One Lord, Jesus Christ (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

We pilgrims know that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is our Lord and someone special to us, because our faith is founded on His sacrificial death at Calvary, a hill just outside Jerusalem. A death experienced by the Son of God as He took on the punishment deserved by sinful men and women so that they could stand cloaked with righteousness before Father God. And so we refer to Jesus as Lord.

But what does it mean to say that Jesus is Lord? In those days when Jesus walked around the Palestinian countryside, the title “lord” was commonplace because it was a recognition of a leader or a person with some importance. It was not initially a reference to Jesus’ deity because that came later. In fact, we recall the incident with Thomas after Jesus’ resurrection, when Jesus suddenly appeared through a locked door and stood among His disciples. We pick up the account in John 20:24-25, “One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side””. At this stage, “We have seen the Lord” was a respectful reference to Jesus, and something He referred to in John 13:13, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am“. But this all changed when Thomas encountered the risen Jesus. Back to John 20:26-28, where we read, “Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed“. Thomas added the divine to the word “Lord”, transforming the meaning to something that equates to “Jesus is God”. 

As an aside, in the UK today, we have a “House of Lords”, an unelected body of politicians who have many similar functions to the House of Commons, the elected part of our government. It scrutinises legislation, holds the government to account, and considers and reports upon public policy. This “House” of “Lords” (and “Ladies” as well) consists of religious leaders (bishops and the like), hereditary peers and political appointees. But there is nothing anywhere near “divine” about them. They are merely a hangover from Britain’s feudal history, and of no relevance to the “Lord” we are referring to, but worth mentioning to avoid confusion.

Generally speaking, a lord is someone with authority, control, or power over others; to say that someone is “lord” is to consider that person a master or ruler of some kind. However, when we apply this definition divinely to Jesus, we discover something awe-inspiring and special. By saying “Jesus is Lord,” we are acknowledging that we must live our lives in complete obedience to Him. In Luke 6:46, Jesus said, “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”, and that is the issue. We sing the song “Jesus is Lord” with great enthusiasm, but do we really know the implications of what we are singing? If we are not in complete obedience to Him, would it not be more honest to sit this particular song out and not sing it at all? A person who says, “Jesus is Lord,” with a complete understanding of what that means (Jesus is God and has supreme authority over all things) has been divinely enlightened, as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit“. We need that Holy Spirit revelation about Jesus being Lord to really understand what it means.

And so we come to Matthew 28:18-19, the Great Commission, “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. Because Jesus is Lord, He is God, and He has the authority to command us to do something. I have met some Christians who say that they are unsure of their role as believers, but if nothing else, the fact that they acknowledge Jesus as Lord means that they are commissioned and authorised to share the Good News of God’s plan of salvation with those people around them. But that is only part of it. As we read through the Bible, we find other ways in which the Lordship of Jesus needs to be recognised and applied in our societies, workplaces, schools, universities, neighbourhoods, and families. In our relationships with one another. In fact, our lives are the very medium in which God has chosen to make Himself known to the world around us. Are we shining like a beacon for God, or are we unrecognisable as a Christian? 

We must, of course, remember that one day the Lordship of Jesus will have to be recognised by everyone, believer or not. 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”. 

And so back to where we started today. Jesus is Lord. If He isn’t, then He’s not Lord at all. There is no halfway house. We can’t allow Jesus to be Lord of only a part of our lives, while we retain ownership of the rest. A sobering thought, because our sinful nature, our “old man”, wants to hang onto the bits of our lives that we enjoy. But thankfully, God is gracious and patient. The Holy Spirit will gently lead us through the process of sanctification, bringing more and more of ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus. It is a lifetime process, and one that won’t be complete until we stand before God in Heaven. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Please forgive us for our sins and our rebellion against Your Lordship. Amen.

Standing Firm Forever

Posted on by korgrocker

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? … Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.”
Psalm 15:1, 5 NLT

David winds up his list of required characteristics for those who wish to worship the Lord in His sanctuary. Inevitably, he turns to money, which can be a trap for unwary believers. Paul wrote to Timothy, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10). The requirement that those who lend money should not charge interest is perhaps, at least superficially, a problem in this day and age, where borrowers expect to be charged interest. But if we dig down a bit further into this requirement, we find Exodus 22:25, “If you lend money to any of my people who are in need, do not charge interest as a money lender would“. So perhaps David was just meaning that money should only be loaned interest-free to poor people in need. Obviously, in Biblical days, it was expected that interest would be received on investments. Jesus said to the third servant in His parable of the Ten Servants, “Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?” (Luke 19:23). So, perhaps, David was meaning that those who loaned money should be charitable when it came to the poor, and not guilty of usury, the charging of interest at exorbitant rates, to everyone else. Banking today charges one rate of interest on loans, but a lower rate on deposits, the difference between the two rates providing sufficient money to fund the bank’s operations. But sometimes the size of banking profits makes us pilgrims wonder about usury.

