God – Page 17 – Being a Pilgrim

God is for Us

Posted on 5th Apr 202317th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”
Romans 8:31-34 NLT

Paul reaches a climax in his writing, asking the question “What shall we say…?” It’s not like Paul to be lost for words. As the most prolific writer in the New Testament, his literary skills are without doubt. It is just incredible that he was able to write so much, being so busy with his missionary journeys. Perhaps spells in prison might have helped, giving him time to think. But Paul refers to “wonderful things”. What were they? Previous verses refer to those who put their faith in Jesus being adopted into God’s family, giving us a relationship with God so close that we can call Him “Daddy”. Paul writes about our legacy as heirs of God, with the benefits of a living and loving will available to us. He muses about our future glory and the new bodies that God will provide for us one day. They describe the work of the Holy Spirit within us, even to the extent of “groaning” our prayers on our behalf. And the previous verses set out a scenario that assures us God-lovers that whatever happens in our lives, He will bring a good outcome. Wonderful things indeed, and I can imagine Paul being overwhelmed with a flood of emotions, full of gratitude and worship.

It is obvious to Paul, and it should be to us as well, that with such a loving God on our side, nothing can ever successfully “be against us”. We may be going through a difficult time, with an antagonistic boss, or a controlling partner. Fellow students at school or college may ridicule us. Workmates may shun us. In some parts of the world, civil authorities may incarcerate us, or abuse us. Martyrdom is not a foreign phenomenon for Christians in hostile countries. But because “God is for us”, we can be assured that He will never desert us, because we are His children. Which parent abandons His offspring when in a time of need? Perhaps a premature entry into His arms is to be welcomed when times are hard. But through it all, our tormentors will one day have to stand before God and account for their behaviour. We have read the Book and know how it all ends. We’re on the winning side.

Such an assurance of God’s support and resources provides for us the confidence we need for living. We read in 1 Peter 2:9, ” … 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”. We have stumbled upon an eternal and far-reaching truth, that provides for us the realisation that we are living in God’s light. We have ended up aligning ourselves to the One who holds the whole of creation together. And we look back to our God-less lives and realise just how dark they were. In fact, if it wasn’t for God’s light spilling off of His people, the blackness of life would have been total. Do we realise that as we pilgrims walk in this world, we are spiritual beacons giving off the light of God?

We are living in an age where no weapon conjured up by the devil and his minions can ever be successful against us. Yes, discomfort and even death may be on the horizon for some, but through it all, our wonderful Heavenly Father has it covered. He’s on it. We can worship Him with a peaceful confidence of His love and care.

Heavenly Father. You provide light for a dark and desperate world. Please help us to reflect that light into the lives of those around us, those so oppressed by sin and hopelessness. We worship You today. Amen.

Being Justified

Posted on 4th Apr 202311th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
Romans 8:29-30 NIVUK
“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.”
Romans 8:29-30 NLT

We’ll spend another day with these two verses in Romans 8. This time the word “justified” or phrase “right standing with himself” appears in the text, depending on which of today’s Bible versions we look at. What does it mean to be “justified”.

An old pastor of mine used to define justification as “just as if we had never sinned”. Quite close to the mark. But although there has been much theology written about justification, all easily accessible via Mr Google, it has no impact unless there is a personal experience woven into the definition. I’m sure many of us can spout out what justification means. It all starts with man’s ubiquitous sin. We have all sinned, as Paul wrote in Romans 3:23 – “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. And that sin will inevitably one day have to be accounted for, and punishment dispensed. An unrepentant sinner will one day find himself standing before God to give an account of his life. Perhaps God will ask him why he never had his sins forgiven through the death of His Son. Ignorance won’t be an excuse. There are no mitigating circumstances. The punishment is eternal death without parole, in a place far worse than any human jail.

But through our faith in Jesus, who took on board all sins committed, past, present and future when He was crucified at Calvary, we are now declared righteous. It is not as though God now considers us as being holy, which is something internal, but being justified declares that we are sinless in His sight. The sins we have confessed and repented of are now accredited to Jesus rather than to us. And because of that we are now declared righteous in His sight. We are “justified”.

Far too simple, some say. Christians who believe this are naïve and deluded, goes the criticism. There will always be many who reject such a profound explanation. A question is often, ”How do we know all this is true? No-one has returned from the dead to confirm it”. Jesus told a parable about the Rich Man and a poor man called Lazarus, who begged for money at his gate. Lazarus ended up justified in God’s presence but the Rich Man ended up in hell. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus back to speak to his brothers, to warn them about what would happen to them unless they changed their ways. And the conclusion of the story can be found in Luke 16:19-31, “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’ “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’ “But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead’”.

