Discerning Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep.”
1 Corinthians 11:27-30 NIVUK

We continue this morning to consider what the Communion service, the Lord’s Supper, really means. We know that a few moments are allowed before we take the emblems, and in these times of reflection, we confess our sins and do what we can to get right with God, even making promises to ourselves to go and put things right after the service. But what does it mean to discern the Body of Christ? Paul wrote, “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord”. We cannot ever make the mistake of being “unworthy” at a time like this, because of the solemnity of what it means. I’m sure, however, that we pilgrims would never want to be guilty of this, but we know our feeble capabilities. The pressures of life, and perhaps what we saw on television the night before, will crowd into our thought processes, causing us much distress. Paul eloquently described the problem in Romans 7:21, “So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me”. Above all, we would never want to dishonour Jesus, who went through hell so that we wouldn’t have to. 

With the emblems before us, we should perhaps pause for a moment to consider that the bread on the plate isn’t the product of a baker at all, but the body of Jesus. In this respect, perhaps the Anglicans have got it right by never leaving even a crumb behind after the service. In the same way, the communion “wine”, whatever it is, must be totally consumed, and even the goblet used must be rinsed out and wiped clean. Anglicans do this in reverence to Christ because, through the solemnity of sharing the bread and wine, the emblems are made sacred. Sadly, so many churches will throw the unused elements away, disposing of them in the trash can or by pouring them down the sink. But how many congregants really make the connection between the elements and the body and blood of Jesus? God has blessed us pilgrims with an imagination, something that has become anointed by the Holy Spirit and is being sanctified by His presence. We must remember that although the body and blood, in the form of bread and wine, might be partaken of during a meal, they are entirely separate from it. 

In 1 Corinthians 11:26, we read, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”. In the process of sharing in the Communion, we are “proclaiming” the Lord’s death. In other words, through sharing in this ceremonial meal, we are acknowledging that Jesus gave His body and shed His blood for our benefit, for the salvation of all who believe in Him. And we will keep on proclaiming this momentous event until one of two things happens – either we die or Jesus returns, ushering in His new Kingdom. Jesus said, “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). Then there will be that marvellous occasion we refer to as the marriage feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19). 

But there is something else about “proclaiming” the Lord’s death. What else should we be proclaiming? We can’t just be obedient in this one thing without being obedient to many others as well. Are we loving our spouses? Are we sharing the Gospel? There is a long list of “Are we’s”, providing a sobering reality to what it means to be a Christian. Thankfully, God is patient and kind, and doesn’t expect an instant transition from an unbeliever to a fully fledged believer overnight. We enter into a process called sanctification, as we are being made holy to be more like Jesus.

Another reason for the Communion service is to declare the unity among believers. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf”. In other words, we must see Christ in our fellow Christians and treat them as we would treat Jesus when we come together.

If we bring God’s spotlight into our souls, looking at who we are through His eyes, what will we see? This is an easy question to answer, because through Jesus, we will see a righteous and holy child of God. Through our repentance, the blackness of sin has been left at the Cross. But we must never become complacent, and we must value the Communion service to provide an opportunity to touch base with Jesus once again. We feel His love and forgiveness once again flood over us, refreshing and restoring our souls.

Dear Lord Jesus. Once again, we kneel before You, confessing our sins, and thanking You for all You have done for us. We worship You today. Amen.

 

Abandonment

Posted on by korgrocker

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.”
Psalm 22:1-2 NLT

Why did David write Psalm 22? What was he going through at that time? We don’t really know of course, but we do know that he wasn’t in a good place. Riven by depression, his prayers failing to penetrate the clouds above him, he could find no relief. Perhaps he was sick, with some form of debilitating illness. Perhaps he had been through a situation where he felt trapped in a hopeless place, with no remedy in sight. But he did what he did often – he reached for his pen and starting writing, and we’re so glad that he did, because across his Psalms we have a legacy of situations with which we can often relate. How many times have we pilgrims woken in the small hours, anxious and worried, eventually praying but finding no answers? At such times perhaps we too think that God has abandoned us. David’s situation seemed to be going on day after day, with no relief in sight, but one thing does emerge – he calls on God. Would we have turned our backs on God, if we had been standing in David’s shoes? But in those small hours there is nothing better than for us to pick up our Bibles, head for a comfortable seat, and read a Psalm or two. And the God of comfort will minister to us I’m sure.

