Child of God

Posted on by korgrocker

“He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.”
John 1:11-13 NLT

It has always been a puzzle to me, that the expression “born again” causes so much controversy. A dictionary definition of being “born again” is “A Christian who has experienced a distinct, dramatic conversion to faith in Jesus, especially a member of certain Protestant groups that stress this experience“. So the implication is that someone who has not been “born again” into a spiritual relationship with God can still be a Christian. Some view such people, the “born again” ones, as being “the unpleasant sanctimonious ones who keep flaunting their beliefs“. They are negatively viewed as being fundamentalists; Bible-believing followers of Christ who set themselves apart from your normal pew warmers.

I have a friend who considers himself to be a “Christian” purely because he is always helping other people, living what he considers to be a decent and “good” life, and having had a grandfather who was an elder in the Church of Scotland. A neighbour of mine considers herself a “Christian” because her name is on the membership role of a church somewhere, but she hasn’t attended that church for many years. Other people will tick the “Christian” box on a census or other similar form, because they were perhaps christened in a church as a baby. Or they go to a church sometimes on Christmas Eve. And that is where the confusion arises. The label “Christian” has become confused and corrupted, and refers to anyone who nominally or vaguely believes that there was someone called Jesus and they will somehow end up in Heaven when they die. So to them, the terms “born again Christian”, or “true Christian”, or “proper Christian” are offensive and to be treated with contempt. 

The reality is that a “Christian” is a follower of Christ. Someone “who believed him and accepted him” and who is reborn in “a birth that comes from God”. John’s Gospel, right here in the first chapter, is very clear about who a “Christian” really is. Being “born again” gives such believers the right to become “children of God”, John writes. The whole Bible hinges on the relationship between God and mankind, and clearly sets out what that entails. There are three verses in the New Testament that, in my opinion, are key to a “born again” experience. The first is in Romans 3:23. Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. There has to come that realisation that we are sinners, accepting that in God’s sight we fall far short of His requirement  for righteousness and holiness. The second Scripture that matters to me is from Ephesians 2:8-9, “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“. There is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation – we cannot become a child of God by doing good works, or living what we might consider a good life, or even having our names on the role of church members. The third verse that I refer to is Acts 2:38, “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“. These are just a few words that Peter preached but the repercussions of them are life changing. There are many other verses that constitute the Gospel, the good news about Jesus and His gracious saving commitment for mankind. 

A human baby is born physically, through a process we are all familiar with. That baby is a child of its parents. To become a child of God, though, we have to be born spiritually. The process is different in that it happens spiritually, not physically, but happen it must. I became a “born again” Christian on a day when I finally realised that I was a sinner, and looked to Jesus as my Saviour. I found out who Jesus was and what He had done for me and everyone else on this planet. And there then started a long journey. There have been easy stretches, and hard times. But journey I must, always keeping in sight that increasing glow on the horizon, the Heavenly promised land. I invite you, my readers, to join me, wherever you are. You will never regret it. We can journey on together.

But what about those people who consider themselves to be “Christian” but have never come to that point in their lives when they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour? Those people who have rejected the relationship with God that John wrote about? The people who have never become children of God? Their future is something that is up to God and His grace – something I can never judge or take for granted – but why take the risk of ending up in a lost eternity when there is a wonderful opportunity to become a child of God? Now. Today. This very minute.

Dear Father God. I pray today for all my readers, that they too will embrace Your saving grace and become the children of God that John wrote about. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Final Words

Posted on by korgrocker

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sodom and Gomorrah (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people.”
2 Peter 2:6 NLT

We will have another look at the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in the light of 21st Century Christianity. We considered in a previous post the sins committed in these two cities. We read in Ezekiel 16:49-50, “Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen”. And the situation was so grave that God removed the only righteous people He could find there – Lot, his wife, and their two daughters – before casting judgement. We read what then happened to these cities in Genesis 19:24-25, “Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulphur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation.” The Genesis 19 account focused on Ezekiel’s “detestable sins” – homosexuality.

