Obstacles to the Gospel

Posted on by korgrocker

“Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.”
1 Corinthians 9:11-12 NLT

There was only one priority in Paul’s life, and that was spreading the Gospel, which I’m sure he would do even if he had to sleep on the streets without food. Paul had nothing but a few possessions that he could carry with him. No “stuff”. No excess baggage. In Hebrews 12:1, we read, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us”. ‭‭It may as well have been Paul who wrote that, because his focus was on converting as many people as possible to the faith about which he was so passionate. 

We now fast forward to today, in Western countries that are overburdened with possessions and swamped with information and gadgets. How much of this is an obstacle to sharing “the Good News about Christ”? Regardless of all of this, I believe that a Paul today would still be the same, sold out for Jesus and delivering His redemptive message wherever he could. When Jesus sent out the seventy-two disciples, He told them, “Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveller’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road” (Luke 10:4). Paul literally lived out this command of Jesus, but would we today?

But regardless of all our wealth (we are wealthy compared with Christians in Paul’s day), do we let it hold us back in sharing the “Good News about Christ”? What hindrances do we face in sharing our faith with others? Well, there are a few, and mostly centred on who we are. Take, for example, the fear of rejection. We worry about what people might think of us, and so we remain quiet when an opportunity to share the gospel with someone is presented. Or we might be in a bit of a hurry and think we don’t have the time to stop and talk. Perhaps we are unsure of the Gospel, or haven’t yet worked out in our minds how we could present our testimonies. Or we just can’t be bothered, too caught up with our own problems. Perhaps on this particular day, we were late getting up, didn’t have time to spend a few minutes in prayer and reading the Bible, and were feeling depressed, weighed down by our sins. 

I had a coffee recently with someone I once knew thirty or so years ago, but with whom I had lost touch. He confessed to being a frustrated evangelist, never seeming to find an opportunity to share his faith. However, during the conversation, we discussed some fundamental verses in the Bible that he was unable to reconcile with the prevailing societal beliefs. Issues such as sexuality and gender, and an apparent conflict, to him, between our God of love and hell. And sadly, his mind had become confused and clouded with noise that was drowning out the simplicity of the Gospel message that “Heaven is real, hell is hot, and Jesus saves”. That simple message resonated in our lives when we found Jesus and His saving grace. We weren’t struggling to understand the lofty theological concepts found on the bookshelves of a seminary with our minds. We just knew that Jesus was the real Son of God, as the Holy Spirit revealed Him to us. 

Paul was one hundred per cent focused on sharing the Gospel. His testimony was well polished and convincing. His journey in life was driven by the goal of saving as many people as possible before he died. He wrote to the Philippians, “ … But I 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). The race that Paul referred to wasn’t about himself at all. Perfection was a byproduct of his character, honed by his ministry and message. And the crown before him was all that mattered.

It might be a good time for us pilgrims to review our lives, to see if there is anything getting in the way of the “Good News about Christ”. We must pray that God will reveal anything that is lurking in the deeper recesses of our minds, things that are distracting us. And we ask for His help in clearing out the dust and cobwebs. David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24). It’s a dangerous prayer to pray, but it might have some dramatic results!

Dear Father God. Help us, we pray, as we bring our lives under Your penetrating gaze, and please help us not to dodge anything that bubbles to the surface. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

One God, the Father

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

I met a lady the other day, standing outside Dunfermline Abbey. She was listening to the organ being played, the soft tones carrying through a quiet but rather autumnal day. We started a conversation, during which I mentioned the God worshipped by the congregation that met in this ancient building, probing for an opportunity to share the Gospel. She mentioned that she believed in God but expanded on what she meant, explaining her understanding of a “god” who was in all world religions, and who was embedded in the very fabric of nature. She explained that to her, the adjacent tree was also “god”. Where do people get such weird ideas, ideas impregnated with a false understanding of God that has become so skewed and wrong? As we discovered yesterday, within every human being there is a “God-shaped” void that only He can fill, but without a voice declaring who God is, people create their own “god” in the hope that the empty ache inside will be somehow filled. In Paul’s day, created gods were called idols, and they obviously still exist today.

People have always created their own gods because something within them needs a spiritual being, a god, and it is far less hassle for most to worship a “god” that makes no demands of them. A “god” within them rather than a deity outside. And if they can include the possibility of pandering to their many human lusts, then even better. So, a popular “god” in ancient Greek days was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and procreation, but there were others in the Greek and Roman pantheons of deities. We won’t find temples dedicated to such deities in our towns and cities today. However, their influence lives on in the sinful practices of those in our societies, and we even still use words derived from their names, used to describe lustful acts associated with them and their ancient worship. But Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying that, even though there were so many idols, there is only “one God, the Father”.