As we pilgrims know, Jesus cried out the words of the first verse from Psalm 22 in His dying moments on the cross. We read in Matthew 27:46, “At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”” Did Father God really abandon His Son? Jesus thought so, but did God really abandon His Son to take on our sins so that we could take on His Son’s righteousness? Sad though it might seem, that is what the Bible tells us and we have the poignant scene of Jesus, for the first time ever, cut off from His Father. David described His pain so clearly, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Jesus really thought.

There is nothing worse than being abandoned. A newborn baby abandoned on a church step, a child abandoned by its mother in the hope that someone would hear the cries echoing in the darkness, bringing salvation to a young life. And then we hear of a child being abandoned through no fault of the parents, perhaps killed in a car crash or having succumbed to an illness. There is also something sad about old couples separated by the death of one of them, sometimes after 60 or 70 years even, leaving the surviving partner with a deep feeling of loss and abandonment. Jesus’ parents were riven with guilt when Jesus was lost as a young man. Mary and Joseph each thought that Jesus was with the other, and they quickly returned to Jerusalem to find Him. He wasn’t abandoned, but I expect that was what Mary and Joseph thought had happened. Abandonment is not uncommon in our day and age, and it is never pleasant. But to be abandoned in the way that Jesus was by His Father that Easter Friday – that shows just how much God loves us and how He desires for us to be with Him one day.

We read in Psalm 68:5-6a how God is interested in those who have been abandoned. “Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families…”. Paul gave us a glimpse of God’s heart for His people when he wrote, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). No matter how we feel or whatever the situation, abandoned or otherwise, that we find ourselves in, God will always be there for us. 

One thing is for sure. We pilgrims will never abandon God. Jesus asked His disciples if they wanted to follow other less committed followers who had abandoned Him, but Peter spoke up for all of them when he said, “ … Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (John 6:68). There is no place where we would rather be, than in God’s presence forever.

Dear Lord God. You have placed eternity in our souls and we never feel that You have abandoned us. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

Boasting

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm. Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help.”
Psalm 20:6-9 NLT

To boast about something is not normally a good thing to do. As the old saying goes, “pride comes before a fall”. We are all aware of the children in the playground trying to outdo each other with stories of their families, toys, prowess at sports and so on, boasts abounding. But in a less obvious way, boasts take place in the workplace or the pub. Fishermen boast about the size of their catch. Gardeners boast about the size of their prize marrows. Boasting is a human trait that spans many generations. And here we have David writing about how he “boasts in the name of the Lord” when other nations “boast of their chariots and horses”. 

In the Bible, boasting is considered to be evil, with one exception which we will come to later. James 4:16 is a verse in the context of a man making business plans and arrogantly saying what will happen. James wrote, “As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil“. Proverbs 27:1-2, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips“. On a national level we are familiar with the boasting of nations with their stories of armaments, their modern equivalents of “chariots and horses”. The Psalmist wrote, “How long, O Lord? How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat? How long will they speak with arrogance? How long will these evil people boast?” (Psalm 94:3-4). On the world stage today, we are familiar with the boastings of leaders in all sorts of disciplines, but we know that they rise and fall, much as we read in Isaiah 40, “ …  And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade,  … ”.

However, it is acceptable to boast in something that is invincible, indestructible, and all-powerful, as David wrote in our Psalm today. In confidence, and in the face of boasting from others, he could “boast in the name of the Lord our God”. Paul clarified the situation over boasting in 2 Corinthians 10:17, “As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”” Paul also wrote, “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died” (Galatians 6:14).‭‭ And that is the important distinction. We can boast about Jesus because there is something eternal and complete to boast about. No other person, nation, or religion can match the claim that God came to this earth as a human being and died on a cross for the sins of mankind. That was an event so significant that it can never be exceeded. 

Dear Father God. At every opportunity I will boast about You and Your saving grace. There is nothing like You and never will be. Amen.

