Fragile Clay Jars: The Power of God’s Light in Us

Posted on by korgrocker

“For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 NLT

We are well used to the sun providing light for our days. Even when thick layers of cloud are above us, enough sunlight still filters through and illuminates our day. But the days of the sun providing us with heat and light are numbered. We read in Matthew 24:3, “Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?”” And in response, He laid out a series of events that we need to look out for, until we reach Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken”. What use will a “darkened” sun be? No more daylight will find us in a terrified state, I’m sure. But this is not the sort of light we have “shining in our hearts”. The One who spoke light into reality, a Word that created our sun and the other heavenly objects, has also spoken into our hearts, and brought His light to shine there. This light isn’t abstract or distant. It’s personal. It shows us the glory of God as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. In other words, God doesn’t just illuminate our circumstances; He reveals Himself. 

We would think, I’m sure, that our human hearts are a rather tenuous place to make known the light of Christ. Paul wrote that this incredible light, this divine treasure, is placed inside “fragile clay jars”. Ordinary containers. Easily cracked. We all know what happens if a china vase is dropped onto a stone floor. Or if a glass jar accidentally falls off a worktop. That is what our hearts are like. Easily broken by circumstances. Bruised by conversations or hearsay. Hearts are able to love but also able to hate. We, of course, refer to “hearts” as not the physical blood-pump we have inside our chests but something that is the core of our inner being, encompassing our mind, emotions, will, desires, and conscience. 

In Jeremiah 18:1-4, we read, “The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over“. In Romans 9:21, Paul picks up the theme, and he wrote, “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” We pilgrims have to accept that we are God’s creation. Some of us are quite decorative, gifted for up-front ministries, or for preaching to thousands about the love of God. Others are plainer and not often seen, and these are the people who are quietly and faithfully working away in the background, just as the potter required. But in both cases, the pots are fragile, easily broken, and susceptible to the light within fading away.

Treasure shining in our hearts

We spend our lives building an exterior that seems unbreakable and strong, polished and self-sufficient. We hide the “cracks” in our “pots” so that who we really are is exposed. If the light shining in our hearts” were housed in something flawless and indestructible, we might start to believe it came from us. But clay pots don’t get credit for the treasure they hold. Our limitations, our vulnerability, even our struggles serve a purpose: they point beyond us. They make it clear that whatever goodness, strength, or hope shines through our lives is not self-generated. It’s God at work within us.

What is the treasure that God has chosen to be contained in our hearts? We know the glory of Jesus, as it shines bright within us. We know the truth of the glorious Gospel, proclaiming as it does the wonder of how the Son of God came to this world to redeem sinful, broken and hopeless human beings from a lost eternity. We know the love and grace of God burning within us through the power of His Spirit. None of this is earthly treasure, doomed to destruction by “moth and rust” as Jesus warned us about. It is an eternal treasure so precious and limitless that we have to share it with others at every opportunity. I’m sure that if we went up to a homeless person with a banknote and gave it to them, they would be very grateful. But around us are people who will one day be homeless in a place without God. We have a treasure far more valuable than banknotes, and we can hand it out to anyone who wants to listen. We pilgrims may be “clay pots”, but God, the master potter, has created us and has chosen to use us to store His treasure. But this treasure will lose its shine and die away unless we use it for God’s purposes.

Dear Heavenly Father. We may be “clay pots”, but you have created each one of us as a unique human being. We understand the awesome responsibility of having Your treasure stored within us, and we pray for opportunities to show it to those around us, offering them the same invitation as we responded to. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God’s Secret Plan (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 NLT

Paul continues into chapter two with thoughts about wisdom, “impressive wisdom” at that. And there was no doubt that Paul had plenty of that. Here was the man who planted churches everywhere he went and provided for us much of the theology on which our faith is based through his letters to these churches. He never forgot his friends in the churches he had established. 2 Corinthians 11:27-28, “I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches“. But we mustn’t forget that Paul was an educated man and was able to debate with the best of the people he met. In Thessalonica we read, “As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people” (Acts 17:2). Paul’s wisdom and knowledge of the Scriptures (which would mostly have been the Hebrew Bible in those days) was sufficient to convince many and we read, “Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women” (Acts 17:4). 

But in the case of the Corinthians, Paul reminded them that he “didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell [them] God’s secret plan”. All he preached to them was about Jesus and His crucifixion. The Message of the Cross is a powerful message and is the only gateway to eternal life. Jesus said, “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” (John 3:14-15). But Paul also mentioned “God’s secret plan”. This plan of course was a secret for many years before Jesus came to this world. Apart from a few hints from the old prophets, the Jews had no idea when or how their Messiah would arrive, and their expectation of His mission was related to the political situation in which they lived. They hated being under the rule of the Roman occupying forces and longed for the day when the Messiah would come and throw them out, allowing Israel to be an independent nation in its own right once again. But there was that day when Jesus was crucified for the sins of man, and God’s plan was revealed to everyone who believed in Him. 