David went on to write about those who accept bribes for lying “about the innocent”. Perhaps David was repeating Exodus 23:8, “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.” We read about how the guards at Jesus’ tomb were silenced, bribed by the Jewish religious leaders, in Matthew 28:12-13, “When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep””. Bribery was common in those days, and still is today, with corruption in some nations reaching epidemic proportions. Bribery is a sin, there is no doubt about that, and anyone guilty of giving or receiving a bribe excludes themselves from being able to worship God.

In Psalm 15, David lists all the characteristics that need to be present to qualify someone for God-worship. The person concerned must:
Live a blameless life 
Not do anything unrighteous
Speak the truth
Not slander or gossip about anyone
Not wrong their neighbours
Not speak evil of their friends
Despise and avoid those who openly sin
Honour their brothers and sisters in Christ
Keep their promises, come what may
Be charitable and fair when lending money
Refuse to give or receive bribes

David concludes with the thought that the believer who ticks all these boxes will stand, upright and strong, a God-worshipper beyond reproach forever.

Dear Heavenly Father. We understand that there are things we have to do in our lives to qualify us for being able to worship You. We pray with the Psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
 

The Lord Has Heard

Posted on by korgrocker

“Go away, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer. May all my enemies be disgraced and terrified. May they suddenly turn back in shame.”
Psalm 6:8-10 NLT

David has been on a journey in this Psalm. He started off with sickness, aching bones, weeping, even the fear of death, and in it all he reminded God of what he thought were His obligations. At no point did doubts emerge in David’s mind that God would not heal him and finally he wrote, “The Lord has heard my plea”. David’s last verses in this Psalm continue with the thought that behind it all was the fear of his enemies and what they might do to him. In the previous verse he wrote, “My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies”. For a man who had fearlessly and efficiently despatched Goliath, why, all of a sudden, was he afraid of “enemies”? In the previous Psalm written by David (Psalm 5), we find, “My enemies cannot speak a truthful word. Their deepest desire is to destroy others. Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with flattery“. And in Psalm 41:5-6 we perhaps get some clarity about who these enemies were, “But my enemies say nothing but evil about me. “How soon will he die and be forgotten?” they ask. They visit me as if they were my friends, but all the while they gather gossip, and when they leave, they spread it everywhere“. 

David was being worn down by evil people claiming to be his friends but in reality they were seeking his downfall. David was a God-fearing and believing man with his first priority being the worship and following of God. David would therefore have been living a life aspiring to purity and holiness. Not for him the ways of the world of his time, with the idol worship and evil practices, and that set David apart from his peers. In Jesus’ day, the same thing happened to the Son of God. His life of purity and holiness was absolute, and even made one of His disciples, Peter, exclaim, “ … Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man” (Luke 5:8b). The contrast between Jesus and the people in the world around Him was stark and it ultimately led to the people, who were healed and fed during His public ministry, crying out “Crucify Him” because they felt terminally uncomfortable in His presence. David was shunned and slandered by people who he referred to as his enemies, and it affected him deeply, to the point of sickness and depression. 

Today, a practising Christian in the office is not a popular figure. Not for a faithful believer are the smutty jokes, the lunchtime drinks, the debauched office parties. The world hates those who dare to be different, who follow God’s ways. But believers in Christ are assured that their prayers are heard. David wrote, “the Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer”, and ruled for many years as Israel’s king. Jesus warned His disciples, and by inference us pilgrims as well, when He said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Further on in His Priestly Prayer Jesus said, “I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one” (John 17:14-15). 

We pilgrims do not belong to the kingdom of the world, riven and blackened as it is by evil, wickedness and sin. David wasn’t, Jesus wasn’t and neither are we. There was a day when we crossed the border to become citizens of the Kingdom of God, and we now are subservient to a different King who has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Yes, sometimes it will be difficult to avoid the attacks of the enemy. Sometimes such hassles will affect us deeply, as they did to David. But we have a King, our Lord and God, who hears our pleas and who will answer our prayers.

Dear Father God. We ask for Your help in our fight against our enemies. Keep us all safe, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What Have You Done?

