The Temple of God (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Don’t you realise that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 NLT

In these two verses in 1 Corinthians, Paul describes a “temple” that consists of all the people in the Corinthian church and he used an analogy of a physical building to describe a spiritual equivalent Already Paul has described the believers in Corinth as a field and building (1 Corinthians 3:9, “For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building”) and now he is telling them that they are God’s temple, all corporate analogies for an ideal Christian church. Such a body of believers started with the “seed” of the Gospel, was then built up by the “washing of the word”, and was now functioning as a Holy-Spirit-indwelling group capable of doing much for God. Or they should have been. We know that the Corinthian church started life in the home of Titius Justus, a Gentile believer who lived next to the synagogue in Corinth (Acts 18), and the believers there then probably met in different home groups as the church grew in numbers. We remember the origins of the early church in Jerusalem from Acts 2:42, 46, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. …  They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity”.  So probably the Corinthian believers did the same, hiring a hall when needed, much as new churches and fellowships do today. But Paul wasn’t bothered by buildings and was only concerned with the “building” that mattered – a group of Spirit-filled believers in whom the Holy Spirit could thrive.

Further on in his first Corinthian letter, Paul reminded the believers there that their bodies individually were “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19), but we’ll get to that later. In the meantime, Paul could see the potential of the Holy Spirit working through a group of Spirit-filled believers in what could be achieved for God. But Paul mildly rebuked the believers in Corinth because he had a concern. What was this? Well, first of all, there was sin present. He wrote, “for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?” (1 Corinthians 3:3). One place the Holy Spirit cannot live is in an atmosphere of sin, and worldly people will not experience the indwelling of God’s Spirit. Another problem with these nascent believers was a lack of harmony between them. 1 Corinthians 1:10, “I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose”. A lack of unity caused by factionalism will severely limit or even destroy the Holy Spirit’s power.

But Paul was on their case and knew what was holding them back. Of course, we believers today, pilgrims heading for glory, will never behave in such ways, but are our churches and fellowships filled with the power of the Holy Spirit with signs and miracles commonplace? In Acts 4, we read about a prayer meeting so powerful that the building shook. The prayer ended, “Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:30). The next verse then described what followed. “After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness”. Where is this power in our churches today? When was the last time we had a prayer meeting so powerful that the building shook? But we can’t look around at the other believers who worship with us. We have to look at ourselves and our desires for our group of believers. As an aside, we note that it wasn’t just a few believers who turned up for the prayer meeting; it was all the believers. Built together, we make up a corporate setting for the Holy Spirit to move, and if He doesn’t, what are we doing, or not doing, that is stopping him? 

The gift of the Holy Spirit was present in the Corinthian church regardless of their problems. We read in 1 Corinthians 1:7, “Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Where did these gifts originate? With God Himself, He is not a stingy God who capriciously bestows gifts on a whim. We only have to ask Him for the gifts we need. Jesus said, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). But there is a cost. If we want to be really Spirit-filled people of God, are we prepared for what follows? A power-filled people who attend prayer meetings and expect God to move? Like at the start of the Hebridean revival, where two old ladies, Peggie (who was blind) and Christine Smith, aged 84 and 82, decided to pray. They were greatly burdened because they’d been told no young person attended public worship at their church. They decided to pray twice a week. On Tuesdays and Fridays, they got on their knees at ten in the evening, and remained there until three or four in the morning; two old women in a very humble cottage. And that’s how revival in the Hebrides broke out, leaving a legacy that we can find today, half a century or more later. 

Does the Holy Spirit live within us, pilgrims? I’m sure He does, and He is always able and willing to touch those around us as we preach the Word of God with the same boldness as the Acts 4 Christians. I heard a preacher recently in his evangelist message say that he was a “space invader”. The use of this phrase probably gave away his age, but it is a telling description of someone, full of the Holy Spirit’s power, invading the space of people they meet. People around us are wandering around without hope and full of fear for the future. They need to hear Good News, but who is there to tell them except us? Of course, God could reveal Himself directly to anyone He chooses, but the reality is that He has chosen us pilgrims to do His work for him. So, full of the Holy Spirit’s power, that is what we must do. We may feel totally inadequate for the task, but with the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth, how can we fail? We may get knockbacks. We may find a lack of fertile ground prepared for the seed we have ready and waiting to plant, but with perseverance, we will succeed because the One who is within us is greater than the one who is in the world.

Dear God. Please lead and guide us to the people You have prepared in advance and who are ready and waiting to hear Your Good News. Please empower us with all the right words to say, and help us speak Your message with boldness, so that the people will know that we have met Jesus. In His precious name. Amen.

Jesus Christ the Foundation (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NLT

Paul wasn’t a builder by profession, although his job as a tent maker was close. In his life, he had probably seen buildings erected, and he knew the importance of foundations that would stand the test of time. And he also knew that, then, as now, society had a building industry that sometimes used cheaper and inferior materials, cutting corners and generating more profit for the builders. In the analogy that Paul was using, he was the one who laid the foundations for the Corinthian church. He came to Corinth in about 51AD and started to tell the Jews there about Jesus when he attended their synagogue. “Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike” (Acts 18:4). But in the end, he gave up because of their hard hearts and left to start the church in a home next door to the synagogue. “Then he left and went to the home of Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God and lived next door to the synagogue” (Acts 18:7). It was here that Paul laid the foundation for the Corinthian church, “So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God” (Acts 18:11). What did he teach? 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified“. This is important in terms of foundation laying, because building on anything other than “Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified” would have been like building on the sand we considered yesterday in the parable of the wise and foolish builders. 

