Understanding God’s Commendation: Our True Worth

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Nor do we boast and claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about work done in someone else’s territory. As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.”
2 Corinthians 10:15-18 NLT

What does God think about us, and whatever it is, how do we know? Paul wrote that it is no good “commend[ing] ourselves” because “it doesn’t count for much”. “The important thing is for the Lord to commend [us]”, he wrote. But the question is still there: if the Lord is commending us, how would we know, and what is He commending us for? 

The Bible is full of encouraging verses answering this question, such as Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago”. The picture behind this verse portrays our Master Creator God seeing us and our lives through the corridor of time and planning out our lives of service to Him. He could see if we would marry and who the spouse would be. He could see our giftings and how they would be used in our jobs or in our leisure. He would even have known about the church we would attend, the date of our decision to believe in Jesus and so on. The picture continues with our lives being created just as He intended. But the fact emerges that even though God created everyone in the miracle of birth, He could also see many who would reject Him, and it must have broken His heart. Through His grace, He ordained the creation and provided the opportunities for created beings full of potential yet riven by sin, and He loved them all. God’s plans for human beings continue today, as new births are announced all the time. But for us pilgrims, each one of us is “God’s masterpiece”; can we boast about this? 

Another verse worthy of note is Ephesians 8:38, “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”. God loves us and He always will, because nothing can ever come between us. In all our thoughts and deeds, in our lives, in what we do and don’t do, His love and grace is always there for us, unstoppable, unmovable, and inviolable. But for us pilgrims, each one of us loved by God, can we boast about this? 

We have a hope for the future. Jeremiah 9:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”. The plans God has for us are not just limited to our school years or perhaps our employment. His plans apply to the whole of our lives and, here’s the thing, our lives in eternity. God created us body, soul and spirit, and we know that when we pilgrims come to the end of our physical lives, our spirits will live on forever. Beyond the grave, God will still continue to love us and have good things for us to do. Heaven won’t be a time of drudgery and boredom. It will be a place where our spirits will experience “good things” beyond our wildest dreams. But for us pilgrims, each one of us loved by God, can we boast about this? 

We pilgrims have much to thank God for, if we stop to think about it, even for a moment. God has commended us, and we are always before Him, in His thoughts. Isaiah 49:16a, “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands …”. God also considers us precious, as His own eyes. Psalm 17:8, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings”. These verses must surely cause us to rush out and stop every passerby, telling them of what we mean to God, and what He thinks of us. We surely must shout it out from every rooftop so that the world knows and understands the way in which the Lord has commended us. There is a line in the hymn “Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven” which reads, “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven”. That’s who we are. The world out there will not consider this anything to boast about, but we surely do.

Father God. We praise and worship You today, secure in the knowledge that You love us and care for us, each and every day of our lives and beyond in the place where we will be with You. Thank You. Amen.

The Whole Earth

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfil my vows in the presence of those who worship you. The poor will eat and be satisfied. All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy. The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him. All the families of the nations will bow down before him. For royal power belongs to the Lord. He rules all the nations.”
Psalm 22:25-28 NLT

There seems to be a disconnect between the world that David could see in his prophetic vision, and the world of today. Think of it, a world where all people are God’s children, worshiping and praising  Him, acknowledging Him in all they do, and finding themselves full of joy. A vision of utopia if there ever was one. But back to reality. We live in a world today, riven by strife and wars. A world full of people only interested in themselves and their own selfish requirements. A world where men and women have set themselves up as gods intent on changing their gender against God’s order, and have become so deluded that they think that this is possible. A world where unwanted babies are murdered in the womb. A world where evil and wickedness is endemic, with sin infecting every inhabitant. Today I met a woman walking her dog and who was terrified at the state of today’s world. Even after sharing the hope of Jesus and His message of salvation, she remained unconvinced. O Lord! Bring on David’s vision, we pray, in the hearts and minds of a lost generation heading like lemmings to a lost eternity.

But we pilgrims are soldiers in God’s army, “marching as to war”, doing God’s business as revolutionaries and guerrillas holding aloft the battle standard of Jesus, the One who has already defeated the evil and wickedness so prevalent today. The captain of the opposing army is none other than the devil, supported by his demonic forces, the evil one pulling the strings of Godless human puppets everywhere. 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God“. 

The Apostle Paul also considered himself as being a soldier in God’s army. 2 Timothy 2:3-4, “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them“. Paul suffered greatly as a soldier on the front line, but he didn’t fight only in a physical sense. He was a spiritual warrior in a battle largely fought in the hearts and minds of human beings, and his weapon was the truth of the Word of God with Good News to all who believed. But the last thing the devil wants his followers to hear is anything that is truth. Jesus said to the Pharisees and the other religious leaders, “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). 

Before the world of David’s vision can become a reality, something has to be done to silence the forces of evil forever, but we know that this will happen. Jesus will return one day to lead the armies of Heaven into the final battle, and we can pick up the account of what will happen in Revelation 19:11-13, “Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God”. Jesus came two thousand years ago as a baby, born into poor and humble surroundings, but when He comes again He will come as a mighty and invincible warrior, the “King of all kings and the Lord of all lords” (Revelation 19:16b). We can read about the forces of Heaven in Revelation 19:14-15, “The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress” (Revelation 19:14-15). John, the Revelator, ” … saw the beast and the kings of the world and their armies gathered together to fight against the one sitting on the horse and his army“, but I won’t spoil the outcome for whoever is reading this. Turn to Revelation 19 and 20 to find out the glorious crescendo of the final battle on this earth.

