Interdependence

Posted on by korgrocker

“But among the Lord’s people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. For although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman, and everything comes from God.”
1 Corinthians 11:11-12 NLT

Good, factual words from Paul in our verses today. He referred back to the Creation story that we can read in Genesis 2:18, 21-22, “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” … So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man”. So the first woman appeared on this planet without a belly button, it would seem. We also find the account of the first operation performed with an anaesthetic. God did amazing and wonderful things during the creation of this world, and all that is within it, but, sadly, people today choose to overlook or even deny that it happened. When we look at the perfection within the human body and consider the views of the evolutionists, we wonder how they could have ever concluded that it all happened by chance. In the end, I have to admit that I, and many people I know, don’t have the faith necessary to be an atheistic evolutionist. 

But today we are considering the interdependence of men and women. Two distinct roles that are accompanied by all the spiritual and mental resources needed for each. A man has the mental capacity to be a breadwinner and protector of his family. A woman has the emotions to care for her children and husband. And both have the intelligence to be able to make choices, to love and support each other, in a match truly made in Heaven. But as we know, the devil has deeply impacted this relationship by corrupting God’s order and creation, by introducing lies that have confused men and women, bringing them to situations that God never intended. And, worse, society has picked up these lies and used them, through legislation, to exacerbate the devil-introduced corruption, blighting the human race with falsehoods. Firstly, the devil introduced what Paul referred to as “foolish ideas”, as we read in Romans 1:21, 25, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. … They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshipped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen”. Secondly, the devil introduced thoughts and physical changes that went directly against what God intended for men and women. We read in Romans 1:26-27, “That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved”. Back in Genesis 2:24, we read what God really intended in the relationship between men and women: “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one”. 

In the interdependence between men and women, there is ultimately a “joining” that prevails. However, as Paul previously taught in 1 Corinthians 7, there is a role for singleness as well, should God ordain it. But there is no room in God’s creation for all the societal “wokeness” that has burst into God’s created order. We must pray for the poor people who have been corrupted by the devil’s attacks and who have found no Godly support for their confusion.

Paul wrote that “everything comes from God”. It has to, really, when we think about Genesis 1 and 2. But this is a belief that diverges from the sad secularism that has blighted our societies, with those who deny the existence of God forced to come up with some other explanation for the origins of our world. Men and women, however, have an interdependence that will outlast the attempts of mankind to corrupt God’s order. Such men and women are still getting married today. They are still spending their lives together, raising their children, living in harmony, and bringing glory to God. One day, God will have the last word, and it will be preceded by the devil being consigned to an eternity away from the ability to influence mankind ever again, an existence that will provide him with an opportunity for eternal regrets. The sad thing is that many men and women will ultimately join him there. There will be no defence before God, such as “the devil made me do it”, because men and women were created in God’s image, with the ability to make choices.

Dear Heavenly Father. You created men and women in accordance with Your divine design. We thank You for who we are, and the opportunities that You have provided for us. We repent of our sins today, and cast off the corruption that pushes against us and what we believe every day. We worship You with all that is within us because You are the only true God this world has ever had. Amen.

The Heavens Proclaim

Posted on by korgrocker

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.”
Psalm 19:1-4 NLT

We can just imagine David, lying in a pasture while he was looking after his father’s sheep, and looking up into the night sky, seeing an amazing canopy of small bright dots. Without light pollution, the heavens at night are breath-taking in their beauty. To add to the scene, David would have uttered a “wow” when he saw the sunsets and the sunrises, resplendent in their pinks, yellows, and reds and changing by the minute as the sun traversed the horizon. David, a thinking and deeply spiritual man, attributed the causes to God, because who else could have performed such an amazing light show? David would have been educated in accordance with the Jewish curriculum, and a God-knowledge would have been prominently contained within. But here out in the open David went from book knowledge to heart knowledge, causing him to write “The Heavens proclaim the glory of God”. Earlier we looked at Psalm 8, another Davidic Psalm, which starts, “O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens”. God’s majesty through His name is present here on earth and in consequence His glorious majesty is so great that it extends far beyond what even the most powerful telescope can determine, needing a Name above all names to do Him justice. 

