World Rulers

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.”
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 NLT

How grateful we must be for God’s Secret Plan, the mystery of God, and the Message of the Cross. Through them all, they all came to fruition on the fateful “Good Friday” when Jesus lost His life in terrible circumstances. Why did God allow it to happen? Because it was all in His plan, established before the foundation of the world, the plan that would lead to “our ultimate glory”. We know that the plan, involving His secret wisdom, would make it possible for our sin to be forgiven by Christ’s death instead of our own and for us to be declared righteous based on Christ’s righteousness and not our own. Paul wrote, “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). In fact, the saints in previous generations used to describe what would happen to them after they die, as being “elevated to Glory”, using a definition of Heaven to describe what will happen after they crossed the Great Divide. God’s plan for us wasn’t just about forgiveness of sins, important as that is, but it also involved giving each one of us Jesus’ righteousness and glory. And all planned and kept secret “before the world began”. 

Paul saw the irony of the situation and said that if the “rulers of this world” knew what they were doing, they would not have allowed Jesus to be crucified. The devil thought that by killing the Son of God he would win the final battle in his tussle with the God who evicted him from Heaven. But how wrong he was. He must have heard the times when Jesus predicted His death, with scriptures like John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life“. He must have read Psalm 22:16b, “ … They have pierced my hands and feet”. We know that the devil knew his Bible because he quoted from it during Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. But he of course knew nothing about God’s Secret Plan and the final outcome that would defeat death once and for all. No believer in Jesus, no-one who was a chosen child of God, will ever experience the finality of death at the end of their lives. Instead, as Jesus promised, they will live forever, ruling and reigning with Him.

But who were these “rulers of this world”? They divided into two camps, spiritual and natural, with one being influenced by the other. Paul wrote about the spiritual rulers in Ephesians 6:12, “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“. These were the rulers that Paul warned believers in Ephesus about, and by implication, believers who have lived ever since. As we know from Ephesians 6, Paul used the pieces of armour worn by the Roman soldiers sent to guard him in prison, as a template for the spiritual armour God has supplied for our defence. But these “evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world” were behind the natural rulers, the Roman authorities and the Jewish scribes, lawyers, Pharisees and Sadducees. It is interesting to note that God’s plan was nearly thwarted by the Roman Governor, Pilate, when Jesus was brought before him. He had the power to release Jesus but instead he bottled it because of the baying mob before him. Pilate was in a difficult position and frightened witless by the situation before him. John played down Pilate’s reaction in John 19:8, stripping out the emotion, “When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever”. We know from another Gospel that his wife had warned him not to have anything to do with Jesus’ sentencing, and in John 19:10, we read, ““Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realise that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”” Jesus’ reply convinced him that He was innocent, and Pilate tried to release Him, but to no avail. God’s plan came to fruition and many people present at that time will find themselves having to give an account as to why they demanded the crucifixion of the very One who was sat on the throne before them, the One we know as the Saviour of the World. We don’t have time to review the role of Judas in all this, another pawn in God’s Secret Plan.

What about the “rulers of this world” today?  They are still trying to frustrate the Plan set up by God “before the world began”. Just in the UK, we find legislation passed to murder innocent pre-birth babies in a direct challenge to one of God’s laws. We find legislation passed to approve marriages between people of the same sex, again in contravention of God’s definition and requirements for Holy Matrimony. Do they not understand what they are doing?  God’s Plan has still some way to go because Jesus has not yet returned to rule and reign this world (Revelation 20:4). At this time the devil will be locked away for a thousand years and Jesus will govern this world along with the believers who have prevailed to the end. And at this time the “rulers of this world”, spiritual and natural, will have no say at all. Perfect government with Jesus the King.

So what do we pilgrims think of all this, and how do we live in these dark times, in our sad, mad and bad world? Paul set out our response to our leaders in Romans 13:1-2 and the verses following, “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished“. Hard as it is for some to accept, there is a Higher Power at work in the world, and in our lives, and we must be obedient to our rulers. We may look on in dismay as they make an absolute hash of government, thrashing around apparently with no idea of what they are doing, lacking any sort of moral compass, and unaware that there is One in Heaven who can give them the correct guidance, if only they asked. But we remember it was God who allowed them to be there. Romans 13:4, “The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong“. It is extremely comforting to know that God is still the ultimate King and He is still occupying His throne. 

