Ahaz Refuses the Lord

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Later, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz: “Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.” But the king refused. “No,” he said, “I will not test the Lord like that.” Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well?”
Isaiah 7:10-13 NLT

Ahaz was a bad king in Judah. In 2 Chronicles 28 we read, “… he followed the example of the kings of Israel. He cast metal images for the worship of Baal. He offered sacrifices in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, even sacrificing his own sons in the fire. In this way, he followed the detestable practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the pagan shrines and on the hills and under every green tree”. The same chapter records that the Lord “… allowed the king of Aram to defeat Ahaz and to exile large numbers of his people to Damascus. The armies of the king of Israel also defeated Ahaz and inflicted many casualties on his army”. In Isaiah 7, we now find that the armies of Syria and Israel are now advancing on Jerusalem itself, causing alarm and terror. The goal was to remove Ahaz from the throne and install their own king, “the son of Tabeel”. 

Isaiah brought the Lord’s message to Ahaz, telling him to “stop worrying” and not to fear, and later he followed it up with an extraordinarily gracious offer from the Lord. “Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.” Why should God have been so kind and gracious to a king and his people, yet who were so deeply involved in sin and idolatry, and who had rejected God Himself? Why not let the pagan hordes (yes, Israel was a “pagan” nation at this time as well) overrun the whole of Judah, and assign the people to death or exile? After all, they had broken their side of the Covenant that God had made with His people through Moses. But God offered Ahaz a deal to bolster his faith and show him how stupid he was being with his idolatry and evil ways. Ahaz was told to ask for a miraculous sign to prove to him that God was who He said He was, and would protect him and his (remaining) people. 

But Ahaz refused. He said that he “[would] not test the Lord like that”. What was he afraid of? Probably because if he had asked for an impossible sign, he would have faced the reality that God is real and that he would have to change his ways. How could he continue in idolatry, knowing that the lumps of metal that he worshipped had no power like the Lord? Surely he could remember the story of the time when the Ark of God was captured by the Philistines, and they placed it in the temple of their own god, a statue called Dagon. We can read the story in 1 Samuel 5, “But when the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord! So they took Dagon and put him in his place again. But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact”. What a farce! What followed was enough to terrify the inhabitants of Ashdod, and they couldn’t wait to send the ark back to its rightful people. That is the power of the Lord, and even today, denial of the Lord in pursuit of other “gods” will have consequences, either in this life or the life to come. 

Perhaps Ahaz was frightened about testing God, because the test might be accompanied by something unpleasant. There was the account of Elisha, on his deathbed, in conversation with King Jehoash of Israel. We read in 2 Kings 13:18-19, “Then [Elisha] said, “Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground.” So the king picked them up and struck the ground three times. But the man of God was angry with him. “You should have struck the ground five or six times!” he exclaimed. “Then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will be victorious only three times””. Fear instead of faith ruled the day as far as Ahaz was concerned, and he refused a life-changing offer from God. God’s offer to Ahaz was startlingly gracious. He told Ahaz that the sky could be the limit. He can ask for any supernatural act to show that God was with him and His power was real and effective. It seemed that Ahaz wasn’t expressing faith, but stubbornness. What’s implied in Ahaz’s refusal to test God was that the king’s mind was already made up. He didn’t want to be distracted by supernatural displays of God’s power through the prophet Isaiah. He wanted to produce the answer himself. And in the process he would end up putting the fate of his nation in the hands of the powerful Assyrian king.

For us pilgrims, there will come times of testing, when God will check out our faith. In Hebrews 11:6, we read, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him”. There will be times in life when we have to appeal to God in prayer, perhaps for a miraculous healing, relief from debt, or some other human catastrophe. In faith, we know that God will have an answer, and we pray and keep praying until we receive His answer. Nothing delights God more than to see His children faithfully look to Him in times of need. He may not offer us a miraculous sign to prove His presence, because through Jesus, He was the miracle that we need. So we keep praying, day by day, bringing our petitions to the throne of grace. And, as we know, His peace will flood over us. Faith, not fear, will overcome in the end.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You that You are real and able to forgive all our sins. We love You and worship You. Amen.