The problem that atheists, those who deny that God doesn’t exist, have is that they have no “wow” in their lives. No sense of wonderment that there is a Creator God who created the universe and all that is within it, and in the process He provided a beautiful display of His presence. I’m writing this morning looking out at a grey world, rain splashing in the puddles, and missed what would have been an amazing sunrise bursting through my office window. Sin is a bit like that because it puts a fog of rain clouds in the way, blocking out the glory of the dawn, and by implication, God’s glorious presence. David would have soaked in the wonder of the skies in his long lonely hours musing and meditating on the Person behind what he was seeing, and he never got tired of what he saw. He wrote, “Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known”, declaring that God is eternal and has crafted a universe that never fails to display something new.

There is a story of two prisoners in a cell looking through the bars. One only saw mud, but the other saw stars. To so many, they go through their lives drudging and struggling through the “mud” of life, getting bogged down in what are mostly trivial circumstances, but which nevertheless drains them of any hope for the future. Other people seem to float above their life problems and always seem to have their heads optimistically positioned in higher places, up there with the stars. 

In Jesus we have a hope that is just as wonderful as the glory of God displayed in His creation. Paul wrote, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). What do we pilgrims hope for? I would suggest that through our faith in Jesus, we will one day see the glory of God on a scale that is totally beyond what our human limitations can allow. As the writer to the Hebrews said, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1). The glory of God displayed in the Heavens is a hint of what is to come, put there by a merciful and gracious God to support our faith. The disciple Philip one day said to Jesus, “ … Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (John 14:8). The following verse reads, “Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?” Through our faith and belief in Jesus we too have seen the Father, and just to make sure we don’t forget, He announces His glorious presence through His creation, not just once but every day.

Do we pilgrims look up on a dark but clear night and observe with thankful hearts yet another Heavenly display of God’s glory? Of course we do, because we know the Creator who put on the show to proclaim His glory.

Father God. Your wonderful creation is beyond understanding, but we appreciate and enjoy Your glory every day. Amen.

The Word

Posted on by korgrocker

“They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.”
2 Peter 3:5-6 NLT

Here we are on the first day of 2024. It will probably be a year of change, to follow on from the past year of change. We look back and perhaps wonder how we survived. But here on the intersection of two events in the calendar perhaps there is something within us providing a hint of Holy-Spirit-inspired excitement. Is this the year Jesus will return? Will revival break out in our communities? We don’t know, but what we do know is that God has plans. We are not discarded resources, fit for nothing anymore. We are children of God, and He wants to use each one of us for His will and purposes. That is why we have been created, and perhaps we need to look up today and echo the words of Isaiah 6:8, “Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”” We have a message of hope that the sad and cynical world around us needs to hear.

But back to our verses today from 2 Peter 3. We can sometimes forget that the world was created. But Peter obviously hadn’t. Referring to the “scoffers” described in the previous verses, he pointed out that they had “deliberately” forgotten all about the Creation story. In Genesis 1:6-8 we read, “And God said, “Let there be an expanse [of the sky] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters [below the expanse] from the waters [above the expanse].” And God made the expanse [of sky] and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so [just as He commanded]. God called the expanse [of sky] heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day” (Amplified version). God created with a Word. He spoke and amazing things happened. But we should take note that God used part of His creation to administer judgement to a whole world of ungodly people, as Peter pointed out to his readers. The “scoffers” in previous verses thought that the world in which they lived was unchanging. They said, ” … From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created” (2 Peter 3:4b). But they “deliberately forgot” the Flood and the changes it brought to this planet. 

The “scoffers” will also not have read the rest of the story. Jesus Himself warned of catastrophic events still to happen. Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken“. Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear“. And, ominously, Jesus reminded His disciples of the event long ago, “People didn’t realise what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 24:39). We tend to be complacent, thinking that because the sun rises every day, and we have air to breath, that the world is unchanging. Of course, the ecologically conscious amongst us warn about global warming and assign blame to man-made use of fossil fuels. They hold conferences and feel good when world leaders sign pledges to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but in general the events Jesus warned about will bring a whole new dimension to the meaning of climate change. In fact, as we read in Revelation 20, there will be no climate left capable of changing. But in Revelation 6:12-14, we read, “I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood. Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth like green figs falling from a tree shaken by a strong wind. The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places.” 

We need to be aware that the world is not immune from change. Astronomers tell us of events far away where stars flare up and disappear. It could happen to us as well. But there is Someone who is unchanging, and who will last for eternity. We read 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“. ‭‭We don’t know when the world will end. But we trust in the One who holds the world in His hand.

Dear Father God, the unchanging One. Thank You for Your unchanging Word, the living Word, Jesus. Amen.