Not Guilty

Posted on by korgrocker

“Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime.
John 18:37-38 NLT

We are fast approaching the pivotal point that night where Jesus’ future was decided. Pilate’s assessment of Jesus’ innocence was correct in the court of earthly law in force at that time.  Pilate was used to seeing revolutionaries who had a clear record of guilt and much evidence against them. Or thieves and robbers, convicted through acceptable testimonies. But the Man Jesus had no evidence that could convict Him, because there was none. He was the King of the Jews, a title soon after affixed to His cross of execution. He was the King of a Kingdom not of this world. And everything that Jesus said was truth, because that was who He was. Truth personified. There was no other period in history where there was such a clash of kingdoms. The worldly kingdom of the Roman Empire, strong and unforgiving. The religious kingdom based on the Law of Moses but almost skewed beyond recognition by sinful human practices. And the Kingdom of God, the rule of an eternal, sovereign God over all the universe. In that febrile environment, something had to give, and in worldly eyes Jesus was the problem but also, as we know, He became the solution to the sins of mankind. However, in worldly eyes, it was a solution that was the biggest miscarriage of justice this world has ever seen.

We pilgrims have read and re-read the Easter story. We stand as a fly on the wall, looking at Pilate’s dilemma. We stand in the baying mob calling for Jesus’ death. We stand poignantly with Jesus hearing the “not guilty” verdict, a verdict that He knew was the right one for the worldly court but the wrong one in terms of God’s plan for mankind. But ultimately we stand in the knowledge that the “not guilty” verdict would have been the wrong one for our salvation. Jesus was not guilty on His own account, but God’s plan was that He would take on my guilt so that the verdict over me would be “not guilty”. And that applies to all of us pilgrims, who have fallen to our knees in repentance before His cross. We were all guilty in the Heavenly court. We were all heading for a lost eternity. But along came a Man who, before the Judge, said that he would take the punishment due to me so that I would be “not guilty”. What a Saviour!

Dear Lord Jesus. You took on to Yourself the sins of mankind, past present and future, so that we would live with You forever. Thanks You. Amen.

Opinions

Posted on by korgrocker

“When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?””
John 10:19-21 NLT

One thing we human beings are good at is forming an opinion of someone. It could be about a famous person, or a neighbour or friend. Even about a relative. Opinions are derived from our observations or interactions with the other person, and it is remarkable that different people will have different opinions of the same person, which is just as well, really, because otherwise there would be a bland sameness about our society. Jesus burst into the religious scene in Israel performing amazing miracles and making statements about God and Himself that was counter-cultural, to say the least. The people who heard what He had to say were, we are told, “divided in their opinions about Him”, and they concluded that He was either mad or deluded, or even possessed by a demon, a phenomenon that was perhaps used as a catch-all for anyone who behaved in an odd way, or said things that were outrageous.

Jesus said things like, “ … Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart’” (John 7:37-38). He also said, “ … I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12). He made the claims that He was the door that leads to salvation (John 10:7) or the Good Shepherd who cares for people and who is prepared to lay down His life to save them (John 10:11). With the benefit of hindsight we pilgrims understand what Jesus was getting at and we have formed an opinion of Jesus that is difficult to describe with words other than loving, gracious, awesome, amazing, caring and …. There are many many more descriptions and opinions of Jesus that would form an enormous list. In the end, the only response to Jesus, is worship, prostrate before Him.

To someone who is not a believer, what is their opinion of Him? The people of His day, with the benefit of a personal contact, couldn’t make a collective opinion of Him. Instead they were divided. Why? After all, He had performed some miraculous healings, including that of a man born blind receiving his sight. Surely that by itself would have had people running to Him with the assurance of knowing that only God Himself could do such things. But, sadly, some thought that this was the work of a demon. 

Today, research has shown that there is little doubt amongst people generally in the West, that Jesus was a real person. Older people will mostly agree that He was divine, younger people just that He was a great religious leader. But digging deeper, a world of confusion exists about Jesus and He is just as divisive today as He was two thousand years ago when He walked this planet. But what matters is what we pilgrims think. What are our opinions? We have the benefit of the Canon of Scripture and the expositions of faithful and Godly men and women to help us. But as believers in, and followers of, Jesus, we have the privilege of attaining the status of being children of God. We are assured of Heavenly eternal life with Him one day, after we have departed this life. And while alive in our societies, we have the opportunities to introduce others to Him, and help them form an opinion of Jesus that will lead to their salvation and the same relationship with God that we enjoy. 

