Judging

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.”
Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT

How often in our lives have we called out to God, asking Him to do something about the wicked? We think, if only God would destroy these totalitarian rulers in places like China, Russia or Iran. Or closer to home, what about that drug dealer, who causes so much misery? We cry out to God, that He would help the Police catch the burglar who beat up an old lady gratuitously while robbing her home. The Bible too contains cries and pleas to God about the wicked. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 104:35a, “Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth; let the wicked disappear forever…”. And Psalm 139:19, “O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers!”

But there’s a problem. Paul wrote a few words in Romans 3:23 that go like this, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. So if everyone is wicked anyway, why should God restrict His judgement and punishment for those people over there but not the ones over here? If the pass mark for an exam is 50%, and one person achieves 49% while another only gets 20%, there is no difference with the outcome – both people have failed the exam. As others have said, God has no favourites and the ground at the foot of the Cross is level ground. What is there about human beings, that faults, sins, and problems can all be seen in other people but we can’t see them in ourselves? Why should we pilgrims try and take the moral high ground when we are also under God’s judgement.

Jesus taught about judging others in His Sermon on the Mount. We read His words in Matthew 7:1-2, “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”. Paul also pointed out to his Roman friends that Christians are particularly at fault, because they know the difference between right and wrong. An unbeliever can have the, albeit weak, excuse that they didn’t know God and His requirements. But not a Christian.

However, knowing what we should do, and doing it are two different things. I was reminded the other day about a personal lapse. A friend was severely afflicted with the cold virus and I showed him little sympathy. A week later I was displaying the same symptoms and feeling quite sorry for myself. I didn’t get much sympathy either, but my wife reminded me of my attitude the week before. Perhaps, judging my friend’s response to his cold ended up with me being judged with the same criteria I used. Hmmm…

We pilgrims need to take into account seriously what Jesus said. Judging mankind is God’s prerogative, not ours. The Apostle James echoed Jesus’ words, as we read in James 2:12-13, “So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you”. Instead of judging others, we must show them mercy. In 1 Peter 4:17, Peter wrote, “For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?” Our mercy must displace any feelings of judgement we might hold. It’s a counter-cultural response. When the world shouts judgement, we shout mercy. When the world condemns, we see a person who has lost their way. When the world lashes out, we embrace and show the love of God. When the world rejects the unlovely, we accept and invite them to join us on our journey to Eternal Life. We have the Good News that far surpasses all the Bad News the world can produce.

Dear Father God. What can we say but “thank You”. Your love prevails. Please help us to win others for You, so that they too will escape the verdict that leads to an eternal death. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

‭‭

God’s Justice

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.”
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭32‬ ‭NLT

Paul continues his letter with the observation that there are wicked people, those who think it foolishness to acknowledge God, who behave in a way that deserves the death sentence. But, inexplicably, they are not deterred by that. They just don’t care. And they draw in other people, encouraging them too to commit sinful acts. In Paul’s day there were a number of offences that invoked the death sentence, but Paul wasn’t talking about those sorts of offences. He was referring to wicked people committing crimes against God, with all their sins and wickedness as listed in the previous few verses.

What is there about human beings, that, when faced with a moral dilemma, they make the wrong choice? There seems to be something within our thinking that makes us prefer the sinful way over the right way. The Apostle Paul himself wasn’t immune from such behaviour. In Romans 7:21-24, he wrote, “I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” We will look at the remedy to Paul’s anguished state in a few weeks time.

There is something about sin, that attracts us and presents itself as a harmless act or state, one we rationalise away with thoughts that it doesn’t really matter, not just this once. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the enemy, our adversary the devil, is a genius at packaging sin in a way that makes it seems palatable. Eve, back in the garden of Eden, experienced the subtle nuances introduced by the devil. We read in Genesis 3:1, “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”” And Adam and Eve’s response to that seemingly innocent question has reverberated down the ages ever since. As another example, I suffer from type 2 diabetes, which I manage to control with diet. But I know that a cake or even a piece of fruit can often throw my carefully managed diet and result in elevated blood glucose readings. But imagine my dilemma. Toffee donut sitting on the plate. Or some scones with cream and jam, freshly and deliciously made by the lady across the road. Something within me is screaming that just this once, it won’t matter. And so I ….  A trivial example I know but it hopefully illustrates the temptations and propensity to make wrong decisions that we all experience.

