Being Engaged

Posted on by korgrocker

“But if a man thinks that he’s treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes. It is not a sin. But if he has decided firmly not to marry and there is no urgency and he can control his passion, he does well not to marry. So the person who marries his fiancée does well, and the person who doesn’t marry does even better.”
1 Corinthians 7:36-38 NLT

In these closing verses of 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is addressing the situation that applied to engaged couples. He still emphasised his belief that marriage is second best to being single, but only from the perspective that singleness avoids the distractions that marriage brings. The culture in Paul’s day in Greece was different from today, when it comes to such things as engagements. In those days, a woman had very few rights, and her father would have wielded much influence over her marital status and the engagement to her future husband. Being a believer had the potential to change much of the process because it brought God’s perspective into the relationship, present and future. Today, in 21st-century Western society, being engaged to be married remains a significant step towards the future of two people, a man and a woman, as they spend the rest of their lives together. Still, it means little in many cases because such an engagement is easily broken. But things change today when an engagement happens between a Christian man and a Christian woman. The couple would probably have met in church, perhaps at a youth meeting, or in a singles group, and the bigger churches may have in place a “Preparation for Marriage” course. Pastoral support would have helped and supported parental advice, and the build-up to the big day, when the bride walked down the aisle towards her groom, would have been complete.

Being engaged to be married starts with two people making a promise to each other. The promise forms a commitment and provides the future couple with the opportunity to make plans and preparations. Subjects discussed and agreed upon range from the mundane, such as the colour of the bedding, to the subject of having a family and how to raise them. Change and compromise will be involved, so that when the day arrives, there are no nasty shocks, such as happened to a young woman I knew who found out on her honeymoon that her husband was a drug dealer. As we would expect, it was a major disappointment for her, and she quickly returned to her parents’ home, devastated, her world and future in ruins.

There is a marriage parallel with being a believer. God has made promises to His children which He will never break, and those promises will come together with the Church becoming the Bride of Christ. Isaiah 62:4-5, “Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride“. In this context, Isaiah was referring to the Jews, God’s chosen people, but in the New Testament we read, “For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Saviour of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-23). And then we read about the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:7-9, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God””.

Finally, we must turn to the Book of Songs, a rather explicit, even mildly erotic, account of the King and his betrothal to a young woman. How did this book find its way into the Canon of Scripture? In answering this question, we cannot ignore the fact that this love poem between a man and a woman is only there because God wants it to be, and we have to look at its application as being a “type” of the intimate relationship between Christ and His church, His bride. In a significant sense, we pilgrims are a part of the Bride of Christ, engaged to be married, and we will one day take our seats at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Isaiah wrote, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). We have our wedding clothes already prepared, and these were given to us at the Cross of Calvary, where we repented of our sins. We have been saved from the punishment our sins deserved, and, more, we have been given Jesus’ righteousness as a cloak to enable us to stand before God, pure and spotless, a suitable bride for our Bridegroom, Jesus. It all reads like a fairy tale, but that is not what it is. The reality is that God made a promise to us through Jesus, who is the ultimate Bridegroom, because He laid down His life for the sake of His bride. Too good to be true? Too good not to be!

Dear Father God. To be a part of Your Son’s bride and being able one day to partake of the wedding feast is beyond all that we can ever expect in this life. And so we are deeply thankful, worshipping before You once again. Amen.

Divisions In The Church

Posted on by korgrocker

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: one of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’”
1 Corinthians 1:10-12 NLT

Divisions in the church? Sadly there have been many over the centuries, with apparently unresolved differences leading to breakups of denominations, that in themselves were formed by similar previous divisions, and so it went on, right back to the heady days when the early church was formed in Jerusalem. In the last three hundred years or so the Presbyterian movement that formed the Church of Scotland has divided into sub-denominations, such as the Free Church of Scotland, the United Presbyterian Church, the United Free Church, and there have even been some mergers between previously-divided churches. What a mess! But the Early Church was not immune from division. We read about the doctrinal or theological differences forming the Gnostics, the Marcionists, the Montanists, and so on. And here in the Corinthian church we see the basis for conflict and division, as different factions emerge, each following a different leader known about at the time. Some even distanced themselves from such pettiness, only to introduce another well meaning but further division in that they “follow Christ”, something we should all be doing above all else, by the way. How is it that people can never seem to agree and end up creating different denominations, churches and fellowships? And even at a local level, discord between church members is destructive and something the devil encourages.