But we pilgrims believe that God never changes. Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever“. Malachi 3:6, “I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed“. So surely, what God considered a detestable sin in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah He must consider equally detestable today. How does that fit, therefore, in 21st Century Christian beliefs? Today we have certain Christian denominations who are ignoring clear Biblical teachings on sex and marriage. On the 15th November 2023, the synod of Anglican bishops decided to allow the Church of England to bless same sex partnerships. But the traditional wing of the Anglican church issued a press release that said, “This action is offensive to the God of love. It replaces his wonderful gospel of grace with a distorted message, blessing what God calls sin. This is heart-breaking, wicked and outrageously arrogant“. Why is there such a desire to set aside clear Christian teaching in order to satisfy the strident lobbying of powerful groups who would not have survived God’s judgement had they lived in Sodom all those years ago?

It’s time, perhaps, to look at some basics. To start with, who or what is a Christian? The Cambridge English dictionary definition states, “someone who believes in and follows the teachings of Jesus Christ“. Literally, the word “Christian” means “Follower of Christ”, and the word first appeared on the scene in the New Testament in Acts 11:26, “When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians)”. So a Christian is someone who believes in Jesus and trusts Him for their eternal salvation. The “believing” bit includes the virgin birth, the teachings and life, and the death and resurrection, of Jesus. The “following” bit means doing our best to read all that has been taught about Jesus and God’s ways in the Bible, and trying to implement them in our lives. A Christian therefore will fall under the category of being “born again”, as Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3, “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God””.‭‭ A Christian will be susceptible to sin, like everyone else, but he or she has an Intercessor in Heaven, praying for us, and offering forgiveness for our sins through His shed blood at Calvary.

Quotation from “Gotquestions.org”, “Unfortunately over time, the word “Christian” has lost a great deal of its significance and is often used of someone who is religious or has high moral values but who may or may not be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Many people who do not believe and trust in Jesus Christ consider themselves Christians simply because they go to church or they live in a “Christian” nation”. I have a good friend who calls himself a Christian, because he believes that there is a God in Heaven, and whose father and grandfather were elders in the Church of Scotland, but he never goes to a church service (funerals excepted). He lives a good life, he says, and all that qualifies him to call himself a Christian. A common misunderstanding? The UK census in 2021 found that 27.5 million people identified as being Christian. This is about 43% of the UK population but another survey in 2021 estimated that only 5% of the population actually attend a church service regularly. I know, of course, that church attendance doesn’t make someone a true Christian, but sobering statistics nonetheless.

So perhaps we pilgrims need to qualify what we mean when we refer to Christians. And we perhaps need to be aware that everyone who calls themselves a Christian isn’t quite what we expect them to be, because they neither truly believe in Jesus and certainly don’t follow all His commands. But I’m sure there are many Anglicans who are true Christians, believing in, and following, Jesus, although there are also many, like the bishops who seem to have abandoned Biblical teaching on sex and marriage, who aren’t. 

But back to Sodom and Gomorrah. The problem with those cities was that depravity was total, involving the whole population. Lot and his family were the only ones who stood firm in their faith in God. Today there are thankfully many true Christians who stand as beacons of light in their communities and workplaces, holding back the righteous judgement of God. We must never stop interceding for our friends and families, our communities and workplaces, praying that God will show mercy and compassion. Will God find 10 righteous people in our community? We pray that he will.

O Lord. Please help us to follow Your commands of being Salt and Light in our communities. Your way is the only way. Thank You. Amen.

Suffering Again

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!”
1 Peter 4:15-16 NLT

In our consideration of the previous verse in 1 Peter 4, we reviewed the impact of insults because we “bear the name of Christ”, with the blessings of the Holy Spirit being upon us as a consequence. Peter continues in the verses we are looking at today by saying it is “no shame to suffer for being a Christian”. However, he pointed out that those committing a misdemeanour, no matter how trivial, may experience varying degrees of suffering. They could be a fractured relationship or embarrassment if the suffering results from “prying into other people’s affairs” or, at the other end of the spectrum, a capital punishment for murder. But Peter didn’t want to dwell in the negatives. There is a privilege in “being called by His name”. 