Our Identity

Posted on by korgrocker

“Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
1 Peter 2:10 NLT

‭‭Our identity is made up of our memories, feelings, experiences, and relationships, but it will also be influenced by external factors such as fashion, music, and politics. But we mustn’t also forget the spiritual influences that shape our concept of God and His ways. I was brought up in a Christian home, with parents who took me to church each Sunday. I still remember those early years with the pews and hassocks, the musty smell, the prayer book, the stained glass windows, and the wonderful hymns that still resonate with me today. In those days I had a children’s Bible full of wonderful stories – David and Goliath, the crossing of the Red Sea, Jesus feeding the five thousand and walking on water. In those primary years I also went to a Sunday afternoon Sunday School, run by an elderly couple in a Gospel Mission hall. We sung some great choruses. The teacher sometimes used flannelgraph to illustrate the stories. Precious memories, because they shaped much of what I am today.

In our societies we can look around and sometimes recognise the identities of the people we meet. Mainly, of course, by the way they dress, but also by the way they behave. But such preconceived opinions are mostly not helpful, because we can erroneously compartmentalise people into a category that turns out to be false. The old prophet Samuel fell into such a trap when he had been sent to the house of a man called Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the next king of Israel. The first son impressed him, and we read in 1 Samuel 16:6-7, “ … Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart””. 

‭So how would I describe my personal identity? I think we would all find that a difficult, and perhaps painful, question to answer. And one that is very personal to each one of us. To define an identity, we need something to identify with, and the obvious place to start, for pilgrims such as us, is with the Bible. God’s Word defines our identity. We are now children of God. We have just read the verse that we are “royal priests”. And we end up with an identity as a child of God that defines us, even if sometimes we fail to live up to its ideals. 

Peter started the verse today by saying that, in our pre-Christian days, we had “no identity as a people“. Any identity we claimed to have had would in fact be worthless from God’s perspective. Anything blighted by sin and wickedness is not a worthwhile identity to have. But now we have an identity as “God’s people”.

There is an extremely counter-cultural verse right at the beginning of the Bible, that defines our identities and rubbishes most of the secular ideologies around us. Genesis 1:27, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them“. This verse, above all others in my opinion, is life changing once its impact is accepted and taken on board. It must break His heart to see rebellious people, who reject the truth that He made them in His image. And all those people promoting a plethora of genders immediately come to grief. How can we reject the fact that God has made us? What else can we do other than repent of our sin and rebellion and embrace the Master Craftsman, who designed every cell in our bodies? 

Father God, we repent of our sin today, in the knowledge that only You have the true answer to our identity questions. Please help us, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Creation is Groaning

Posted on by korgrocker

“Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
Romans 8:20-22 NLT

In these verses, Paul brings to the Roman Christians the thought that creation is not just about them. It includes everything God has made. And he makes a shocking statement – God’s curse has blighted everything He has ever created.  All because of Adam’s sin. As an aside, we should always be aware that sin has its consequences. But Paul goes on to say that it is not just humans who would like to be relieved of the curse hanging over them. All creation would like to experience curse-relief as well. Freedom from death and decay is right up there as the top creation priority.

God said that mankind would have to work hard to stay alive, as we read in Genesis 3:17-19, “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return””. As a consequence of Adam’s sin, the ground was cursed, and it has been ever since. As we know, farmers go to extraordinary lengths to grow crops, with fertilisers to encourage growth and introduce the required nutrients into the soil, herbicides to kill and control weeds. Sophisticated farm machinery takes some of the sweat off the task – no more hand digging for example – but things in God’s plan for creation weren’t supposed to be like this. Some have even suggested that “work” of any kind is cursed.

We also read in Genesis 3 that animals were cursed, starting with snakes. Apparently, according to Genesis 3:14, snakes might one day have been more upright. “Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, grovelling in the dust as long as you live.” And from the same verse, the implication is that “all animals, domestic and wild” were cursed. 

Paul elaborates on his own “God’s curse” statement by adding that the curse manifests itself in “death and decay”. We, of course, know that every living thing will die and decay one day. As I look around the woods near my home (it’s early March when I am writing this) vegetation has died right back leaving only the hardiest of plants hanging grimly on to what life they can retain. Trees are devoid of leaves, and the fall from last year lies mouldering around the undergrowth. Can I hear it all groaning? In the stillness of my early morning walks, there sometimes seems to be a hint of pain in the air, punctuated only be the occasional birdsong, echoing around the saplings and more mature trees. But, thankfully, Jesus makes all things new in the right season. We read in Isaiah 43:19a, “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it … ? In Revelation 21:5a we read, “And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new …”. I know that these two verses are slightly out of context but they illustrate the point that God hasn’t forgotten us. Every year God breathes new life into His creation. We see it around us, as the buds start to swell and leaves slowly appear. Perhaps with a groan and with pain accompanying the new birth.