So we pilgrims pray for our rulers and authorities, for those who govern our lands. We pray for God’s people everywhere, especially those who are being persecuted for their faith. And we pray for ourselves and our families, that we will all be kept safe from the evil one. We remember that we live “under the shadow of [God’s] wings”. There is no better place to be.

Dear Heavenly and Glorious Father. We thank You that You hold the whole world in Your hands, and that nothing happens unless You have allowed it. We pray for opportunities to share Your Plan with those around us so that they too will come to know Jesus, the One crucified. And we praise and worship You today. Amen.

Boasting

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.””
1 Corinthians 1:28-31 NLT

Who are the “boasters” in society today? usually, these are the people, men and women and even children, who think they have something significant in their lives to boast about. Perhaps they are great sportspeople, with a string of awards for athletic prowess, being the fastest at running, or the highest long-jumper. There is much boasting going on after a goal is scored in a football match or for the winner in a boxing match. Or consider a bore at a social gathering, boasting about his success in the business world, or a woman boasting about her wonderful new house. In the academic world there are boasters who brashly brag about the paper or book they have just written referring to some obscure mathematical theory, or medical procedure they have invented. Yesterday I met a man who was a great boaster. Recently retired, he outlined all that he was doing, and he talked much about his boat moored in the Forth Estuary, his camper van and where he’s been, his motorbike and sports bicycle. Sad really, and the first thought that came to my mind was the parable of the Rich Fool, who tore down his barns and built bigger ones to store his bumper crops, and then said to himself, “ … You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19). and then we read in the next verse, ““But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’” But all these boasters have two things in common – they think they are better than their fellow members of society, and consequently God has no time for them. Psalm 5:5, “The boastful and the arrogant will not stand in Your sight; You hate all who do evil“. Paul wrote about the foolish people who have rejected God, and with them those that boast, “They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents” (Romans 1:30). 

Yesterday we considered ordinary people, the majority in our societies, who go about their daily business with little, if anything, considered of value to society. They would be struggling to find anything to boast about at a significant level, although there is always something that could be found. Perhaps they could boast about having met a member of royalty or they have a certain number of great grandchildren. But the one thing that Paul singled out was those people in society who boast about their wisdom and knowledge. 1 Corinthians 1:20, “So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish”. These people who the world considers wise and knowledgeable have to work very hard to avoid being labelled “boasters”, but they fail to realise that in God’s sight such attributes are worthless because He considers them “foolish”. We read more about Paul’s perspective in Philippians 3:3b-5, “ … We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law“. In Acts 23:6 Paul claimed he was a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees, promoting himself upwards into the elite in his society. But in Philippians 3:7-8 he wrote, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ“. Paul got it, and his life was a living example of a man who had rejected all that the world considered of value and instead he started right at the bottom, on his knees, before the cross of Christ.

There is a sober lesson for us pilgrims today. It doesn’t matter what we have done or think we have done. It doesn’t matter how well we were educated, or what job we have, or where we have lived and so on. We have nothing to boast about because before God our human achievements don’t impress Him at all. Jeremiah wrote, “This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 9:23-24). We humans always like to have something to boast about because, so we think, it makes us look better than those around us. In a secular society with many people, anything that somehow elevates them above their fellows is to be sought out and promoted. But not us pilgrims. We instead promote our faith and belief in Jesus, because this is the only wisdom or knowledge that is worth anything. And, paradoxically, such eternal knowledge and wisdom is thought foolishness to those around us and unbelievers discard it as being worthless and to be pitied. Such people, fully of their worldly boasts, puffed up with pride, will find one day that when they cross the Great Divide, they can’t take anything with them. Before God, they have empty hands because all the rubbish that they used to contain has been burnt up and not even ash will remain. God doesn’t need human prowess and knowledge – after all, He created it in the first place. The only knowledge worth anything is the knowledge of Christ. As Paul said, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10-11). 