So we pray for clarity over who Jesus was, both in our own minds, and those of our friends and families. In our daily work-a-day lives we view our surroundings through the lens of a favoured child of God, seeing what God sees and hearing what God hears, knowing that having God’s perspective, and speaking it out, will fulfill Jesus’ command to be salt and light in our communities. Jesus is no longer here in person but through His Spirit working in us and fuelling our divine opinions, we propagate the same issues that the people of Jerusalem faced when they heard Jesus speak out in His teachings and parables. We may end up with the same labels that Jesus had but that’s ok. We instead have the prospect before us of hearing our Master and Saviour say, “Well done”. There will be no better place to be.

Dear Lord Jesus, You elicited opinions from the people of Your day that didn’t give You justice. But You continued resolute to the Cross, to fulfil Your mission. We are so grateful that You did. Amen.

Ignorant of the Law

Posted on by korgrocker

“When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “We have never heard anyone speak like this!” the guards responded. “Have you been led astray, too?” the Pharisees mocked. “Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!””
John 7:45-49 NLT

The arrogance of the Pharisees, and the others who made up the religious leadership, is breath-taking. With their words they sealed their own fate and accused those in the “foolish crowd” of being ignorant of the Law even when it pointed, through prophecies, to the coming Messiah. Worse, they then cursed the people in the name of God. A very sad situation that ultimately led to Jesus’ execution at Calvary.

There are men and women today, in positions of church leadership, who claim to know better than ordinary “foolish” people. In fact, every generation since Jesus walked on this planet has had more than its fair share of people who preach a message based on their own construction rather than God’s intent. They may even use Scriptures, like the Pharisees, to justify their position. But in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul contrasted the “wise” of this world with the “foolishness” of the message of the cross and the people who are being saved by it. He wrote, “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Paul went on to quote a verse from Isaiah 29, “As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent””. And Paul, a lapsed and repentant Pharisee, then wrote, “This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful” (1 Corinthians 1:25-27). 

The wisdom and knowledge of the Pharisees and the other religious leaders was ultimately exposed for what it was by the ordinary people in the crowd who came to believe in Jesus. The “wise” religious leaders journeyed on to their ultimate fate. I can just imagine one of these arrogant leaders standing before God trying to explain why they refused to believe in His Son, Jesus. Perhaps they even angrily shook their fists in God’s face, accusing Him of letting them down. A quote from C S Lewis (the Great Divorce), “But, beyond all these, I saw other grotesque phantoms in which hardly a trace of the human form remained; monsters who had faced the journey to the bus stop—perhaps for them it was thousands of miles—and come up to the country of the Shadow of Life and limped far into it over the torturing grass, only to spit and gibber out in one ecstasy of hatred their envy and (what is harder to understand) their contempt, of joy”. But perhaps God will lovingly say to them that by sending His Son He was fulfilling the intention of the Law. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose”. And then, before God, the light suddenly dawned on those arrogant men as they, too late of course, realised their error. 

Paul was a very learned man, and considered a Pharisee above all others, but he wrote in Philippians 3:7-9, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith”. 

We pilgrims believe in Jesus. We have faith in Him and His words of eternal life. The message of the cross has led us astray, away from the “wisdom” of the world into the Kingdom of God. There is no better place to be.

Dear Father God. The message of the Cross is fundamental to our faith in Jesus, and we are eternally grateful for Your plan for the salvation of mankind. Amen.

God So Loved the World

Posted on by korgrocker

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17 NLT

John 3:16 must be the most well-known verse in the Bible. Books have been written about it. Preachers have evangelised with it. I even heard of it being used at a funeral service, though the minister taking the service left out the bit about “everyone who believes in him” to instead reassure everyone present that they will all end up in Heaven, enjoying eternal life, anyway. But however we view this verse, it is a clear statement as to why Jesus came to this planet two thousand or so years ago. On that occasion, God demonstrated His love for all people in the world, and put into action the plan He had for the salvation of mankind since the beginning, since that fateful day in the Garden, when sin destroyed what God intended.