It won’t be long before the new foliage appears, fresh and green. Flowers start to emerge, blanketing the forest flow with wonderful colours. And this is the world under a curse. Just imagine how much more beautiful Heaven will be, once it is released in “glorious freedom” from the curse of “death and decay”. 

Dear Father, You created a glorious world but it is now blighted by sin. We pray for forgiveness for our sins and pray the prayer at the end of Revelation – “Come Lord Jesus”. We look forward to the new Heaven and Earth. Amen.

Creation is Waiting

Posted on by korgrocker

“For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.”
Romans 8:19 NLT

Paul makes another bold statement in his letter to the Roman church, a statement that would have seemed new and controversial to his readers. He follows his warning about suffering with a reference to “all creation”. Now that isn’t just the human content of God’s masterwork for Planet Earth. It includes the word “all”. So we look around at the created plants and animals that populate our world. And Paul gives them a personality by saying that they are waiting to see who God’s children “really are”. 

How can that be? Is that daffodil over there thinking to itself that it wishes God will bring a revelation to the world about His children? Once again, we look at the natural world around us through our limited physical vision, and with the scientific knowledge that assumes vegetation and non-human animals have no soul and no awareness, of what things should really be like. Of course, no matter how hard they try, our scientists can find no evidence of a spirit or soul within a person or any other created plant or animal. They may find evidence of spiritual activity through someone’s behaviour, but a spirit or soul cannot be dissected on a laboratory bench somewhere.

We pilgrims have to take Paul’s statement at face value. When we ponder over his words, there is no reason why we should dispute them, just because we have no evidence to the contrary. In God’s Heavenly Kingdom things will be very different to our experiences today. In Isaiah 55:12, the prophet wrote,  “You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands”. In his prophetic vision, he saw even inanimate objects singing, and trees with hands. In Psalm 148:7, the Psalmist commanded the sea animals to praise God. We read, “Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths”. He goes on to refer to, “mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds” (Psalm 148:9-10). We can’t reduce God’s creation to the level of our limited understanding. 

Perhaps these scriptures will give us a different insight into God’s creation. After all, perhaps we should treat that weed that has popped up in our flower bed with a bit more respect.

Dear God. Your creation is wonderful. please open our eyes to see what You have made through Your eyes and not our own. Amen.

Something for Nothing

Posted on by korgrocker

“So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.”
Romans 4:16-17 NLT

Paul mentioned two qualities of God in Romans 4:17. He said that God “brings the dead back to life” and He “creates new things out of nothing”. We considered the first yesterday, and now we will consider our creator God. We are familiar, of course, with the Genesis account. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth“. Just a few words but breath-taking in their implication. Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen“. ‭‭But there is that word “faith” again. By faith in a limitless God, we believe He is able to create matter from nothing.

One of my problems with the non-creation theories, such as the theory of evolution, that are prevalent in today’s secular societies, is that they fail to address a basic question – where did all the matter that forms the universe, and everything within it, come from. The paradigms adopted by our non-religious scientists and academics all assume, or take for granted, the presence of matter. But God was able to take nothing and form something from it, through no more than His Word. The writer to the Hebrews said this very clearly, “what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen”. Everything around me, my computer desk, my office walls, the hills in the distance. They are all derived from matter that God spoke into being. Abraham believed in the fact that God was able to do miraculous things, and God credited that faith to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).

In our secular societies, the arrogance of mankind is, at times, breathtaking. There is no doubt that in recent times there has been an explosion of advances in medical science, and the way we treat illnesses. Operations are carried out to provide people with new knees or hips, greatly improving their qualities of life. Vaccines have been developed, that reduce the risks associated with nasty viruses. And then, of course, there are the advances in technology, with the internet, computers, and smart phones. All happening within just a few short years. But rather than give the glory for such advances to God, the medics and technologists claim the glory for themselves. God created us in His own image, as we read in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”. So when our brilliant scientists create a new vaccine, or discover some physical property that is put to good use, they are just doing what God created them to do. And the glory is all His.