“God’s secret plan” was in the making right from the beginning. Ephesians 1:4, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes”. But God’s plan is still a secret to most people today because they don’t have the key. Imagine a door into a locked room. We pilgrims long ago would have had no idea what was behind the door, even if we knew that it existed, but we didn’t really care anyway, being lost in our sins, unbelievers through and through. But one day someone gave us the key, when we became believers in Jesus, helping us to finally realise that we had indeed been chosen by God. And imagine our tentative steps as we open the door, exposing “God’s secret plan” right before us. A veritable treasure trove of goodies awaiting us, but, amazingly, the treasure was different for each one of us. And as we venture further and further into the space behind the door we find out more and more about “God’s secret plan”, tailor made just for you and me. Jesus said, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6); the only way the door can be unlocked is through Jesus. Unbelievers don’t have the key, and because of that they have no idea of what “God’s secret plan” was all about.

God has provided for us an inventory of the treasure located behind the door, and we call it the Bible. This Book, God’s only written work, is packed full of precious nuggets, spiritual treasure designed to equip us for a life to be spent with Him in Heaven. Earthly treasure, precious stones and metals such as diamonds and gold, is just that, contained on earth. But we know that one day it will all be burnt up, so we won’t find anything of human value behind the door. In Heaven, there will be what seems to be like earthly treasure, as we can read in Revelation 4:3, “The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones—like jasper and carnelian. And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow“, but this was John trying to describe a sight so wonderful that he could only explain it in a form that could be understood. Spiritual treasure, such as we will find in Heaven, is very different, and of infinitely more value, because it is all about God. The wonderful thing about the treasure we will find there is that it is available for us today. God in His grace and love has provided for us the Heavenly things of spiritual value for us to access in our lives today. 

So we pick up this Book and open its pages. We find not just printed words on a paper page, but a sparkling treasure trove that describes “God’s secret plan”. And as we read and read, His words leap out of the page right into our very souls. These words may be difficult to understand at first, but God is patient, and to His persevering saints, fellow pilgrims like us, with open hearts and minds, His grace flows into our lives, making us more like Jesus, “to be holy and without fault in his eyes”. What an amazing God we serve; He gives and gives and keeps on giving because He loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him. And in deep gratitude we embrace all that He has for us, as we plod on in our journey to Glory.

Dear Father God, thank You for the treasure trove containing the details of Your secret plan that is Your Word. Please help us to understand as we mine the nuggets contained within in our daily lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Persecuted for Jesus

Posted on by korgrocker

“Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.”
John 15:20-21 NLT

How was it that when God sent His Son, Jesus, to His own people, the Jews, that they refused to recognise Him? They had all the Old Testament prophecies. They had the expectation that the arrival of their Messiah was imminent. And yet they rejected Him, and, worse, they persecuted Him. Everywhere Jesus went, there seemed to be a group of Pharisees and religious lawyers and leaders hanging onto His every word, looking for opportunities to kill Him. In John 10:31-32, we read, “Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?””. Jesus’ claim “… Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father”” (John 10:38b) was a stumbling block for the Jews. In that culture, anyone who blasphemed God had to be stoned to death, as the Jews knew from Leviticus 10:16, “Anyone who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any native-born Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be put to death“. When Jesus claimed to be God, people started to pick up stones, because He didn’t fit the stereotype of what they thought their Messiah would be like, and therefore this “Man” was blaspheming.

Jesus’ message to His people was so counter to their culture that they couldn’t accept it, especially as they didn’t recognise the Man who was delivering it as being God’s Son. But then they had the problem of all the miracles that Jesus performed. The introduction from Nicodemus, when he came to see Jesus late one evening, was recorded in John 3:2, “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you”“. Here was a Jewish leader who knew Jesus had something special, but he was trying to reconcile in his mind his expectations from a culture steeped in the Jewish Law against what was unfolding day by day before his eyes. We’re grateful for Nicodemus, because in response to his seeking after the truth, we received Jesus’ mission-defining verse, John 3:16.

So, Jesus was persecuted by His own people. But He carried on with His mission, preaching to crowds of people as the arrival of the Cross got ever closer. But Jesus warned His disciples that they too would be persecuted, and it would be a natural thing for unbelieving people to do. Sin and wickedness is deeply rooted within human beings and was then as well. Any message that confronted man’s natural state would end up with a push back, so violent that it would sometimes lead to death. In the early days of the church it wasn’t long before the persecution of the disciples, now Apostles, started. Acts 4:3, “They arrested [Peter and John]and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.” And then in Acts 5:26a, 40b, we read, “The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, … They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go”. The disciples were indeed persecuted, as Jesus had warned them. And in these early days of the church, this was just a start.

Fast forward to today, and we can see what is happening in the world. Persecuted Christians abound. They have committed no crime other than to believe in the Lord Jesus for their future. A visit to the website “Open Doors” will introduce the scale of the problem. But, we pilgrims have to accept that persecution is part of our mission as we share our faith with others. We must expect people to ridicule us, to ostracise us and even attack us as we go about our business of being salt and light in our communities. But we remember that there is a great reward awaiting us one day. We are in the process of storing up treasure in Heaven, and all those who attack us will one day be held to account. The scales of justice will one day have to be balanced. 