But over the years, there have been many churches, fellowships, groups, sects, and ideologies that all claim to have been founded on Jesus, but many have introduced a subtle change or interpretation that ignores the central facets of the Foundation and have built on something else. It started in the early church days with, for example, movements like Gnosticism. This centred on the idea of gnosis, or secret knowledge, that could liberate individuals from the material world and connect them with a higher spiritual realm. Key to Gnostic thought was the belief that the material world was inherently flawed or evil, created by a lesser deity, while a higher, transcendent God existed beyond it. This movement clashed with Jewish and Christian believers, who considered it for what it was – heresy. Then we have Marcionism, which believed that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New Testament, and its followers rejected the Old Testament. And then we have the Montanists, which was a movement emphasising prophecy and the direct experience of the Holy Spirit, believing their revelations superseded existing Christian teachings. Many others flourished in those early days, and they all were marked out by their false foundations. 

In modern days, some sects that call themselves Christian have attracted followings and have established their own denominations and churches. For example, we have the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe that Jesus was not God, and the Mormons, who claim to be Christian but aren’t. Both of these have one thing in common, in that they claimed to have divine knowledge imparted to them by their own founders.  And there are other sects that have emerged over the years. Such groups and sects have confused and misguided people into believing something untrue. 

In yesterday’s blog, we considered Jesus, the only true Foundation. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). A bold and unequivocal statement that has been the true foundation of the Christian church ever since, and is something central to our faith. After Paul had established the Corinthian church, other men of God built up the believers there, men such as Apollos. What building materials did they use – “gold, silver, jewels?” or  “wood, hay, or straw”? The precious metals and gems were an analogy of the truth about Jesus and what He taught. In those days, there was no availability of the New Testament as we know it today, so the quality building materials used would have been through Godly men and women who knew the Truth. Paul gave a clue as to how when he wrote, “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:4). The quality builders like Paul and Apollos had one thing in common, and that was the revelation of Jesus through the Holy Spirit within them. We know this from John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future“. Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Truth in building the foundations and truth in building the Church. 

What would the “wood, hay or straw” have been? Teaching that distorts the message of Christ or waters down the truth. Such a definition fits very well with the JW and Mormon sects we have with us today. As another example, I was once in a church that decided to preach a series of sermons based on a popular Christian book. I can’t remember which one, but the issue for me was that the preachers were being a bit lazy in taking ready-made sermon material from a book rather than seeking the Holy Spirit for “gold, silver and jewels” to include in their messages. Another danger is with AI-based applications, such as using ChatGPT, which will provide a sermon outline very easily and plausibly. Did I use this when writing this blog or any other? No, I prefer to set down thoughts inspired by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, the Bible. But back to our Corinthian builders. Did they end up building wood, hay or straw in the lives of their audience? As a warning, Paul went on to write what will happen on Judgement Day. On this terrible day, fire will destroy what is of no value, but more on this tomorrow.

In the meantime, are we pilgrims in a place where we are being built up by the washing of the Word? Ephesians 5:25-27, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault“. We need to be in a place where we can read, believe and apply God’s Word in our lives. Through personal study of the Bible and through listening attentively to the preaching of a Godly “builder” from the pulpit. There is no other way to be built up in our faith. We are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and our lives since have been built by following His truth, and none other.

Dear Lord Jesus, only You have the truth that leads to eternal life. Only You are the One who is the correct foundation for Your brothers and sisters in the faith. And we pray for our leaders, that You will lead and guide them in Your ways and in Your truth. In Your precious name. Amen.

Leaders and Followers

Posted on by korgrocker

“For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
1 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIVUK

The Corinthian church was established by Paul, and then a man called Apollos emerged as a leader, building up the church and continuing his work, but the problem seemed to be one where a particular leader was being followed instead of the message that he was delivering, the Message of the Cross. The central fact that it was all about Christ seemed to have become lost in the “jealousy and quarrelling” that Paul was so upset about. We see from 1 Corinthians 1:12, Peter was added to the leadership list: “Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ””. What were the differences between these men, and why were some Corinthian believers saying they only followed Christ? After all, they all preached the same message as far as we know, but there would have been different personalities involved as well, and different nuances in their delivery. We know about Paul and Peter from their letters and, additionally, with Peter from his mentions in the Gospels, but little is known about Apollos. All we have is a brief cameo in Acts 18:24-25, “Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism”. Although Priscilla and Aquila helped him understand the “way of God” more accurately, there is no mention of the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life. However, I think we can take it as read, because of his endorsement by Paul. 