A Message of Hope: God has a Way

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel against us!” So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub and go out to meet King Ahaz. You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed. Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah. Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are plotting against him, saying, ‘We will attack Judah and capture it for ourselves. Then we will install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.’”
Isaiah 7:2-6 NLT

The news that Syria and Israel had formed an alliance and were heading to Jerusalem filled the hearts of king Ahaz and the people there with fear. We read the extent of the fear, because we are told that the people “trembled … like trees shaking in a storm”. We get more of a background from 2 Chronicles 28, where we find a good reason for the Judeans’ fear. We read, “Because of all this, the Lord his God allowed the king of Aram to defeat Ahaz and to exile large numbers of his people to Damascus. The armies of the king of Israel also defeated Ahaz and inflicted many casualties on his army. In a single day Pekah son of Remaliah, Israel’s king, killed 120,000 of Judah’s troops, all of them experienced warriors, because they had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors. … The armies of Israel captured 200,000 women and children from Judah and seized tremendous amounts of plunder, which they took back to Samaria” (2 Chronicles 28:5-6, 8). 

But all was not lost, because the Lord gave Isaiah a message of hope to take to Ahaz. He was to take his son, Shear-jashub, to meet the king and deliver a message that he must stop worrying. A strange name for a son, I think we agree, but in those days it was the customary to name a child after some event or message from God. Shear-jashub means, “A remnant will return”, a reminder that God would ensure that a small number of people will return from exile to rebuild the nation of Israel. We find some strange names as well in Hosea, with the children of Gober named Jezreel (God will scatter), Lo-ruhamah (Not loved) and Lo-ammi (Not my people), all names to send a prophetic message to the people of Israel because they had rejected God. But at least “A remnant will return” conveys a message of hope.

The account in Isaiah continues with the Lord providing specific instructions to Ahaz regarding the invading armies of Israel and Syria. Ahaz was outside Jerusalem, presumably inspecting Jerusalem’s water supply, when Isaiah caught up with him. There, Isaiah received a message from the Lord telling him not to fear and he delivered it to Ahaz. Although the intent of the invading armies was to capture the whole of Judah and replace the king with their own, we read more detail in Isaiah 7:7-9, “But this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “This invasion will never happen; it will never take place; for Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus, and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed. Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria, and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah. Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm””.

The Lord referred to the invading kings as being “burned-out embers”. In other words, they may look scary, but they are like dying fires that will soon burn out. The Lord promised that their plan to conquer Jerusalem “will never take place”. God points out that the enemies are just human kings, but the Lord is in total control of history. But there was a warning in Isaiah’s message, “… Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm” (Isaiah 7:9b). This was a stark warning to Ahaz that unless he trusted God to protect his kingdom, then he would fall, taking Judah with him. Ahaz received a message of hope, but there was a condition – unless He had faith in God and changed his evil ways, there would be consequences. 

Have any of us pilgrims ever had a panic attack? At a time, perhaps, when something in our lives was so big and so threatening that we lapsed into fear, shaking “like trees in a storm”? At a time when there seemed to be no way out from a financial crisis or bad news from the doctor? At such a time, it is important to stay calm, trusting that God will take care of us. Peter wrote, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7). Paul wrote, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

In God, there is always a way out of a crisis. He brings hope to the hopeless and succour to the needy. Our cares and worries are as nothing to a child of God, because He has all the resources that we will ever need. And one day He will bring us home, to live in His house forever. We pilgrims are children of God, a people of faith, and we know that “… the Spirit who lives in [us] is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4b). 

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your care and concern for us, your children. Whatever we are facing today, we give it to You, in faith that You will bring about the solution we need. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Podcast Episode: Isaiah 5 Judgement And Woes

Posted on by Adrian Clark

Pip: There is something quietly relentless about the book of Isaiah — it keeps finding us wherever we are, even in the twenty-first century, still doing roughly the same things the people of Judah were doing in 700 BC.

Mara: Adrian Clark has been working through Isaiah 5 this week, and the posts cover territory that stays uncomfortably relevant: divine justice and what it demands of us, and the specific catalogue of sins Isaiah names as woes against his own society.

Pip: Let's start with the justice side of things — what righteousness actually means, and what happens when it runs out.

Judgement and divine justice in Isaiah 5

Mara: The central question here is what God's justice looks like when it finally arrives — and what it requires of people in the meantime.

Pip: The post on Isaiah 5 opens with a passage that sets the stakes plainly. The verse reads: "Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down; even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation. But the Lord of Heaven's Armies will be exalted by his justice. The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness."