The Jews were commanded to worship the one and only God. Exodus 20:3, “You must not have any other god but me“. And then we have the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength“. These verses establish the foundational belief in the absolute oneness and uniqueness of God, refuting the polytheistic beliefs of surrounding cultures and affirming that only the Lord (Yahweh) is the true and singular God. 

Paul expanded on God the Father as being the One “by whom all things were created”, something we know from Genesis 1. However, there is another sad religion, which has emerged in our schools and places of learning, and that is evolution. The high priests of this religion are people such as the prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, who say they believe in no god at all, and they have spent much of their lives promoting their beliefs, rubbishing the one true God in the process. But the evolutionists believe that given the right mix of chemicals, a flash of lightning, and billions of years, a living entity will emerge from the sea somehow, and then stand up on two legs and walk the land. Someone once described to me that the beliefs of an evolutionist are like putting all the constituent parts of an old-fashioned clockwork wrist watch, cogs and all, into a bag and then shaking it, and keep shaking it, because eventually, given enough time, a watch will emerge intact and fully functional. Really? There is much more that can be said, but what these people forget is that at some time all the chemicals and other matter had to be created, something they conveniently ignore. Many years ago, my teenage daughter, well-versed in the church’s Sunday school teachings, challenged her biology teacher about the evolutionary “facts” being promoted and got him to admit that the Theory of Evolution was just that —a theory.

Paul finally described God as not just a Creating God, but One “for whom we live”. Now there’s a challenge! Do we live for God or do we live to satisfy our own desires, and in the process, live for the god of this world, the devil. Jesus was asked by a Pharisaical religious legal expert the question, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” (Matthew 22:36). We read what Jesus said in return, “ …  “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”” (Matthew 22:37-40). That was what Paul was meaning when he gently reminded the Corinthian believers that they must live only for God. There is no middle way for a pilgrim, then or now. We are either totally for God or totally against Him. Yes, in our daily lives we will occasionally lapse back into the human world of “the lusts of our flesh”, but through Jesus we have forgiveness and the resources we need to continue our journey. 

Jesus said to the Laodicean church, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realise that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17). Do we pilgrims need the same wake-up call, or are we on fire for God, “hot” in all the things that we do? A little later, Jesus said to the Laodiceans, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20). Can we hear a gentle knock at the door of our hearts this morning? Can we feel a hunger in our souls? Then all we have to do is allow Jesus to enter into our lives, our hearts, so that once again we can feast on His love, grace, and presence. He has done so much for us. Don’t let us ever lock Him out of our lives. We live for God and only God, this day and forever.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for all You have done for us. We thank You too for this rich life we have found as we live for God. Please help us through the hard and difficult times, and show us the way so that we don’t take a wrong turning and lose heart. In Your precious name. Amen.

Wrong Thinking

Posted on by korgrocker

“You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you.”
1 Corinthians 4:8 NLT

It seems some sort of arrogant pride had crept into the Corinthian church, and the people there had come up with a new worship song – “We’ll do it our way”. They had this view of life that they had “arrived” at the Christian destination here on earth, a place called “Utopia”, where they had pleasures, possessions, and power. They didn’t think they had any need for preachers and leaders like Apollos and Paul, and they spent their time criticising and judging them rather than listening to what they had to say. But Paul said that the world they were reigning in, the one they thought was God’s Kingdom, was not one that he recognised. And so perhaps they were in danger of becoming a self-serving cult with no need of an outside influence. In fact, they had reached a situation without any accountability, and because of that, they were in danger of irrelevance and error. The ultimate place for such a church was as Jesus warned the Ephesians about in Revelation 2:5 – a church marginalised and irrelevant. “Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches”. Paul said that the Corinthian Christians were so self-reliant that they were acting as wealthy people who already had all they wanted instead of as people who would have much to gain from Christ. They were living as if they were kings, passing judgment on others and doing as they pleased when they pleased. They were not living as people under authority and in submission to God’s will.