Do we pilgrims truly know the Lord? Are we able and willing to boast about His saving grace and love? Are we aware of the dangers of focussing too much on our human abilities and in the process boasting about the wrong things? One day we will be, and of course we won’t want to look back in regret at what we left behind. With Paul, we cast aside our human inclinations and ” … press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”(Philippians 3:12b-14). Paul also wrote, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

Am I labouring the point? Probably, but human wisdom and knowledge has no place in the Kingdom of God, and He has labelled such attributes foolishness. But along with Paul I am looking ahead, in the knowledge that the past contains much that could skew my faith. At every opportunity I will tell people about Christ and all that He has done for me. I don’t care much for those who consider me foolish, but the important thing is that I can hear Jesus cheering me on, and that is all that matters. And one day will I hear those words, “well done …”? I hope and pray that this will be the case, and I know that all pilgrims everywhere hope to hear the same.

Dear Father God. You are the only Source of knowledge and wisdom that really matters. So we praise and worship You, asking that Your reveal to us all that we need for our lives lived in this world. And as we journey on in our faith, we look forward, reading Your Word and marvelling about finding all that we need to confound the wisdom of the wise. Thank You. Amen.

The Holy Place

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their Saviour. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.”
Psalm 24:3-6 NLT

David asks a question – “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord”? But before we move on to the answer, we must ask what the Lord’s mountain is, or was, and where it actually was. To the Jews there was a sacred place on which the Temple could be found called Mount Zion, a hill located in Jerusalem. So David was perhaps focused on a specific place when he wrote this Psalm. But in answer to the original questionnaire “Who may climb“, the “mountain of the Lord” was a “holy place” and was not to be defiled by anyone who was a sinner. Anyone coming into the Lord’s “holy place” needed to be clean and pure inside and out, and telling lies and the worship of idols were specifically highlighted as impure actions. Not just that, however, their hearts had to be pure. David may have written this Psalm in anticipation of the day when the Temple was finally built by his son Solomon (2 Chronicles 5) and he could foresee a procession of priests carrying the Ark of the Lord into the Holy Place. Or perhaps it was earlier than that, with the Ark brought into the special tent prepared by David to his City, Jerusalem, as we read in 2 Samuel 6. But there was a misconception in those days that to worship God you had to be in a special place, somewhere considered holy, somewhere such as when Jacob had the ladder experience in a dream. We read in Genesis 28:16-17, “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”” Before he left Jacob anointed a memorial stone, naming the place the House of God, or Bethel. 

Much later, when Jesus stopped by a well on a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, he had an encounter with a Samaritan woman who asked him a question, “So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”” (John 4:20).In response, Jesus told her, “ … Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). In Matthew 6:6, Jesus said, “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you”. Jesus set the scene for believers everywhere that the “holy place” in their lives was somewhere private where they could be on their own with the Lord. 

At first glance, these words about mountains, holy places and idol worship seem to be a million miles away from us pilgrims on 21st Century Planet Earth. But there are some lessons to be learned, and some spiritual insights that we would do well to follow. We pilgrims look around our country, the UK, and can see many churches, considered sacred places of worship by many. Apparently, there are over 40,000 “places of worship”, many of them ornate and impressive buildings. But it may come as a surprise to many of our fellow believers that they don’t have to go there to find God. For many years, particularly as a young boy, I was convinced that there was something of God underneath that ornate cloth draped over a table called an altar at the front of the church, the place where the minister went through certain ceremonial functions particularly in the communion service. Every time the minister or church official walked in its vicinity, they genuflected before moving on, further affirming my thoughts. Without a doubt, many Christians are helped in their faith by the stained glass windows, the altar ornately decorated, the carvings and the statues. God may be there but only inasmuch as He is everywhere, always on hand for those who call upon His name. In Jeremiah 23:24 we read, “Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord”. David wrote, in another Psalm, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me” (Psalm 139:7-10). God is omnipresent. And regarding all the churches, Isaiah wrote, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting-place be?”(Isaiah 66:1). No matter how wonderful and amazing a church building is, it will never be good enough for God to live there. The answer to the question “where is God” is perhaps found in the hearts and minds of believers everywhere, wherever they are.

We pilgrims can draw close to God regardless of our location, latitude or longitude. My favourite place is in God’s creation, the woods and parks that adorn our countryside, because it is there that I find that God listens to my fumbling prayers. Amongst the trees and birdsong I find a “holy place”, where, in His presence, I first confess my sins so that I can indeed “climb the mountain of the Lord” with a pure heart. Others find a place of communion with God in their bedrooms or studies or even a prison cell. But cleansed of our sin, regardless of where we are, we can indeed climb into God’s presence, where we will receive His blessing, and worship Him once again.