Mara: What that means in practice is that the wealth and revelry of Judah's ruling class had a shelf life. Historical record confirms it — foreign invaders entered, the land was emptied, and the partying stopped. Pride gave way to humility, not as a spiritual exercise but as a consequence.

Pip: And the post is careful to define what righteousness actually is, not just what it punishes. It draws in Micah 6:8 — "to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" — and Proverbs 21:3, which puts righteous action above religious ritual.

Mara: The follow-up post, "The Judgment to Come," extends the same argument into the present tense. It quotes Isaiah 5:24-25, with its images of fire consuming straw and mountains shaking, and connects that to Jesus's words in Matthew 24 — that no one knows the day or hour, but the call to keep watch stands.

Pip: The remnant thread is what gives it shape. Jeremiah, offered safe passage to Babylon, chose to stay with those left behind. That choice frames the question put to readers directly: are we warning our generation, or are we huddled quietly in the pews?

Mara: The post puts it this way — pilgrims today are effectively that remnant, the faithful lineage through which restoration moves forward. The responsibility that comes with that is not passive.

Pip: Which brings us neatly to what, exactly, the people of Judah were actually doing that warranted all this.

The six woes: a catalogue of sinful living

Mara: Isaiah 5 doesn't just pronounce judgment in the abstract — it names specific behaviours, and the post on the six woes works through each one.

Pip: The anchor passage covers several of them at once: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

Mara: That inversion of moral categories is the one the post treats as most urgent for today — the point where a society stops being confused and starts actively recategorising what God condemns as acceptable, and what God approves as ridiculous.

Pip: The post on hedonism in Isaiah 5 fills in the social backdrop — wealthy people in Jerusalem who had turned drinking and pleasure into a full-time occupation, from early morning to late at night, to the point where they simply stopped noticing God at all.

Mara: And the six woes post ties the alcohol culture directly to injustice: those who are "champions at mixing drinks" end up acquitting the guilty for a bribe and denying justice to the innocent. Excess and corruption travel together.

Pip: Paul's line from Romans 12:2 gets the last word — don't let the world squeeze you into its mould. The J.B. Phillips version is the one quoted: "let God re-mould your minds from within."

Mara: Righteousness as a daily practice, judgment as a present reality, and a faithful remnant called to be visible — that's the thread running through all of it.

Pip: Isaiah was writing to people who couldn't see what was coming. The question for next time is whether we're any better at looking up.

The Judgment to Come

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised, and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.”
Isaiah 5:24-25 NIVUK

If people reject God, there are dire consequences. Helped by Isaiah’s wonderfully poetic and descriptive language, we easily make the connection between the people’s sin, rebellion and idolatry, and their ultimate lot. Isaiah used graphic language with references to fire and decay, all in connection with judgement for the sins of the people in Judah. In the current dry weather, there are reports of wildfires here in the UK, and most people here are aware of the dangers and the horrors of what can happen when fires get out of control. And just after the local cherry blossom trees have shed their flowers, the petals are everywhere, turning brown and gradually disappearing as the winds blow them into corners and beyond. Decaying roots are a sign of a plant or tree’s demise; it will, sooner or later, die off or come crashing down, finally rotting and disappearing into the ground that once supported it. God’s judgment of the people who have “rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel” is to be feared, and yet, as we have seen in the previous verses of Isaiah 5, the people were unrepentant and even defiant. God is angry with them and “His hand is raised, and He strikes them down”. But we read that even then, His anger is unabated, and “His hand is still upraised”. 

Isaiah’s description of what is going to happen to Judah is horrifying, and yet the people of his day couldn’t see what was coming, and, if they did, they chose to ignore it, such was the hold that their sinful lifestyles had over them. Were all people in Judah guilty of sinful behaviour, or was there a remnant of people who remained faithful to God? The historians think so, and it has always been the case that God has preserved a faithful lineage through which He would eventually bring restoration and fulfil His promises. The Babylonian judgment fell in 586 BC, and while the invading army exiled the royal family, the religious elite, and skilled craftsmen to Babylon, they left behind a portion of the poorer population to tend the vineyards and fields. Worthy of note was that the prophet Jeremiah chose to stay with the remnant: “When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, ‘The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.’ … So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land” (Jeremiah 40:2-4, 6). 

