Food and Idols

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.”
1 Corinthians 8:1-3 NLT

The Corinthians must have written to Paul a letter containing a series of questions, which seemed to apply to the interface between secular Corinthian society and living the Christian life. An understandable situation for those early Christians, believers living without the benefit of the New Testament and having to rely on men like Paul and Apollos for guidance. We don’t know the structure of the Corinthian church. For example, was there a leadership team and a senior pastor, able to provide the answers the believers were looking for? The origins of the church can be read in Acts 18, and they refer to Paul travelling to Corinth from Athens, and meeting up with a Jew and his wife, Aquila and Priscilla, who had been evicted from Rome by Claudius Caesar. They were tent makers like Paul, so the synergy between them was a good start for their future relationship and the embryonic church that started up in the home of a Gentile called Titius Justus. Those were stormy times, with much opposition from the Jews who worshipped in the synagogue next door. Presumably, Paul spent much time with Aquila and Priscilla, because they encountered a preacher called Apollos, and about him we read, “He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately” (Acts 18:25-26). We don’t know anything about the letter that the Corinthians wrote to Paul, but we know that he was in Ephesus when he wrote his first Corinthian letter, containing the answers to the believers’ questions. 

The previous chapter in 1 Corinthians provided answers to their questions about sexuality and marriage, and now Paul moved on to address their concerns about food that had been offered to idols. In ancient Corinth, offering food to idols was part of pagan worship practices and included consuming meat that had been sacrificed to idols at temples. These meals were not just religious acts but also important social and business gatherings, with temples serving as places for feasts and community events. So it seems that in some way, this food became available to the Corinthian church, and the issue was whether or not they should eat it. Paul addresses this issue in more detail later in 1 Corinthians 8, but he first addresses a situation where some believers think they know all the answers. He addressed their arrogance by pointing out that it was not knowledge that builds up the church but love, love for one another. There is a saying, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, implying that it is risky to base important decisions on a limited amount of knowledge and understanding about a particular subject. I once attended a meeting where a new project was being initiated, and there was one man there who seemed to be very knowledgeable about the technicalities of what was required. I asked him afterwards where he found all the information and knowledge about the project, to which he replied, “In a land of blind men, a one-eyed man is king”, meaning that he only had a little knowledge, but that was more than anyone else present in the meeting. 

So it appears that the believers in Corinth had in their midst people who said they knew all the answers and, consequently, were vociferous in spreading their views. However, the wise among them wrote to Paul, asking for his advice and direction. It is common for believers, particularly those who are young in the faith, to have questions. In the societies in which we live, many customs and issues could directly affect our faith, and about which the Bible is silent. Take, for example, our love of food. Is it right to eat so many carbohydrate-based foods, or drink so many sugary drinks? In Biblical times, it was often the case that any food was a bonus, but here in the West, we have more food than we need. Or many a new Christian is faced with the question about smoking or the consumption of alcohol. Should they smoke and drink as they did before they became Christians? There are other examples, such as the jobs we do or the hobbies we have. And so we try to find the answers from the Bible, and read verses such as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “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, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body”. But then our “old man” kicks in and the ancient whisper of the serpent from Genesis 3 sounds in our ears, “surely God didn’t say …”, and we end up in confusion and despair. Asking those around us for a definitive answer isn’t always helpful.

There is only one way to discern God’s will when we have difficult questions, and that is by referring back to our Maker through prayer and Bible study. In the process, we allow the Holy Spirit to gently reveal to us what His answer is and He then helps us to deal with the situation and bring about an answer in the way we live our lives. In obedience we embrace God’s help with addictions and all, trusting in His provision and grace. And if someone else comes to us with a question, we point to God and His Word, and pray with them, in gentleness and love, helping them on their journey. There is no other way. We are all pilgrims on a journey of sanctification, that will one day end up in perfection in God’s presence.

Dear Father God. Only You have the words that lead to eternal life. Only You have the answers to the issues we face in this sad world. And so we reach out to You this morning, asking for more of Your grace and love so that we too can help those around us with the issues of life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We Have Everything

Posted on by korgrocker

“Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.” And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.” So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”
1 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬-‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul wraps up this chapter in 1 Corinthians with a resume of the problem of factionalism and disunity in the Corinthian church. Earlier in this chapter, he put his finger on an issue that can still affect people today. We read from verse 4, “When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?” And Paul was right, because human beings have a tendency to follow and promote church leaders using criteria that are based on human wisdom rather than what God sees. Paul connected true wisdom with this issue, even introducing a clear distinction between worldly wisdom, which would be based on a person’s human qualities, and God’s wisdom, which sees right into a person’s heart. It was this latter wisdom that mattered, and Paul told the Corinthians that although this might look foolish to unbelievers, it was “truly wise” to Him. 