We pilgrims will nevertheless keep on warning those around us. We share our experiences, our testimonies, and the picture of a God of love and well as a God of righteousness and holiness. Our message of hope will mostly be rejected, we know. But unless we try how can God’s love touch someone we know? We can never give up sharing what God has done for us.

Father God. We worship You today, the wonderful and merciful God, with the gracious power to forgive our sins through Your Son Jesus. Amen.

Our Calling

Posted on 3rd Apr 202311th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

Paul continued to write that God called those He had chosen right from the beginning. If someone in a crowd calls out our name we look around us to see who was the caller. We immediately respond to the mention of our name. Jesus did the same to His disciples. In Mark 1:17,20 we read, “Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” … He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men”. Our calling from God is more subtle. We mostly don’t hear a voice from Heaven (not unknown but unusual) calling our name. But in more subtle ways we hear God’s voice. Through circumstances perhaps, so that we end up in a place where God has our attention. Or through an invitation, calling even, of a trusted friend. Or at a time when we had reached rock bottom and decided only God had the answer to our problems.

God also calls His people for a specific purpose. He called to Moses from a burning bush; we read the start of the account in Exodus 3: 2-4, “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied”.
The Apostle Paul was called – he wrote in Romans 1:1, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God”.

History is full of people with a calling. We think of the great missionaries such as John Wesley and Jim Elliot. Men with a specific calling from God. But it’s not just history. I know of a young woman who is currently sharing the love of God with people groups in the Middle East. Jackie Pullinger and Mother Theresa are also examples of women with a special calling to do God’s work amongst the disadvantaged. The author Philip Yancy writes much about his doctor friend who turned his back on a medical career to work as a missionary doctor amongst people with leprosy.

So the inevitable question now emerges for us pilgrims. What has God called us to do? This is a personal question, and one that must be approached with care and much prayer. The question can’t be answered. by anyone else. There have been many tempted to head for the mission field in response to a rousing sermon preached by a big name evangelist. But the reality is that most of us are called by God to use the gifts He has given us in our communities and workplaces. We are “salt and light” in societies that are hostile to counter-cultural people such as us. Occasionally, of course, God will give us special assignments, like Ananias who was called to go and pray for Paul (the story is in Acts 9). But most of the time it is all about being faithful in the small things, day to day. One day our perseverance and diligence will be rewarded by our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. We will hear the “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus mentioned rewards for those who show kindness to others. In my meanderings around the West of Fife woodlands, I often give a cheery “Good Morning” sometimes followed by a topical greeting referring to something of local interest. In this season of my life, perhaps that is all God wants me to do. One day, there will be a positive response and the opportunity to lead someone to Jesus. We don’t know what is going on in another person’s life, but I have often wondered about how some will open up and spill out the anxieties and problems that are in the forefront of their minds. And they will then walk away, hopefully touched by the love of God.

Dear Lord Jesus. Your love for mankind knows no limits. Please lead and guide us to the right people at just the right time, so that we can communicate Your love and grace. Amen.

Bodies Like Jesus

Posted on 2nd Apr 202311th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

I suppose it is inevitable that God will know “His people in advance”. After all, He knows the end from the beginning, because he is eternal, not bounded by time as we know it. But predestination leads, as Paul wrote, the “chosen ones of God” being “conformed to the image of His Son”. Is that the spiritual or physical image? The former of course because when we receive our new bodies we will be recognisable as who we were in our natural life. God isn’t going to create lots of Jesus clones, identical like chocolate soldiers wrapped in tinfoil. Jesus’s disciples recognised Him after His resurrection. It was as if He had the same body, but this time with special properties. We read in Matthew 17:1-3 that the disciples recognised Moses and Elijah in their new bodies, “Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus”. So, as Paul wrote, Jesus is our older brother and one day we will join Him, with bodies similar to His in properties, but unique in the way we look.

But we know that one day our natural bodies, weakened by age, illness and sin, will die, and will be buried, cremated or whatever we have willed. Paul wrote much about our bodies and their resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. And he drew a distinction between our natural bodies and our resurrected spiritual bodies. I Corinthians 15:44, “They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies”. So after we die we will have a spiritual body. Nothing like what we have now, but a body nevertheless. Our natural bodies are no longer of any use to us and will return the to the elements that they were made up of. The popular artists of previous centuries made much of spiritual bodies and portrayed them as ghosts and the like. A good read is “A Christmas Carol”, the fictional book by Charles Dickens and written in the mid nineteenth century, and much favoured as a plot for film makers. Previous generations had a fascination for spiritual bodies, but little of substance is known about them other than what we read in the Bible.

But our spiritual bodies don’t remain as such. In 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 we read, “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies”.