There is no difference between people’s attitudes in 586 BC and those of people today. Sin and evil abound everywhere but the difference is that God has not sent specific prophesies about an imminent judgment that is about to take place. Instead, we have the warnings for sinful behaviour well reported in the Biblical passages. Jesus was a prophet, and Matthew 24 recorded His words about what was going to happen in the run-up to the End of the Age. And then the end will come: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. … Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:36, 42). In the days before Christ in Judah, the people had enjoyed a long period of peace that, however, was marked by sinful behaviour, and they chose to ignore Isaiah’s warnings that there were going  to be consequences. Today, unbelievers everywhere choose to heed the Biblical warnings and carry on with their lives regardless. Yes, nothing bad may happen to them in this life (though we don’t know for sure, because the world could end at any time), but it surely will at the End of the Age.

We, pilgrims, are effectively part of the remnant of God’s people in our generation. It is through us that God has preserved “a faithful lineage through which He would eventually bring restoration and fulfil His promises”. In our secular nation, we are the people about whom Ezekiel wrote. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). That happened on that wonderful day when we were reborn through the Spirit of God. How are we pilgrims living out our responsibilities as God’s people, a faithful remnant in our generation? Are we like Isaiah, warning our generation about the judgment to come, or are we a passive minority huddled in our pews and afraid to put our heads above the parapets in case we are rejected and vilified? Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). And so we will, at every opportunity that comes our way.

Dear God. Thank You that You have entrusted to us the mission of being salt and light in our communities. Lead us we pray in Your ways and help us show others the path to everlasting life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What It Means to Be a True Christian

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognise that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.”
2 Corinthians 13:5-6 NLT

Something here in our verses today will bring us up short and cause us to pause our lives while we ask ourselves a question. Am I a Christian with genuine faith? But before we can answer it, we have to define what it means to be a Christian. Many think being a Christian is all about following Christian morals and being a “good” person. Such people can go to a church on a Sunday, listen to the sermon, sing the hymns, and say the prayers, but somehow there is a lack of any connection with God. No relationship there, in the way that we pilgrims know God. Occasionally, a crisis will drive them to their knees, but for most of the time, they live their lives as they always have, sinful and unchanged. But being a Christian is more than that, as we shall see.

Paul asked the Corinthians to “examine themselves to see if [their] faith is genuine”. He went on to define genuine faith by saying that if they fail to understand that Jesus is among them, then they “have failed the test of genuine faith”. It’s all about Jesus. Paul implied that it was all about knowing Him and sensing His presence with them day by day. 

So, back to our question. Who or what is a Christian in the way that Paul was implying? From our verses today, Paul used the word “faith” twice, and that is a central principle in answering the question for ourselves. Unfortunately, the word “faith” has become corrupted today because it is used to define a number of different religions, by calling them “faiths”. So, according to the authorities, we live in a “multi-faith” society that includes Muslims, Hindus, and others, as well as Christians. There have even been ”multi-faith” services held in our churches, and our current King in the UK considers that he is the defender of “faiths” rather than being the traditional head of the Christian church, the defender of the faith. The University of Edinburgh goes further and offers not only “multi-faith” support for students but also offers seminars in fringe topics unfamiliar to us pilgrims, such as Yoga, mindfulness, and Tai Chi. Confusion reigns, therefore, over the use of the word “faith”. 

A Christian is someone who belongs to Jesus Christ, by trusting in Him, following Him, and being transformed by Him. So straight away, the Corinthians had a measure for their belief. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved”. Is that something the Corinthians were doing, or had done? We don’t know, but we can apply this to ourselves. Jesus said that true believers in Him are “born again”. John 3:5, 7, “Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. … So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again’”. This is a divisive verse amongst Christian communities today, because many fail to understand what this really means about their faith. The wording “being born again” even causes offence to some people because it implies a radical experience of salvation. But it is a spiritual process, sometimes rapid, as it was with Paul on the Damascus road, or gradual over a period of time, as it was with C S Lewis. Regardless of the way we pilgrims came to believe in Jesus, the reality of our faith in Him prevails. 

For the Christians in Corinth, it appears that some subversive elements had crept in, something that was probably not unheard of in those days. The Apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here” (1 John 4:1-3). These verses from John complement the verses that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and again the word “test” appears. And straight away, we can think of churches today that fail this test. For example, I can think of a cult that only believes that Jesus was a prophet, and yet they call themselves “Christian”. 