Do we pilgrims suffer for being a Christian? Jesus Himself didn’t pull any punches. He warned His disciples about the problems and troubles that being one of His followers would mean. John 16:33, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”.

One of the ways in which we Christian pilgrims will invite suffering is through our uncompromising belief that the only way to God, and eternal life with Him, is through His Son Jesus. He said, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The world around us have all sorts of funny ideas about how they can get to Heaven. Many people consider that their good lives will be sufficient, because, as their logic goes, a loving God will never reject them. Others follow one of the world religions that often have some funny ideas about how Heaven can be reached. Someone in my family believes that Heaven is full of compartments, one for each religion and even one for those who don’t believe in God, because they are convinced that it doesn’t matter which religion mankind follows – all roads will lead to Heaven. I don’t know how they came to that conclusion but my efforts to correct their thinking have failed, sadly. But whatever other religions say, we have to be on our guard against those who more subtly try and subvert the purity of God’s Word. To take an example, the Jehovahs Witnesses, commenting on John 14:6, say that the only way to heaven is by praying to God through Jesus. Superficially correct until we realise that the JW’s don’t accept that Jesus is God, instead believing that He is a created being, and may even be the archangel Michael. Their beliefs reject the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit, and there is only one God, Jehovah. To back up their unbiblical doctrines, they have retranslated the Bible and come up with their New World Translation. So, as an aside, if that is the version you have on your bookcase, then throw it away.

We pilgrims know what we believe because the Holy Spirit within us helps us. Romans 8:16, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” We are not parent-less. God is our loving Heavenly Father, and He is with us day and night, whether we are suffering or not. We praise and worship Him today.

Dear Lord, please help us to believe that You are with us even when we’re not sure. Please forgive us for our doubts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Insults

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.”
1 Peter 4:14 NLT

Being insulted for their faith was a common problem for the Christians in Peter’s day. Much is recorded in historical accounts of those early years of the Way, the new movement initiated by God Himself through His Son, Jesus. Those new converts turned the world upside down, challenging the status quo and spreading the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. But it came at a cost. We have already considered the “fiery trials”, the persecution experienced by Christians, that frequently resulted in their martyrdom. But there has always been a low level of persecution – name calling, awkwardness in the workplace, and so on – throughout the centuries, then and since. The worldly societies have always resented Christians because they proclaim a life of selfless purity that challenges the selfish and sinful behaviour so prevalent within the cultures of the day. Today, superficially, society seems more tolerant of Christians here in the West, that is, until they emerge from the shadows and make a statement that counter-culturally upsets a “sacred cow” otherwise deemed acceptable. Take the issue of abortion, for example. The Uk society is quite accepting of Christians having a different Bible-based point of view, until they do something about it by standing and praying outside abortion clinics. Then the insults and mistreatment start. 

The question often asked is, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be sufficient evidence to convict you?” The Christian faith is one that, by its very nature, has to be visible to society around us. If it isn’t then we need to ask ourselves if we are truly bearing “the name of Christ”. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden”. But as we know, the godless societies in which we live do not like the “light” that believers shine with. It exposes the dark and evil ways of the society around us and we who shine in this way will attract insults just as the early Christians did in Peter’s generation. However, Peter encourages his readers with the reality (through faith) that any insults directed to them because they are Christians who “bear the name of Christ“, will find that they will receive Heavenly blessings and rewards. In fact, Peter stated that if they were insulted for their faith then it is an indication, even a proof, that the Holy Spirit is with them.