So the Bible indicates that there will be three states to our lives. We are born with a natural body. When it dies we will acquire a spiritual body. And then, when Jesus returns, we will be given an immortal body. That body will be amazing because it will be like Jesus’s body. And all the sorrows we have experienced on Planet Earth will be no more. Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever”. A spiritual body won’t, of course, have tears and experience pain in the way our natural bodies do. But the wonder doesn’t stop there. In Revelation 21:3 we read, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them””.

We pilgrims look up and imagine the certainty of the coming Lord. And we lift our feet with renewed vigour, heading towards the goal Paul wrote about in Philippians 3:14, “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”. Truly, the race we run will end one day. The finishing post could be just over the next hill. We mustn’t give up, for Jesus’ sake.

Dear God. Your creation is extraordinary. It extends out of this world into realms of which we only have a glimpse. There is so much in the future to look forward to and we look on with wonder and amazement, and with grateful hearts. Amen.

Hope, Patience and Confidence

Posted on 29th Mar 202310th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

“We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)”
Romans 8:24-25 NLT

Just as a reminder, the “hope” referred to by Paul was written in the previous verse in Romans. We read in Romans 8:23b, “ … We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.” To Paul, this wasn’t just a vague notion of something to come, with a half-hearted, secular, definition of hope. Too often we express a hope for something relatively unimportant, like “I hope it doesn’t rain today” or “I hope there’s a parking space available”. The hope Paul was expressing was much more than that. It was fully inspired by, and infused with, faith. The sort of faith that was famously written about in Hebrews 11:1, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see”. So faith-inspired hope would start with “I know …”.

Paul’s assurance about the “hope” he expressed was total. He knew that Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary was a once-only, all-encompassing, act of divine love and grace, that one day would result in the culmination of all that he had been promised. Paul qualified his statement of hope, however, by the obvious aside that reminded his readers that they could only hope for something that they hadn’t already received. Of course, Paul wasn’t already living in his new body, but it was something that was going to happen to him some time in the future. No tantrum from Paul – “I want it now! Right now!” – he was fully prepared to “wait patiently and confidently”.

We pilgrims are on this planet, 2,000 years or thereabouts after Paul wrote these words in his letter to the Roman Christians. We too were given a “hope” when we were saved. At Calvary, where we put our faith and trust in Jesus, a new vista opened before us. Not anymore a potential life of sin and shame followed by an end, the thought of which was making us feel vaguely uneasy. We too, like Paul, have a “hope” to look forward to. Like him, we too will receive our new bodies. The old Apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:2, “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is”. Is it too much of a stretch of our “hope” to assume that our new bodies will be like Jesus’s was (and still is) after His resurrection, and behave in the same way? If so, perhaps we too will have bodies as they were when we were 33 years old, because that was how old Jesus was when He died.

But we mustn’t forget that our “hope” is in our salvation. We are saved from the awful alternative of a life spent in a place we call hell. That is why we pilgrims walk on. Strong in faith. Assured of God’s love and grace. Hoping with patience and confidence for the day when we will see Him face to face.

Dear Father. In You, we have a certain hope for our future eternal life, to be spent with You in Heaven. But before we get impatient, we remember what Paul said, and put our trust in You for our future, coming at just the right time. Thank You. Amen.

Eager Hope

Posted on 28th Mar 202310th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.”
Romans 8:23 NLT

Paul wrote in the previous verses of how all creation is groaning under God’s curse. Adam’s sin blighted God’s perfection and introduced “suffering” into the world. In our human experience, we know what suffering is all about. The ravages of diseases bring misery and despair. The joints crippled by arthritis. The diagnosis of cancer introducing fear and hopelessness into even the most resilient of people and their families. The mental and emotional stress of living in a society that is at the mercy of inflation and market forces. Human beings are not immune from groaning and believers are not exempt either. In Romans 8:10, Paul wrote about the distinction between our physical and spiritual bodies. We read, “And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God”. Whatever sin touches it corrupts. But we should be encouraged because Jesus knows all about our suffering. After all, He came to this world, leaving the comforts of Heaven, and took on human flesh. We read in Hebrews 2:14-15, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying”.

The Apostle Paul was, at the time of writing this, his last letter, probably advancing in years and, after years of suffering, his mind looked forward to the day when he would be “released from sin and suffering”. And as he mused on his circumstances and a life spent furthering the Gospel, he was increasingly becoming aware that he had almost completed everything that Jesus had asked him to do. So he expressed his “eager hope” for the time when he would inherit the glory God had promised. He refers to the “full rights as His adopted [child]” and especially the new body he would be given one day. If there was anything that Paul would have needed it was a new body. His tired old body was covered in scars. He, on several occasions, asked God to remove the “thorn in his flesh” which some scholars believe referred to his eyesight problems. Something that all old people often yearn for is the ability to run around like they did in their youth. In 2 Corinthians 5:2-4 Paul wrote, “We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life”.