There are other characteristics of Christianity that we must continue at another time, but in the meantime, we declare that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. We love Him and worship Him because of who He is and what He has done for us.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for Jesus and His sacrificial death on Calvary’s Cross. We fall on our knees before Him today, in love and adoration. Amen.

Paul’s Third Visit: Testimony and Warning

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“This is the third time I am coming to visit you (and as the Scriptures say, “The facts of every case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses”). I have already warned those who had been sinning when I was there on my second visit. Now I again warn them and all others, just as I did before, that next time I will not spare them.”
2 Corinthians 13:1-2 NLT

We begin the last chapter of 2 Corinthians considering what Paul is intending to do in this, his third visit to the church in Corinth. The sinning amongst the believers will be his focus when he arrives, and he issued a warning in advance, probably in the hope that all would be sorted out by the time he gets to Corinth. Paul had obviously heard things about the goings-on in the church and reassured them that he wouldn’t act just on one person’s testimony. Paul quoted Deuteronomy 19:15, “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses”. This common-sense principle still underpins our legal system today, and the prosecution of anyone in the “dock” accused of a crime will need evidence that is backed up by a variety of factors, one of which is the importance of multi-witness testimony.

There were twelve men who spent three years of so in the company of Jesus, and in that time they were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God. And they continued through the rest of their lives suffering greatly for their testimony about who he was. Before the Sanhedrin, Peter said, “Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 4:10). This was a testimony that silenced the High Council, and we read, “But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say” (Acts 4:14). In this case, Peter was the witness and his testimony was boldly proclaimed and backed up by the miracle that had taken place. We can just imagine the religious hierarchy staring at Peter open-mouthed, for once silenced by such indisputable evidence. There was nothing in their law book that could cope with this. And Acts 4:33 recorded “The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all”. 

The Gospels are full of the works and sayings of Jesus, and they were witnessed by His disciples and many others at the time. Paul wrote, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). Lawyers today have examined the available evidence for the death and resurrection of Jesus and have concluded that there was sufficient to meet the threshold of achieving a positive confirmation of the truth of it. So why is it that people still won’t believe in Jesus? Evidence from far more than the required “two or three” exists.

People don’t believe in Jesus because it is a deliberate act of their will to deny the truth. They know that if they do believe in the evidence, then they will have to make some changes in their lives. Big changes for some, if not most, and in the verses we are considering today, the biggest issue is that of sin. Sin is defined as rebellion against God and His ways, but mis- and disinformation conspires to cover it up, or call it something else. Blame for sinful behaviour is apportioned to a number of factors, such as upbringing, social circumstances, or a popular one today – mental health. These are all valid to a greater or lesser degree, and they play a big part in defining who a person is, but they only mask the fundamental problem. I met a man the other day with a bright yellow sweatshirt emblazoned with the strap line “ADHD is not a lifestyle choice”. It probably isn’t – I’m not qualified to express even an opinion – but I worship a God who is bigger than any human condition, and we pilgrims know that He can take the weakest human being and turn them into a mighty man or woman of God. Paul wrote, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). God uses people who are weak, powerless, inadequate, uneducated, even sick, physically or mentally, to witness for Him. I have a dear friend who was hospitalised for some weeks recently with a heart condition, but even in his distress, he made sure that all the doctors and nurses knew about his faith in Jesus.

We pilgrims are counted amongst the “two or three” swelling the numbers who witness for Jesus into an uncountable multitude. And yet there are many more who do not know Him, and we have to tell them that they will perish in their sins unless they make the right choice to follow and believe in Jesus. What else can we do, other than tell people about God’s love and grace, about how he sent His Son, Jesus, to die for everyone, taking on their sins and taking on Himself the punishment for what was legally ours? 

Dear Heavenly Father. We understand that we are Your witnesses here in this sad and dying world, and we pray that we will get opportunities to declare “the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” whenever we can. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.

Suffering for a Little While

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I am not lying. When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me. I had to be lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall to escape from him.”
2 Corinthians 11:30-33 NLT

An extraordinary tale from Paul, having to escape from the civil authorities in that way, but it provides yet another indication of how difficult it was in those days to be a Christian and preach the Gospel. If any believer has any doubts today about their faith, they must consider what others have gone through to protect it. If the story of Jesus, His ministry, His trial, death, burial, and subsequent resurrection is disbelieved by our fellow Christians, then perhaps the people involved should think about how many people have suffered so much to protect their faith in God. Lies never prevail over truth.