We notice that the tense in this verse is in the past. Two thousand years ago God expressed His love by sending Jesus. But this was a one-off act of love. God doesn’t keep sending Jesus because there is no need – His one-off birth, life and death, were all that was required to provide a timeless pathway, so that He could one day enjoy the presence of His creation in Heaven with Him. And by so doing, He gave “everyone who believes in him” the opportunity to make a choice about where we will spend eternity. This is a stark choice, John wrote. The options are to “perish” or to “have eternal life”. There is no other way, no half-hearted selection process. We either buy into God’s plan through Jesus or we are effectively turning our backs on Him, choosing instead a lost eternity in a place where we won’t want to be.

In life we don’t know when or how our death will come. Our lives could be cut short in a road accident. Or we could end our days in a hospital bed. We just don’t know, and if asked if we would like to know, we would probably decline the invitation. Looking at the behaviours of some who engage in what are called extreme sports, we perhaps think that some people believe they are immortal. But Jesus came to this world the hard way. Born as a baby to a peasant girl in her early teens, He grew up normally, as far as we can tell, but by the time Jesus started His public ministry, He knew how His life would end. But He didn’t flinch. He didn’t look for a way out. He resolutely looked forward to the Cross, knowing that He would have to endure the whipping, the abuse, the false trial beforehand, all before a devastatingly painful and humiliating death on a Roman Cross. Knowing that this was all part of His Father’s plan. 

Jesus came to this world so that all who believed in Him would have eternal life. And just to emphasise the message, He went on to say that He wasn’t on earth to judge the people there – that was going to come much later – but instead He was going to open a window of opportunity of salvation for everyone through Him. There will come a day when the window will close forever. Jesus taught about it in Matthew 25:31-46, or we can read about it in Revelation 20. Jesus will come again so we must be ready to meet Him.  We pilgrims will never perish and we will enjoy eternal life with Jesus in our Heavenly home. Forever.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Jesus, for Your plan of salvation for mankind, for Your loving kindness. We can never stop thanking and worshipping You. Amen.

The Bronze Snake

Posted on by korgrocker

“No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
John 3:13-15 NLT

Jesus made a statement that people who have gone to Heaven have never returned. But why would they want to? To the thief on the adjacent cross, Jesus called it paradise, inferring that Heaven is a wonderful place. There are those who claim that they died and went into Heaven but returned to their bodies when resuscitated, though Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus puts doubts on their conclusion, albeit briefly, of a visit to Heaven.  Of course there are those who are convinced that they have seen ghosts. But we should remember that after death our spirits end up in one of two places – Heaven for the believers and Hades for the non-believers. If they exist at all, ghosts are the product of Hades. Jesus gave us an illustration about the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) that sets out the difference between the two places. From this story, it is not surprising that the spirits incarcerated in Hades would want to escape.

But there was one exception – Jesus is the only Person who has lived in Heaven and who came to earth. He came down to this world, implying that Heaven is a place that is above, higher, than where we are. But that introduces even more wonder into His incarnation – Jesus left a place of comfort, He called it paradise, to join mankind to live as one of God’s created beings. And Jesus came to Planet Earth for one reason – to provide eternal life to all those who believe in Him. 

We can read about the episode with the bronze snake in Numbers 21. The impatient and ungrateful Israelite slaves were speaking out, grumbling, against God and Moses, because of the long journey and the sameness of the food, manna. “So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died” (Numbers 21:6). This act brought them to their senses, and we read in the next verse, “Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people“. And God gave Moses a remedy, “Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”” (Numbers 21:8). What a great picture of Jesus being lifted up on the Cross at Calvary. Just as the Israelites believed that by looking at the bronze snake on a pole they would be healed, Jesus said that all those who believed in Him, dying on that Cross at Calvary for their sins, would live for ever. The bronze snake prolonged the Israelites’ natural lives, but the Calvary Cross enabled people to live forever.

The Cross is central to our Christian faith. Without it there is no redemption from sin. No salvation and no eternal life. In John 14:6 we read, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. There is no short cut into Heaven. The squeamish won’t find a sanitised route to eternal life. It is only through the blood of Jesus that we are saved. If anyone tries to tell us anything different, don’t believe them.