Dear Father God. In Your presence we find peace for our souls and comfort in our struggles. You are the only One worth worshiping. Amen.

Unfailing Love

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever”.
Psalm 23:5-6 NLT

David identified God’s goodness and includes with it His “unfailing love”. Other translations translate verse 6 as “Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life …” (AMP) or “faithful love” (CSB) or “love” (NIV). But we get the picture. God’s love is faithful and unfailing and it will pursue us “all the days of [our] lives”. The theme of God’s love is impregnated within the Bible from cover to cover. A favourite mention of God’s love for me can be found in another Davidic Psalm. We read in Psalm 36:5, 10, “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. … Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you; give justice to those with honest hearts”. We enlightened men and women in the 21st Century know that the extent of the “heavens” have not yet been discovered , adding weight to the extent of God’s love. More and more powerful telescopes just find more and more of the universe, with no end in sight. And we know that the region “beyond the clouds” has no end to it either. 

There are some human examples of “unfailing love” in the Bible, and the Book of Ruth tells the story of an extraordinary woman who uttered the statement to her mother-in-law, “ … Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” (Ruth 1:16-17). We could also turn to the Book of Hosea, a man who went to extraordinary lengths in love for his wayward wife, Gomer. But Jesus told a parable about a father and two sons, one a waster who squandered his inheritance before finally realised that his way of sin could not be sustained and that he had to repent and get things put right with his father. The son put together a humble and repentant statement and started for home. We read in Jesus’ parable what he was going to say, “I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant“” (Luke 15:18-19). But look at the unfailing love of his father, who daily kept watch just in case his wayward son was returning home, “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). That’s “unfailing love” pursuing a sinner.  That’s human love, so imagine how much greater God’s love is. In fact, we know it’s extent from John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“. There is no greater love than that, and throughout the Bible the theme running through is God pursuing mankind, His love unstinting and so extensive that it would not stop at anything to restore His creation back to its rightful place. 

Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:17-19, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God”. Paul wrote about the extent of God’s love with an unlimited three dimensional picture of width, length and height, which we know from Psalm 36 completely fills an infinite universe. But Paul added an additional dimension, “depth”, and I take from this that Paul was referring to a fourth dimension, time. God’s love not only fills the universe but it is also eternal and timeless, and it pursues us whatever the age in which we have been born. 

And there is more about God’s love. Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord”. 

Do we pilgrims feel God’s love today? Even if we don’t, we know it is there. There is nothing we can do to stop it. We can deny it. We can refuse it. We can even throw it back into God’s face. But we can never stop it. God’s love for us humans knows no bounds and He keeps on loving us day after day, hour after hour, and forever. And in worship we offer our grateful hearts, in an offering of love and service, “forever and ever”.

Dear Father God, thank You for Jesus, the One who loved us so much that He was prepared to die for us. Such love! Thank You Lord. Amen.

Darkest Valleys

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
Psalm 23:1-4 NLT

Notice that David wrote “when” not “if” when he considered the darkest valleys. We know that David suffered some dark times in his often eventful journey through life. Take what he wrote in Psalm 31:9-10 for example, “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within“. Was that a “darkest valley” for David? 

Elijah came to suffer in a dark place too, as we read in 1 Kings 19:4, “Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”” In Elijah’s case, he had just been God’s front man at the epic event on the top of Mount Carmel, where God sent fire to consume the sacrifice, after which Elijah despatched 450 prophets of Baal. But the miracles didn’t stop there, because the three and a half year drought came to an end and “the Lord gave special strength to Elijah” allowing him to run faster than Ahab’s chariot. But then we read that Elijah literally did a runner after Jezebel’s threats, ending up in a “darkest valley” in the wilderness and under a broom tree, whatever that was.

One of the darkest Psalms in the Bible is Psalm 88. It was written by a man called Heman the Ezrahite and contains eighteen verses of gloom and depression, describing a valley so dark that it is a wonder that he could have written it at all. Verse 6, “You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths“, and he finishes “Darkness is my closest friend”. Oh dear! But to Heman perhaps the most poignant verses are 13 and 14, “O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me?”