Are Christians generally weak, as Paul said he was? Surely that can’t be true, because we read verses such as “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). We also have Psalm 18:29, “In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall”. And another favourite of mine, Isaiah 40:29-31, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint”. Reading the verses, we can perhaps discover that, through God, we are, in fact, invincible and even indestructible. But we pause, and on reflection understand that all these things are in God’s strength, not in our own. Humans are frail beings, and ever since Jesus walked the highways and byways of Palestine, Christians have suffered greatly for their faith, their strength in God failing to materialise into a physical and human strength able to overcome the beatings, stonings, torture and other abuse that have been their lot under hostile and misguided regimes. And such is still the case today in some parts of the world. 

Christians take the long view because the time spent in this world is infinitesimally short compared to an eternity spent in God’s company. A different spirit was present when Peter and John were punished for speaking about Jesus. They were arrested to stand trial before the Sanhedrin, and we read their punishment in Acts 5:40-41, “The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus”. Because Jesus suffered so much, Peter and John rejoiced that they too were suffering, and all because they could see what was coming their way. Perhaps they remembered what Jesus had said to them right back at the beginning, “But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues” (Matthew 10:17). Later in the same discourse, Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). However, in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Paul wrote, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever”. The early Apostles, in all their distress, stayed the course because they knew what was coming one day soon.

We pilgrims here in the West have little to fear from the authorities for our faith. We will not receive a beating for sharing our faith, well, not yet anyway. But we will suffer more subtle forms of abuse, through being ostracised, or marginalised, in our society that only favours those who do not challenge the sin and evil that prevail. But as Paul said, what we suffer now is of no consequence from the perspective of eternity. We have a loving Heavenly Father who one day will call us home.

Dear Father God. Thank You for all that You have done for us and will continue to do until the day of glory that will come before we know it. Thank You for Jesus, who has made it all possible. Amen.

The Dangers of Comparing Ourselves to Others

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!” Those people should realise that our actions when we arrive in person will be as forceful as what we say in our letters from far away. Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!”
2 Corinthians 10:10-12 NLT

There were a group of men full of their own importance in Corinth, men who had emerged as leaders in the congregation and were hostile to Paul’s ongoing involvement in the church there. They subversively undermined Paul and his teaching and preached their own version of the Gospel. They may even have attempted to include some of the Gnostic or other erroneous teachings in their messages, although there was no evidence of that from Paul’s letters. Perhaps Paul gave a hint of concern when he wrote, “You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us” (2 Corinthians 2:17). But regardless of what really was the situation in Corinth, Paul was pulling no punches and he had some hard words about “these other men who tell you how important they are”. 

About “these other men”, it seems that their self-declared importance came from “comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement”. Straight away, we can see the danger in this, because a human being is no proper standard of measurement. Yes, we can get out the tape measures and the bathroom scales, the blood pressure monitor and the thermometer, and make certain physical measurements, from which a comparison can be made with others. For example, a person’s temperature can be compared with the temperatures of many others, and a good idea can be obtained about their health from that, with an elevated temperature indicating some form of infection. But when it comes to spiritual matters, then there is a problem. There is no final arbiter of the state of a human being other than God Himself, because He is absolute truth, whereas people are not. A person with all the Bible knowledge in the world, even a professor of theology or an expert Bible scholar, can fall short in the comparison stakes. 

“These other men” in Corinth were comparing themselves with each other, but what was the criterion they were using in the comparison? Was it their ability to pray in public? Was it their knowledge of the Gospel? Was it their ability to preach and bring a message that everyone could understand? Or was it their boasting about how good or rich they were, something supported by their material status in the Corinthian society? That latter question exposes the human problem of comparing oneself with others, using the physical or external attributes of their appearance in the comparison. So today, young girls can end up in trouble by comparing themselves with film stars or catwalk models and making decisions based on diet or clothes. Men can suffer the same from their prowess on the golf course, in the gym, or from the car they drive. 