There is always a tendency for some believers to blindly follow a charismatic figure who presents a plausible message that resonates with his or her listeners, and that allegiance can develop into a following, even a separate church. Some people need a relationship with a leader to help them with their own needs, it seems. Such a leader presents them with messages well presented and mostly accurate representations of Scripture, but there is always the danger that some aspects of the Bible can be promoted over others, leading to a lop-sided rather than well-rounded Biblical message. For example, I once knew a pastor who had a particular ministry in evangelism, and messages from the pulpit were often flavoured by his passion for reaching the lost. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but messages are also needed for building up the body of Christ. Paul wrote about the ministry graces in his Ephesian letter, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). We used to call these the “Five-Fold Ministries”. Why did the church need these five graces? The next two verses read, “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ”. Did Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, even have all these five gifts? Doubtful, although God will often bestow an additional gift, or gifts, on someone to meet a particular need. But to build up a church congregation, so that they “measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ”, requires a leadership team representing as many of these ministries as possible. A person sitting in the pew will find that his or her own particular gifting will resonate with one of these grace ministries, perhaps helping them grow in their own ministry.  Apollos, we are told, was an eloquent preacher well versed in Scripture, so, understandably, some people would enjoy sitting under his ministry. However, what upset Paul was that the different followings present in the Corinthian church were leading to divisions fuelled by “jealousy and quarrelling”. Here is a quote from Bibleref.com: “For Paul, the subtle nuances behind these divisions didn’t matter. The problem is that they exist at all. These squabbles are evidence that the Corinthian Christians are behaving like unbelievers, or immature Christians, demanding their own way, rather than as Holy Spirit-empowered believers learning to express God’s sacrificial love to each other“.

We pilgrims, however, know that Jesus Himself is the One we must follow. And as we develop His teachings in our lives, we will start to, more and more, demonstrate the grace and love that He taught, in the way we go about our daily lives. It’s called sanctification, and we sometimes will fail to enjoy the process. We all know, I’m sure, fellow Christians who have left a church because the message being preached makes them feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to hear things that mean their approach to living must change. So what do they do? On some pretext, they will leave that church and find another, one that preaches messages that don’t expose or challenge their weaknesses. But the Holy Spirit within will never give up on us. Jesus said, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you”(John 14:26). God wants us to be holy and blameless in His sight (Colossians 1:22) so he will never give up on us, teaching us just what we need when we need it. Believers who migrate from church to church will never find a perfect home, and sooner or later, they will find themselves facing the same old challenges. Quote from David Pawson,  “God is willing to let things happen to us which may be painful, but which will make us more holy as a result. Our character tends to make more progress in the tough times than the good”.

In following a person rather than God Himself, there is always a danger of arriving in a place Paul warned Timothy about. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). But we pilgrims desire to be well-rounded children of God, growing in grace day by day. We ask the Holy Spirit to lead us to a church where the leaders are Godly men and women, themselves wholly grounded in God’s truth as contained in His Word. Not for us a path that leads to “myths”. We pray that the church we find ourselves in will also be accountable to other Godly leaders, themselves fully grounded in the ways of God. And in such an environment, we know that we can grow secure in the knowledge that God is truly with us.

Dear Father God. We pray that You lead us into all truth through the power and presence of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Mind of Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 NLT

The “mind of Christ”? We need to let that thought sink in for a moment. Paul didn’t say that it was he, and him alone, that had the “mind of Christ”. There was a “we” involved, as he wrote to the Corinthian believers. He had just written that spiritual people, believers like him, could “evaluate all things”, and in addition, people who were unbelievers would be unable to evaluate the believers. In other words, the believers had access to the spiritual truths we read about in preceding verses, access denied to unbelievers who had no time for the spiritual world in God’s Kingdom anyway. In the second verse of our text today, Paul quoted from the Greek version of Isaiah 40, from a section entitled “The Lord Has No Equal” in my Bible. Isaiah 40:13 asks the questions, “Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?” But Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they would know the answers to difficult questions such as these, because they have the “mind of Christ”. 

The passage of Scripture in Isaiah 40 provides a glimpse of how wonderful it is to be able to have access to the “mind of Christ”. We, of course, know that in those pre-incarnation days, while Isaiah was writing, Jesus was still in Heaven with God. And as Isaiah mused in his writings, thinking Holy Spirit-inspired thoughts, he set down a series of questions that are relevant for both believers and unbelievers. Some he answered, but the remainder are left hanging in the air, unable to be answered by mere human beings. Questions such as, “Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice?” (verse 14), or “To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him?” (verse 18). Then there is “Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant?” (verse 21). But the wonderful thing is that believers like us pilgrims filled with the Holy Spirit, know the answers to these questions, because we have “the mind of Christ”.

If we take the first question that I have quoted from Isaiah 40, “Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?”, we know the answer because God is omniscient, meaning that He is all-knowing. So we pilgrims know we only have to go to God for answers to life’s difficult questions, such as what is the purpose of life? We watch the worldly people around us struggling to find an answer to questions such as this, as they thrash around, out of their depth. In answer to other societal challenges and problems, centred on their definition of morality, the politicians try and introduce laws to legislate an answer, helping people to live in the way they think is appropriate. Another topical question is about how gender can be defined, and in response, the secular leaders and other influential people in our society try and introduce a laughably false ideology which proposes that there may be up to a hundred different genders. Really? If only such people had the “mind of Christ” as we do, then they would know the answer. And then we have the question, “To whom can you compare God?”. Our medics will come up with their findings in medicine, our scientists in physics and chemistry. The geologists will refer to their understanding of the world’s origins through rocks and geological strata. The archaeologists will display their fossils and other ancient findings along with their definitions of age, and follow up with conclusions of how they got to where they were found. But none of them can answer Isaiah’s question, because they do not have the “mind of Christ”. 

