The Aide-Memoir

Posted on by korgrocker

“I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 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 14:25-26 NLT

One thing that gets worse with age is our memories. Memory loss is gradual and it affects some people more than others. As we get older we forget people’s names, for example, but then remember them  after a few minutes or later in the day. We can also forget appointments so we mitigate the effects by putting in place a system of reminders. Other people put their faith in “to do” lists, with phone or tablet apps or a paper and pencil providing the means. As many a preacher will know, asking a congregation about what he or she preached on the previous week can be demoralising, although many skilled orators will limit the amount of information and will use repetition to help audience retention. Buzz words and techniques such as catchy and related titles and sub-titles will also assist a congregation’s recall capacity. 

Jesus told His disciples that when He returns to His Heavenly home, He will send His representative, the Holy Spirit, who will have two main functions, teaching and reminding. I wonder what those early disciples were expecting? A physical presence sitting on their shoulders and whispering in their ears? Today we could perhaps imagine an “Alexa” or a “Siri” performing in the same way; after all smart phones seem to be ubiquitous. But the Holy Spirit was and is nothing like any man-made aid. Instead He is a gift from God, given to us through His grace and mercy and to fulfil the John 14:26 promise made by Jesus.

Another feature of the Holy Spirit is that non-believers do not have any knowledge of His presence at all. In John 14:17, Jesus said, “ …  The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you“. Not for the world are the benefits of believing in Jesus – the Holy Spirit is a special Person who comes to live within us to teach us all about the way to our ultimate spiritual home and to remind us of all the things that Jesus taught about. The first disciples had received three years or so of teaching from Jesus, teaching that was both by word, such as the parables favoured by the Master Preacher, but also through the day to day experiences, as they followed their Lord and God. It was, to them, all life-changing “stuff” but probably difficult to make sense of at the time. 

We pilgrims have the benefits of the written down words of the New Testament, but before we think that we don’t therefore need an aide-memoire, the teaching contained in the Scripture has to be applied to our daily lives. The Holy Spirit does favour an academic exercise or philosophical debate. We read in Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is life changing and transformational. We transition from being a world-follower to being a God-follower and there is literally a “world” of a difference. Someone I know feels very inadequate because they cannot remember Scripture very well, but the amazing thing is that they find what they need in the recesses of their mind when an opportunity arises and requires it. Watching the Holy Spirit at work in another believer is a thing of joy. The Holy Spirit, a teaching aid and a memory aid. What an amazing God we serve and follow!

Dear Father God. Thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit, allowing Your presence to be with us for ever. Amen.

Last Moments

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you.”
John 14:23-25 NLT

A person’s last words carry much weight and importance. Many a film has included a cameo of an old or very sick person lying in a bed during their last hours, with friends or relatives hanging onto their every word, especially if these are few and far between, and their inheritance is at stake. But this scenario didn’t apply with Jesus. In His last hours He was fit and well, and He had much to say to His disciples. The shadow of the Cross was becoming shorter and He must have been feeling many emotions. Of course, the ever present thought of the pain and humiliation ahead of Him must have been uppermost in His mind.  Jesus would also have been looking forward to the joy of returning to His Heavenly home and being with His Father once again. But His primary concerns were for His disciples. How would they cope without Him? And it is true that they would have had no chance except for the Gift coming their way, the Holy Spirit. But in this interlude bounded by the Last Supper, and a few hours later, His arrest, Jesus had much to say to His friends. As we have already read, Jesus reassured them, “No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live” (John 14:18-19). 

As a preface, Jesus told His disciples that the information He was making available to them was not something He was arbitrarily making up – His words originated with Father God Himself. In other words, what He was telling them could not have been more important. And He emphasised the significance of love and obedience, primary requirements in their relationship with Jesus that would underpin their future life without Him. 

We pilgrims are modern day disciples of Jesus; His teachings still apply today and will continue to do so until the end of time. So everything we are about, doing and thinking, must be conformant with the need to love Jesus and diligently be obedient to all His commands. But this is not a legalistic demand. There is no law or rule about loving God that can be quantified and applied. Such love comes out of a relationship with Jesus that motivates and guides us through all we do and say. And that love will define our obedience to His commands. Paul taught in Ephesians 4:21-24, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy“. Love and obedience to Jesus can only come from a new birth experience.

Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. Without Him and His truthful guidance, we would be incapable of living in the way Jesus demands. In Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light“. Living the Jesus way, infiltrated with love and obedience, somehow puts us into a zone of Kingdom compliance that is surprisingly not nearly as hard as some make out. In Acts 26:14b, we read what Jesus said to Paul on the Damascus Road,“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will“. Paul had to come to the point where he totally abandoned his old self and way of living, and instead became a true believer living in the way of love and obedience to Jesus. And so it must be with us pilgrims, as we once again consider the last words of Jesus.

Dear Lord Jesus. We celebrate, because You are alive today. Thank You for Your love. Amen.

The Three-Way Love

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you.”
John 14:23-25 NLT

The love of, and obedience to, Jesus leads to a three-way response. We know of course that Jesus loves us, because He demonstrated that through His death at Calvary, where He took onto Himself our sins and instead gave us His righteousness. Jesus also said that if we love Him and are obedient to His commands, then His Father in Heaven will also love us. But Jesus followed this with a remarkable statement – Jesus and His Father will make their home with us. And how else will He do that other than by the Holy Spirit? Earlier we read what Jesus said in John 14:15-17a “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, …“. 

Perhaps it is easy to gloss over verses such as Acts 2:38, “Peter replied, “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”. The four stage process in the initial decision to become a Christian was summarised by Peter into a few words, but working out what “repent of your sins and turn to God” means will take a life time of diligent application. And then we gratefully accept the “gift of the Holy Spirit” without really understanding the ramifications of what this really means. But if Jesus said that he will come and live with us through the Holy Spirit then we had better believe it. To refuse to accept such a gift from God goes against the whole premise of loving Him and being obedient to His commands. 

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself …”. And then we have Romans 12:1, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him”. This is serious stuff, having the Holy Spirit live in us, but I suppose some will resent this because they will feel as though they have a policeman living with them 24/7. They will consider the (to them) negative connotations that because the Holy Spirit is with them, they will have to stop doing certain things that they previously enjoyed doing. They perhaps think that there will now be many sins that they enjoy that will become visible to God, although he would have known about them anyway. God sees all. 

But the positive side of having the Holy Spirit dwelling within us is that he will lead us into all truth. When we make a commitment to be obedient to Jesus and love Him with all our hearts, we embark on a process of sanctification, where we start to eliminate all those behaviours that fall into the category of “sin”. So the Holy Spirit helps us at every step, as we listen to His truth.

When we become a Christian, a true believer in the full counsel of God, we find that there are three People loving us and living with us. God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, in our prayer times, there are three extra People there praying as well. We might think that we are on our own but that cannot be further from the truth. 

Father God. Thank You for the precious gift of the Holy Spirit who is with us all day and every day. We worship You today. Amen.

Obedient Love

Posted on by korgrocker

“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
John 14:21 NLT

“Accept and obey”, Jesus said. The trouble is, too many people will accept the veracity and appropriateness of His commands, but when it comes to obeying them, it’s a different story. So much of what Jesus taught is counter-cultural and, consequently, life-changing if it is followed. Take for example the Beatitude, “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth” (Matthew 5:5). The secularists in the workplace will promote the opposite, saying things like, “Those who shout the loudest will reap the rewards”, or, “If you don’t push yourself forward you’ll miss out”.  There is no humility present on the promotion ladder. A bit further on in the Beatitudes, we read, “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” Matthew 5:10). Those people with the courage to defy the authorities by standing outside an abortion clinic, doing right by silently praying for those who enter in, are persecuted, arrested and, if the politicians have their way, will soon be incarcerated just because of their prayerful thoughts.

As we read further through the Sermon on the Mount,  we find commandments that are impossible, humanly speaking, to keep. In Matthew 5:21-22 we read, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell”. The Pharisees claimed that they were ok because they hadn’t murdered anyone. Jesus said different. Another thorny area is what Jesus said about judging others. “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged” (Matthew 7:1-2). And as for lust and divorce … but we won’t go there.

How do we show our love for Jesus by keeping His commandments, not just accepting them? How do we follow all His teaching? Jesus said to His disciples, and as recorded in Matthew 19:26, “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible”“. In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments”. But here’s the thing – straight after He said this, He said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you” (John 14:16). Jesus recognised that in their humanity, the disciples were never going to be able to keep His commandments, so He asked His father to send His indwelling Holy Spirit who would empower His followers to be obedient to all He had said. 

Thankfully, we pilgrims have Someone who is praying for us, as we tramp ever onwards towards our Heavenly goal. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have a Saviour who forgives us as we confess our sins, and as we allow the Holy Spirit to refine our lives day by day. We have a win-win faith because God sacrificed Himself for our salvation. No other religion comes anywhere close to this.

