Jesus – Page 49 – Being a Pilgrim

The Resurrection

Posted on 27th Oct 202321st Sep 2023 by korgrocker

“So he went and preached to the spirits in prison— those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 3:19-21 NLT

To a Christian, the “resurrection of Jesus Christ” must be another of the most significant events in human history. Of course, many will dispute this, but in the context of eternity, few could argue otherwise. It is the foundation stone, the Cornerstone even, to the believer’s faith. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, “For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless”. Without the resurrection our “faith is useless”.

Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified. A man innocent of any crime except that He dared to challenge the spiritual authority of the Jewish leaders. John wrote, “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him” (John 1:10-11). It is astonishing that His life ended up in the way it did. But this was all part of God’s plan. He looked down from eternity at the world’s events and selected a time when His plan would come to fruition. Paul wrote in Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners”.

So why is the resurrection so important to the faith of a believer? This act of God demonstrates that He is capable of raising a dead person, and not only that, giving Him a resurrected body with special powers. Because of that we can have confidence that through our faith in Him, we too will have a resurrected body one day. God’s power over life and death is absolute.

We should note that the evidence for the resurrection of Christ is indisputable. Paul wrote, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). There have been reports of sceptical lawyers who have examined the evidence for the death and resurrection of Jesus, and have concluded that there is sufficient proof to stand in a court of law.

Jesus knew what would happen to Him. He said to Martha just after Lazarus had died, “ … I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying” (John 11:25). Because we pilgrims believe in Him we too will live with Him after we die. The Apostle John wrote about the significance of Christ’s life. “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).‭‭ Paul wrote that death has been conquered and the new bodies we will one day receive will never die. “Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

‭‭We pilgrims are a favoured and God-valued people. We have stumbled on a priceless treasure, one without limit. One that can extend to all. Why won’t unbelievers become believers, grasping this priceless offer with both hands? Probably because they take the short term view, valuing a sinful life over the consequences of believing in Jesus. The devil blinds their eyes and silences the inner whisper that leads them to Christ. But their intransigence won’t stop us reaching out to them anyway. Jesus died and rose again for everyone, not just us.

Dear Lord. We pray today for our loved ones, that they too will come to know Your wonderful love and grace. Please help them we pray. Amen.

The Baptismal Flood (2)

Posted on 26th Oct 202321st Sep 2023 by korgrocker

From a cursory glance at 1 Peter 3:21, we might misconstrue what Peter meant when he wrote, “that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you”. Of course he did not mean that people must be baptised to be saved. That would contradict many other Scriptures, for example the salvation of Cornelius and his family. In Acts 10 we can read the story of their salvation, which came as Peter preached, followed by the baptism in the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the Gentile family speaking in tongues. Lastly they were baptised.

Peter wrote that the ritual of baptising someone in water will only wash away dirt. He was of course describing full immersion baptism – Scripture does not describe a process of sprinkling a few drops of water on a baby’s head and calling it “baptism”. Peter then went on to write that the act of baptism is “a response to God from a clean conscience”. So what he was saying was that after a person repents of his or her sins and is saved, the act of baptism is a response to God.

As far as Noah and his family were concerned, they escaped the flood through their faith in God. Peter painted a picture demonstrating their salvation from drowning, meaning they were effectively “baptised”. And he could see forward to the day when Jesus was resurrected following his death. 1 Peter 3:21 is one of those verses that require a bit of meditative thought to extract what the meaning really is.

We pilgrims, believing followers of Jesus, will most likely have been baptised in water. The word “baptise” in the Bible originally meant the full immersion of a person, and in the church today the symbolic act of baptism is a public declaration of the washing away of sins, and the alignment of the person with the death (going down into the water) and resurrection (the subsequent rising up out of the water) of Jesus. In Acts 2:38 we read, “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”. David Pawson calls these four events the normal Christian birth. He uses the acrostic RBBR – Repent, Believe, Be Baptised and Receive the Holy Spirit. After Peter’s Acts 2 sermon, we read, “Those who believed what Peter said were baptised and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all” (Acts 2:41). That must have been an amazing baptismal service!