Paul appealed to the Corinthians and asked, ‘that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought”. Sounds good on paper of course and he was sincere in his request but it is sad that the church there in Corinth had lapsed into so much disagreement. How can believers become “perfectly united in mind and thought”?  If we asked the same of believers today are we likely to get a positive response?

 Jesus said something significant about unity. In Jesus’ High Priestly prayer we read John 17:11, where Jesus prayed, “Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are“. That is an awesome prayer. Is it possible to be united just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity that forms the God we worship? Such unity shouldn’t be impossible but it obviously is, to look at the different factions that make up the believers today and in the last two thousand years. In His prayer, Jesus returned to unity, as we read in John 17:21-22, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one“. Oh Jesus! We are so sorry that Your Church, the Bride that You are returning to one day, has become so fractious and divided. What a tragedy!

Today, I live in the centre of a Scottish city called Dunfermline, and at one time there were fourteen different church buildings within a 1/4 mile radius from a central point in the High Street. Even today, there are eight within a short walk from my home. Hardly a witness to an aspiring and inquiring believer, who was faced with such a bewildering selection of churches. And that is the issue that Jesus was praying about because through unity between believers a strong witness goes out to the world around them. The next verse in John 17 reads, “ … May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me”. When Christians are united in Christ, the world sees two things clearly: Jesus was sent by the Father, and Jesus loves His church. 

In Romans 15:5-6, Paul wrote, “May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. There’s a reason why there should be unity between believers – to give glory to God. As Christians, we must aspire to the unity of faith, and we again refer to Paul’s writings. He said, “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:3). I can almost hear him say that as he agonised over the churches and fellowships he had planted, a spiritual father if there ever was one. But he hit the nail on the head when he referred to unity in the Spirit. We have all the power of the Holy Spirit within us that will help us overcome disagreements that inevitable will occur in the family of God. 

But we pilgrims should not look for unity with people and churches, even denominations, that have abandoned the purity of God’s Word and instead replace it with compromises to try and make them more acceptable to the secular society around them. We see that in the Church of Scotland, as it embraces worldly views on gender and same sex marriage, degrading and abandoning Biblical truths and accelerating its denominational decline. We should also avoid being involved in churches that are led, or have been established, by charismatic figures with no accountability, and with their own agenda and ideology. The JW’s come to mind. 

But back to the Corinthians. They were building factions within their church by following different leaders prominent at that time, leaders such as Apollos, Paul and Peter, and that was leading to quarrels between them. Paul’s appeal to them was to pursue unity, a unity founded on relationships with Jesus and His truth. It is only though Jesus that we can find our way to the Father, as he said in John 14:6, “ …I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. The way to avoid “divisions in the Church” is to start with Jesus and all He has done for us. One day we will have the daunting prospect of standing before Him, to give an account of our lives. Romans 14:12, “Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God“. 

If we find ourselves in a place where we disagree with other believers or our leaders, what should we do? We start with Ephesians 4:3 and do our best to resolve differences. If this is unsuccessful, then we prayerfully consider what other options there are, asking God to lead and guide us. And in the case that difficulties remain unresolved we must sadly find a home where we can worship God “in spirit and truth”. And we remember that one day perfect unity will prevail as we join the Heavenly congregation John wrote about in Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”” In the end it will be all about Jesus. There is no-one else worthy of our praise and worship, and to whom all the glory is His by right.