In the evangelical endeavours of those early believers, they promoted a Gospel as Peter himself preached in his Acts 2 sermon. He said, “ … 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”. Four things that marked a true conversion, transforming a person from darkness to light. Following their repentance, turning to God, and water baptism, they then received the Holy Spirit. So the presence of God’s Spirit with them and moving in power in their fellowships, would have been a common experience. But fast forward to today. Modern evangelists have perhaps in many cases watered down the Gospel Peter preached and instead have moved the focus away from God’s righteousness to His love. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, who brought the blessings that Peter and the early believers experienced, the Gospel, that is the Good News about God and His Son Jesus, will have little effect and impact.

We pilgrims must always be aware that sharing our faith will often result in insults from those who don’t want to hear our messages of hope. But deep down inside each one of us is a compelling desire to tell others what Jesus has done for us. We can’t keep it inside. We can’t help sharing it. We do so in the knowledge that Jesus commissioned us to, “ … Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone” (Mark 16:15). But we know that when we expose others to the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is within us, and Jesus looks on, uttering a big “Yes” as the hearers face the reality of their sins.

Dear Lord, please help me to show the people with whom I share Your message Your love and attention in a way that they have never seen before. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Royal Priests

Posted on by korgrocker

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9 NLT

Peter started this verse by reminding his readers that they are not like those who have stumbled over the Rock, who is Christ. They are not like those who are disobedient to God’s Word. Instead he reminded them that they are a “chosen people”. We remember the incredible Scripture in Ephesians 1:4, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes”. God is of course eternal and He looks down on history in a timeless fashion, so He could see all those who would respond to the tugging in their hearts, pulling and calling them to a relationship with Himself. These are they whom He has chosen. And we pilgrims, who have responded to the call, are “chosen people” as well, warmed within with a glow that can only come from the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

But Peter continues with the news that this “chosen people” are “royal priests”. A few days ago we considered the verse, “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (1 Peter 2:5). But Peter introduces the thought that the priests are “royal”. But when we think about it, we priestly pilgrims are nothing else. As children of the great King we are of course royalty. Princes and princesses. So why do we so often behave as though we are ordinary people, citizens of the secular society in which so many of us live?

Peter goes on to add that we are “royal priests” in a “holy nation”. It gets better and better. Chosen, royal, holy – it all is building a picture of very different people. People who are of a different world. God’s world. His kingdom. 

So should we pilgrims be dressing in a purple robe, cut like that of an Anglican priest, so that everyone knows who or what we are? Must we wear a very visible uniform to shown everyone who we belong to? Such garments are ubiquitous in society today, so we recognise nurses, airline cabin crew, police officers and many besides. Surely “Christian” is worthy of the same? This is where it gets a bit daunting, because do we want to be that visible? The uniform we wear reflects on our employer, or, in our case, on God Himself. Are we therefore worthy of being called a “royal priest”? Would our dress and our behaviour be representative of our calling and the Great King Himself?

Jesus warned His followers that they must be very visible as His disciples but there are consequences for those that are not. We read in Matthew 10:32-33, “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven”. In other words, as “royal priests” we must behave appropriately. Not only must we never be ashamed of our relationship with Jesus, we must also always be prepared to promote Him and our faith as well. That’s what a priest does. I know from my own experience that it can make things difficult in our work places if we publicly declare our faith. If a swear word was uttered in my presence, it was quickly followed by an apology. When I walked into a meeting room there was an awkward silence before the conversation went in a different direction. Thankfully the company in which I worked was large enough to have a Christian fellowship where we could pray and share together. It would otherwise have been a very lonely place.

We “royal priests” have work to do. The society around us look on, searching for ways in which we apparently compromise our faith, so that they can point a finger and accuse us of being no better than anyone else, of just being hypocrites. The world around us expects more from us than even God does. But we, by God’s grace, move onwards and upwards, day by day, always looking for opportunities to share our faith. In 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, Paul wrote, “ … Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume …”. So, fellow pilgrims, we need to be careful of what perfume we use. A Heavenly infusion or one tainted by the world around us?