Being in a “darkest valley” is indeed a terrible place to be. A blackness descends over all aspects of a person’s thinking, to the extent that no good can be found anywhere. But there are varying degrees of “darkest valleys”. Today we would perhaps suggest that such a place as a “darkest valley” is the mental state of depression, which seems endemic in today’s world. In the context of Psalm 23, a spiritual “darkest valley” is more likely than a physical “darkest valley” of which there are many around the world in the wildest and most remote parts, valleys sometime scary but mostly harmless. But why should we pilgrims ever experience depression, because, after all, God loves and cares for us. There are many causes of depression, a study of which is beyond our morning’s read, but the reality is that a Christian is no more immune from a valley experience than an unbeliever. Sadly, some consider depression as a sin, and although that could be the case in some situations, it is unhelpful to treat the depressive as a sinner. 

I occasionally meet people who tell me that they are depressed about the state of the world, usually in response to me sharing about my hope in Jesus. Their response is a forerunner to a question that goes something like this – “If God is a God of love why does He allow so much suffering and mayhem in the world?” They reject God because they consider Him to be the architect of all their, and the world’s, woes, or, if not, He is at least powerless to stop them. Without waiting for an explanation, such a person walks away, continuing in their depressed state, one more hopeless person in a hopeless world. But we pilgrims have a message of hope for such people and we pray for the opportunities to share all about God and what He has done for us. God is indeed a God of love, but He is also a God of righteousness and justice, and we will never know, in this life, the extent of His gracious power in holding back the forces of evil, intent on destroying God’s created human beings.

But what should we pilgrims do when we get depressed? We get medical help just in case the condition is treatable, and we call on our pastor and Christian friends to pray for us. We remember all of God’s promises. Ones that have helped me include 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you“. David prayed Psalm 43:5, “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Saviour and my God!” Jesus said to His disciples, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And we pray for ourselves, believing God for a solution. But in those “darkest valleys” where things are so black that we cannot even contemplate anything to do with God, we are assured that He is close behind us, protecting and comforting us. And we remember that every valley is followed by a mountain top. Valleys won’t last forever.

Dear Father God. We know that in Your presence there is no sickness and pain, and we look ahead to the time when “darkest valleys” are no more. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Eternal Blessings

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Your victory brings him great honour, and you have clothed him with splendour and majesty. You have endowed him with eternal blessings and given him the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord. The unfailing love of the Most High will keep him from stumbling.”
Psalm 21:5-7 NLT

David testified that God had “endowed him with eternal blessings”. But we need to unpack this a bit, and define what we mean by “blessings”. Our first though is to think about all the material things we have. Our houses and cars, clothes and food, jewellery and ornaments.  And then there are all the “toys” we men in particular enjoy, like cameras and computers, a football season ticket. The list is endless it seems. But none of these are eternal. They are all mostly artefacts that decline over time, and they certainly won’t survive the transition over the Great Divide. As we are only too aware, we arrived in this world with nothing and that is how we will exit it. There was a story, that was supposed to be a joke, that circulated in Christian circles some years ago about a businessman who persuaded God to allow him to take all his gold with him into Heaven. When he subsequently arrived at the Pearly Gates, St Peter asked him what he had in his bag. When the businessman explained and said it was all his earthly wealth, showing Peter all the gold bars and coins, Peter replied that there was no point in bringing that with him, because they only used it to pave the roads in Heaven. A silly story, but it makes the point that earthly wealth has no value, and is not a blessing in Heaven. Jesus warned about being overly obsessed with our material blessings when He said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:19-21). Jesus went on to say, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money” (Matthew 6:24).

So, if eternal blessings are not the ones we enjoy on Planet Earth, what are they? To start with, these are not anything tangible, able to be traded as a commodity on our world stock markets. Put simply, our blessings are eternal only as far as our relationships with God allow. Romans 12:1-2, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect“. To experience eternal blessings, we need to know and understand the meaning of these verses and the impact they must have on the way we live our lives in the here and now. To look at this from the other perspective, if we have no relationship with God, then we will have no “eternal blessings“. And our “eternal blessings” start with Jesus, the greatest blessing of all.