Dear Father God. We are so sorry for the times when we have quarrelled and left churches by putting our own interests over the interests of others. Please forgive us we pray and lead us to the place where You want us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

‭‭

The Vanished Faithful

Posted on by korgrocker

“Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing! The faithful have vanished from the earth!”
Psalm 12:1 NLT

We move to the next Psalm, another written by David, and the title includes instructions about how it should be accompanied when sung. His perception was that “the Godly are fast disappearing” but was that real or imagined? As we read the Old Testament, however, we see that there is an ebb and flow in the number of God worshipers in Israel. For example, the book of Judges often laments those who have abandoned the Lord. Verses such as Judges 3:7 identify the problem, “The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They forgot about the Lord their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles”. ‭‭We also read about Elijah’s sadness with the thought that he was the only God-fearing man left. Elijah had journeyed to Mount Sinai and we read, “There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”” (1 Kings 19:9). His response in the next verse was interesting, “Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”” God recommissioned Elijah there on the mountain, and reassured him, “Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him!”” (1 Kings 19:18). ‭

Often the perception of the numbers of believers in our country is fuelled by a press hostile to believers, but there are problems within some denominations. For example, here in the West of Fife, where I live in Scotland, there is a decline in the numbers of Churches of Scotland, with congregations dwindling and buildings being sold. This is a theme often emphasised in the media, always willing to promote a secular narrative. But John Stevens (National Director of FIEC) is credited with saying, “The decline of denominations like the Church of Scotland, which have largely abandoned the gospel, is not the full story of UK Christianity. Evangelical churches that faithfully preach Christ are consistently seeing slow and steady growth overall – both conversions and transfer growth through migration”. John continued, “The UK is not turning from Christianity but rejecting empty folk religion that was never true Christianity in the first place. The major decline is in allegiance to the Church of Scotland – and this is inevitable given that it is a liberal denomination that affirms same-sex marriage. Liberalism in the church proclaims its own irrelevance to the culture because it has nothing unique to offer that can’t be better delivered elsewhere.” So there we have it. A Church of Scotland member would, most likely, pray the prayer over their church straight from David’s Psalm 12 prayerbook, mourning his perception that the church is in decline, but without taking a step back and consulting God Himself.

Of course, Jesus had some words to say about His church. In Matthew 16:18 we read, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it”. So, any perception that the church is in decline is in denial of the words of Jesus. And we can look back over two thousand years and see that Christianity has not declined. There have been times when the church has lost its way but God has always raised up men and women to bring things back on track. Today there is an estimate that one third of the world’s population practise some form of Christianity. That’s over 2.3 billion people. 

So what did David mean when he said “the Godly are fast disappearing”? His snapshot of society in his day may have been skewed by his knowledge of his society and friends and family. But today, we pilgrims sense that there are exciting times ahead. One day the church of Jesus Christ will be joined with Him in marriage. Revelation 19:7, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself“. We don’t know how far away in time the wedding service will be. We don’t really know what it will look like. But we do know that it will come one day, probably sooner than we think. And Jesus will be there welcoming all those who make up His “bride”. Jesus’ bride won’t be an anaemic, powerless, lukewarm group of pew warmers in a dying denomination. It will be glorious and clothed in white. It will be populated by true Christians, sold out for God, filled with His Spirit and excited about the day yet to come. Are we counted in that number?

There is an old Gaither song to finish with today:
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
And I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace
When he takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land
What a day, glorious day, that will be.

Dear Lord Jesus. What a day that will be indeed. We echo the words that we find at the end of Your Book, Come Lord Jesus. Amen.

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.

The Bride

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”“
Revelation‬ ‭21:9‬ ‭NLT

If someone invited us to go and see a bride what would we expect to see? A beautiful young woman dressed in an expensive white dress? Hair beautiful coiffured? Makeup expertly applied? Nails perfect? An excited smile on her face? Yes, all of these things would apply. But if we were asked to describe the “wife of the Lamb”, what would we expect to see?

The Scriptures describe the Bride being readied for Christ. Ephesians 5:25-27 reads, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.” So we see that the Bride of Christ is the Church, made up of Christians, those who have become His followers through His saving sacrifice at Calvary.

But when we look at the Church of today, do we see a perfect representation of a Bride, in all her glory, in all her beauty? “Without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish”. Sadly, there would appear to be much in the Church of today that falls far short of the “glorious church” that Paul wrote about. But there are two things worthy of thought. 