About Jesus, Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. What David saw in his vision will come to pass one day. There will be no exceptions because every human being who has ever lived, and who will be born in the future, will one day have to bow before Jesus, and those who “seek the Lord” will “rejoice with everlasting joy”. Sadly, those who have rejected the Word of God will also face the consequences of their decision.

But surely that can’t be the case. What about all the good people who have lived on this planet? Those social reformers who have engineered change for the better in our societies, the medics who have pioneered life-saving procedures and medicines? The kind people who have helped their neighbours? They may never have been a believer, instead living a life of atheism or agnosticism, but surely God will show them kindness? Such people may never have thought of themselves as being the devil’s foot soldiers, and have spent their lives being good, law-abiding citizens of their countries, helping others whenever they can. The Bible tells us that it will only be believers who will spend eternity with God, but we also know that we have a God who is sovereign and who will always do what is right. And so those who worry about where their loved ones will end up can be assured that our righteous God will decide. In Psalm 145:17 we read, “The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness“. As soldiers in God’s army, we pilgrims pray “may Your Kingdom come, may Your will be done” and we share the Good News of salvation through Jesus at every opportunity. We pray for our families and friends. And we trust in the One who one day will be King over the whole world, knowing that all the nations “will bow down before Him”. And we remember what Peter wrote about us, “ …  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). Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of God and we are privileged to be able to tell everyone about Jesus and what He did at Calvary.

Dear Father God. We echo the final words in the Bible – Come Lord Jesus. Amen.

Our Forever God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But the Lord reigns forever, executing judgment from his throne. He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness.”
Psalm 9:7-8 NLT

A small child’s question “Who made God?” is understandable from a natural perspective, as young minds grapple with difficult issues in life. Everything around us has been made at some time or another. Our natural world emerged in the Genesis account of creation, our material world of houses and cars and so on contains objects created by human beings. But then comes along the scientific distortions based on the largely unsubstantiated views and “research” by scientists like Darwin and others, bring confusion and contradictions, and media journalists propagate reports of a world formed a very long time ago when some geological discovery is made. But I lack the faith to believe in a world that is populated through a chance meeting of molecules many billions of years ago, or was formed by an apparent celestial explosion even further back into history. And none of these scientists have ever explained where all the matter that formed the universe came from in the first place. So a young mind, perhaps through a Sunday School lesson or teacher’s comment, and unable to make sense of the enormous amounts of data available, intuitively believes that there must be a Creator, and asks where God came from.

It may be a difficult concept to believe, but our God, the Lord, “reigns forever”. God has always been present. Jesus said in Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End“. So the answer to the small child’s question “Who made God?” is “No-one – He has always been there”. And there is something special about that knowledge, that our Creator God, the One who loves us and has graciously saved us, has always been there. And there is more – 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”. Such knowledge elevates us into Heavenly places that are unseen with our physical eyes but home to our spirits.

David also declared that God has always been there and His righteousness prevails through His judgement and fairness. And there is coming a time when He will rule the nations. We can only pray that this will happen soon, as the world around us seems to descend further and further into depths of evil and depravity. But instead of getting depressed we look up to the One who made it all. The One who created our world and populated it with human beings made in His image. The One who holds all things together – Colossians 1:17, “He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together”. By looking up we get God’s perspective and receive the assurance that He is holding back the full potential of the forces of evil.

Paul continues in Colossians 1:19-20, “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross”. Perhaps a better question should be “How could the One who has always been there send His Son as a human being, to save us from our sins?” The answer to such a question we will never fully understand until we meet the One who made it all possible. But we are so grateful for Jesus. Perhaps John 3:16 doesn’t really fully communicate the heart of God and His love for you and me. We will never get our minds around what it must have cost Him. God wants to be involved intimately in the affairs of His creation, and in response we feel our hearts lift within us, a warm glow flushing away the thoughts of a sad and bad world. We want to shout out our praises to the One who has done it all. Jesus!

Dear God. You have always been present, because that is what eternity means. Thank You that Your love and grace is eternal and present with us today and every day. Amen.

Disciples (2)

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.”
John 1:36-37 NLT

‭‭I wonder if John’s two disciples knew what they were getting into when they decided to follow Jesus. Before them was three years with the Master, the “Lamb of God“, Himself, followed by a demanding but mostly rewarding life punctuated by times of extreme danger, personal discomfort, beatings and, finally, a violent and painful death. That time spent with Jesus was life changing for those two disciples but they never turned their backs on the “Lamb of God”. 

But for anyone today there is this dichotomy of choice – we either follow Jesus or we follow the devil, the latter being the default position. If we don’t want to spend eternity with God in Heaven, then we have no need to do anything. No need of going to church, or reading the Bible, or praying to our wonderful Creator. But the choice to follow Jesus will inevitably set us apart from the majority of people in the world, and at times we will feel as though we are swimming against a tide. Here in the West, we will not suffer beatings and a violent death – not yet anyway – but we may experience ridicule and be ostracised, excluded by those who have chosen the common path.

But it is a privilege to be able to follow the Lord. Choosing to be a follower of Jesus means setting ourselves apart from the world. We aspire to grow in our faith, aspiring to be more like Jesus, seeking to please Him at every opportunity. Though we diligently sit in the pews, listening to, and taking part in, the services, what really matters is putting into practice what we are hearing. James 1:22, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves“. And as a follower of Jesus, we strive to share the Gospel with those around us, making disciples of the Master wherever and whenever we have the opportunity. Being a Christian means a life of joy, as we share in the wonders of the Kingdom of God.

Dear Lord Jesus. As the old hymn says, “I have decided to follow Jesus”. We sing it together today. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.