Jesus said to His disciples that when He had left this world, He would send them an Advocate, a Comforter, Someone who would bring to the disciples’ minds what they had been told. “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26). Earlier in this Corinthian journey we read 1 Corinthians 2:10, “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets“. We must allow this revelation to sink deep within our spirits. Did Paul really mean that through the Holy Spirit we would have access to “God’s deep secrets”? That’s what he said, and he finished this passage with another revelation, that we have the “mind of Christ”. 

Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (John 16:13). We Spirit-filled believers are in a powerful position because we can see the world from God’s perspective. We have access to absolute truth in a world that can only expose relative truths, and even then, only in the light of human understanding. As an example, some centuries ago, the general belief was that the world in which we live was flat. If you sailed too near the edge, then you would fall off into some void, never to be seen again. That was regarded as “truth” to the scientists and ordinary people of the day. But today, the old “truth” has been replaced by a new “truth”, that the world is in fact a sphere. When we consider the spiritual realm, though, truth takes on a different meaning. We pilgrims believe that one day, because of our faith, we will be received into our new home in Heaven. To us, that is the truth, revealed in God’s Word. Take, for example, 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”. Jesus said it, and because He spoke no lies, it must be truth, absolute truth. We can’t prove it to the unbelieving sceptics around us, but one day everyone will find out that this is indeed the truth. In His High Priestly prayer, Jesus said, “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth” (John 17:17). We know of course about what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God“.

But we pilgrims are not followers of satan; instead, we are followers of Jesus, and we have the “mind of Christ”. We have been redeemed from the lies of this age and now can look forward to a time when only truth will prevail. I don’t know about you, dear friends, but sometimes when I see the state of the world around me, I can’t wait!

Dear Heavenly Father. One day, we will realise the fullness of life with You in a place we call Heaven. There will be no wars there between truth and lies, because You are truth, and there will be no sin in Heaven. And so we continue our journeys to glory, step by step, sometimes wearily, but always in the light of Your truth, revealed by the “mind of Christ”. Thank You. Amen.

Spiritual Truths

Posted on by korgrocker

“When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.”
1 Corinthians 2:13-15 NLT

Isn’t it amazing that believers, full of the Holy Spirit, have access to “spiritual truths”, but those worldly and unbelieving people around us do not have a clue about anything to do with God’s world. Such a world to them does not exist, because they cannot see it with their eyes or other senses. I read this morning about an astronomical discovery three hundred light-years away, a huge structure largely consisting of hydrogen and solar dust, that had never before been seen. It became news when it was exposed to a special form of light. Well, people in this world are a bit like that spiritually. They had never before seen this structure, so to them it therefore did not exist. Most of the same people have never seen the spirit world where God lives, and so to them it doesn’t exist either. As we pilgrims know, one day if they encounter Jesus, He will open their eyes and they will discover that a different form of Light has exposed a spiritual world far beyond anything they had ever considered before. We human beings are so good at limiting our ability by our world views. And so when we believers talk to unbelievers about spiritual matters, even if they contain “spiritual truths”, they don’t have a clue about what we are talking about. 

Evangelists promote a message of salvation through Jesus, but often this message majors on repentance from sin. That is, of course, correct, because any form of sin is abhorrent in God’s sight, but who wants to have to face into their misdemeanours, the things that they have done wrong? So this can become a hurdle to a sinner’s appreciation of God’s spiritual world. Other evangelistic messages focus on God’s love, and this can draw people towards Jesus. Such a message might even motivate them to attend church and get involved in church activities. But sooner or later, they have to open the door into God’s spiritual world through their repentance and seeking forgiveness for their sins. Otherwise, the “spiritual truths” available to true believers will remain elusive and a mystery, or even as invisible as the cloud of hydrogen so far away. To me, Peter put his finger on the issue about access to the “truths from God’s Spirit” when he preached “ … Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). 

Believers in Jesus will never be able to appreciate the words given to us by the Holy Spirit if we don’t know Him. The Pentecost experience was an amazing demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power, with its transformative potential in the lives of the believers present. Have we experienced that power? Or have we settled for a stripped-down version where we have capped what the Holy Spirit can do and reveal to us by putting Him in a box of our own making? After all, we perhaps think, we don’t want the Spirit to do anything that we don’t approve of. It might embarrass us. We say to the Holy Spirit, “Just give us the ‘spiritual truths’ we need and no more, thank You”. I think we can agree that such a limitation must impact the revelation of the “truths from God’s Spirit” in our everyday lives. I don’t know about you, my friends, but I want more of God in my life and more of His power, the power that can transform not only me but those around me. And that power is contained in the “spiritual truths” revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