God flooded the earth to a depth of 22 feet above the highest mountain peaks (Genesis 7:20) and all those who failed to believe in Him perished by drowning. But Noah and his family were saved through their faith in God, being baptised into a new life on a very different world. We pilgrims have experienced the symbolic repeat of this event, and through our faith in God we too have become citizens of a very different world, the Kingdom of God. Noah was joined by his family. We too need to ensure that our families join us in God’s wonderful Kingdom, which extends throughout our remaining lives on Planet Earth and onwards into an eternity with Him.

Dear God. Thank You for our salvation. Amen.

The Baptismal Flood (1)

Posted on 25th Oct 202321st Sep 2023 by korgrocker

We have this picture from Peter of Jesus preaching in the spirit to the spirits of an imprisoned generation of people who all perished in the flood. This was a catastrophic event triggered by depths of human depravity not seen since. In the days of Noah there appears a picture of, as the NLT headlines it, “A World Gone Wrong”. It appears that angels, “the sons of God”, started to have intercourse with human women, resulting in a race of giants. How that was possible, with a spiritual being mating with a human being, is beyond our understanding, but we can read the story in Genesis 6. In Genesis 6:5-6 we read, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart“. That poignant phrase “It broke [God’s] heart” tells us a lot about how much God loves and cares for us, and how disappointed He becomes with human behaviour. In Geneses 6:7 we see His decision about what to do, “And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them””. But there is a “But” starting the next verse, “But Noah found favour with the Lord”‭‭. We must thank God because He always has a plan, no matter how bad things are. He always has a “but”!

There follows in Genesis 6 the instructions for building a boat. This was an awesome act of faith, because no-one had ever seen a boat before; apparently this happened in the days before there were any areas of open water. It took Noah a hundred years to build that boat and miraculously God filled it with pairs of animals and then eight people – him and his family. Then came the flood, the account of which we can read in Genesis 7. After the water had receded, we can read how Noah and his family finally left the boat. After this comes another poignant verse, in Genesis 8:21 – God said to Himself, “ … I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things”. Did God send Jesus to preach to the spirits of all those who drowned in the flood because He wanted then to understand why He did it? Certainly in those days mankind had not received God’s Law so perhaps the people drowned in the flood failed to understand the consequences of their sins. But we speculate.

We pilgrims, in fact everyone since the flood, must be grateful that God never thought again about destroying mankind because of their sin. This is a deserved punishment yet to come, but in the meantime God sent His Law through Moses, as He waited for just the right time to implement the most wonderful and amazing plan ever conceived for the salvation of mankind – the arrival, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s only Son, for our sins. We know the plan, because we can look back on it’s execution with grateful hearts. The Old Testament prophets could see it coming, but never experienced it. So on our knees today, what else can we do than thank our wonderful Heavenly Father.

Dear Father God. We thank You for Your plan, and for Jesus, who so willingly did Your will. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

Spirits in Prison (1)

Posted on 23rd Oct 202321st Sep 2023 by korgrocker

These are verses that can cause people difficulties, and there are several theories about what they really mean. We know from 1 Peter 3:18b that Jesus was “ … raised to life in the Spirit” so taking these verses literally we conclude that in the period between His death and resurrection Jesus, in spirit form, preached a message to a select group of spirits who were imprisoned in some way. We therefore have to ask ourselves what was the message that Jesus preached, what happens to our spirits after we die and why select just this particular group of spirits.