Dear Father God. As we move on in our faith, step by step, please help us to become more like Your Son, Jesus, so that we can truly spread You and Your presence in our communities, schools and workplaces. In Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Salvation for All

Posted on by korgrocker

“Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.”
Romans 11:11-12 NLT

There is always hope. God never stopped loving His people and His offer of salvation was, and is, always available to them. Jesus came to this world, as their Messiah, but the majority of His people rejected Him. They were looking for a “Messiah” made in their image rather than God’s. They expected their Messiah to arrive and throw out the hated Roman occupiers, restoring the land of Israel to them. They rejected Jesus’ invitation to the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel), in spite of all His miracles and teachings. They knew the Scriptures, but they failed to make the connection with prophesies such as we find in Isaiah 53, which includes the promise that Jesus was to become the sacrifice for their sins. “But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins”. (Isaiah 53:10-11). How did they miss their Messiah? I’m sure their rejection broke God’s heart. But God was planning for eternity. He could see the end from the beginning. 

The prophet Zechariah gave a prophecy about the End Times, and we read in Zechariah 12:10, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.” There will be a day, still to come, when God’s people will realise their awful mistake. But in the meantime, the Jews continue to worship God without their Messiah, still looking for Him. We Gentile pilgrims are the enlightened ones, secure in the knowledge that our sins have been forgiven, by the Jewish Messiah. But we cannot be complacent. 

Are the Jews jealous of God’s grace that he has so lovingly poured out on the gentiles? Probably not because they considered themselves to be strictly monotheistic, and the concept of the Christian view of God the Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, was to them verging on pantheism. The Jews continue in their legalism, adhering to the Torah and other Jewish rules and regulations. But Jesus was a Jew. Born of Jewish heritage, to a Jewish family. His ministry was to the Jews. Their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah continues to this day, a rejection amplified by the way Christians have treated the Jews over the centuries that have passed. But as Paul said, “the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation”. However, the people of Israel are not beyond hope. God’s grace is there for all.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:9-10, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfil his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth“. We have not yet reached “the right time” but it is coming and it may be nearer than we think. God’s plan includes His people. And you and I. No-one who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour will be left out, whether Jew or Gentile. Paul finishes our verses for today with the thought, referring to “God’s offer of salvation”, “think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it”? To many today, the name “Jew” stirs up feelings of hatred. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of antisemitism. Small wonder that so many Jews have returned to the land of Israel, where they hoped to find a place where they won’t be persecuted. The persecution of God’s chosen people over the centuries has been tragic, and at a level not experienced by any other race. But it’s no surprise that the devil hates them with a passion and will always be looking for ways to annihilate them. However, God has His hand of blessing on His people, and has promised never to leave them or forsake them. 

We pilgrims must pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters, and we must remember that one day we will be serving a Jewish Lord, Jesus Christ Himself.

Dear Lord Jesus. We thank You for coming to this sad world, bringing Your message of redemption, hope for all eternity. Amen.

Not My People

Posted on by korgrocker

“Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.” And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’””
Romans 9:25-26 NLT

Imagine how the Gentile Roman recipients of Paul’s letter must have felt when they read these verses. God, through His grace and mercy, has extended His love to all those not of Jewish heritage but who called upon His name anyway. Paul quoted verses from the Old Testament prophet Hosea – Hosea 2:23 and 1:10. But the entirety of the prophet Hosea’s message didn’t come to fruition until the early Apostles started to evangelise the world of their day. It wasn’t easy for the Jewish men. Acts 10 gives the fascinating account of Peter, and how God gave him a vision about telling the Good News to a Gentile believer, Cornelius. This man, a Roman centurion, we are told, was a God-fearing man who, one day, had a visit from an angel who scared the life out of him. He was told to send for Peter, who was living at the time in a place called Joppa. In parallel with this, Peter received a vision. We read in Acts 10:11-13, “He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them””. Peter wasn’t happy about this, because the sheet was full of animals that Jews were not supposed to eat. He said in Acts 10:14, ““No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean””. But the response to him in the vision was, “ … “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean”” (Acts 10:15). This happened three times and then there was a knock at the door from the men that Cornelius had sent to find him. We can read how Cornelius and his family became believers in the rest of the passage in Acts 10.