Our treasures must be something we bank in Heaven, where they will be indestructible and in a place of security. We accumulate Heavenly treasure through the ways we live in our natural lives. This comes from establishing the importance of our relationship with Jesus. If it is as it should be then we will always be on the look out for ways to please Him in all we say and do. For example, every time we help someone, another item gets added to our Heavenly treasure chest. Our deposit account in Heaven builds every time we respond to Jesus in obedience and do the things He has asked of us. That even includes our working for a living – Paul wrote, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24). 

Paul wrote that he was expecting a crown when he arrived in Heaven. “And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8). In Revelation 22:12, Jesus said, “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds“. 

‭‭We can experience “eternal blessings” even though we are not yet in Heaven, because we are children of God. Jesus taught His disciples while sitting on the side of a mountain, and we can read the blessings, the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5. The poor, mourners, humble, justice-seekers, merciful, pure, peacemakers, and the persecuted are all blessed and “the Kingdom of heaven is theirs”. But to sum up, the material things we crave for can never bring genuine happiness or contentment. True fulfilment can only be found in a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1-2 to finish today. “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”

Father God, we are grateful for the many blessings You have poured out on all Your people. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

Insight For Living (1)

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair.”
Psalm 19:8-9 NLT

David made the association between the laws and commands of God, and the way he should live. He didn’t have access to the Bible that we know, but he would have known the first five books (the Pentateuch), and possibly some other bits and pieces of the Prophets and Judges, and even a Psalm or two. But he had enough to know and understand “the commands of the Lord”. And that knowledge brought David all he needed to provide him with “insight for living”. We pilgrims are well blessed with the Bible that we have, together with the weight of centuries of theological thought, that shapes most of what we understand about our faith. And of course, most importantly, we live in the post-Calvary age, where we bask in the glory of God’s Son, Jesus, and all that He did for us on the cross. This enabled the release of the Holy Spirit who lives within each one of us, leading us into all truth – “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you” (John 14:17). Superficially it would seem that we pilgrims have an easier time than David did, but nothing could be more different. 

David had a list of rules, regulations, commandments and decrees to lead and guide him throughout his life. But they all had one focus – to enable people to live God’s way, providing them with an “insight for living“. Deuteronomy 11:13-14 reads, “If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil”. David would have known that scripture verse very well, and he professed his love for the Lord. Psalm 18:1, “I love you, Lord; you are my strength”. 

David would also have known the consequence of not following God’s laws – Deuteronomy 11:16-17, “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you“. David would also have understood the importance of these verses in Deuteronomy, and he did his best to apply the next verses, “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21). 

David enjoyed a long life as king of Israel, a testimony to a man “after God’s heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), a man who understood the importance of knowing and applying “the commands of the Lord”. David really did “love the Lord [his]God and served him with all [his]heart and soul”. There is much that we pilgrims can learn from David, but he lived under the Old Mosaic Covenant. We have been blessed by a better way of living, through Jesus, but more about that tomorrow.

Father God. We thank You for David and the legacy he left us with his example of living and through the many Psalms that he wrote. Amen.

God the Homemaker

Posted on by Adrian Clark

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

David wrote that God “has made a home in the heavens for the sun”. Of course, we remember the creation story in Genesis 1:14-18, “Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good”. So the largest light, the sun, was there to govern the day and to “separate the light from the darkness”. In David’s words, the sun was important enough to be positioned in the heavens, as a permanent feature, giving light and warmth to God’s creation. 

The word “home’ brings to our minds all kinds of thoughts. There is something comforting to return to a familiar place, kick off our shoes, hang up our jackets, and put our cosy slippers on our feet, in a place where we live and the place we call “home”. Here we can relax and recharge our physical and emotional batteries, in a place of relative security away from the hustle and bustle of life on Planet Earth. We pilgrims also are aware of our future “home” when we will cross the Great Divide into God’s place. Jesus said to His disciples (and by implication to us modern day disciples as well), “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:1-3). We find that God has a home where we will join him and claim it to be our home as well. But what sort of place will our new home be? We don’t really know with any certainty, but we are sure that it will be far better than what we have at present.