Human wisdom is totally blind to the things of the Spirit. After all, if we look at things through their eyes, does it not appear foolish to see a new Christian get down on his or her knees before an invisible entity they call “God” and proceed to confess their sins? How foolish does it appear to them to then see the new Christian rise up with a look of joy and relief, even shouting God’s praises, apparently transformed. A human unbeliever, blinded by their feeble wisdom, cannot even start to appreciate the change that has occurred. Paul wrote, “people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it”. That was the situation in his day, and it still applies in 21st-century planet Earth societies. Advances in human knowledge and wisdom alone over the past two thousand years or so have not been able to bridge the gap between the natural and spiritual, and they never will. Confirmed atheists look on and try and explain away the things of God, and the impact that the Holy Spirit has in the lives of us pilgrims, dismissing our belief as being because of a character deficiency that needs a religious prop in the same way as an alcoholic needs a drink. So sad, because we pilgrims know the “spiritual truth”. 

So we pilgrims seek more of the Holy Spirit within us, to reveal more and more of God’s “spiritual truths”. We will never tap into everything about God in this life because He is infinite and eternal. But we pray that we will grow as true believers in Christ, helped by the gentle urgings and whispers of the Holy Spirit within us, revealing the “spiritual truths” we need to help us become more and more like Jesus. 

Dear God. The Holy Spirit within each of us is a force so powerful that no worldly power can ever replace Him. We know that still small voice within that gently leads and guides us more and more, to become the people You would have us be. Thank You for Your grace and love. Amen.

God’s Spirit (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 NLT

Yesterday I started with a question: in that the Bible is full of references to the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, but His work and presence in believers is often played down or even ignored. Why is that? We then looked at some Scriptures that took us up to that momentous day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came with tongues of fire and the sound of a rushing wind, followed by Peter’s dramatic and hard-hitting sermon that led to 3000 men being saved. In that sermon, we then read that significant verse where Peter explained what was required. Acts 2:37-38, “Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. As we pilgrims know, if we want to be a follower of Jesus, wholeheartedly believing in Him, then two steps need to be taken and a gift from God follows. Peter made this very clear. But this is not totally prescriptive because I always think of the penitent thief on the Cross next to Jesus’, who was not baptised either in water or, apparently, in the Holy Spirit, but he was still promised a new life with Christ. And then we have Romans 10:9-10, where Paul explained, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved“. It would therefore appear that the Holy Spirit will not automatically accompany our salvation. However, God will not withhold His gift of the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.

What does the Holy Spirit do in each believer? We remember that God is sovereign, and He will give spiritual gifts to us through His Spirit to whom He chooses. The Bible is clear that to receive a spiritual gift, we must first experience a true conversion to become a whole-hearted believer and follower of Jesus. A worldly person will not receive any spiritual gifts, because such a person does not know the gift-Giver, God Himself. But for us pilgrims, believers in Christ, we will each have received at least one spiritual gift. 1 Corinthians 12:7, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other”. We, of course, take note of the purpose of the gift, and that it is not something for our benefit but for the benefit of others. As we read further down in 1 Corinthians 12, we will see some of the gifts that Paul has listed, such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation. 

So, when do we receive this gift or gifts (some people receive more than one)? Most people apparently believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us at the point of our salvation. The Holy Spirit provides gifts for us as God chooses. But there are Scriptures such as 1 Timothy 4:14, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you”. In this verse, Paul reminded Timothy that there was a time when he was being resourced for ministry, and a further gift was released to him through the laying on of hands by the Elders present. God also encourages us to seek His gifts, because it is through them that the Holy Spirit will enhance God’s work. 1 Corinthians 12:31a, “So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. … “. Yesterday we read what Jesus said about gifts, “ … So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11). Paul wrote that we should “earnestly desire” the gifts granted graciously to us by God. There is an old saying, “if we don’t ask, then we won’t get”. But we know that being earnest means that we aren’t making a casual request, soon to be forgotten. 

An excellent example of a Holy Spirit-inspired gift can be found in the account of the healing of the lame beggar. In response to the request for money from the beggar, we read, “But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”” (Acts 3:6). The resulting miracle reverberated around the Temple and the rest of Jerusalem, and led to the severely-threatened Jewish leaders having Peter and John arrested. Another Holy Spirit miracle can be found in Acts 9:17, “So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit”. These weren’t natural events that happened. It was the power of the Holy Spirit doing miraculous works through ordinary men exercising the gifts God had given them. 

A challenging verse can be found in Ephesians 3:20, “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”. Don’t we realise that the Holy Spirit within us is limitless in what He can achieve? Within each believer dwells the Holy Spirit, and from His work in our lives, encouraged and supplemented by the gifts He has granted to us, great things can be accomplished for God. So, what do we think? Coming back to our starting question, why do so many people downplay the potential work of the Holy Spirit in their lives? At least one denomination believes that the gifts of the Holy Spirit died out with the first Apostles, basing this conclusion on the verses at the end of 1 Corinthians 13. Others, particularly of Pentecostal persuasions, believe that the Holy Spirit and His indwelling and gifts are just as available today as they were two thousand years ago. For me personally, I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I pray earnestly for more of God in my life, His Spirit and all.