Dear Father. We can only bow before You, the God who saves, in deep gratitude and worship. Amen.

Spiritual Orphans Never

Posted on by korgrocker

“No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
John 14:18-20 NLT

The word “orphans”, meaning a vulnerable and parentless young person, is mentioned regularly in the Bible, and usually in the context we read in Psalm 82, “Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute” (Psalm 82:3). James 1:27 reads, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you“. In a society with a low life expectancy, it was commonplace to find a child without a parent and those more fortunate in the society were encouraged to help and support them. But orphans were abused and exploited by unscrupulous men and women, and God warned them of the consequences.

So against this backdrop, Jesus reassured His disciples that He would not abandon them “as orphans”. Jesus had been a spiritual Father to His disciples for the previous three years and they had learned so much about the Kingdom of God. This motley bunch of fishermen, a civil servant, zealots and others had seen and experienced miraculous signs and healings with the Man who claimed to be the Son of God. A Man who regularly pointed to His Father in Heaven but who also warned His friends around Him that soon He was going to leave the world and return to His home in Heaven. But Jesus was concerned for those He was going to leave behind. And the disciples would remember what Jesus had previously said about the way they would be treated, “But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me”Matthew 10:17-18). 

But in today’s verses from John 14, Jesus clearly stated to His disciples that He would soon disappear from the world around them. He could see His trial and death sentence coming, snatching Him away from His friends, but He then reassured them that He would reappear as a living person, alive once again, and soon afterwards. Although an orphan would be left hopeless and helpless by the death of their parents, Jesus promised that this would not happen to His disciples. The events of His death, resurrection and ascension into Heaven, would act as a backdrop to the first Day of Pentecost, where His disciples and others would be gifted with His presence through the Holy Spirit. They were going to be alright, He knew, and His few words of reassurance and comfort would be remembered by them over the dark days ahead.

What about us pilgrims? We have the assurance that we have a Heavenly Father who cares for us. 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”. That in itself is a reminder that we are not orphans. But we also know that Jesus is interceding for us; Romans 8:34, “Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us“. And we are also blessed with God’s presence through the Holy Spirit, the Gift that accompanies our Christian birth. Acts 2:38, “Peter replied, “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”. So we pilgrims are not spiritual orphans, regardless of our human circumstances, and never will be. Praise be to God!

Dear Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is amazing and mind-blowing to have such a Parent. With deeply humble thanks we worship You today. Amen.

The Indwelling One

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you love me, obey my commandments. 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 recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”
John 14:15-17 NLT

God created man with a physical body and a spirit. We all have these attributes but it is how we consider them that is important. The societies in which we live are full of people making their claims about diets and nutritional foods, all to help us live healthier or longer lives but little attention is paid to the spiritual side of our beings. This is left to the gurus and the yogis, the ministers and the rabbis and imams. But the relationship with God through the Holy Spirit is definitely only appreciated by a minority of people, with even many Christians wary of a contact with the third member of the Trinity. In our secular cultures, the Holy Spirit is generally ignored or avoided.

About the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognise him”. Why is that, do we think? One answer is that the devil has indeed blinded people’s eyes and senses, and propagated a lie about God. Another reason is that we live in a touchy feely world, where anything intangible or invisible is avoided and ignored, leaving an obscure academic cohort of philosophers to debate such things. But the reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit is denied and ignored.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit visited certain people at a time of necessity to empower them for a particular task. For example, we read in Judges 6:34 how the Holy Spirit came upon Gideon, “Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him”. In 1 Samuel 16:13 we read, “So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah”. David was not only anointed with oil, he was anointed with the Holy Spirit as well. In the following verse, we see how the Holy Spirit departed from King Saul, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, … “.  

In John 14:17, Jesus also said, about the Holy Spirit, to His disciples,  “But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you”. An incredible verse, with Jesus perhaps saying that His presence and that of the Holy Spirit, were one and the same, but Jesus could see forward to the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to live in each one of the people present in that upper room, and has been available for every believer ever since. We can see the many occasions in the Acts of the Apostles where the Holy Spirit came to live with believers. 

Sadly, there are those today, who claim to be Christians, but who deny the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In his book “The Normal Christian Birth”, David Pawson writes about the four factors present in a born again believer. We can also find them in Acts 2:38, “Peter replied, “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”. We repent of our sins, we believe in the Lord Jesus, we seek and realise baptism in water, and we receive the Gift of, or baptism in, the Holy Spirit. John 1:33, “I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptise with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit'”.