There is a penalty for sin. Intuitively, we know what the penalty is, but, somehow, it doesn’t stop sinful behaviour. Even in those who do acknowledge God. Paul wrote about the consequences of sin later in the Book of Romans, but here’s a spoiler – “For the wages of sin is death, …” (Romans 6:23a).

So what do we pilgrims do? We see the activities of the wicked around us, and we may tut and wring our hands, but in the knowledge that sin is sin. There is no grading system. So those who commit genocide, and those who steal a pencil from their employer, are both guilty when they stand before God. Jesus taught about getting our own lives right before we act in judgement of others. We read in Matthew 7:3-5, ““And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye”. So we get before God in repentance, keeping short accounts with our Heavenly Dad, and pray for those who fall into the “wicked” category  around us. And we continue to pray that we will have an opportunity to share the Good News with them, praying that they will not inevitably end up dying in their sins.

Dear Father God. You know our propensity to sin, but Your remedy through Jesus is more than powerful enough to bring redemption and holiness. How grateful we are! Amen.

No Mercy

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.”
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT

The last character trait in Romans 1:31 that Paul brought to the attention of the Roman Christians was about mercy. We Christians know a lot about mercy because God demonstrated His mercy for us when He sent Jesus to Planet Earth to save us from the consequences of our sins. And the Apostle James wrote about how mercy integrates with our standing before God. We read in James 2:13, “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.” 

We see the outworking of a lack of mercy in the current war in Ukraine. Shelling and firing missiles at a civilian population shows a complete lack of mercy. We may wring our hands with despair at the thought that the perpetrators of such merciless violence will somehow emerge unscathed from the war and go on to live the rest of their lives without any apparent problems. But we know how it will end for such people. They will have to account for their lives either in this life or the next, or even both. Showing a lack of mercy to others will be judged as such one day.

The Bible encourages us to be merciful at every opportunity, not just for the benefit of the other person or persons, but also for our own lives. Proverbs 11:17 (AMP) reads, “The merciful and generous man benefits his soul [for his behaviour returns to bless him], But the cruel and callous man does himself harm“. When He created us, God wired us in such a way that certain life styles or attitudes, those harmoniously in sync with His design, work to our benefit. Being merciful is one of them. In His Beatitudes, Jesus taught that the merciful are blessed. We read in Matthew 5:7, “God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

So, how do we pilgrims find the sweet spot of God’s blessings by being merciful? What does that look like in our 21st Century living? It is unlikely that we can sail through life without experiencing at some point an injustice or offence. A harsh word directed at us. An uncalled for angry response that started off as a misunderstanding. A media report that initiates feelings of anger within us. Our world is an unhappy place and a lack of mercy is the norm. But we pilgrims are God-followers. A counter-cultural movement of those serving in the new Kingdom, bringing Good News of a merciful and loving God into our communities, our families, our world. So we don’t react to the unmerciful acts of others. We don’t respond in anger when wronged. And we hold onto to God’s hand as we navigate through life, conscious of His leading when an opportunity for being merciful emerges from the gloom of misery around us. We can’t do much about the unmerciful acts of others but we can show mercy to those around us. Conscious that the mercy we show is resourced from our Heavenly Dad – His mercy is unlimited.

Dear Father God. Thank You that You are merciful, because if You weren’t we wouldn’t be where we are before You. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

The Heartless

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT

The third negative example of people who consider it foolish to believe in God is the fact that they “are heartless“. The dictionary definition of being heartless is “displaying a complete lack of feeling or consideration“. We see that all the time in the news reports, for example with the scammers who swindle life savings out of pensioners, by tricking them into handing over their bank details. Such heartless people have no conscience, no awareness of the distress they cause to vulnerable people. 

Jesus told a parable that demonstrated the heartless behaviour that even religious people can display to the disadvantaged and vulnerable. In Luke 10 He told the parable of a Jewish man who was mugged on a journey, and left injured by the side of the road. Two of his fellow countrymen came along but wouldn’t stop and help him. We read in Luke 10:31-32, “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side”. Heartless behaviour surely? And what made it worse, these were “good” religious folks, probably pillars in their communities. Jesus continued in His story, with how a Samaritan man, of a race hated by the Jews, helped the injured man, one of the very people who hated him. 

