we have stored our treasure. God has provided it as part of His secret plan. All we have to do is open our hands and grasp it with all our hearts, and by doing so, step by step, we become more like Jesus, our elder brother.

Dear Heavenly Father. You are the God who gives and gives and keeps on giving. We praise You today with grateful hearts. Amen.

The Lord’s Promises

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over. Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed, preserving them forever from this lying generation, even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land.”
Psalm 12:6-8 NLT

The refining process is a technology that has been around for thousands of years and in David’s day the silversmiths knew how to refine the semi-precious metal, silver, to increase its purity. A furnace was involved and the silver was melted, impurities skimmed off, a process repeated again and again, as the silver gained purity. We can just imagine David watching this process happen and immediately thinking of an analogy of the Lord’s promises. Of course, God’s promises are never in need of refining because they were, and are, totally pure and totally perfect. There are no imperfections included in any of God’s promises. 

A Google search will uncover a Bible absolutely full of the promises of God. In the context of Psalm 12, the verse about the purity of God’s promises precedes David’s assurance that the Lord “will protect the oppressed”. In Psalm 145:20 we read, “The Lord protects all those who love him, but he destroys the wicked“, a promise that will come to fruition sooner or later. In Psalm 1:4-5 we read, “But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly”. We have the separation of the Godly, those who love God, and the wicked, who reject anything to do with God. A stark dichotomy that will finally be resolved at the end of the age. There is a parable taught by Jesus in Matthew 13, and in it we find this verse, “That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous” (Matthew 13:49). If Jesus said it, then it will happen, and that’s a promise!

It can be said that the very act of becoming a believer in Jesus is the start of a refining process. In Isaiah 48:10 we read, “I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering”. The furnace that is life is hot and sometimes painful, including much suffering, but it is a necessary part of our journey to Heaven because there will be no impurities in Heaven. Peter wrote, “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Nothing has changed, folks. 

The Lord has written down for us His true and perfect promises, all contained in His Word, the Bible. Bibles such as those distributed by the Gideons contain helpful pages that list God’s promises in response to common human conditions. But anyone can open God’s Book and find the answer to their questions and dilemmas. However, God’s answers to life’s questions cannot be found hanging in the air. We have to search the Scriptures and find Hid promises, and that can only be done if we read the Bible. And having read it, we need to read it again. And again. And we find that, amazingly, every time we read a passage of Scripture, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us something new. Something fresh. Something precious from God Himself.

Dear God. We thank You for Your Word, the Bible. Guide us in Your ways as we discover more and more about You, we pray. Amen.

Jesus, the Great I Am

Posted on by Adrian Clark

In John’s Gospel, Jesus made seven “I am” statements, all true statements declaring who He was. To recap, here is the list.

In John 6:35 we read, “Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.””
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.””
John 10:7, “so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.”“
John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.”
John 11:25, “Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.””
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.””
John 15:1, “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.”

There are also a couple of occasions where Jesus referred to Himself with God’s name “I AM”.
John 4:26, “Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!””
John 18:5a, ““Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am He,” Jesus said. …””

Jesus used ordinary objects and situations that the people would relate to. Things like bread, light, sheep, a gate or door, death, and a grapevine. And He wove the ordinary into spiritual statements that pointed to Himself, and statements that described life in God’s Kingdom. There could be no doubt as to who Jesus was and what His mission was all about. The problem for most of the Jews was that they seemed to have little appreciation or understanding that they could enjoy being part of God’s Kingdom during their natural lives by believing in Jesus. They also had to contend with the hostility of the Jewish leaders, who considered that Jesus was a blasphemer and a fraud. With all the miracles and signs that Jesus performed, that underpinned His teaching, it is a wonder that the people of His day, including the leaders, didn’t all wholeheartedly embrace Him and all He taught. But that is a sign of sin, because people generally love to sin is all its guises. And sin is incompatible with the Kingdom of God because there will be no sinners in Heaven. Various passages of Scripture in the Bible make it clear who will not be suitable candidates for living with God. For example, we have Revelation 21:8a, “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars …”. Altogether, theologians believe that there are 120 separate sins listed in Scripture. To believe in Jesus and follow Him demands a life of repentance, as God’s people pursue holiness to be like Him. Our Holy Spirit inspired consciences will guide us into the truth Jesus taught about.

But the opportunity to believe in Jesus didn’t end with His death. In fact that was when the opportunity really started. The Bible is a legacy of spiritual truth that has continued Jesus’ ministry for the last two thousand years.  The life contained within its pages propagates the work and power of the Holy Spirit, as He lives within us. 

Dear God. We thank You for Your Word, the Bible, and for all it contains, the words of truth and life, Amen.