After we die, the Bible indicates that our physical bodies are of no further use and can be disposed of. However, our spirits continue to live and go somewhere. The popular expectation is that Heaven is the final destination for people’s spirits – most people, regardless of what faith they have, if any, like to think that their loved ones, and themselves, will end up in Heaven after they die. Others assume that unbelievers end up in hell, but Scriptures tell us that this was a place created for the devil (Revelation 20:10). Unbelievers, unrepentant sinners, are not sent there until after the Great White Throne judgement we read about in Revelation 20. But the most likely place for spirits after we die is a place called Hades or Sheol. This is a holding place for spirits until they receive their new bodies. Hades seems to be compartmentalised with a part reserved for believers called paradise. We know that from the words Jesus spoke to the thief next to Him. Luke 23:43, “And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise””. We also read Jesus’ parable about Lazarus and the Rich Man, where Lazarus is in a place of comfort but the rich man is in a different place of anguish. ““Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, … The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’” (Luke 16:22,24).

So we conclude that after we die, our spirits end up in a holding place, compartmentalised in accordance with our response to God while we were still nalive. Those who repented of their sins and believed in Jesus will end up in a compartment called Paradise, and those who haven’t will end up in a compartment that will probably be a foretaste of what hell will be like. And there is no possibility of a transition between the two. But these are my personal theories, gained from a rather sparse selection of Scriptures – everyone must draw their own conclusions.

Thankfully, God has provided for us a way to avoid the hell-like part of Hades. Jesus came to Planet Earth so that, through Him, our sins would be forgiven. Peter, in his Pentecost day message, and in response to the question, “What should we do?”‭‭‭, said, “ … 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“. It is important to note that the repentant thief had not been involved in any of the Jewish liturgies of his day. To bring it up to date, he hadn’t been to a Bible study or a prayer meeting. He hadn’t responded to an altar call given out by some trans-national evangelist. Instead, with his dying breaths, he came to a place of repentance and assured himself a future with Jesus in Paradise. All human beings have the same choice. Some may think it unfair that after a life of crime he should receive such a reward. But that is God’s grace. “All have sinned …” Paul wrote, and God will forgive everyone who come to Him. We pilgrims have made the right choice, but we cannot just leave it there. Many people around us have still to make the same decision that we did. Who are we praying for? Who are we telling of our hope in a Heavenly future? The harvest is ready, folks.

Dear Father God. We pray for guidance about who we should pray for, and witness to. We know that Jesus came to this world to save sinners, and is still doing it through His people. We pray for more “divine appointments” as we go out and about in our communities. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Once is Sufficient

Posted on 22nd Oct 202320th Sep 2023 by korgrocker

“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.”
1 Peter 3:18 NLT

This verse has to be one of the most important and profound verses in the Bible. It is just tucked away in the middle of Peter’s first letter, and added almost as an afterthought. “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time”. We of course know well the verse John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life“. But we should note what this verse doesn’t say. It does not imply that Jesus repeatedly came to Planet Earth. He came but once. And Peter very clearly said that His coming and suffering was for all time, implying past, present and future, and all for the forgiveness of our sins. God’s timing was impeccable. We read in Romans 5:6,8, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. … But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners“.

In some inexplicable way, God has ordained that His Son’s sacrifice was sufficient to cover all of mankind’s sins, past, present and future. His grace is so extensive that it utterly blows our minds! We just cannot fully understand what that means. Just for one person, forgiving all the sins he or she has ever committed is an act of love and grace not usually expected. Paul, in Romans 5:7, made that clear, “Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good“. Perhaps we can get a glimpse of what this means by the story of Barabbus. He was a Jewish revolutionary, some would label him a terrorist, intent on trying to oust the hated Roman occupiers in Palestine. His capture and trial decreed that he would be put to death, most probably by crucifixion. But imagine how he felt when the crowd demanded that he was released and Jesus crucified in his place. That is how we sinners must feel. We knew that because of our sins we were facing into the certainty of an eternity spent in hell. The only option we might have felt justified in doing was to follow the Jewish law as closely as possible, in the hope that it would be enough to get us into Heaven. But even that would not have been good enough. Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). The sobering reality is that God sets the bar too high for human beings to reach it.