We pilgrims are not God-deniers of course, but we can become heartless if we become indifferent to the needs of those in the society around us. The Apostle James wrote to Christians about heartless behaviour. We read in James 2:15-16, “Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” Being heartless can apply to big and little things in life. But the bottom line is that we do what we can to help those in our families and communities, responding to their heart-felt needs. The old lady down the street who is so lonely might need a visit or some house maintenance. The young single mum who might need help with her new baby. We cannot turn away from the heart-needs in our society. Jesus commanded us to be salt and light in our communities and looking out for those in need is one way in which we can be that. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:17, “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?”

Our God is big-hearted. He cares for us. He loves us. And he wants to reach those who have denied Him – how else can He do that if it’s not through us pilgrims? It may be inconvenient for us at times, and it may seem to divert us from our journey to the Promised Land, but in some strange way God doesn’t mind. When we help others we bring a smile to His face. Because we’re showing His love to everyone, including His enemies.

Father God. We know You love the world and all the people within it, because You sent Jesus, bringing Your world into our world and giving us the opportunity to join You. We thank You for Calvary and all Jesus did for us. Amen.

Breaking Promises

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT

Yesterday we looked at the background to Paul’s first attribute in verse 31 – the “refus[al] to understand”. Paul’s second character trait is that wicked people, those who “thought it foolish to acknowledge God”, also “break their promises”. Are these any promises or just those concerning God? The dictionary describes a promise as a declaration assuring that someone will or will not do something. We shouldn’t make promises lightly, but sadly, many do and then break them, if it suits them better. Or promises are made rashly without thinking of the consequences or how they can be implemented. Sometimes people make promises just to get themselves out of a hole, with no intention of fulfilling what they had promised. The days of a word being a bond are long forgotten. But to answer our question, Paul was referring to all promises, not just vows for or to God.

God has made many promises. In fact, the Bible is full of them. Take for example Isaiah 41:10, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand”. Or how about Isaiah 43:2, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you“. Here’s a verse from the New testament, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you“. (1 Peter 5:7). The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:14-15, “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.”‭‭ For those of us concerned about our countries, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is a verse worth camping around for a while. “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land”. 

But we shouldn’t think that God only promises good things. Right back in Genesis 3:17, we see the consequences of Adam’s sin, “And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it”. And ever since, mankind has found life hard. Because of Adam’s sin, human beings in subsequent generations found themselves unable to easily access the plentiful supply of food originally planned by God.

But these are not just divine words, implanted in the Bible to make us feel good. These are promises God has made, and if there is one thing that God is incapable of doing, it is that He is unable to break a promise. If God has said He will do something in His Word, the Bible, then He will keep that word. We need to heed everything God has promised.

But Paul highlights the wicked behaviour of those who make promises and then break them. Why would that be a character trait of “sinful, wicked people” (Romans 1:18). The very cohesion of society relies on people behaving in a way that builds it, not breaks it down. And promises are one of the roots of a secure society. One of the promises that is broken far too readily is the one made in a marriage ceremony. Here in the UK, over four in ten marriages end up in divorce. A tactic of our enemy, the devil, is to break up families because he knows that broken families can contribute to broken societies. Marriage was ordained by God. We receive a glimpse of God’s heart in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. In Ephesians 5:31-32 we read, “As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one”. A broken marriage promise strikes at the very heart of God’s plan for His church. But for those despairing in a broken relationship, God’s light and guidance will bring illumination and the right course of action. There is always hope, no matter how hopeless things might appear. God will always bring forgiveness to a penitent sinner.

We pilgrims must be careful in making promises, treating them as being sacrosanct. They are not something we should make lightly. A man or woman who keeps their word oils the wheels that keeps our families and communities together. In many ways we are living in the light of a promise. One day we will be welcomed into God’s presence in Heaven. A promise He made and will never break.