As a side issue, the UK at the moment is embroiled in a battle about gender. But that wouldn’t be the case if our politicians read Genesis 1:27. There are only two genders – male and female. And that takes place at the point of creation, conception in the womb. It is so sad to hear about those who feel that they were born the wrong gender, but rather than help them in a Godly and compassionate way, the medics and psychiatrists abandon them to the consequences of their confusion. In Romans 1:24, we read, “So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies”. When Paul wrote this, I’m sure he was referring to the sexual sins being committed in his times, but perhaps the Holy Spirit could see the gender debate coming up nearly two thousand years later.

We pilgrims worship an amazing God. His depths are unfathomable and unmeasurable. His capabilities are limitless. His love and grace know no bounds. His patience with sinners like us is constant. His willingness to hear and answer our prayers indisputable. He is truly awesome, and truly deserves all the glory for His awesome creation. And so through faith we reach out to Him, day by day, for all we need for life on this outpost of His Kingdom in the hostile environment of Planet Earth. The ruler of this world, the devil, hates it. But God strengthens and protects us and one day He will call us home, to be with Him forever.

Dear Father God. All we can do is express our thanks and worship You. We give You all the glory. Amen.

The Big “Why”

Posted on by korgrocker

“The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!”
Revelation‬ ‭9:12‬ ‭NLT

We floated the question in a previous blog post, “Why does God allow disasters to happen?” The implication in the question is that God isn’t all-powerful. Or God doesn’t really care about us. But nothing is further from the truth. The root cause of all the bad things that happen on this planet is sin. The natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and so on, are the effects of sin on God’s perfect creation. In Romans 8:19-22 the Apostle Paul wrote, “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time“.  I sometimes look around me during my morning prayer walks and try and imagine what all the trees, the flowers and greenery, the wild raspberries and strawberries, will look like when the curse of sin has been removed. I’m sure Heaven is going to be one big Wow!

Because of sin, the world is now in the grip of the devil. Jesus made this clear, as we read in John 14:30, “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me“. However, the devil will not always have control of the earth – in 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God“. One day the current “age” will come to an end, and that is what we are seeing in the End Time vision in Revelation. 

God can certainly intervene in the affairs of mankind and our earthly home. We probably don’t know the extent to which God has already intervened, reducing or even stopping certain events. However, we don’t know why God doesn’t do more to stop the catastrophes. God allows people to behave in wicked ways because He has allowed us free choice. He didn’t create robotic human beings, with a pre-defined behaviour acceptable to God, programmed in accordance with His perfect and holy laws. And in the same way perhaps He allows creation to groan along, taking its natural, sin-blighted, course. But what we do know is that often good things happen as a consequence of natural and man-made disasters. For example, the Kindertransport initiative was instrumental in saving many Jewish children from the horrors of the Holocaust. The aid response to the 2004 tsunami totalled an unprecedented $6.25 Billion. At a time of a natural disaster there is something within mankind that wants to help those who are less fortunate. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them“. 

But we can’t leave this dilemma of why we experience natural and man-made disasters without adding the concept of eternity. God deliberately chose to send a solution to the woes of the world in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Not to sort out or prevent disasters, but instead, to offer mankind an escape route out of a sinful and wicked world into His wonderful presence. God’s love and compassion knows no bounds. His mercy endures eternally (Lamentations 3:22). While we continue to live our earthly lives, God is always available to encourage and help, to pick us up when we fall, and forgive our sinful lapses. And one day He will welcome us into our eternal home. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “…….I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” So today, if there is anyone reading this who wants to know more about our wonderful Saviour, Jesus, and how He, and He only, can show us the way to spend eternity with Him in Heaven, please get in touch.

Dear Father God. We thank You that there is a time to come when we will be with You in Heaven. We pray for Your strength to help us hold firm in our faith to the end. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Bridge

Posted on by korgrocker

“And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honour and glory and power belong to the One sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭5:13-14‬ ‭NLT

Every good song has a bridge section (many may choose to differ, but that’s my opinion). It’s not a verse or a chorus, but a supplementary part of the song that provides a extra dimension, adding to the song’s impact. The melody changes, the lyrics add an extra thought or idea. And it introduces a repeat of the chorus, or even ends the song itself. Well, the bridge of the new song went like this;

Blessing and honour
and glory and power 
belong to the One sitting on the throne 
and to the Lamb forever and ever.

There is the addition of another choir at this point, joining the millions of angels, who were singing the chorus. Looking at the structure of the production, the four living beings and the twenty four elders sung the verse, the angels sung the chorus, and now every other living being, “creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea”, joined the song in the bridge. 