In Matthew 25, Jesus told a parable about sheep and goats. The sheep represent those who were saved and redeemed through their relationship with Jesus, and they demonstrated their salvation through the way they treated those around them. On the other hand, the goats represent those who did not have a relationship with Jesus, but even though they may, or may not, have performed charitable and helpful acts to others, that was of no consequence to their status before the “Great White Throne” of judgement. So the sheep and goats template, when overlaid on today’s Church, might have some surprising results.

The other thing that church leaders fret about is church unity. Ecumenism is important when it is represented by different churches with the same fundamental beliefs in God and the infallibility of Scripture. Sadly, there are some denominations that claim a right to be part of the ecumenical movement, but who deny some of the “red-lines” laid down in Scripture. Thankfully, the washing “by the cleansing of God’s word” will make the Bride of Christ “holy and clean”.

In the end, what denomination we belong to is less important than the relationship we individually and corporately have with God. Jesus said in John 10:16, “I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd”. Perhaps He was leaving the door open for His ultimate Bride, the Church, to have many representations, enriching her personality. It won’t matter whether we are Anglicans, Baptists, Charismatics or any other denomination – the ground at the foot of the Cross is level with all repentant sinners eligible for salvation. Eligible to be part of the “wife of the Lamb”.

Dear Lord. We thank You for Calvary and Your sacrifice for our sins. Your praises are always on our lips. Amen.

The Wedding Feast

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder: “Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.””
Revelation‬ ‭19:6-9‬ ‭NLT

At last! The long promised “wedding feast of the Lamb” is about to happen. The excitement gripping all those living in heaven, “a vast crowd”, is palpable, and they shout out with a roar that sounded like “mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder”. They proclaim the reign of God’s Kingdom, with rejoicing and honour to “the Lord our God”. There is a special wedding coming up, and the bride, God’s holy people, the Church, will be wearing the “finest of pure white linen” which, we are told, “represents the good deeds of God’s holy people”. 

There’s a bit to unpack here. Most of the references in the Bible to the “wedding feast of the Lamb” occur in the Book of Revelation. But Jesus, of course, taught about this momentous event, and His words were recorded in Matthew 22:1-14. This feast is to be a celebration of the marriage of the King’s Son to all those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour, His Church. In the parable, Jesus sent out His servants to tell those who had been invited that the banquet, the wedding feast, was ready. But His invitation was refused by many, who, as we have been seeing in the Revelation story, came to a sticky end. But those who did respond to the invitation were welcomed. Well, all except one, who tried to get into Heaven by some other way, other than The Way, and he was not wearing the righteousness that comes from repentance and faith in Jesus. He came to a sticky end as well. Paul, the Apostle, said this to the Ephesian church, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.” (‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5:25-27). Paul, in his illustration of the marriage between a man and a woman, referred to the true husband, Jesus, and the lengths He went to, to ensure the Church, His future Bride, was “holy and clean”.

We have to be careful in understanding the “good deeds” relating to the white linen garments. It does not imply that we can be part of the Bride of Christ purely by doing good deeds to others, which some claim. Paul wrote, again to the Ephesian church, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-9‬ ‭NLT). We won’t gain entry to Heaven by being good, as the man in Jesus’ parable discovered. But the good deeds we pilgrims do through the grace of God, led by His Spirit, will define the garments we will wear when we take our seats at the banquet that surpasses all other banquets. Eating with God Himself in Heaven. 

The angel told John to write these words down, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb“. And we know that he did, because we read it in Revelation 19:9. Are we pilgrims feeling blessed today? Have we received our invitations? Just imagine how excited we would feel to have a personal invitation from God Himself sitting on our mantelpiece, taking pride of place in our living rooms. Well, the Good News is that we have already received it. Ephesians 1:4-5, written by Paul, says, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Worth a wow and amen? If not, I don’t know what is!

Father God. We look forward to that wonderful day, when we enjoy the banquet high above all banquets. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.