Dear Father God. You have graciously granted us many gifts, and they all start with the Holy Spirit. We are so grateful, and we praise and worship You today. Amen.

God’s Spirit (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 NLT

The Bible is full of references to the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, but His work and presence in believers are often played down or even ignored. Why is that? But before we draw any conclusions, we must look at some Bible verses. The first mention of the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters”. The picture here is of a world in chaos, without any sort of structure, but the Holy Spirit was present, perhaps providing an indication that no matter what is going on in the world today, regardless of the chaos and strife, regardless of the ecological concerns, and regardless of any other challenges faced by human beings, He is still present, “hovering” over what is going on. At the other end of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit is not explicitly mentioned, but there are references to the “sevenfold Spirit before His throne” (Revelation 1:5) and in other verses that denote the presence of God’s Spirit. And in between these two Books, the Holy Spirit is mentioned many times, though more so in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was granted to various people for specific tasks, as we read in Exodus 1:3, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts”. If we think about this for a moment, the craftsman in question, Bezalel son of Uri, would previously have been a slave in Egypt, working to build the pyramids demanded by the Pharaoh in power at that time. So, where else would he have acquired the skills necessary to make the Tabernacle and all inside, at God’s command, except through the power of God’s Spirit?  We read in the following two verses in Exodus, “He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!”. What a transformation, from a bricklayer to a goldsmith. And then we read about King Saul in 1 Samuel 19:23, “But on the way to Naioth in Ramah the Spirit of God came even upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy all the way to Naioth!”. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was there to resource and bless individuals, and even gave them messages for the people, just as He decided. But the prophet Joel could see something else that was to come and he prophesised about the work of the Holy Spirit in “the day of the Lord” (Joel 1:15 and 2:1), bringing a time of judgement for the wicked and salvation for the repentant as we read in Joel 2:12, “That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning“. And then we read, “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike” (Joel 2:28-29). The Book of Joel is remarkable in its foretelling of the future.

In the New Testament, something significant was recorded. In Mark 1:9-10, we read, “One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptised him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove”. John saw what was happening and could sense the Holy Spirit’s presence in this God-man before him. In John 14, we see that Jesus started to prepare His disciples for what was soon to come. In John 14:16-17, we read, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 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 recognise him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you”. I wonder what the disciples made of this. Could they have started to feel a little excitement building within them? They would have known through their knowledge of the Scriptures about the Holy Spirit and the impact that He had on the saints of old. After all, Jesus’ promise wasn’t a maybe, dependant on other things, because He assured them, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26). In one of His post-resurrection appearances, Jesus said, “ … Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21-22). Of course, the disciples didn’t receive the Holy Spirit at this moment, but it was a reminder to them, a foretelling, of what was to come.

And then there was that momentous day that changed the course of history. Acts 2:1-4, “On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability“. No-one was left out because “everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit”. And we also note that “everyone … began speaking in other languages”. In the commotion Jews present for the Feast of Pentecost came to find out what was going on and we read, “They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other” (Acts 2:12). Peter stepped forward and “shouted to the crowd”, starting with the prophecy from Joel that we read earlier. This in itself was remarkable because Peter wasn’t a Jewish scholar, well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures. He was a rough and ready fisherman, but with two qualities – he had spent time with Jesus and had just been baptised in the Holy Spirit, who we know would bring to his remembrance what he needed to say.

The Holy Spirit came with an introduction that shook Jerusalem and started Christianity as we know it. And today He still continues His work as he hovers over the earth, ministering to believers everywhere. Can we, pilgrims, feel the presence of God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, within us? Are we tuned into His frequency so that His messages fill our hearts and minds? If not, then we need to get before God and ask. Jesus said, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11). We pilgrims only have to ask our Heavenly Father and He will gladly answer us, graciously gifting us more and more of His Spirit.

Dear Lord God. We thank You for never leaving us as orphans, devoid of Your presence in our lives. We do not worship a distant and uncommunicative God, aloof and inaccessible. We thank You for all that You have done for us and Your work in our lives, transforming us to become more like Jesus. Amen.

God’s Thoughts

Posted on by korgrocker

“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 NLT

What were “these things” that God revealed “by His Spirit“? To answer that we have to rewind a bit in this letter to the Corinthian church, and we find that Paul was referring to “God’s Secret Plan” (1 Corinthians 2:1) and the “ …  mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began” (1 Corinthians 2:7). 

Paul pointed out that a human being, relying on his or her own wisdom and knowledge, would not understand and appreciate what this secret and mysterious plan of God was. Today, we have so-called wise people who have rejected the things of God and replaced Him with strange, idolatrous ideologies that are at variance with His “secret plan”. Such Godless people cry out, “What do we need a God for – we have all the knowledge and wisdom that we need”. The old Sinatra song “I’ll do it my way” comes to mind. But David had come up against such people in his day, and he wrote Psalm 14. “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!” (Psalm 14:1). David continues in the next two verses, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!” Paul picked up this theme in Romans 1:18-19, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them”. In Romans 1:22-23, Paul wrote, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools”. What a damning indictment of all those people today who are chasing after strange ideologies that even reject the order God has created, let alone His thoughts, thinking they know better. But as we read in Psalm 2:4, “But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them“. And David finished Psalm 2 with “Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities— for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!”.