Dear Father God, we worship You and thank You for the loving promises You have made to each one of us. Please help us too, to keep our promises and extend Your promise of Good News to all we meet. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Refusing to Understand

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.”
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT

Paul’s rant about those who “thought it foolish to acknowledge God” continues with a damning indictment of their deeds. He lists four qualities that define a mindset befitting wicked and sinful people. 

He firstly says they “refuse to understand”. But what is there that they are closing their minds to? How often have we had a response to some comment or other like “but you just don’t understand”? Perhaps the person, who is apparently being misunderstood, is in the process of some action that is not normal behaviour or is responding strangely to some question or action undertaken by another. A problem easily cleared up most of the time, but what Paul is referring to is the action of wicked people in closing their minds to any explanation or idea that does not fit in with their sinful mindset. For example, walk down any High Street and ask a random person what they think about God. A person prepared to stop and discuss would be a rare response. Mostly, the person would just walk away or even come up with an angry retort. “They refuse to understand” fits their position very well.

In Isaiah 6:9-10, God said to the prophet, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.” Why was Isaiah given an apparently impossible task? To try and evangelise a people whose hearts had been hardened to the extent that they did not understand anything concerning God anymore. Where is the merciful God in all that?

The answer comes in Romans 1:28, “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking …”. If God abandons them they will lose the ability to hear Him and His words of love and grace. And for most no amount of pleading or evangelising will be able to break into a heart that “refuse[s] to understand”. That was the situation in Isaiah’s day, and such behaviour is still with us today, as it was in Paul’s times.

So what is the remedy for our serial refusers? Will they never be able to turn to God and embrace His words of eternal life? Will they never be able to experience His love? To say so would be to adopt the same position as them, refusing to understand the grace of God. God’s grace can melt the hardest heart. It can penetrate into the very inner core of our beings, as we read in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires”. Even for those He has abandoned there is hope.

So what do we pilgrims do, when faced with an apparent brick wall of unbelief and a refusal to respond from those we love in our families and communities? We persevere. We pray. And we believe in faith that God will find a chink in the armour that protects the hardest of hearts. It happened with me, and I’m sure that it has happened to many of my readers today. Through God’s grace, He revealed Himself to me one Saturday night, penetrating a heart hardened by wrong thinking, by a “refusal to understand”. 

Is there someone reading this today who has a heart that fails to understand God’s love and grace? Who thinks it might apply to someone else but not to them? Through Jesus and His sacrifice at Calvary, we have access to a loving God, but only if we open our hearts before Him and repent of our wickedness and sin. And His love, grace and mercy will flood in, opening a door into a new world of hope.

Dear Father God. Please help us to persevere in our prayers for our loved ones. We name them before You today, in faith that the word they need is, right now, on the way to them. Thank You. Amen.

Sexual Sin

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped 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.”
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭NLT

These are difficult and painful verses to write about, and expound on. There are not many sermons preached on these words of Paul. His words are hard-hitting and uncompromising. And they explicitly destroy at a stroke the direction society is going in. But at the time of writing, I can put down a few thoughts, though soon, perhaps even in my lifetime, by doing so I will be committing a criminal act, if certain lobbyists have their ways. Scripture verses such as we are looking at today are at the cutting edge of 21st Century morality. Most people will concede that the Bible’s teaching on sins such as murder or theft, are proper and acceptable. In fact many of the laws underpinning our society are based on passages in the Bible such as the Ten Commandments. But when it comes to God’s laws that apply to sexual sins, then a storm of protest and derision erupts.

In recent years I have encountered people who are questioning the veracity of God’s Word, the Bible. Yes, as blunt and uncompromising as that. One person went to the extent to say, “The Bible is wrong then”. But I should pause and explain the background to this extraordinary statement and the other issues I have encountered. The people concerned have encountered the Bible’s uncompromising position on same sex relationships, and the verses we are looking at today are just one example of several that we can find in Scripture. A person I know, a new Christian, had a nephew in a same sex relationship and had no problem with it. Their justification was that as long as the two people were “in love” then there was no harm in the relationship. At a subsequent Bible Study a passage of Scripture similar to what we are reading today spawned a discussion about homosexuality, resulting in the person’s rejection of God’s Word. They were unable to reconcile the fact that the life style chosen by their relative was not acceptable in the Kingdom of God. In another situation a person in a church congregation, who has a child transitioning from one sex to another, adopted a similar position. In both cases, the uncompromising Biblical position was directly and firmly counter to their own beliefs.