God’s gracious plan was to send Someone else, His very own Son, to die instead of us, taking on Himself the punishment for our sins. A universal and sufficient sacrifice once for all time. But the offer of forgiveness of sins and Jesus’ righteousness will not be on the table forever. There are two critical dates, neither of which we know anything about. The first is the date of our death, because after this repentance and forgiveness for our sins will not be possible. The second date is when God brings this age to an end and brings about the Revelation 20 events. But in the meantime all who are still alive and breathing have the opportunity to grasp the most profound and important event we are ever likely to experience. We pilgrims have grasped it with both hands. In the meantime, we have an opportunity to plead with those we know to grasp it too. Jesus never sinned and yet He was put to death so that our sins would be dealt with. And because of that single act of grace and sacrifice, He gave us His righteousness. The Divine Exchange. There is none better.

Dear Father God. Jesus came once and for all to deal with our sins. We are really grateful. Amen.

Home Safely

Posted on 21st Oct 202320th Sep 2023 by korgrocker

Consider the life of Jesus and how He was treated. He endured hunger, thirst, temptation, shame, persecution, nakedness, bereavement, betrayal, mockery, injustice and death. Jesus went through it all just for us, so that our sins, and the sins of everyone else, would be forgiven. As Peter wrote, “He never sinned” but that didn’t stop Him leaving the comfort of Heaven to become a man and to die for us at Calvary. The love of God knows no bounds. He was there when He created the world and He is still there today. Tomorrow will be no different, because God desires to “bring [us] safely home”. Christ suffered so that all who believe in Him will have an eternal home to look forward to.

We often send away our visitors with a good bye and the request that they drive safely and get home without mishap. There is something comforting about home. Familiar surroundings where we feel safe. A place where, somehow, the world’s troubles seem to be a long way away. We value our home very highly, and feel saddened and frustrated when we hear about people who are homeless. Life choices and other factors combine to exclude them from having a home. But when we pass on through the Great Divide, we leave our earthly home behind us. In 2 Corinthians 5:1 we read, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands“. Jesus Himself promised us a home in Heaven. He said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:1-2).

It is a painful thought to know that all those who have rejected God’s offer of salvation, and consequently a Heavenly home, will be homeless when they die. These people will probably include some of our dear friends and family, and so we do our utmost to persuade them to make the right choice. There will come a day when they will start their journey away from their current home, with a homeless destination awaiting them. And so we describe to all who will listen how wonderful our new home will be. Our message of hope, our faith that God will provide for us what He has promised, will help them make the right choice. Jesus said, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Only through Jesus can we get home safely.

Dear Lord. We thank You for Your love and grace, as You build us our future Heavenly home. We worship You today. Amen.

A Good Life

Posted on 19th Oct 202319th Sep 2023 by korgrocker

“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.”
1 Peter 3:15-16 NLT

What does a “good life” look like? As a start, a person considered “good” is one who obeys the laws of the land, is a conscientious worker, probably does a bit of charity work, is a valued and loved family member, and overall is respected by friends, neighbours and all. The same person, if they believe in a heaven, would expect to get there purely as a reward for their “goodness”. A “bad” person would fail to meet expectations in one or more of these areas. We all recognise someone who society considers to be good.

However, the “good life” Peter was writing about is more than how the world sees it. There has to be a difference, because the “good life” he describes is “because you belong to Christ”. So what difference will that make? The Christian life is full of faith. Faith in God and faith that through the Holy Spirit we are developing the fruit of “goodness”. A believer’s “good life” starts at the cross, in repentance of sins, and believing in Jesus. The divine exchange takes place and in return for taking on all our sins, Jesus gives us His righteousness. We can then stand before God, meeting His definition of “good”. For all those people who claim to be “good” we must consider that even Jesus Himself would not take on board that title. In Mark 10:17-18 we read, “As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good“. Of course, we know that Jesus was, and is, divine, so He knew that He could claim to be good, but for the benefit of the man before Him He didn’t muddy the waters of his understanding. To be good in God’s eyes involves being holy, pure and righteous. Impossible qualities for human beings because, through our own efforts, we can never attain the standard that God requires.