But how do we pilgrims consider ourselves? Are we comparing ourselves with anyone? If so, what criterion are we using, and anyway, why are we doing it? Paul wrote about this in Philippians 2:3, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves”. Paul continued, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. …” Philippians 2:5-7a). So we pilgrims aspire to being humble, but what does that look like? This can be applied too far, so that the person shies away from offering an opinion or praying in public, lest they be considered boastful. In Romans 12:3, Paul provided some light on the situation. “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us”. We pilgrims must honestly do and say things in accordance with our faith that we have in the gift God has provided for us. How do we reach this point? Through prayer and, in the end, trial and error, perseverance with humility and the willingness to say we were wrong if necessary. 

There is no merit in comparing ourselves with others because their gifting and faith will be different to ours. All God asks us to do is in accordance with how He has made us and resourced us with His Spirit. In the Kingdom of God, the worldly rules don’t apply, and most of the time carry the caption “sin”. The Psalmist wrote, “A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked” (Psalm 84:10). That is where I want to be. Many around us may claim to have a good life, something they conclude by comparing themselves with others, but all we must aspire to is a life of service to God. As we look up into Heavenly places, there will be no time to look to others.

Dear Father God. What can we say but “sorry” for the time we spend comparing ourselves with those around us. Please forgive us, we pray, and we ask for help when we get trapped in such a way. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Spiritual Warfare: Understanding God’s Mighty Weapons

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 NLT

If the word “war” is mentioned to a random person we meet in the street, they will immediately associate the word with conflicts such as the current wars between Russia and Ukraine, or the war between the US and Iran. A veteran might refer to a more recent spat, such as the Falklands war, and there are even a few brave men who can remember the Second World War. The earliest mention of such a human conflict in the Bible occurred in Genesis 14, and was between four Mesopotamian kings and five Canaanite kings, and it took place in the valley of the Dead Sea. The account was recorded in Genesis because Abram’s nephew Lot was involved, and we find the first mention of Melchizedek, “the priest of God Most High”, who blessed Abram with bread and wine. 

But these are all human conflicts waged by humans against humans, and such wars have been a feature of human life since the beginning. Paul was careful to point out, however, that the wars he waged were not like these. Instead, his weapons were not of the worldly variety but were “God’s mighty weapons”. And the foe was not another army or nation, but strongholds such as “human reasoning” and “false arguments”. Paul’s account in 2 Corinthians 10 began with the addressing of false conclusions about him being considered by the church in Corinth. Paul appealed, even begged, the Corinthians to sort themselves and their thinking out because he didn’t want to have to be bold with those who thought he was driven by human motives. False thinking, he was going to address, if he had to, using “God’s mighty weapons”, weapons that would be totally foreign to worldly people. 

Those of us familiar with Ephesians 6 will know that Paul wrote about items of armour and their spiritual equivalents, no doubt inspired by the Roman soldier he was chained to in prison. These items are mostly defensive, but they all have their place in God’s armoury. We read about truth and righteousness, the Gospel, faith, and salvation, and the one offensive “weapon”, the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”. The next verse in Ephesians mentions another weapon – prayer – and it adds another thought about being alert and persistent with the prayers offered. A soldier for Christ, equipped in this way, will be able to overcome even the strongest enemy in heavenly places. But echoing the words in 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). These were the “soldiers” of a foreign “army” but without any strategy or power capable of overcoming the well-equipped spiritual soldiers, pilgrims such as ourselves. 

“The human heart is the
most deceitful of all things“

When he returned to Corinth, Paul was prepared “to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments”. The human mind, as we know, has a tendency to delude itself with wrong thinking, driven by a false logic, or human thoughts. After all, we know the Scripture from Jeremiah 17:9, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” A human “heart” is the seat of thinking, emotions, and all the “false arguments” and “human reasoning” mentioned by Paul, and many people can be found who delude themselves in this way. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, warned them of something similar: “Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires” (Romans 13:14). 