This is a mind-boggling event. Did the Apostle John really become aware that every living creature that has ever lived was going to be singing? Was the Heavenly choir really going to be joined by creatures such as fish, animals, and even the micro-organisms that qualify for the term “living”? That was what John became aware of. And we really have to pause here to get our minds around what this means. Whatever our belief system, or theology, Revelation 5:13 does not miss out any living creature. It does not exclude them from being able to give praise to their wonderful Heavenly Creator God. Perhaps the Apostle Paul gave us a hint of the role of all creation in Romans 8.

What do we pilgrims make of all of this? Certainly, in my morning prayers walks around Dean Woods, near where I live, I am very much aware of the bird song. Some days, it seems almost deafening, heralding the early morning sunshine with an avian crescendo of praise, each bird singing its own particular and unique song. And I’m sure God has instilled into the DNA of each living creature the means to be able to praise Him. But they have no choice. That is how they have been “wired”. But how much more is God blessed when men and women, created in His image, choose to lift up their voices in a song of praise and worship to Him?

The thought that all creatures will worship God will, perhaps, give us a different perspective of them. They will be joining us singing worship to “the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb” one day. How, I don’t know, but it will be exciting when we find out. Another thought is that God will be worshipped forever. We will never get to the end of giving Him our worship. And neither should we stop praising and worshipping Him – He has done so much for us. But in our daily lives, we need to always keep in mind that there is a Heavenly home awaiting us. We only get a glimpse of what it will be like from the Bible, but we know that our relationship with our loving Heavenly Father will finally be realised, face to face. That’s enough for me.

Heavenly Father, we truly worship You today, trusting in Your ways, in Your grace, in Your love, this day and in the days to come. Amen.

He Created All

Posted on by korgrocker

“Whenever the living beings give glory and honour and thanks to the One sitting on the throne (the One who lives forever and ever), the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the One sitting on the throne (the One who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.””
Revelation‬ ‭4:9-11‬ NLT

The Apostle John had no doubts about God’s creative abilities. He wrote, “For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased”. John wrote that God created all. Everything. Mankind might do wonders creating objects but God created the building blocks used in the process. And the amazing thing was that God created matter out of nothing. That’s what the Bible says.

There has been an interminable debate over the last two centuries about a relatively new theory – evolution. A theory that is unfortunately taught as fact in our schools. Even though there are many unknowns and a lack of evidence to support it. It is a theory supported only by assumptions and the necessity for millions, even billions, of years, for evolution to produce what we see around us. But there are two big holes in the evolutionary arguments. Where did all the matter, needed to make the universe and all that is in it, come from in the first place? And why is there matter at all – why not just nothing? Personally, though, I lack the faith necessary to believe in evolution. When I see the wonder of a baby’s fingers or the complexity of a flower, I can only see a master Creator at work. That such wonders happened by chance is beyond my comprehension. Someone once explained to me that evolution is like putting all the component parts of a wrist watch – bearings, springs, cogs, case and strap – into a bag and then keep shaking it until the watch drops out. Hmmm..

In these verses today, and in the same breath as that used to express worship, we see that God’s creation is involved. It is all part of the whole worship experience. Anything else demeans God and effectively says He is incapable of creating what He wants to create, just because He was pleased to. His master design is so complex, and so interrelated and intertwined. He produced a cohesive universe, and a world that corelates and fits together, and has the ability built in to enable animal, human and plant life to self-propagate along the lines that He originally created. Amazing! And we worship God for all His wonderful works, and because He is worthy, as John wrote down for us to read today.

It is so sad that the evolutionists, who do not believe in a Creator God, have no-One to thank for the wonders of nature they see around them. The beauty of a sunset. The complexities of a human eye. The atomic structures and particles so sought after by physicists. The list is endless. But the saddest thing of all is that many evolutionists perhaps only believe their theory because the alternative is that they would have to believe in a Creator God. And that would mean a seismic shift in their thinking and their way of life. They would have to face into having to deal with their sins, through repentance, and embrace the Son of God, worshipping Him for all He has done, with all “glory and honour and thanks“.

But for a pilgrim today, we have a choice. Some Christians have parked the problem of whether to believe the Bible account of beginnings, or whether to believe the evolutionary arguments. The truth will one day be revealed, of course, but in the meantime we worship God, because He is worthy to receive “glory and honour and praise”. We pray for our eyes to be opened to receive a revelation, as did John, and a Holy Spirit encounter with Him. And we pray for the integrity of the Bible, God’s Word, His only written work, to prevail in our churches and fellowships.

Dear Lord. I pray today that those around me, who have rejected You, will be shown kindness and mercy, and the opportunity to find the truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.