Jesus of course prepared the way for salvation for all men. The famous verses we read – John 3:16-17 say, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him“.  But Jesus Himself was only sent to God’s people, the Jews. Of course, He couldn’t be everywhere. Jesus told the Syrophoenician woman, as recorded in Matthew 15:24, “He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel’“. ‭‭But He commissioned His disciples to take the Gospel beyond the Jews, as we read in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age‘”.

Today there are many Christian denominations. But regardless of which one we belong to, we know that Jesus must be at the centre. The liturgy, the prayers – they must all point to Him. He is truly the Son of God and all that we do in our churches must be to His glory. Sadly, there are one or two Christian sects who have demoted Jesus to little more than a prophet. However, the old Apostle John, living as he did in an age of all sorts of erroneous claims about Jesus, wrote in 1 John 4:1-3, “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here“.

We pilgrims are truly grateful that God’s grace even extended to us Gentiles. Wherever we are living in the world, or whichever race we belong to, God’s grace and His Good News reached us. There is no where we can go to escape it. And as we extend that invitation to those around us, we remember how God’s love and grace saved us from a lost eternity. Let us never forget!

Dear God. We are so grateful for all You have done for us. And for extending Your love and grace to pilgrims everywhere. we praise You today. Amen.

A Life with God

Posted on by korgrocker

“For you are my hope, Lord GOD,
my confidence from my youth. 
I have leaned on you from birth;
you took me from my mother’s womb. 
My praise is always about you. 
Don’t discard me in my old age. 
As my strength fails, do not abandon me.
Psalm 71:5-6,9 CSB

Who can say that God has been their hope all the way from their youth until their old age? That was the case with David, as we can see from reading this Psalm today. He even goes as far as to say that God was with him even from the moment he was born. When he wrote these verses, David was obviously approaching his twilight years, but reading the Psalm you can see he was still being pursued by undesirable people, a common theme throughout his life. In verse 4 he wrote, ”Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive”. 

In verses 17 and 18, the Psalmist wrote this: “God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim your wondrous works. Even while I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, while I proclaim your power to another generation, your strength to all who are to come.” David wasn’t going to retire quietly. He wasn’t going to fade into oblivion, disappearing into the grave without completing his mission in life. And the one thing he mentioned was that he was going to ensure that the next generation knew about God’s power and strength. Not for David was an epitaph on a tombstone, nice words but largely unread and of little impact on those around him.

I’ve blogged before about the legacy we will leave when we cross the great divide. Although I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church with my parents, I was in my late twenties before I made a personal commitment for Christ. But there is one thing that I am confident of – I will be a follower of Christ for the rest of my life. Furthermore, being a closet Christian, someone who hides his light instead of being a beacon of hope and light in his community, is not for me. I recently heard a Sunday message about sharing our faith, and how important it is that we have our stories ready for the times when God wants us to share them. And also to be ready with the “Sinner’s Prayer”, for when we get the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. David was focused on sharing what he knew about God with the next generation, and asked God to be with him while he did it. We too must be focused on the mission God has given us. And He will be with us while we do His will. Note that sharing our story is not something we do at the end of our lives. Jesus didn’t say in Matthew 28, “Therefore [when you are a pensioner] go and make disciples of all nations…“. No – making disciples was an instruction Jesus left for all His followers, young and old. Sharing our stories will often be the start of the disciple-making process. 

In verse 9 of this Psalm, David asks that God doesn’t abandon him in his old age, as his strength fails. He doesn’t necessarily mean physical strength, but mental strength as well. So many dear saints come to the end of their lives, blighted by illnesses such as dementia. The last few words of Matthew 28 read, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age“. God will never abandon us, even when we are failing in our last days. And a new body is waiting for us in our future home. What a wonderful God He is.