So, when next in Corinth, Paul warned the believers there that he had spiritual weapons at his disposal that would be able to resolve the wrong thinking about him that had developed there. We pilgrims, too, have the same weapons available to us, and by prayer and God’s Word, we have the ability to destroy the strongholds in which our enemy thinks he is invincible. Isaiah wrote, “But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Isaiah 54:17). That day is with us now. With the spiritual weapons at our disposal, we are overcomers in the Lord.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your many blessings and for Your Word, the Bible. We turn our thoughts today to Heavenly places and not to the worldly and sinful ways we can so easily lapse into. Please help us to be overcomers today and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Excelling in Faith: Lessons from the Church in Corinth

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving. I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches.”
2 Corinthians 8:7-8 NLT

From all accounts, and regardless of the issues Paul raised, this was a very gifted church in Corinth. The believers there were blessed in so many ways. But Paul was introducing them to some harder challenges that would test them a bit. What about your giving? he asked. Paul effectively asked, “Do you really love the Christians in other places who perhaps are not as financially blessed as you are?” Such questions often expose the love and commitment that believers have, and even today, some churches collapse because the congregation is either unwilling or unable to support the work. 

The church in Jerusalem was struggling financially, as we read in Acts 11:27-30, “During this time, some prophets travelled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.) So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem”. As far as the timeline of events goes, Claudius reigned from 41 to 54 AD. Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians around 56 AD, so the Judean believers must still have been in difficult times and desperately needed assistance.

The believers in Corinth excelled in their faith, Paul wrote. When we think about our faith, we consider it as a name for our Christianity, in the context that it is the one faith amongst many. Our current King, Charles III, holds the traditional title of Defender of the Faith as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, but he has expressed a desire to be a “defender of faith” (or “all faiths”), acting as a protector for all religions in a multicultural Britain. While he retains the traditional, formal title, he has emphasised a broader, more inclusive approach to religious diversity, which was reflected in his coronation ceremony. Sad, really, because his mother was definitely a defender of the one true faith. 

We pilgrims also think of “faith” in the Hebrews 11:1 context, which starts, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see”. In this context, faith is perhaps more objective and far enough away not to bother us too much. But further down in Hebrews 11 we read verse 6, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him”. Such a faith is more immediate and personal and is a reflection on how we live our Christian lives. The question is, “How does our faith in God impact our daily lives?” Do we attend church on a Sunday, and yet fail to uphold Godly principles in the office on a Monday morning? Or do we fall apart when a problem arises and our faith is then soon forgotten? Excelling in faith means consistently growing beyond basic belief into an overflowing, active, and Christlike life, characterised by deepened love, knowledge, and dedication rather than complacency. So we diligently seek to glorify God in all that we are and do, acting in ways that demonstrate our faith. Most of the time, we are not talking about a faith like Noah’s, a big faith that persevered for a hundred years, building a boat large enough to take all the animals. Or a faith like Abraham’s. Romans 4:3, “For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith””. Our personal faith is worked out in our day to day lives, as we journey on to glory, meeting the problems, troubles and challenges that all people experience, but applying our faith-filled lives with a Godly faith.

Paul also commended the Corinthians for their gifted speakers. These were not just the up-front preachers, but all the believers, as they spoke out their wisdom, knowledge and prophetic words, all for the edification of the church. This was a thriving fellowship devoted to growing in numbers and their faith, and they applied themselves enthusiastically to living their lives together. Don’t forget, this was a church at the cutting edge of Christianity in a hostile world, and they needed all the faith and other resources that they could muster. Paul and his colleagues loved them dearly, and I’m sure did their best to encourage them in their lives as believers.

What do we pilgrims excel at? The fact that we are here so far along the trail is a testimony to our growing faiths. We have been Christians for varying lengths of time, and we will all have been facing a unique series of events as we go about our daily lives. School and further education, the workplace, family matters like marrying and having children, and then on to retirement and a new twilight season with perhaps some health challenges. But these are generalities which we will encounter, but within them, there are the hard times when our faith is really tested. It may have already been tested severely, but in it all, we are overcomers. That is where our faiths excel. 

Paul wrote to the Roman believers, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? … No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us”(Romans 8: 35, 37). We pilgrims see beyond the short-term troubles to the time when we will give God the Glory He deserves, to the time when He will reward us for our faith. Our faith connects us with the Source of all that we need to be overcomers in a world that seems to lurch from one disaster to the next, disasters driven by sin and wickedness. Jesus said, “ … Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). Our faith is taking us on an exciting journey, and the Corinthian believers seemingly were excelling in walking by faith through the difficulties of their times. Are we as well?

Dear Father God. You are the Source of all our faith, and nothing will separate us from Your love. We thank You for Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, and we praise You today. Please help us in our walk of faith, as You have done on so many occasions. Amen.