Fast forward to 21st-century churches today, and what do we find? Western Christians have a huge obstacle, and that is their wealth. In an environment with no persecution, and one in which people go to church every now and then because it is the socially accepted thing to do. They go home to a nice house, food in the fridge, an expensive car in the drive, and no fear of a knock at the door and being hauled off to a gaol somewhere because of their beliefs. Back in the home, they “roast” the preacher during their Sunday lunch and cast judgments over his sermon. They live as though they are already kings, with no fear of the future, thinking that God Himself has that in hand. Of course, there will be mild but fearful thoughts of death one day, but in the meantime, “let’s eat, drink and be merry”. Jesus said some strong words to the church in Laodicea that we would do well to listen to today. Revelation 3:15-19 (MSG), “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless. “Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see. “The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God!” So many believers today have trouble discerning their spiritual lives, instead equating their “riches” with God’s favour. Of course, there may be an element of truth in that, but living a life God’s way will lead to riches that most worldly people know nothing about. Unless such people can see something before their eyes, they reject its existence. 

Regarding riches, Jesus warned His generation about the trap waiting for people to fall into. 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). As usual, Jesus put His finger on the very problem that exists in our society today. A timeless statement that has echoed down the centuries and generations since. And the sad thing is that so many people have nothing but think they have everything. God’s economy is opposite to that in the world’s kingdom. 

Paul was quite sarcastic with the Corinthians when he exposed their problem. Wrong thinking had crept into their church, bringing with it a view of Christianity that had abandoned the simplicity of the Message of the Cross. They had extracted the good bits about power and kingship and had abandoned the basics such as humility and openness to God’s teachings. Was it a universal problem in their church, impacting the whole congregation, or were there still some who were on the right path? In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need”. Jesus said to the Laodiceans, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:20-21). There was hope for the Corinthians just as there is hope for our churches today. Not every congregation of believers in our generation is afflicted with the Corinthian spirit. There are many who hear the voice of Jesus through their preachers and leaders, and such fellowships are growing spiritually and in numbers. But sadly, there are also others that are fading away, as the congregation slowly dies out. Paul warned Timothy about such a congregation in 2 Timothy 3:4-5, “They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religiously, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”

But we pilgrims are not like that. We pursue the God of the Bible and are obedient to all He says to us. When the messages from the pulpit are difficult to hear, then we get before God and ask for help, always with a humble spirit, expressing the willingness to learn. And day by day, we grow in the light of God’s grace, chosen and loved, and assured of our salvation.

Dear Father God. Is that a knocking we hear at the door of our hearts? We pray that we will always allow Jesus to enter and will never lock the door, keeping in shut before Him. In His precious name. Amen.

Passing the Exam

Posted on by korgrocker

“You have tested my thoughts and examined my heart in the night. You have scrutinized me and found nothing wrong. I am determined not to sin in what I say. I have followed your commands, which keep me from following cruel and evil people. My steps have stayed on your path; I have not wavered from following you.”
Psalm 17:3-5 NLT

David points out to God several ways in which he claims he has achieved perfection. God, he says, “You have scrutinised me and found nothing wrong“. David said his speech is sinless and his following of God’s commands faultless. But who can ever make such claims as these? Is David stating facts or is he self-deluded? The one theme threading through these verses today is that David is doing nothing that will cause God to censor him. He is ticking all the boxes required of a follower of God. Of course, that was how God created human beings, sinless beings who would follow Him and would fellowship with Him forever. But after sin entered the world, everything went wrong and God, the perfect sinless and holy Being, had to recoil from contact with His creation and their new-found desire for sin and evil. They had become tarnished and polluted by sin to the point that their evil and wicked ways created an impenetrable barrier between God and man. But there were Davids around in every generation. People who were determined to follow God and His ways, and aspire to be sinless in their thoughts and behaviour.

God gave His people, through men like Moses, laws and regulations that defined how His people should behave, in the hope that this would resolve the problem of sin. And for many it did, with Godly men and women following Him faithfully all their lives, but as we know, the animal sacrifices were replaced by the ultimate sacrifice, God’s Son Himself. Jesus died, taking on the punishment for sin that was ours to bear, so that we could be covered by His righteousness and able to come into God’s presence, pure and holy, acceptable in His sight. So our thoughts and deeds are cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, and we can claim correctly that we are truly without sin.

If only that was how things were going to stay. Sin is always waiting for an opportunity to destroy the perfection God intended. In Genesis 4:7 God said to Cain, “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master“. But our redeemed hearts and minds are constantly being tempted by sinful desires. The Apostle James wrote, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). Peter also gave a warning, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith …” (1 Peter 5:8-9a). We pilgrims, like David, live in a hostile environment, where there is always something or someone trying to pull us back into the sinful ways of the world. The battle is incessant, and if it wasn’t for Jesus, it would have been unwinnable. 