Even today, the same problem can be found in our churches. For example, I know of a church that can guarantee a good attendance when a certain leader is speaking, but when another is preaching, there is a marked reduction in numbers. And yet, it might be the person who is not so popular who God wants to deliver His message. The worldly view is that the not-so-popular preacher isn’t worth listening to, and to attend church that day is considered foolishness. But we know that God’s Kingdom is very different. Paul quoted two Scriptures about the worldly wise people, the first from Job 5:13a, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness”, and the second from Psalm 94:11, “The Lord knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!”. An unbeliever cannot discern spiritual truths, and as they try and get their minds around God’s thoughts, they eventually give up and deem it foolishness. A true believer will discern spiritual truth and follow it, running the risk of being called a fool in the process. Was Paul labouring his point? I think he might have had to, as he addressed the Corinthian problem with gentleness and truth.

Paul continued by saying, “Everything belongs to you …”. That needs a bit of thought to unpack, because from a worldly perspective, we know that it can’t be true. But if we look at it with our spiritual eyes, a new understanding will emerge. If we think about it for a moment, the Corinthians had access to three very able teachers – Paul, Apollos and Cephas (Peter). Why not be blessed by all three and not just by the one they preferred? Come to that, what or whom else did the Corinthians have access to? They obviously had the Hebrew Scriptures and Paul’s letter. And there were probably other resources available, though all with the caveat that spiritual discernment was required to separate the good from the bad, separating truth from error. Only three preachers were mentioned, but there may have been others. Paul finally winds up the chapter with “everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God”. Jesus was the ultimate resource, and Paul told his readers that it is to Him that they should ultimately look, because God made Him totally available to them. 

Today, the same thoughts apply to modern believers. There are far more resources available to Christians today, and the “everything belongs to you” is overwhelming in its potential. For a start, we have the canon of Scripture, the Bible as we know it, and then it comes in many different translations. I have some books, and as I look in my bookcase, I see books by authors such as Gordon Pettie, David Pawson, Max Lucado, Selwyn Hughes and many others. I find more on my Kindle reading device. We have on our electronic devices apps that contain not just the Bibles but also commentaries and other helps. We can explore videos on Social Media and video platforms such as YouTube. Television has the Christian channels available to us as well. And then there is the internet and all the resources contained there. A new resource has emerged in recent years, under the heading of Artificial Intelligence and with an app such as “ChatGPT”, I can type in a question such as “Who is God?” and receive a detailed essay of all the world’s religions. I can type in “What is the Bible?”, and an overview quickly appears on my screen. All these resources are available to us pilgrims, but with all this easily accessible knowledge, we need a matching quantity of wisdom, because otherwise we will quickly be diverted into error or drawn up a blind alley, into irrelevance.

I’m writing this on a Sunday morning, and soon I’ll be heading for church. The preacher will have been in God’s presence, finding out what God wants to say to the people gathered in the pews. And with a (hopefully) open heart, I will listen and hear what God has for me, with food for my soul. I’ll spend time in worship with the congregation and chat with the believers there, eventually leaving enriched spiritually by the experience. But on the other days of the week, my resource will be the Bible. Although I will dip into books by Godly men and women, I will always use the Bible as the final arbiter of God’s truth. Paul wrote to Timothy these words, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). 

And so we pilgrims look beyond the modern equivalents of Apollos, Paul and Peter. We instead look to the reality that we “belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God”. Through all the “noise” we find by living on 21st Century Planet Earth, with all the information such as the world news and issues and the worries and anxieties of living, we look for a haven of peace, not as the monks and nuns of old in their cloisters and closets, but in the presence of Jesus, the ultimate Source of all we need that matters.

Dear Lord Jesus. Only You have the words of eternal life, and in the end, that is all that matters. As we go about our daily lives, please always be there for us in times of chaos, providing peace for our souls. We remember that in the middle of a storm on the Sea of Galilee, You were resting asleep. That is the peace we desire, and know that it is a peace that only You can provide. In Your precious name. Amen. 