In the Old Testament, God, through Moses, provided a list of forbidden sexual practices and we read in Leviticus 18:22, “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin”.  And there are many others. God’s position on forbidden sexual relationships is clear, and the violation of His laws in the Old Testament was dramatic – stoning to death if discovered. In the New Testament, as Paul wrote in Romans 1:26a, “That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desire…”. Being abandoned by God is a terrible place in which to find ourselves. 

Before we pilgrims try and claim the moral high ground, there are many other instances of sexual sins that we might be guilty of as well. We may well tut-tut if we see or come across a homosexual couple, but what about the adulterous or sexual relationships outside of marriage? What about the lustful glances at a woman/man, as exposed by Jesus in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart”? There is no sin grading system. Some sins are not worse than others, because all sins are still sin. Are we pilgrims all totally pure and innocent of sexual sins? We have to remember what Paul said in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. But thankfully, Paul continued in the next two verses, “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past”. Through Jesus we have a way to forgiveness.

So how do we pilgrims deal with verses such as the ones today? We have on the one hand traditional, Bible-believing, Christians, for whom the principle of the inviolability and infallibility of Scripture is beyond discussion. On the other hand we have liberal Christians who claim that the Church has to move with the times and be more accepting of the practices in the world around us. And we have a whole raft of sexual sins, not just those listed above, that are emerging into the Western society’s public domain, into the light of acceptance by both society and certain church denominations. A counter-cultural clash that, I fear, will not end well for those following, and believing in, the Word of God. In recent years legislation has been introduced to formally legalise same sex marriages, and ministers in certain denominations are being instructed to officiate at same sex weddings by their church hierarchy. And although at the present time, a person’s faith is protected legally, it will probably not last forever. Already in parts of Australia, legislation has been introduced making it a crime even to pray with homosexuals, if their sexual orientation is the subject of the prayers.

We pilgrims approach all sinners the same. Without judgement and condemnation. What the nature of the sin is, is not the issue. What is the issue, however, is how willing we are to extend the message of God’s love, grace and forgiveness towards all sinners, accepting the person, and praying for the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. And always remembering the words of Paul to the Galatian believers, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself“. (Galatians 6:1).

Dear Lord. We pray, and keep on praying, for our government, for our educationalists, our churches and all who stand on Your Word in their lives. And please help us to stand up and be counted for the inviolability of Your Word, Holy Scripture. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Abandoned by God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“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.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Just to recap, we reached this point because Paul said people in general had the knowledge of a Creator God, but instead of offering Him the thanks and worship that He was due, they went off and worshipped their own idols. We read that such people ended up in an arrogant position, claiming that they were operating wisely in whatever they were doing. But their thinking became more and more foolish to the point that they developed a very distorted view of God Himself. And the consequences were this –  God abandoned them to their own devices. Presumably their consciences no longer functioned as they should have done and they behaved much as the Israelites did, as we can read in the last verse in the Book of Judges, “…. all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes“. (Judges 21:25b).

But it’s a very serious and potentially devastating situation to get into, to be abandoned by God. Normally, people go through life with at least some behavioural constraints due to their consciences. Even people who claim to have no religious belief intuitively know the differences between right and wrong, because God through His Spirit is working gently behind the scenes. But consciences can fail to work as they should, and Paul wrote about this problem to his son in the faith, Timothy. We read in 1 Timothy 4:1-2 (AMP), “But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons, [misled] by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared as with a branding iron [leaving them incapable of ethical functioning],”. How does a conscience become “seared”? When we sear something like a finger, we burn it, and that then renders it insensitive, at least for a while, to touch and feeling. The nerves are damaged and don’t function as they should. Similarly, it is possible to sear our consciences by constantly overriding their signals until the still small voice within us fails to be heard any more. When that happens, God has effectively abandoned us, and the inbuilt restraints put in place when we were created are removed, leaving us “incapable of ethical functioning”. 