We pilgrims must regularly pray David’s prayer at the end of psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”. It’s a dangerous prayer to pray, in that something might, in fact it probably will, bubble up to the surface and stare us in the face. We find yet another crossroads in our lives. The way of sin to the left, the way of God to the right. Which path do we take? We know which way we should go, but it’s difficult and costly. At this point so many of God’s people camp out, unable to move on, deferring the decision for as long as possible. Other people take a left turn, hoping for a miracle to happen, with the sin that is consuming us disappearing. However, they are more likely to find the left path circles around and brings us back to the crossroads with the same sin still there. Even more sinners will find that God introduces some discipline. Proverbs 3:11-12, “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights“. God may even allow us to face the consequences of the sin, forcing us to stop procrastinating and instead make us deal with it.

But in it all, we pilgrims are on a journey to Heaven and some of us can see a glow in the sky before us. God wants us to be holy like His Son Jesus, and our journeys we call sanctification. Of course, we will never succeed in our own strength, and it is only by allowing God to work within us that we can clean up our lives, leading us to claim as David did that He has “scrutinised [us] and found nothing wrong“. But we are human and we keep short accounts with God, confessing our sins when we do wrong. And His peace and acceptance will flood over us, once again.

Dear Father God. You see our hearts and we pray that You indeed bring to the surface anything that shouldn’t be there. We’re so grateful for Your love and grace, bountifully available to all who call upon You. Amen.

A True Jew

Posted on by korgrocker

“For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭28‬-‭29‬ ‭NLT

What is our children’s position before God? Does there come a point when they emerge from the covering of their parents (assuming they are Christians of course) and stand on their own two feet, responsible to God for their own relationship with Him. There is such a time, of course. But before that, Christian parents must bring up their children to have a knowledge of God, teaching them to pray, telling them Bible stories. Taking them to church and Sunday School. We used to have a great time on long car journeys singing the songs and choruses our children had learned in their Sunday School services. As a family we became closer to each other somehow, as we all became closer to God.

But I have heard about some Christian parents who don’t believe that they should teach their children about their faith, preferring instead to allow them to make up their own minds when they are old enough. But such a view is flawed. It would be like saying to a 17-year old that it’s his or her decision about whether or not they obey driving laws. We, of course, teach them road sense from an early age for their own safety. 

The Bible says that we should teach our children about God and His ways. Back in Deuteronomy 6:1-2 we read, “These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life”. Later in the same chapter we read, “And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again 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” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). 

There was a special place in Jesus’ ministry for children. We read in Matthew 19:14-15, “But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” And he placed his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left“. And there are several Proverbs like this one, “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it” (Proverbs 22:6). 

Paul pointed out to his hearers that their standing before God has nothing to do with their birth credentials or whether or not they were circumcised. It was all about getting their hearts right with God. It’s all about “a change of heart produced by the Spirit”, he said. And he also pointed out that there had to be a time when the umbilical cord to their parents was cut, to allow the children to make their own decision for Christ. There has to be a radical cutting off from our past and instead a commitment to a new way in God’s presence. Paul himself made such a decision. We read in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me“. And it’s the same for us pilgrims. Like Paul, we too must trust alone in our wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Dear Father God. Thank You for reminding us that You are in the heart-changing business. We pray for the heart surgery we need to truly be Your followers. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

No Favouritism

Posted on by korgrocker

“There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honour and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favouritism.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Are there any Christians out there with feelings of insignificancy? Who feel inferior to the other people populating the pews in their church? Who sit in the prayer meeting thinking that they could never pray wonderful prayers like the man over there or the woman sitting next to them? Who look at the great men and women of the church on YouTube, or a televised Sunday service and see ministers who appear to be so much better than them? Well, I have good news for you this morning. “God does not show favouritism“. We must shout this from the rooftops. Write it on Post-It notes and stick them on the bathroom mirror and anywhere else we look at regularly. God doesn’t look at the outward fluff and bubble. He doesn’t care about how many “thee’s” or “thou’s” we include with our prayers. There is a Scripture worth considering in 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart“”. Jesus once said to a group of Pharisees, “… You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honours is detestable in the sight of God“. (Luke 16:15).

In our societies today there is a grading of people, according to attributes such as their financial worth, their skin colour, their education. Where they live. Where they were born. Where they work and what sort of employment they have. Who their ancestors were. Even our religious and spiritual persuasions. A complex mix of parameters that define us in the eyes of our fellow men. But none of these matter at all to God. At a stroke, God demolishes all the characteristics considered important by mankind, and instead looks at our hearts. That inner part of us that constitutes our souls or spirits. Our thoughts and intentions. Because of our position in the societies in which we live, we may or may not have feelings of inferiority or superiority. Misplaced feelings of pride and righteousness are perhaps in there as well. But all these things matter not at all to God. In looking at our hearts, what is He looking for? 