Boasting

Posted on by korgrocker

“God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.””
1 Corinthians 1:28-31 NLT

Who are the “boasters” in society today? usually, these are the people, men and women and even children, who think they have something significant in their lives to boast about. Perhaps they are great sportspeople, with a string of awards for athletic prowess, being the fastest at running, or the highest long-jumper. There is much boasting going on after a goal is scored in a football match or for the winner in a boxing match. Or consider a bore at a social gathering, boasting about his success in the business world, or a woman boasting about her wonderful new house. In the academic world there are boasters who brashly brag about the paper or book they have just written referring to some obscure mathematical theory, or medical procedure they have invented. Yesterday I met a man who was a great boaster. Recently retired, he outlined all that he was doing, and he talked much about his boat moored in the Forth Estuary, his camper van and where he’s been, his motorbike and sports bicycle. Sad really, and the first thought that came to my mind was the parable of the Rich Fool, who tore down his barns and built bigger ones to store his bumper crops, and then said to himself, “ … You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19). and then we read in the next verse, ““But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’” But all these boasters have two things in common – they think they are better than their fellow members of society, and consequently God has no time for them. Psalm 5:5, “The boastful and the arrogant will not stand in Your sight; You hate all who do evil“. Paul wrote about the foolish people who have rejected God, and with them those that boast, “They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents” (Romans 1:30). 

Yesterday we considered ordinary people, the majority in our societies, who go about their daily business with little, if anything, considered of value to society. They would be struggling to find anything to boast about at a significant level, although there is always something that could be found. Perhaps they could boast about having met a member of royalty or they have a certain number of great grandchildren. But the one thing that Paul singled out was those people in society who boast about their wisdom and knowledge. 1 Corinthians 1:20, “So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish”. These people who the world considers wise and knowledgeable have to work very hard to avoid being labelled “boasters”, but they fail to realise that in God’s sight such attributes are worthless because He considers them “foolish”. We read more about Paul’s perspective in Philippians 3:3b-5, “ … We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law“. In Acts 23:6 Paul claimed he was a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees, promoting himself upwards into the elite in his society. But in Philippians 3:7-8 he wrote, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ“. Paul got it, and his life was a living example of a man who had rejected all that the world considered of value and instead he started right at the bottom, on his knees, before the cross of Christ.

There is a sober lesson for us pilgrims today. It doesn’t matter what we have done or think we have done. It doesn’t matter how well we were educated, or what job we have, or where we have lived and so on. We have nothing to boast about because before God our human achievements don’t impress Him at all. Jeremiah wrote, “This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 9:23-24). We humans always like to have something to boast about because, so we think, it makes us look better than those around us. In a secular society with many people, anything that somehow elevates them above their fellows is to be sought out and promoted. But not us pilgrims. We instead promote our faith and belief in Jesus, because this is the only wisdom or knowledge that is worth anything. And, paradoxically, such eternal knowledge and wisdom is thought foolishness to those around us and unbelievers discard it as being worthless and to be pitied. Such people, fully of their worldly boasts, puffed up with pride, will find one day that when they cross the Great Divide, they can’t take anything with them. Before God, they have empty hands because all the rubbish that they used to contain has been burnt up and not even ash will remain. God doesn’t need human prowess and knowledge – after all, He created it in the first place. The only knowledge worth anything is the knowledge of Christ. As Paul said, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10-11). 

Do we pilgrims truly know the Lord? Are we able and willing to boast about His saving grace and love? Are we aware of the dangers of focussing too much on our human abilities and in the process boasting about the wrong things? One day we will be, and of course we won’t want to look back in regret at what we left behind. With Paul, we cast aside our human inclinations and ” … press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”(Philippians 3:12b-14). Paul also wrote, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

Am I labouring the point? Probably, but human wisdom and knowledge has no place in the Kingdom of God, and He has labelled such attributes foolishness. But along with Paul I am looking ahead, in the knowledge that the past contains much that could skew my faith. At every opportunity I will tell people about Christ and all that He has done for me. I don’t care much for those who consider me foolish, but the important thing is that I can hear Jesus cheering me on, and that is all that matters. And one day will I hear those words, “well done …”? I hope and pray that this will be the case, and I know that all pilgrims everywhere hope to hear the same.

Dear Father God. You are the only Source of knowledge and wisdom that really matters. So we praise and worship You, asking that Your reveal to us all that we need for our lives lived in this world. And as we journey on in our faith, we look forward, reading Your Word and marvelling about finding all that we need to confound the wisdom of the wise. Thank You. Amen.