So, dear fellow pilgrim, have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Have you been baptised in the Holy Spirit, as John said of Jesus? Does He dwell within you? If not, then seek God today because the Holy Spirit is waiting at the door of your heart, ready to enter. And He will never leave you and He will lead you into all truth. How do I know? Well, Jesus said so. And Peter continued – Acts 2:39, “This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God”. 

Dear Father God. In this moment we reach out to You and receive once again a fresh infilling of Your Spirit. Your Spirit moves within us and changes a monochrome world into a vivid multi-colour world. Thank You. Amen.

The Advocate

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you love me, obey my commandments. 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 recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”
John 14:15-17 NLT

Who is this “Advocate”? The Amplified version of the Bible helps – “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—” (John 14:16). The impression emerges that there are insufficient words in the English language to describe who the Advocate is. The Greek word is parakletos, from where we get the word Paraclete, another description of the “Advocate”.

But we know who the “Advocate” is because He is the third Person of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit. And Jesus continued – “He … will never leave you” and “He … leads into all truth”. This is mind blowing! That God would condescend to live within us through the Person of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is beyond humbling. And the fact that he will never leave us … Through ever situation we are ever likely to encounter, God is there with us. Perhaps we comfortable Western believers can see how our brothers and sisters in other places in the world can look death in the face and overcome the persecution, the loss of property, the imprisonment and even death. God is with them and He never leaves them.

The Holy Spirit “leads [us] into all truth”. Earlier in John 14 Jesus said that He is the truth, and even though He isn’t with us in person, that truth is still with us. We find that the “truth” is in God’s Word and as Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). There are many customs in our modern times, many of them with dubious intentions, that don’t appear in the Bible, but it is amazing that there are Holy-Spirit-inspired principles to follow that apply today. For example, mobile phones didn’t exist in Jesus’ day, but we know how to use them in an honourable way through Biblical principles, the Holy Spirit providing us with guidance as we use them. And the Holy Spirit will lead us in our daily lives wherever we find ourselves. 

One of my favourite verses is in Acts 2, embedded in Peter’s amazing sermon following which three thousand people were saved. He described the Holy Spirit as being a Gift to all believers. “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” (Acts 2:38). Paul reminded all believers that the Holy Spirit lives within us. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (Romans 8:11). How can we pilgrims ever refuse this amazing God-gift? Free and powerful, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. No secular philosopher or scientist, atheist or otherwise, can ever make such a claim, as they fumble their way through a dark devil-inspired corridor of ultimate shame, searching for truths that are only found through our amazing God.

Heavenly Father. We praise and worship You, with gratitude for Your heavenly Gift, the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Comforter. Amen.

Jesus’ Commands

Posted on by korgrocker

“If you love me, obey my commandments. 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 recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”
John 14:15-17 NLT

Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments”. Perhaps we wonder what they are, so, we reach for our Bibles and start to work our way through the Gospels, considering carefully Jesus’ every Word. The first command we find in Matthew 4:17, “From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near””. A couple of verses on we find, “Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”” (Matthew 4:19). So, from Matthew 4 we have Jesus’ commands to repent of our sins and to follow Him. But when we get to Matthew 5 the enormity of what it means to obey the commands of Jesus starts to dawn. Someone has calculated that there could be as many as three hundred commands that Jesus left us with. By the time we get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount we will be reaching for the anti-depressives. In our human strength it is not possible to know and be obedient to all the commands of Jesus. And in any case, should we try, we would be heading for membership of the ancient order of the Pharisees, who maintained that they were righteous because they obeyed every jot and tittle of the Law of Moses. But we should remember that the commands of Jesus are not just a to-do list; they are an invitation to a relationship with God Himself. 

In 1 Peter 1:16 we read, “For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy”“. In Hebrews 12:14 we read, “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” Self-explanatory verses, that, combined with Jesus’ command that we obey His commandments, define the pass mark for entering Heaven. 

But just because we find it impossible to obey all Jesus’ commands shouldn’t mean we should just give up. With God everything is possible, as we read in Matthew 19:26, ““Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible””. We understand just how impossible it is for us to keep God’s commandments and how often we fail to do so and can therefore never be righteous before God on our own accord. It is Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross that pays the penalty for our sins, and in return we receive His righteousness. Romans 10:9-10, “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”. 

So we pilgrims, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit living within us, obey Jesus’ commands. And if we fail and slip up, as we often will, we come again to the Cross in repentance. And in our pilgrimage we become more like Jesus, day by day, command by command.