Without a functioning conscience and abandoned by God, a person’s ability to do what is right is impaired and one consequence is that they end up doing “vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies”. what Paul was warning about can be seen in society today, with more and more blatant and public exposures of sexual sins that must break God’s heart. Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls such behaviour “vile and degrading”, but to someone with a seared conscience, abandoned by God, they see nothing wrong. In fact they embark on public displays, even hijacking one of God’s signs, a rainbow, and in the process waving their arrogant and angry fists in the face of God. 

Another worry is the way God has abandoned society. The “vile and degrading” actions of individuals are now being promoted by corporate organisations and even government institutions. A race to the bottom is going on unconstrained, with our legislators introducing or changing laws to ease the transition to a “vile and degraded” society. Society in general is increasingly becoming accepting of sinful behaviour. We live in an unhappy age.

It is difficult in these desperate times for us pilgrims to make a stand against such blatant sinful behaviour. But we still have a window of opportunity to extend God’s grace and love even to those currently living in a state of God’s abandonment. Here in the UK we are not yet persecuted to the extent that speaking out about “vile and degrading” practices is a crime. But there is little time left before it will be. As we read in Revelation, there is a time coming when all people will have to stand before God and account for their behaviour. And we pilgrims pray that God’s grace will continue; we pray more grace, more love, Lord. How we need You in these difficult and desperate times! Paul’s warning is perhaps even more relevant today than it was two thousand years ago.

But in the middle of a seemingly hopeless situation, there is hope. There is always hope. Jeremiah got the message. He wrote in Jeremiah 32:17, “O Sovereign Lord ! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!” Nothing is too difficult for our loving Heavenly Father. And with that knowledge we can pray with assurance that God’s ways will prevail. Jesus made it quite clear, in a conversation with Peter and His other disciples, that He was going to build His church. We read in Matthew 16:18, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it“. In the end, there may be many people who find themselves abandoned by God. But that makes no difference to the long term reality, that one day, Jesus’ church will finally be built. See you there?

Dear Father God. We do indeed pray for more of Your grace and love to permeate into our societies. Without You this world would be a dark place indeed. We pray for our families and friends, that You will touch them with Your presence through the power of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Utter Fools

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“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. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.”
Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What did Paul have in mind when he made the statement “Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools”? Perhaps he was referring to a human trait common today, and probably just as prevalent in his times. Consider the following phenomenon. There are people who seem to have developed strange ideas or theories about God and the spiritual world. Their worldviews or thoughts of anything to do with religion, particularly if they are not Christians, can be wild and “off the wall”. They develop a philosophy that seems to fit in with their natural observations of the world around them and the behaviour of people that they come into contact with. They then create their own ideas and propagate them to anyone prepared to listen. Take for example the viewpoint sometimes heard, that all Christians are hypocrites, and therefore the worship of God is a pointless exercise. This is probably based on their observations of a particular church-goer who acts “holier than thou” on a Sunday but who behaves in a very worldly way at other times. But they then extrapolate this to include all who claim to have faith in God, painting them all with the label “hypocrite”. A journey in their minds then continues trying to make sense of why churches exist, developing all sorts of weird theories in the process. More disturbingly, they go on to develop skewed ideas about God, and their self-derived “wisdom” ends up making them “utter fools”. Sadly, modern liberal theologians have attempted to reconcile the views of both the god of this age and the God we worship, coming up with what is to them a wise solution responding to societal pressures around issues including sexuality and marriage, but instead developing foolish ideas that deny Biblical truths.

Such a phenomenon is not just the domain of non-religious people. It can affect, or infect, Christians as well. Paul, in his verses in Romans, was writing to Christians. Can they too acquire the “utter fools” label. How do we avoid thinking up “foolish ideas of what God was like”? As Paul pointed out in an earlier verse in Romans 1, we can find a glimpse of God’s character in the creation around us. But most of what we come to know about God is found in the Bible. His character and attributes just ooze out of every page, every chapter, every verse. The Scriptures have much good advice for those tending towards the foolish end of the wisdom spectrum. Psalm 14:1 relates to what Paul has been writing about, “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!” There’s also much truth in Proverbs 3:3, “People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.” In fact, there’s a whole section in Proverbs 14 devoted to fools and their foolishness. But I love the verse, 1 Corinthians 1:27, “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.” The Christian faith is counter-cultural to the extent that people in the world around us designate us as being fools, when the opposite is true in God’s Kingdom.