Those who are “good” in God’s eyes therefore must propagate that goodness to others, as Paul wrote in Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith“. Peter, in today’s verses, pointed out that the “good life” we lead must be visible so that those who “speak against you” will be ashamed. Our goodness is a visible quality that has a strong counter-cultural content. Belonging to Christ elevates us into a realm that is represented by light. In John 1:5, we read, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it“. That light is Jesus, and as His followers we reflect that light into a dark and depressed world. As a small boy I remember a chorus we used to sing in Sunday school. “Keep me shining Lord…”. I didn’t understand it too well then, but it has stuck with me ever since. So we pilgrims, every day, have the opportunity to switch on our Jesus-lights and make a difference in our communities. Our “goodness” will illuminate many a dark soul.

Dear Father God. Only You are good, but through Jesus we can stand before You with His righteousness. There is no badness in Your presence, no sin or evil. So we thank You that one day perfection will be found with You. Thank You too for Jesus, because if it wasn’t for Him we would die because of our sins. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

Our Hope

Posted on 17th Oct 202319th Sep 2023 by korgrocker

“But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”
1 Peter 3:14-15 NLT

If the average person in the street was asked what they hoped for, I would expect a whole raft of responses. Perhaps someone might say they hoped to get married, or get a new home. A new job or promotion. I met a man recently who has never worked and, now in his forties, with a life blighted by alcoholism, he confessed that he would really like to get a job, though sadly for him, a hope never likely to be realised unless he can turn his back on his addiction. There may be flippant or unimportant responses, such as a hope for a nice day tomorrow, or for a white Christmas. Perhaps our person in the street, driven by tv advertising, is hoping to buy a new pair of designer trainers or afford a new phone. A materialistic hope would perhaps be commonplace. People generally have “hopes” in their lives, but what would they say if they were asked about any hopes they might have for the time after they die? Most unbelievers wouldn’t waste much time in thinking about such a “hope” because they would prefer to put their heads in the sand and hope it will never happen. A fear of dying is commonplace, though someone I once knew said he wasn’t at all afraid of death – he just didn’t want to be involved. But a hope for a post-death future is mostly only talked about amongst believers.

A worldly “hope” is nothing like the hope Peter is writing about in his letter. Peter referred to the “hope as a believer”. Is this different? There are many Scriptures that refer to “hope”. The go to New Testament verse is Hebrews 11:1, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see“. A believer’s “hope” involves faith in God, that what He has said will come to pass. And as we go on to read the rest of Hebrews 11 we see examples of men and women who have died full of faith in God, though failing to fully realise their hope. The fruition of their hope came with Jesus.

God says much in the Bible about who we are and what our future will be. Through faith we believe that what He has said is right and true. There is no room for doubts about God’s Word. The believer’s “hope” is therefore much more than what the world understands from the word. Our hope is based on the certainty that what God has said He will bring to pass. The believer’s hope is of course too good to keep to ourselves. We must share it with the sad and dying world around us. We are, or should be, full of joy, part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And others around us will see that joy and take note. We read in Acts 4:13, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus“. Do those people around us recognise that we too have spent time with Jesus? Some cynic once asked the question – if we are arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us? No doubt about that with Peter and John before the Sanhedrin. With the hope that we possess, oozing out of our every pore, there should be no doubt with us either. To us pilgrims, our hope is a reality. We use the word “hope” because the evidence of our faith hasn’t happened yet. But the reality isn’t far away. Eternal life spent with God is coming closer with every clock tick. And then we will become “knowers” not “hopers”.

Dear Lord Jesus. We know that You are preparing a place for us to live with You. From what You said to the adjacent thief at Calvary, we know that it will be Paradise. We look forward to the coming day, where we will join You, the Living Hope. Amen.