Dear Lord Jesus. You left us with a legacy of commands and examples for us to follow. But You didn’t leave is on our own to muddle through. We thank You the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who helps us each and every day. Amen.

“The Devil Made Me Do It”

Posted on by korgrocker

“It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.”
John 13:2 NLT

Is “the devil made me do it” a valid excuse? It certainly wasn’t for Eve after the incident with the serpent. “Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” … Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you””(Genesis 3:13, 16)‭‭. Eve had to face into the consequences of her sin. But in her case, the desire to do something she wasn’t supposed to do was there, and the serpent acted as a catalyst to resolve the conflict in her mind. Eve wasn’t unique by any means, because how many times have we found ourselves in sin, having rationalised in our minds that the act of doing what we shouldn’t doesn’t really matter. The excuses and mental gyrations we go through to justify our sinful actions. “Just this once won’t really matter, after all everyone does it”. “I’m doing some research to find out more about this web site”. And so on. 

Regarding Judas, the reality was that he was already inclined to betray Jesus. We can only guess at a reason. Perhaps he was disappointed that Jesus wasn’t going to bring about the revolution in Israel that he thought He should. Perhaps he suspected that Jesus knew about his proclivity to steal from the common fund. The foot washing event that happened after supper might have been the vehicle that finally tipped Judas Iscariot over the edge, because soon after, he left the meeting to go and make arrangements to betray Jesus. But he wasn’t walking along one day and suddenly found that there was the devil or one of his representatives walking with him. The devil cannot make us do anything, but he is a master in finding our weak spots and leveraging them so that we fall into sin. In C S Lewis’ book “The Great Divorce”, there’s a fascinating account of a ghost complete with a little red demon, with tail and horns, sat on its shoulder, constantly whispering in its ear. So it is with the devil sometimes, it seems.

The action of Judas in his betrayal of Jesus started a chain of events that probably went far beyond what Judas was expecting. Perhaps he thought that he could force Jesus to become King and deal with the hated occupiers. But to look on and see what was happening over the next few hours wasn’t, or so some think, what Judas had in mind in his act of betrayal. We read what happened with Judas in Matthew 27:3-5, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.” Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.” 

One day everyone will stand before God to give an account of their lives, and the excuse, “The devil made me do it” won’t wash with God. James wrote, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). John wrote, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4). Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, we have all the resources we need so that we are never tempted to say, “The devil made me do it”.

Dear Father God. Thank You for giving us Your Spirit, so that through Him we have the power to be overcomers. Amen.

Recharging Batteries

Posted on by korgrocker

“So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus’ death. As a result, Jesus stopped his public ministry among the people and left Jerusalem. He went to a place near the wilderness, to the village of Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples.”
John 11:53-54 NLT

The village of Ephraim wasn’t far from Jerusalem – just thirteen miles. But in those days that was far enough for Jesus to allow things to calm down in Jerusalem and get some peace from the threats of the religious leaders. His public ministry had divided the people into those who believed in Him, and those who didn’t, and it was the latter group that had decided to look for a way to kill Him. Such a course of action, by the religious leaders and their followers, men and women who claimed to follow the Law of Moses, people who knew that murder was on the list of the Ten Commandments, was extraordinary. But such was the anger being stirred up by the devil. He knew that Jesus was a real threat to him and he was going to do anything he could to close Jesus down, and allow him to get on with his devilish business of interfering with the lives of men and women, by introducing more and more evil and wickedness into the world. 

Jesus stayed in the village with His disciples. A useful time for bonding and teaching. A time for a de-briefing to allow all that His followers had seen to be discussed. Learning opportunities and a time of rest to enable Jesus to prepare for what was about to come next. 

We pilgrims sometimes need to take an example from Jesus, in that He spent time with His Father, resting in Him and recharging His spiritual batteries. And by so doing He was always ready and prepared for what was to come next in His life. By spending time with God we pilgrims will find answers to our questions, refreshment for our souls and resources for the day ahead. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need“. In our time spent with God we mustn’t neglect reading the Bible. Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path“. And of course we mustn’t neglect John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”

Just as we can never survive for long in a natural lives without food, we cannot survive for long spiritually without spiritual food. Jesus went to Ephraim to receive His father’s wisdom for what was to come next. We pilgrims must often head for our spiritual Ephraims to recharge our batteries, and receive a new infilling of the Holy Spirit to resource our day ahead.

Dear Father God. We ask today for a fresh infilling of Your Holy Spirit so that rivers of living water will flow from us to those around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.