Ordinary Folk

Posted on by korgrocker

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 NLT

With whom do we identify in our societies? With those who live in big luxury houses in our suburbs, or those who rent a house or flat from the local council? With those who work in a “white collar” job in an office, or as a “blue collar” worker in a factory? Do we still separate people in our minds into “working class” or “professional class”, “middle class” or “upper class”? In these enlightened days we tend to avoid classifying people for fear of offending them, but distinctions still apply below the radar. TV programmes such as “Downton Abbey” highlight the distinction between the wealthy aristocracy “upstairs” and the working class servants “downstairs” in years gone by. Well, it appears that the Corinthian church had a congregation drawn from the “downstairs” demographic because Paul wrote, “few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy” when they became believers in Christ. These were ordinary folk, and in many churches and fellowships today we will find them well represented. Nothing wrong with that of course, and there may be a good reason for churches to be populated from the less well off in society. Those who have much are less likely to realise that they need God for their salvation. They believe that by their own efforts they have added to their wealth and have no need for any form of religion. A few years ago I found myself walking around the more affluent area of a Central Scotland town with a local pastor and we prayed much, lamenting that there was no-one from this area represented in the local church. They had their neatly manicured lawns and flower beds resplendent with colour. They had luxury cars sitting in their driveways, and money oozed from every brick of their big, architect-designed, houses. In Paul’s eyes, these would have been those who thought they were “wise” by human standards. But a short distance away was a housing estate made up of what has come to be called “social housing”, populated by people who had little, who often struggled to make ends meet, and who lacked the education and employment that would have elevated them into the same league as the “have’s” just down the road. But such people were represented well in the local church, and Paul would possibly have referred to them as those the “world considers foolish”. These were the people who were “powerless” and Paul said that God would use them to “shame those who think they are wise”.

Perhaps in Paul’s days the same principle between the “have’s” and the “have-nots” applied, with those puffed up with their human wisdom looking down on those who were at the lower ends of society, the slaves and servants, considered of little relative value and therefore expendable. But Paul emphasised the fact that God uses those the world despises to do His work. There is a tendency of the earthly wise to have an overblown sense of their own worth, and in their pride and arrogance they have no time for the things of God. They instead adopt a critical view of Christians, remembering that it was Karl Marx who disdainfully referred to “religion” as being the “opiate of the masses”, implying that it was only ordinary people, who made up the “masses”, who would benefit from a belief in God. 

Paul put things into context when he wrote, “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?”(Romans 9:21). All human beings are created by God with a similar appearance – two arms, two legs etc. – and all from the same lump of “clay”. As Jesus told in the parable of the talents, we are each given different gifts and opportunities, and no-one is better than anyone else. The people in the Corinthian church were a gifted people, because they were initially chosen by God and He used them, despised by the world as they were, to “to bring to nothing what the world considers important“. In the context of eternity, a short life span on 70 or so years is but the blink of an eye, and the message of the Cross, no matter how foolish it appears, becomes the most important account that human beings will ever need to hear. Death is a great leveller, because at that point all the wealth, education, and belongings will be left behind, souls traveling on into what for many will become a distressing experience. 

Jesus founded a movement that shook up the world in the First Century and it all started with ordinary folk. A few fishermen were the first called by Jesus, and we know what the “have’s” thought of them from 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 recognised them as men who had been with Jesus“. Ordinary men transformed by the wisdom of God. Men not puffed up by their knowledge, but instead in love with Jesus, determined to follow Him regardless of the consequences. With God in their lives they went on to establish the early church, and today there are estimated to be 2.4 billion Christians on our planet. A phenomenal number of people and far beyond anything that could have been established by human wisdom.

Today, we pilgrims are “ordinary folk” who are sold out for Jesus. We may have all the human knowledge and wisdom in the world, but along with Paul we have made this a secondary factor in our lives. Instead, we promote what the world considers foolishness, the message of the Cross of Christ, wisdom indeed.

Dear Father God. You have upended the priorities in society and we are accordingly re-orientated. Your message of hope is now ours to share and we ask for Your help in leading us to the right people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Get Your Husband

Posted on by korgrocker

““Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her. “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right You don’t have a husband— for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!””
John 4:16-18 NLT

The woman at the well seemed to have a problem with men. To be in the sixth relationship is going some, even by modern standards. The fact that she came to draw water on her own probably indicated that the other women in the village wanted nothing to do with her. For all we know, she had a local reputation for being a bit of a marriage wrecker. But how did Jesus know about her private life? It wouldn’t have been posted on the local Facebook page, or mentioned in a flyer pinned to the wall above the well. We can try and make sense of why she was so active in husband recycling, and presumably psychiatrists would have a selection of answers to her problem, but none of this matters very much. What does matter is that Jesus grabbed her attention and lifted her thoughts out of the drudgery of drawing water and forced her to consider her situation.