Father God. Once again, we thank You for Jesus and His willingness to come to this world to save mankind. I pray today for all those I know who have failed to embrace God’s Son and who are heading for a lost eternity. Amen.

Fiery Trials

Posted on by korgrocker

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.”
1 Peter 4:12-13 NLT

We Western pilgrims can’t personally identify with the “fiery trials” Peter was writing about. Those early believers courageously stood up for their faith, withstanding all types and severities of persecution; some even experienced long and drawn out deaths. The first martyr was Stephen. He accused the Jewish leaders of disobeying God’s law, and we pick up the narrative in Acts 7:56, “And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand!” Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died”. A sad end for a Godly man, but an end that brought glory to God. Stephen was not the only martyr by a long way. Those early believers in Peter’s generation were stoned, torn apart by animals in the public games, crucified, beheaded and so on. They were ostracised in their communities, prosecuted for trumped-up misdemeanours and generally suffered greatly for believing in the same God that we do today.

However, in other parts of the world today, “fiery trials” are still being experienced by Christians. Believers in Asian and African countries particularly are suffering greatly. Pakistani Christians are being violently attacked; I have just read about an Iranian pastor who has been sentenced to a long prison sentence in Iran’s notorious Evi prison; in fact, according to Open Doors UK, 5,621 Christians were murdered for their faith last year, and that’s only the deaths that they have been able to discover.

One thing we pilgrims will have realised is that being a Christian does not make life any easier. In fact, it will probably make it harder. Jesus, in His long John 17 prayer said to His disciples, “I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do” (John 17:14-16).

Peter wrote that believers shouldn’t be surprised when they are persecuted. In fact, he encourages them with the thought that the persecution, the “fiery trials”, that they are experiencing makes them “partners with Christ in his suffering”. Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it”. In fact, if we are finding that the life of a believer is hassle free, then perhaps we should question our commitment. Following Jesus is not an easy life choice, because it involves setting aside our own personal selfish desires, and instead choosing to live life the Jesus way. Jesus asked the question, “ … what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26). But we know that with God on our side, we are assured that whatever trials we are facing into, if we persevere we will come out the other side unscathed, and closer to God than ever before. He loves us, His children. And He will never leave us to fend on our own. Every prayer that we utter has four people present, God, the Father, Jesus, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. And us of course. An invincible combination I think we must agree.

Dear Heavenly Father. We pray that You will strengthen us to live faithfully for You, right to the end. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Dead to Sin

Posted on by korgrocker

“He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 NLT

Isaiah’s prophecy, recorded in Isaiah 53:4-6, was obviously in Peter’s mind when he wrote the verse we are considering today. But Peter lived with Jesus when He was actively ministering to His people. He knew and saw at first hand the miracles Jesus committed. He was there with James and John when Jesus walked and talked with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was around when our Lord was tried at a mock trial and was crucified unjustly. He was there on that wonderful and amazing day when Jesus appeared to him and his fellow disciples just days after His death, and kept on appearing for another forty days or so. He was there when Jesus ascended into Heaven. His first hand experience of being with the Son of God stayed with him for the rest of his life. And by now a very different Peter, transformed by the Holy Spirit, had become, not a “believer” but a “know-er”.  He knew what Jesus had achieved by completing God’s assignment here on Planet Earth.

In Isaiah 53:4-5a we read, “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. … ” The intention of God’s plan was revealed to Isaiah many years before He carried it out. And it involved something that is too good to be true, but, to quote the old cliché, it is too good not to be true. Jesus came to this world to take on board in His person all the sins committed by mankind, past, present and future, so that all those who believed in Him would not have to suffer the consequences of sin. Repentant sinners, who believe in Jesus, will never have to face the final judgement. Isaiah could see it coming. Peter experienced it. We pilgrims faithfully believe it.

Peter wrote that because Jesus did what He did, we can live lives free of sin and full of righteousness, God’s righteousness imputed to us through Jesus. Is that a reality in our lives, or do we still try and live a double life? It is God’s way or the wrong way. There is no middle ground for a pilgrim true to his or her faith in God.

Dear Father God. We thank You for Jesus, and Your ultimate redemptive plan for the salvation of humanity. Without it we were indeed a lost and sad people. Amen.