But we can’t leave the terrible thoughts about what will happen to those people who have rejected God and have instead created ideological alternatives to replace Him. Back to Romans 1:24-27, “So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshipped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved”. In the end, God has said to those “wise” people that their foolish behaviour has consequences, in that He will abandon them to their sinful practices. Genesis 6:3a reveals that God’s patience with errant and evil human beings has a limit, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans for ever, for they are mortal; …’“. Instead of saying to God “Your will be done”, they will hear Him say, “No – your will be done” and they will sadly end up facing the consequences of their sin.

Back to the thoughts of God. We can’t just sit down and logically think through ourselves, with the limited faculties that we have, about what God might be thinking. Such an approach is arrogant in the extreme. God has put in place a process within which His thoughts will be revealed to His people, believers like you and me, but to everyone else His thoughts will remain a secret. God has revealed His thoughts through his Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Members of the Trinity are in constant and intimate communication with each other, and those people who are filled with the Holy Spirit will find that they have access to God’s thoughts as well, as He graciously reveals to them. Paul wrote, “we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us” through “God’s own Spirit”. We mustn’t forget that God desires to communicate with His children. He wants to bridge the gulf between His spiritual world and our natural world. He did that through Jesus, and, as Jesus said to His disciples, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). Jesus ascended into Heaven, mission accomplished, but He left us His Spirit to lead and guide us. Of course, the Holy Spirit will not reveal to us all the thoughts of God at the same time. Such a data download would overwhelm us because God’s knowledge is far beyond, even infinitely beyond, what a human being can accept and understand. So the Holy Spirit gently and kindly reveals to us what God wants us to know with one aim – to help us to become more like His Son, Jesus. 

So do we pilgrims desire to know the thoughts of God? Do we want to know and understand His plans for us? Are we open to hearing the whisperings of the Holy Spirit in our very souls, leading and guiding us in His ways? Of course, we are, and we pray every day for more of His revelation for our lives, plans, with instructions for the day and days ahead. This is the only way to complete our journey to Heaven. Jesus said, “  …  ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”(John 14:6). How do we know the way to the Father? Through Jesus and His Spirit, He reveals to us His secret thoughts, thoughts designed to make us more like Him. 

Heavenly Father. We are indeed a blessed people, given access to Your thoughts. We pray for the ability to receive and understand them clearly day by day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Power of God

Posted on by korgrocker

“For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NLT

There are two powers at work in the lives of believers – their own power and the “power of God”. Of course, that puts us well above the prowess of worldly unbelieving people who only have access to their own power, about which they boast and apply worldly ways. But just imagine it once again; that power within us by the Holy Spirit is the “power of God” and it is insurmountable. Ephesians 3:20, “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“. Unlike with our human own capabilities, there is no limit to the “power of God”.

Anyone reading the Old Testament will be aware of the “power of God”. Just consider God’s mighty acts as He extracted the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh’s clutches. About how He fed upwards of two million people for forty years with a food totally complete with all the nutrition needed for life. That’s a lot of packed lunches! About how He stopped the rotation of the earth for a while (Joshua 10:13) so that Israel’s enemies could be defeated. About how he packed a boat with a pair of every living thing so that evil and wickedness could be destroyed with a flood. There are so many more details of God’s exploits, and no self-respecting Jew or Christian will ever deny the “power of God”. David was aware of God’s power and he wrote, “God is awesome in his sanctuary. The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!” (Psalm 68:35). 

The Gospel of Mark records Jesus’ instructions to His disciples just prior to His ascension into Heaven. “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone” (Mark 16:15). But Jesus wasn’t suggesting a powerless message, even if it was presented “using clever and persuasive speeches” as would have been the norm in the Corinthian culture. In Mark, Jesus went on to say “These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed”. And the very last verse in Mark reads, “And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs“. So when Paul wrote that he preached a “plain” word, it was followed with some powerful miraculous signs that confirmed the truth of what he had said. 

This was also the case with the other early Apostles. A few days ago we considered the healing of the lame beggar in the gate of the Temple by Peter and John – Acts 3:6, “But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!””. Now that’s the “power of God” because there was no human power that could have achieved that, and there never has been any since, even with all the technological and medical achievements we expect today. But here’s the thing, the power of man would have made some crutches or artificial limbs, or if that wasn’t possible, the NHS would have provided a wheelchair tailor made for the beggar, and the state would have supplied benefits so that he didn’t have to beg. But the one thing that the power of man couldn’t do was recorded in Acts 3:7-8, “Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them“. Now that’s the “power of God”! And we also note that all this took place before the preaching of the Word, which followed soon afterwards because if we read further in the account, we notice that a crowd had gathered. There is of course no mystery in that. A miraculous sign such as the healing of the lame man that had just been observed would have had a dramatic impact in those days, as it would today. And we see the result over the page in Acts 4:4, “But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totalled about 5,000“. It was the “power of God” at work that saw three thousand men saved after Peter’s Pentecost speech (Acts 2:41) and a further two thousand after the healing of the lame man. Of course, it begs the question as to why such dramatic numbers are not achieved after the preaching of the Message of the Cross today, and it can only be because the wrong power is at work. The power of man can present a good “clever and persuasive” message, but it is only the “power of God” that will confirm the word with signs following.