Idolatry can be in many different forms. The conventional view is of statues, effigies of saints, or similar people, long dead and who have perhaps some sort of cult status. Just walk into an old church or cathedral and many will be found. Or an idol can be made out of a living person. Have we not heard expressions such as “He worships the ground she walks on”, an observation of a love-struck teenager? We can also easily make an idol out of our hobbies, TV interests; in fact anything that takes our focus away from God and His ways.

So we pilgrims plod on our way, conscious that it easy to be diverted from the narrow way into boggy and hazardous ground full of pitfalls to lead the unwary Christian into foolishness. We must spend time constantly in God’s Word, learning more and more about Him, and always aware of the need to give Him all our thanks.

Dear Father God. We worship You today, the Source of all we need in this life and the next. We are grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit, constantly nudging us back into keeping to Your ways, day by day. Amen.

God in a Box

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“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.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬ NLT

In some ways the first sentence today doesn’t make much sense. But it all depends on the meaning of the word “knew”. People might know things about God, perhaps like a Professor of Theology in some University or academy somewhere, needing to teach about various religions but not believing in any of them. Such people might know that He exists, or that He is worshipped in that building just down the street. They might even read the Bible from time to time. But they lack a personal relationship with their Creator. They just think that He has no relevance in their lives. And they go on living a sinful and independent life, seemingly impervious to what that will mean long term. 

Before we pilgrims take the moral high ground and discount such behaviour in our own lives, we should pause and think. Does the following scenario seem familiar or is it nothing like us personally? Imagine a person, a Christian, who claims to have a personal relationship with our loving Heavenly Father, but expects it to be on their own terms. Perhaps they have a “Quiet Time” in the morning, with prayer and Bible notes. But for the rest of the day they keep God in a box of their own making, lifting the lid when they need help, or when it’s time for going to church, or the prayer meeting, or Bible study. The rest of the time they try and protect areas of their lives from God’s penetrating stare, just in case He puts a finger on something uncomfortable in their lives and suggest some changes. If necessary such people may even move on to a different church before the real person is exposed. Is this fact or fiction? 

Is our imaginary person someone who Paul had in mind, at least in part, when he wrote our verse today? Perhaps there were a few people like this in the Ephesian church. In Ephesians 4, Paul wrote, “With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.” (Ephesians 4:17-19).

There is no middle ground in being a Christian. In Revelation 3, the Apostle John wrote down the words of Jesus, to be delivered to the church in Laodicea. We read, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:15-16). We cannot claim to know God and then ignore Him. 

In today’s verse, Paul goes on to say that the people he had in mind, “began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like”. Isn’t it strange how our minds can rationalise our thoughts, to get us out of uncomfortable places. We can end up watching an unsuitable TV programme, rationalising that we would never use language like that, or behave in that way with someone of the opposite sex. Or we may click on a link to a news article that, really, we shouldn’t have. We can have a tendency to think up a picture of a God who won’t mind. Who will turn a blind eye to such behaviour. After all, we think, a loving God would never reject us because of such things. But, of course, we pilgrims would never behave in those ways to think up these “foolish ideas” about God. Would we?

Thankfully, we have a loving and gracious God, who never turns away a repentant child of His. The Psalms are oozing with words and songs of thanks and worship. We have Psalm 7:17, “I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.” Or Psalm 103:1, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: And all that is within me, bless his holy name.” (KJV). But God’s heart is encapsulated in Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the Lord while you can find Him. Call on Him now while He is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that He may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for He will forgive generously“. 

The remedy for those people Paul had in mind when he wrote Romans 1:21 is to turn back to God in repentance. We pilgrims are included, because in this life we get tainted by the world and its systems. So, we take all our rationalised baggage, stuffed full of sin, and leave it at the Cross. And, cleansed once again, we can give God all our thanks, and all our worship, our minds “dark and confused” no more.

Dear Lord. At the foot of Your Cross today we gaze upon Your face in worship, with deep thanks for all You did for us at Calvary. Amen.