After being flogged we read, “The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). We do not expect physical “floggings” but many in the secular societies in which we live will look for opportunities to harass us, pushing back as we share God’s words of love and grace. Some have questioned our effectiveness and missional believers if we don’t suffer any persecution, no matter how little it is. In fact, would the world around us recognise us as men and women who have been with Jesus? Hmmm…..

Father God. We have treasure inside of us that we must expose for the benefit of those round us. The Gospel is indeed Good News, as is the message about Your Son Jesus. Amen.

Fancy Hairstyles

Posted on by korgrocker

“Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.”
1 Peter 3:3-4 NLT

Peter continued to write to the women in the congregation, who were presumably assembled to hear as his letter read out. He contrasted the outward paraphernalia of how people look that was demanded in that age, much as it has been ever since, with the beauty that God desires. The so called global beauty industry in the 21st Century is big business, and the cost of cosmetics alone is expected to reach $750 billion each year by 2025. But not one cent of that will get a person into Heaven. It should be added that this includes what men spend on cosmetics as well. Peter singled out “fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery, or beautiful clothes” but these days we need to add cosmetics and the costs of surgery, that is increasingly becoming desirable. Perhaps a search for perpetual youth drives an industry that is doomed to fail in the end. The wonderful thing for us pilgrims is that when we reach Heaven we will receive a new body. In Philippians 3:21 we read, “He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control“.‭‭ There’s more to read about our new bodies in 2 Corinthians 5.

We all love beautiful things. I know a man who owns 2 Porsche cars and 2 Ducati motorbikes as well as a Land Rover for everyday use. He is what we call in the UK a “petrolhead” and he is besotted with his expensive possessions and hobby. But like everything else we own, he will be unable to take his belongings with him into Heaven, or wherever he will end up when he dies. No need for them in the afterlife! Our beautiful possessions, clothes and jewellery must be held in open hands, in the knowledge that one day they will pass on to someone else or, for most items, a rubbish heap. Jesus taught, “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). 

What do we pilgrims value in life? Our possessions will remain on Planet Earth when we die, so a relatively short term enjoyment will suddenly stop at a time coincident with our last breaths. But we have the opportunity to acquire Heavenly treasure, and this will be stored for us for a time when we can be reconciled with it. What is this treasure? We find it by reading the Bible. This Book, written by God, contains many nuggets that we can extract and apply to our lives. Perhaps a good place to start is in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” These are all Heavenly-bankable assets that will please God and are things that He sees are precious. As we develop this fruit in our lives, God sees a burgeoning inner beauty that pleases Him.

A fancy hairstyle is of no benefit in Heaven. We will receive a new body, and, presumably, a new hairstyle when we get to Heaven. But what will shine forth to God and others there is the “beauty that comes from within”. Heaven is a place where a different value system prevails.

Dear God. Heaven will be an amazing place for Your people to live in. We only get a glimpse through Scripture not what it will be like, but in Your presence we will have no fears. Amen.

Our Heavenly Inheritance

Posted on by korgrocker

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.”
1 Peter 1:3-5 NLT

According to Peter’s letter, we have an inheritance waiting for us in Heaven. That is, for those who are believers, of course. Someone who has denied God and turned his or her backs on His offer of grace through His Son Jesus will miss out. No point really in their having a Heavenly inheritance, because they won’t be going to Heaven anyway. But we pilgrims, followers of Jesus Christ, and who have embraced His salvation, now “live with great expectation” about the “priceless inheritance” awaiting us.

But what is this “pure and undefiled” inheritance? If we have thoughts of anything we see as valuable in this life, such as a nice fat bank account, or a few bars of gold, we will be very mistaken, because our earthly currencies won’t appear in Heaven. Popular cartoons depict an angel with wings, dressed in white, and sitting on a cloud plucking a harp, but that won’t be it either. No, our inheritance in Heaven will be everything that God has promised us when we embraced His offer of salvation. We won’t need any “stuff” in Heaven because we will have God Himself. Eternal life in Heaven is our inheritance. We get a glimpse of some of that this means from Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”” All the negatives that we experience in our lives here on Planet Earth won’t be in Heaven. I’m sure we can think of many more.

Jesus told His disciples about our Heavenly inheritance in Matthew 6:19-21, “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”. 

We have no idea of the full extent on what we can expect when we get to Heaven. In fact, although life in Heaven is our expectation, there are verses in Revelation that indicate that we will still be spending our lives here on Earth, though by then the earth as we know it will have been replaced. Revelation 21:1,3, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. …  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”. There are also verses that talk about us pilgrims ruling and reigning with Christ. Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years”.

Eternal life will be amazing. The treasure in Heaven, our inheritance, will be Jesus Himself. It doesn’t get better than that!

Father God. We look forward with eager anticipation for the time when we cross the threshold into Heaven. Come Lord Jesus! Amen.