The “power of God” is available to empower the lives of believers, something Isaiah was aware of. He wrote, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31). And this is true because we pilgrims have experienced that power in our own lives, as we go about our daily business. It lifts our heads, it raises our moods, it provides for our needs and so on.  The list is endless. And if we look back over our lives we see the “power of God” at work in one situation after another. God’s power is at work in the lives of His children, day after day, to the extent that we tend to get a bit blasé, taking Him for granted. But what about the exploits of God in miraculous signs and wonders? Should we not expect that as well? 

Some denominations and movements believe that God’s miracles died away with the early Apostles, but that is not my experience. My own daughter was healed of a life threatening illness and even the medics who treated her had to concede that this was a miracle, as was recorded on her medical notes. I believe the “power of God” is still present today for those who believe. There is the episode recorded in Mark 9 of the father who had a demon-possessed son. He said to Jesus, “Have mercy on us and help us, if You can”. We read Jesus’ reply in the next verse, ““What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”” (Mark 9:23-24). Perhaps we pilgrims need to believe what Jesus said, that “Anything is possible if a person believes”. 

We mustn’t listen to the enemy and anyone else, who deny that the “power of God” exists anymore. Instead we must continue to share the Gospel with those around us, always sensitive to the power within us, the Holy Spirit, who can and will do amazing things.

Dear Heavenly Father. Your power is limitless and we pray for more power in our lives, to do great things both in our lives and the lives of those around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Weakness and Trembling

Posted on by korgrocker

“For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NLT

What sort of man was Paul? We know from his dramatic Damascus Road conversion that he became one of the most, if not the most, successful evangelists that Christianity has ever known. Prior to this he was a very zealous Pharisee, intent on the destruction of this new sect called the Way for good and all. Paul, then named Saul, first appears in the Bible in Acts 7:57-58 during the stoning of the first martyr, Stephen. “Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul”. Paul was thought to have been born between 5BC and 5AD, and he was beheaded around 65AD in Rome. Although named Saul in the Hebrew, he had a Greek name, Paul (probably Paulus as he was a Roman citizen), and this appears in Acts 13:9, “Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye“. But there are many more details about Paul scattered through the book of Acts and the Epistles he wrote. It is his character and his assertation that he first came to the Corinthians “in weakness—timid and trembling” that seems to be at odds with this fiery man who terrorised the early Christians. 

Did Paul lack confidence or was he suffering from an illness of some kind when he first encountered what was to become the Corinthian church? In person he seemed to be less impressive than he would appear from his writings. In fact some in the Corinthian church had a complaint. 2 Corinthians 10:10, “For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!”” In the culture of his day, and in that part of the world, public speeches were usually delivered with great oratorical skills, but Paul wrote, “Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit”. That implied that he had the skills to deliver a message in a clever way, calling on all his wisdom and knowledge, but instead chose not to, relying on the Holy Spirit to speak through his words. Paul presented a masterful speech in the presence of King Agrippa and the local governor Festus, which we can find in Acts 26, and at the end we read, “At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defence. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ he shouted. ‘Your great learning is driving you insane’”‭‭ (Acts 26:24). So although Paul had the capability, he was led by the Holy Spirit to say to the Corinthians just what was necessary. Jesus told the first disciples that when the Holy Spirit came,  ” … he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment” (John 16:8). We pilgrims should note that it is our responsibility to deliver the Message of the Cross and then allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction.

But enough of Paul. What can we pilgrims learn from the way Paul presented the Message of the Cross? First of all was Paul’s dramatic conversion, and that left him with a deep love of Jesus, and all his zeal was then focused in spreading the Gospel. How is our love of Jesus? How zealous are we in carrying out the Great Commission? Questions that of course receive answers of all shades from different people. We know that our testimonies of the time when we met Jesus are each unique in their own way, but they all converge at the foot of the Cross, on that day when we believed Jesus’ message, what He had done for sinners, and that led to pilgrims everywhere putting their faith in God. I know some Christians who have come to that point in their lives, accepting the Message of the Cross, but who then stop there. People like that were around in Paul’s day, and he warned his protégé Timothy “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” (2 Timothy 3:5). Paul called such people as having a “counterfeit faith”. There is a question I have referred to before, and that is “if you were arrested for being a Christian would there be sufficient evidence to convict you”? There was more than enough evidence to convict Paul, and he suffered greatly for his faith.

How do we present the Message of the Cross, the Good News about Jesus, to those we meet? With Paul it was initially with “weakness and trembling”. It doesn’t matter what we know and what our background is. Paul wrote, “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). And so when we talk to others about Jesus, doing “weakness and trembling” is ok. We may be rejected and vilified but that is ok too. So was Jesus, and He was the Son of God. Paul was even imprisoned and worse for sharing the Gospel. a simple message delivered through our “weakness and trembling” is all that is required.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your presence in our lives and for helping us as we tentatively share Your Good News with those around us. We know that the time is short and we press on as Your Spirit leads to the next generation of believers. We love You Lord. Amen.