Jesus, of course, was in constant communication with His Father. We read in John 5:19-20, “So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished“. So communicating with His father through the power of the Spirit, Jesus would have known who the woman at the well really was. He saw right into her very soul and put His finger on the main issue driving, and destroying, her life. And by doing so He laid the foundation for a revival that was soon to happen in that Samaritan village. An uncomfortable and embarrassing experience for the woman led to her life, and the lives of others, being transformed.

We pilgrims also have access to situations where, through the Holy Spirit, a prophetic word, a word of knowledge, can expose the truth and transform the life of a sinner. We have a “still small voice” within us that we need to listen carefully to. It needs practice to hear it, but the Holy Spirit within us constantly speaks. A question we must often ask is, “What do You want me to know about this person, or say to them, Lord?” We pray for that insight that will unlock an otherwise lifeless conversation. And at the start of a day we pray for divine encounters, or opportunities to share the Good News with those around us, with people trapped in hopeless situations like the woman at the well. 

Dear Father God. We pray today for a fresh infilling of Your Spirit, revitalising us and equipping us for the day ahead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Myopic Believers

Posted on by korgrocker

“The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.”
2 Peter 1:8-9 NLT

We need to go back a few verses in 2 Peter 1 to verse 3, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence“.  And I wrote in response, “the availability of His Power is intricately related to our knowledge of God. As we delve into the depths of understanding Him, we unlock the reservoir of His power available to us. Peter then wrote in verse 9 some strong words, implying that if we don’t grow in our knowledge of Christ, we have become forgetful by not remembering that day when we were saved, that day when we made a decision to follow Jesus for the rest of our lives.

I once knew a man whose testimony was based on a decision he made for Jesus many years ago. But since then his times of private prayer and Bible reading have been sadly lacking. Yes, he would stand up in church and read a passage of Scripture or say a prayer, but for the rest of the time, as he openly confessed, his life carried on as it always had done. “I’ve always been a good person” was his belief. Peter said that such a person was “shortsighted or blind”, because becoming a believer is the start and not the end, of the process of sanctification. It has been said that in terms of our faith, we either go forward, developing “in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” or we go backwards “forgetting that [we] have been cleansed from [our] old sins”. Standing still is not an option. 

Myopia is an ocular condition more commonly called short-sightedness. A person with this condition finds that they can focus on objects near to them, but things further away become a blur. But there is a condition called spiritual myopia, where a myopic Christian fails to see God’s truths clearly enough to use them in their own lives. The Apostle James wrote about this, and we read, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22). He expands this theme in the following two verses, “For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like” (James 1:23-24). We find his conclusion in James 1:25, “But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it“. We find that the remedy for natural myopia is a pair of glasses or spectacles. We can find a remedy for spiritual myopia by reading God’s Word, the Bible, and applying it to our lives, so that we will grow in the “knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Spiritual myopia, according to Peter, can develop to the ultimate condition of blindness. In this case, the sufferers, even if they read the Bible, or sit under the ministry of many preachers, will fail to connect with God’s truths. They prefer to remain in the domain of their old sins and nothing will change them otherwise, because they cannot see that they are failing in obedience to God’s Word.

James 1:22-25 makes uncomfortable reading because we pilgrims are guilty of doing what he warned against from time to time. We find a cul-de-sac, or backwater somewhere where we find comfort and freedom from the constant slog of journeying to our promised land. We put our spiritual lives on hold for a time, but even when we behave like lost sheep, God is always there for us. Always willing and able to welcome us back into His arms. Jesus said He will always seek us out. Matthew 18:12-13, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away!” What a Saviour! If we find ourselves failing to see Him clearly today, God’s prescription for our condition is waiting for us to open it up and start reading. 

Father God. You have the Words of eternal life, written for all time in Your Book, the Bible. Please help us to see clearly what You have for us, as we read it day by day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Riches, Wisdom and Knowledge

Posted on by korgrocker

“Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!”
Romans 11:33 NLT

At the end of a passage where Paul has considered God’s gracious mercy to both His chosen people, Israel, and the Gentiles, or non-Jews, he is overwhelmed by God. Paul cannot get his mind around all that God is and does, and lapses into praise. And failing to fathom the depths of God, he exclaims, “How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!” Paul had a very healthy view of God’s greatness and his lowliness. Perhaps he would have considered himself to be a clay pot wondering how the potter created him. But Paul realised that through all the agonising about his people, and when they would be saved, if at all, he realised that, in the end, it is all about God.