Christ is Lord

Posted on 16th Oct 202313th Sep 2023 by korgrocker

Peter instructed His readers to “worship Christ as Lord of [their lives]”. But what does it mean to do this, as is it a relevance today? We might bristle a little at the thought of a lord, who we might imagine as being the inhabitant of a large stately home who attends the upper house in the UK parliament. A person who speaks with a “posh” accent and seems divorced from the pressures and problems experienced by ordinary people. But that is not the sort of “lord” that Peter was writing about. A “lord” is someone with authority and control over others, a ruler and someone worthy of respect. In the days before Jesus’ death and resurrection, referring to Him as “Lord” was just being respectful, as we read in Matthew 8:25, “The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”” But we remember the exclamation from Thomas in John 20:28, after he at last accepted Jesus’ deity, ““My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.”

The recipients of Peter’s letter had never met Jesus and yet Peter instructed them to make Him Lord of their lives. This means that they were to submit to His authority, doing the things He asked them to do. Behaving in a way honouring to Him. Being in submission and obeying His every word. And the same applies to us pilgrims today. We too have the same opportunity to follow Jesus, making Him Lord of our lives. Jesus exemplified much of what this means as He made His way around Palestine, teaching the disciples and the people, and healing all who came to Him. And He even washed His disciples feet on one occasion, and we read in John 13:13-15, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you“.

We pilgrims today read the Scriptures and find there all we need to properly honour Jesus as our Lord. But it is an attitude of mind and deed that we have to work at, and always being aware of the warning that Jesus taught, “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). ‭‭It is indeed not good enough to go through the motions of religiosity, without sincerity in our hearts. Jesus can see right through us to the very inner workings of soul and mind.

One day everyone in Heaven and on earth will have to bend the knee before Jesus and acknowledge His Lordship. We read in Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father“. Much better to live a life devoted to Christ as Lord in this life, than wait for an hour full of regret when a missed opportunity becomes an eternity without Him.

Dear Lord and Father of all mankind. Forgive our foolish ways, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

One Mind(2)

Posted on 10th Oct 202312th Sep 2023 by korgrocker

“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathise with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tender-hearted, and keep a humble attitude.”
1 Peter 3:8 NLT

In a previous blog post we considered the analogy of the human body, and how it is made up of many individual parts and how they all need to be functioning correctly and together to ensure that the body functions as it should. We see the impact of a body part that shouldn’t be there, and working against the rest of the body, in the ravages of cancer. Sadly, many churches fall apart, or split, or even disappear, because of cancerous growths in their midst caused by selfish people with their own agendas, agendas that are at variance with the rest of the body. And today I know of some Christians living near me who no longer attend a church because they are unable to reconcile their beliefs with the church they left behind. Perhaps they have claimed what they consider to be the moral or theological high ground, but have missed the thing that pleases God the most – being kind and caring, in submission to one another. Or perhaps their unrepentant pride and selfish behaviour is the problem. One-mindedness involves self-sacrifice, and we pilgrims should never leave a church lightly, and even then only with God’s blessing.

Being of one mind, particularly with God, pleases Him immensely. A divided church is a sad and pitiable entity, and one that grieves God deeply. Sometimes we spend too long arguing about what divides us, rather than celebrating what we agree on. Jesus taught about the dangers of division. He was once accused of casting out demons by the power of satan. In response he told a parable about a divided kingdom. We read in Matthew 12:25, “Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart“”. And a few verses further on Jesus ominously said, “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me” (Matthew 12:30). We pilgrims don’t want to find ourselves in a place where we are working against Jesus.

Peter continued with the theme of one-mindedness using words such as “sympathise”, “love”, “tender-hearted” and “humble”. These are all words that describe our attitude to one another. We pilgrims, of course, work hard at being at one with one another. And we look out for ways in which we can humbly implement many of the “one another’s” we find in the Bible. The natural tendency of human beings is to congregate with others of similar race, education and employment. But as believers we have the privilege of making friends with wonderful people from different nations and backgrounds. Being of one mind with fellow believers is God-ordained – we will all one day be worshipping God together, in one mind of course.

Dear Father God. You ordained unity amongst Your children, not strife and division. Please help us to put others first. In Jesus’ name. Amen.