Perhaps a good place to start is with Romans 12:2, “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”. By steeping ourselves in God’s Word we will find out what He finds “good and pleasing and perfect”. We will find out what His will is for us. And we will develop a relationship, strong and enduring, with our loving Heavenly Parent. 

God doesn’t favour any one of His children more than another. We all have access to His Heavenly home. He listens to all our prayers, regardless of how simple or complex they are. In fact, He knows what we are about to pray before we even utter a word. He nurtures us. He leads and guides us. He has an individual plan worked out for each one of us. And each plan is different, tailor made just for us. We mustn’t forget as well, that He lives within us by His Spirit. When all these factors are added together we find that it doesn’t really matter what those worldly people around us think of us. What matters is what God thinks. And He is with us every day, every hour, every minute, cheering us on. Helping us on our journey through life’s minefields. And one day we will find ourselves in a new home. There’s no favouritism there either.

Father God. As we stand before You, feeling Your penetrating gaze pass over our hearts, we pray for forgiveness for all the wrongs and other sins You find there. And we thank You for Your grace and mercy. Amen.

‭‭

The Gold Altar

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. I heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops.”
Revelation‬ ‭9:13-16‬ ‭NLT

A speaking altar. John’s vision clearly described it as being made of gold, with four horns, and positioned right there in God’s presence. There must have been something sacred and holy about it. And a voice came from it with an instruction that became the second terror, or woe. But what was the significance of the altar? To answer that question we have to look back into the Old Testament, where altar-building instructions can be found.

In Exodus 30, God gave Moses a blueprint for the golden altar, that was to be used for burning incense. We read, “Then make another altar of acacia wood for burning incense. Make it 18 inches square and 36 inches high, with horns at the corners carved from the same piece of wood as the altar itself. Overlay the top, sides, and horns of the altar with pure gold, and run a gold moulding around the entire altar.” (‭‭Exodus‬ ‭30:1-3). God continued with instructions about what the altar was to be used for. “Every morning when Aaron maintains the lamps, he must burn fragrant incense on the altar. And each evening when he lights the lamps, he must again burn incense in the Lord’s presence. This must be done from generation to generation. Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the Lord’s most holy altar.” (‭‭Exodus‬ ‭30:7-8, 10‬ ‭NLT).

So the golden altar in John’s vision was probably the same as the altar we read about in Revelation 8, “Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.” (‭‭Revelation‬ ‭8:3-4‬ ‭NLT). Some theologians think that the golden altar with its horns was a “type” of Christ because His prayers of intercession are constantly rising up to God like incense.

 Altars played a very important role in ancient Jewish worship. But what about today, in our Western churches? Pilgrims from a Catholic or Anglican background, and visitors to churches in these denominations, will be aware of a cloth covered table located at the front of a church building. The decorations and ornaments are beautifully ornate, with extensive use of gold and even precious stones, and someone like myself, brought up in an Anglican Church, feel a sense of reverence when approaching this object, what is referred to as an “altar”. From an early age I grew up with the thought that somehow God lives there. In Anglican liturgy it is at the altar that the priest undertakes various duties during a church service, with congregants looking on. Bodily responses such as genuflection or bowing are performed when passing in front of the altar, reflecting the reverence and awe afforded to this item of furniture.

A modern application of an altar is in the wayside shrines that crop up today. Perhaps where some unfortunate person was killed in a road accident, or, as in my local community, where a young man, apparently high on drugs, committed suicide. The person’s loved ones have erected an “altar” in their memory and regularly place flowers there. Another example of this is with the inclusion of plaques of remembrance being affixed to park benches. But an altar is nothing more than a place of consecration. A place where a memory can be immortalised.

But whatever our liturgy or upbringing, is an altar of any real relevance in our pilgrim lives? I would suggest there is great importance in an altar, but a personal one. In Jewish worship it was on the altar that animals were sacrificed as an act of worship to God. But in a personal way we develop an altar to commemorate our commitment to God. In my morning prayer walks, I have way points where I pause to offer up to God thanks and praise for something or someone in my life that has been significant. We all need something to associate our loving Heavenly Father and our relationships with Him. so we develop our own personal altars, where we praise and worship our God. Where we offer up our thanks with grateful hearts for His provision. Where we pray for petitionary prayers for our loved ones and even national issues. In our hearts we have a ready made home for our altars, a place far more precious than any cloth covered man-made edifice located at the front of a dusty old mausoleum.

Dear Father. Where else can we find You than on the altars of our hearts. We praise and thank You for dwelling there by Your Holy Spirit. We pray that You never leave us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.