As Paul realised, we can never enter God’s domain and think His thoughts and share in His plans. God said in Isaiah 55:8-9, ““My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” But Paul looked up and received a glimpse of God through a human-limited fog, understanding once again that God’s greatness is beyond his experience. And we realise that as well. We too can only marvel how unlimited God is, in all His ways, thoughts and deeds. 

I heard recently of how a conference speaker was delayed in reaching the departure gate at an airport, to find that her plane was being rolled back from the terminus, and she had missed it. The next one involved a wait of four hours, meaning that she would miss the first conference session. Finally boarding this flight she found herself sitting next to a smartly dressed businessman who opened a conversation, asking what she did for a living. To cut a long story short, the speaker led him to making a decision for Jesus. Did God engineer circumstances to allow His grace to reach someone in desperate need? Someone more important to God than a conference preach? We don’t know God’s plans, but sometimes the circumstances accumulate to the extent that, in hindsight, we see His hand at work.

Paul knew he would never understand God’s ways. But he trusted Him. His life was totally committed to serving God, come what may. And he ended up suffering all sorts of abuse for the sake of the Gospel. He allowed God to use him, whatever the need was. Are we pilgrims totally committed to serving God, regardless of what the cost will be? We aren’t all Pauls of course. But, like the conference speaker, we may find ourselves in a situation that may be inconvenient but one that figures big-time in God’s plans. Whenever things go wrong, upsetting our schedules, perhaps we need to look to see if God is doing something, keeping our eyes and ears open to leverage any opportunities for the sake of the Gospel. 

Paul was overwhelmed in wonder about God’s “riches and wisdom and knowledge”. Everything about God combines to provide an unlimited and total ability to reign and rule over the earth and all who live in it. We pilgrims need to keep our spiritual eyes and ears wide open in obedient service to the One who knows all things.

Dear God. You are the Source of everything. Nothing happens without Your permission. And we trust You with all that we are and all that we have, knowing that You care for us in every way. We thank You and praise You today. Amen.

God Knows Us

Posted on by korgrocker

“O Lord, You have examined my heart 
and know everything about me.”
‭Psalms‬ ‭139:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The thought that God knows everything about us, good and bad, is both comforting and scary at the same time. In the next few verses, the Psalmist, David, goes on to say that God is intimately acquainted with not just what we are doing but even what is about to come out of our mouths. Distance and time are no problem to God. And there is nothing that we can do to escape His presence; should we want to, of course. So if we know all that, why do we get so caught up in doing things that we know would cause God pain? The sins that blight our lives. Actions that are just plain wrong. The Apostle Paul felt that frustration. He wrote in Romans 7, “I have discovered this principle of life – that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.” Thankfully God forgives us of our sins when we repent. And we allow His life-giving Spirit to lead and guide us, and live within us (Romans 8). 

But back to our Psalm. It gets better and better. The wonder in David’s heart comes out in verse 5, as he remarks that God goes before him and follows him. Can you imagine that? God is there right in front of us, leading the way. Pointing out the pot-holes in life to help us to avoid them. But in case we still stumble and fall, there He is behind us, picking us up and dusting us off. And there’s more – if we look up, there’s His hand of blessing about to touch our heads. It is no wonder that David can’t cope with what it all means, as we read in verse 6. And he continues to meditate on God’s omnipresence, which extends all the way from Heaven to the place the Jews called Sheol (verse 8). And the lovely word picture emerges of David riding “the wings of the morning” and “dwelling by the farthest oceans” (verse 9). And he finishes this section with the thought that God is always there in the dark, because it is light to Him. Perhaps there’s a comforting thought there for people who do have a fear of the dark.

There is an amazing truth in this Psalm. No matter how we view God. No matter if we reject Him and try and run away from Him, He is still there with us. Embracing us. Encouraging us. Blessing us. All because He loves us. So if we’re feeling neglected and unloved today, we are believing a lie. Our enemy, the devil, would want to deprive us of God’s presence and His blessings. But he can’t. We reach out, switching on our God-receptors; switching off our devil-receptors. And because God knows our very thoughts, He will complete the circuit. Connecting us to His throne room. Giving us a glimpse of His wonder. Helping us in our life-pilgrimage, every step of the way.