Interestingly, God’s home will not always be in Heaven, contrary to popular opinion. 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”. Where will His new home be? On the new earth and located in the New Jerusalem. And there will be no home for the sun anymore, because John ” … saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone” (Revelation 21:1). Why will the sun not be there? Because “ … there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

We pilgrims are truly a favoured people, because God Himself will provide all the security and comfort that we have come to expect from our earthly homes. We may not have a favourite pair of slippers but there will be something far better waiting for us. And we read, “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” (Revelation 21:4). All the things of this world that we long to escape from won’t be a problem in our new home, whether in Heaven or on the New Earth, because they won’t exist. 

God is a homemaker. He created a home for us on this earth, perfect in every way, but along came the devil and corrupted it through sin and evil. But God made a promise in Genesis 1:27, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them“. God would not have created something He thought was imperfect. We have been created in His image, and as God is perfect, we too have perfection in Him within our grasp.

Dear Father God. We praise and worship our eternal Creator today, grateful for all You have done for us. Amen.

The Heavens Proclaim

Posted on by Adrian Clark

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Climbing the Walls

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud. You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.”
Psalm 18:27-29 NLT

Psalm 18:29 was written in military language, with a picture of armies of well armed soldiers, and the protective wall located around a city. David declares that through God’s strength he can succeed in any military conflict, but I wonder what was in his mind when he thought about a seemingly impregnable wall before him. In God, he wrote, no wall is a safe place for his adversaries within. However, and David was very much aware of this, his own strength was insufficient to succeed in battle. 

We pilgrims will, most likely, not be involved in physical battles. We may not be conscripted or recruited into a battalion or other band of soldiers, armed and ready for conflict. But we will be fighting other kinds of battles, with health challenges, work difficulties, relational problems, money worries and so on. There will be some reading this today who are wondering where the strength to face the day can be found. They woke up this morning, and a feeling of dread flooded over them. A dark foreboding is perhaps rising up within and even a panic attack is making a start as there seems to be no way out from the wall of worries and anxieties just in front of them. Trapped and afraid, such people feel they have no way to turn and can think of no solution to their dire situation. 

Well, there is good news for us pilgrims, because, like David, we know that, although our strength is insufficient, we have God’s resources at our disposal. And because of that, through our faith in Jesus, we have all the means we need to “scale any wall”. Jesus said, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus continues two verses later, “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!” Really? Paul “got it”, as we read in Ephesians 3:16, 20, “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. … Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think“. 

But before we rush out and do something rash, we need to take a deep breath and prayerfully step back. The first step is that we must be aligned in accordance with God’s will. The battles we fight in this sad and bad world will always be before us, because that is what human life is all about. Sin and wickedness have destroyed God’s order, His perfect plans, and we are here deeply integrated with worldly life. But we have the power through God to survive the problems and challenges because he will resource us in two ways. Firstly, through our faith in Him we will be equipped to be an overcomer, able to face the problems. Secondly, God will often provide us with a solution to our problem, perhaps revealing a way out or remedy that we hadn’t considered, or even changing the circumstances or people involved, so that we are shown favour.  But we mustn’t get ahead of God and assume that He is with us when we make decisions or take actions that ultimately might put us outside His will. 

There is a story of a lady in Wales who lived in a village at the foot of a slag heap, leftover from coal mining activities. This heap of rubbish was a constant annoyance to her, and one day she read the verses in Mark 11:22-24, “Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours”. So one night the lady prayed that God would remove the slag heap and she then went to bed. In the morning she drew her curtains but the slag heap was still there. Her response was “I knew that prayer wouldn’t work”. This is not to say that God would not have removed that slag heap, but that perhaps God wanted to use the mountain of coal waste to help her faith and her fellow villagers, equally afflicted.

The Lord said to Joshua, and he is still saying it to us today, “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). In God we are invincible and through God’s resources, properly engaged, we can achieve anything. But as Paul knew from his fleshly thorn, the outcomes to our prayers may not be totally what we think. Paul asked God on three occasions to remove whatever was troubling him, and “Each time [God] said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I [Paul] am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). So there we have it. If God wants us to climb the wall before us, and slay the giants within, He will resource us for the task. But we need to discern through faith that this is what God wants us to do; otherwise the enemies the other side of the wall, or even the wall itself, might fight back and overwhelm us.

Dear Father God. In You we have the strength to scale any wall. Please grant us the faith we need. Amen.