In the end, it all comes back to Jesus. As recorded in John 10:10 He said, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life”. That’s what He did indeed. At Calvary, He fired the gun starting the era of preparation for our new lives in Heaven. Countless millions of people since have embraced His message of salvation. He is in Heaven before us, wearing His new body. He is preparing a new home for us. One day we pilgrims will join Him, grateful for the new bodies we will inherit. Grateful for our legacy of God’s glory.

Thank You Jesus for setting us free from the curse of sin. We now have a certain hope for our future, to be spent with You. Amen.

Creation is Groaning

Posted on 27th Mar 20239th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creation is Waiting

Posted on 26th Mar 20239th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suffering

Posted on 25th Mar 20239th Mar 2023 by korgrocker

“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.”
Romans 8:18 NLT

Paul compares the suffering being experienced by both him and the early Christians with the wonderful benefits of the future life spent with God. The persecution suffered by the first followers of the Way is well documented, and it frequently included torture and death, particularly during Nero’s reign after the major fire in Rome. Paul himself suffered much during his missionary journeys, as we read in 2 Corinthians 11:23b-27, “… I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm”. Now that is suffering and those early Christians were not unaware of what Paul had been through, because many of them experienced physical and economical hardship as well. We Western Christians have never experienced persecution on that scale, and we hope we never will.

Having said that, however, persecution is growing in the Western societies. Secularisation is well advanced and Christians are being increasingly marginalised. Congregations are dwindling. In Scotland we are currently going through a leadership election for a new First Minister, and one of the candidates, a committed Christian, has received terrible abuse because of her beliefs – she has even been told that Christian beliefs are incompatible with government in 21st Century Scotland. Persecution in the West is more subtle. A creeping erosion of Christian values. Verbal and societal attacks on individuals who dare to speak out a defence of their faith are becoming increasingly common. Globally, Christian persecution is increasing, but we shouldn’t be surprised about this because Jesus Himself warned about such things – we read in Matthew what He said to His disciples about the end times. Matthew 24:9-10 reads, “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other”. Sound familiar?

But – thankfully, there is always a “but” – Paul reassured his readers with the truth that one day they will be with God in Glory. From the perspective of eternity, the time spent on Planet Earth is insignificant. A mere blip, a microcosm of time, too small to register. We don’t really know the extent of God’s glory. We can guess that it will be wonderful and amazing, even more so when we think that we too will share in it. We do know, though, that we cannot see God’s glory in this life. Moses was prevented from seeing even a glimpse of God’s face, as we read in Exodus 33, “But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen”” (Exodus 33:20-23).

We pilgrims must stay the course. We must not give up, no matter how much opposition and abuse we receive. In an age when many are falling away from the faith, it is even more important that we stand firm, on the Rock that is the Lord.

Dear Father God. We know the You are the only dependable foundation in a world that is shaking. We cling to the Rock – there is no other way. Amen.

Children of God

Posted on 22nd Mar 20232nd Mar 2023 by korgrocker

“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
Romans 8:12-14 NLT

Paul referred to the Roman Christians as his “dear brothers and sisters”. He hadn’t met any of them but he spoke of a bond that was not bounded by geographical distance. Instead he knew that he was united with the Christians in Rome just as he was related to his own family back in Tarsus. Such a bold statement might have been a bit strange to those early Christians, so Paul continued to develop the family theme.

From the black and white, hard hitting, teaching of the previous chapters, Paul was now much more conciliatory in tone, appealing to his dear friends. Once again he gently pointed out that sin leads to death, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, sin is instead put to death, resulting in life. Life in the Spirit, not life controlled by sin.

But we should note a little word used by Paul, a word of profound importance to pilgrims, just as much then as it is today. The word, “if”. We have a choice. We can discard a life of sin, or we can live a life powered by the Holy Spirit. A simple but profound choice. But one with equally profound outcomes.

Paul’s writings next dropped a bombshell of seismic proportions on his audience. If we are led by the Spirit then we become God’s children. If true, then this must be one of the most important and significant events this planet has ever seen. But we must accept that this is an amazing truth, one we cannot ignore. But the logical question then is whose children are we if we don’t live a life led by the Holy Spirit? Of course, we are referring here to spiritual children, not to our physical origins. And in that perspective, we are either children of God or children of the devil. I John 3:10, “So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God”.

So we pilgrims have another message for this lost, confused, chaotic and dying world around us. We are spiritual beings, members of one of two families. I know which of them I would rather belong to! Perhaps we need to ask our friends and families which family they want to be a part of.

Dear Father. How amazing it is that You want us imperfect humans to be part of Your family. Thank You! Amen.