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?””
John 18:33-35 NLT

In many ways, Pontius Pilate was in an unenviable position. Appointed to govern the Roman province of Judaea, the Jews who lived there never made his life very easy and he and his officials and soldiers were always suppressing trouble somewhere under their Roman jurisdiction. The difficulty that the governing authorities had to face into was based on the Jewish religion and its support by the population, support that was often fanatical in its application. So there always seemed to be an uprising going on somewhere, or a religious feast or some other custom that the Romans had to be sensitive of. Jesus even had a potential revolutionary in His own band of Twelve – Simon the Zealot. The Jews were desperate to be a self-governing nation and the political situation was fragile, so fragile that both the Romans and the Jewish leaders took extreme care most of the time to avoid provoking each other. 

So here was Pilate, summoned from his headquarters in the early hours of the morning to meet with a crowd of vociferous and aggressive Jewish leaders. They refused to enter his headquarters because of their customs, so he had to go out to meet with them. Pilate was walking a tight rope. The emperor in Rome, who was Tiberius at that time, would not have been pleased to hear about another problem in this province so Pilate was being careful to not provoke an issue. On the other hand who was the boss here? Anyway, he had Jesus brought in to him, and he started by asking the question “Are you the king of the Jews?” In Matthew’s Gospel he recorded that Jesus’ answer was “You have said it”. John recorded something else that Jesus said, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” But in it all, Pilate was probably shaking his head in disbelief, because a Man, albeit the One we know as Jesus, God’s Son, was before him on trial for saying something innocuous and hardly worth being on trial for, let alone deserving on being put to death. Pilate was no fool, and he was accustomed to all sorts of people being brought before him for sentencing, but he had never met anyone like Jesus. Hence his question, “What have You done?”, his attempt at trying to elicit information from Jesus, information that would help him understand what had so upset the Jewish leaders. He had heard the accusers, and now was trying to hear and understand the accused.

In many ways the Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus are sparse with the details. But enough information is there to enable us to build a picture of the events of that momentous evening and night. And through them we can see clearly the clash of two kingdoms and feel the comfort to know that we are on the winning side. The devil and his kingdom were represented by the Jewish leaders, something we know because Jesus had pointed it out to them in an earlier conversation, which we can read in John 8. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “ … “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:42-44). Jesus came to reveal to His people, the Jews, the Kingdom of God. He said to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In the Beatitudes there are many allusions made by Jesus to the Kingdom of God or Heaven. God’s Kingdom is founded on principles that are, for the most case, the opposite of the kingdom of the world. 

We pilgrims are in a suspended state, living in and between two kingdoms. On the one hand we are children of God, living as citizens in His Kingdom, but on the other hand we are part of the earthly kingdom, subject to all of its laws and challenges. The two kingdoms are incompatible and we seek God daily to help us live as His children amongst a people who are children of the devil and citizens of his kingdom. But we cannot be a citizen of both kingdoms, because the two are irreconcilable. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”” That night before Pilate Jesus proclaimed that He was the King of God’s Kingdom and He has been ever since. And we know that the King gave His life for the sake of His Kingdom – there is no greater sacrifice than that.

Dear Lord Jesus. How can we ever thank You enough, You the King of all kings and the Lord over all lords. We praise You today. Amen.

Generosity of Spirit

Posted on by korgrocker

“John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”
John 3:27-30 NLT

How generous John the Baptist was, in deference to the Messiah. To say “ He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” was truly counter-cultural. John had a particular calling from God and he stuck to it, knowing that one day his ministry would decline. But he came out of the wilderness at just the right time, and with an assurance of his mission, which was “to prepare a way for Him”, the Messiah. 

Over the years I have discovered that God introduces “seasons” to His church and to His people. John the Baptist introduced a season of baptisms and people came to him, acknowledging that he was a prophet and anointed of God. In that religious culture, people were desperate for another prophet to emerge in Israel, because there had been a long prophetic silence of over 400 years. John introduced a season of revival in a moribund spiritual environment. 

But John was comfortable with his relationship with God, to the extent that he knew that whatever happened God was with him. God had called him to preach repentance and baptise the people who responded to his message. Of course, all of God’s children have a mission on life. It may be a high-profile role such as John. Or it may be something less public. Some people are called to be intercessors. Others to be evangelists. Even others to be pastors and teachers. But most of us are called to be salt and light in our working or educational environment. This is however not to say that any role is greater or lesser than another. The joy comes from knowing that what we are doing is in the will of God.

Sadly, there are those in public ministries who want to hang on to their “ministry” regardless of what God has planned for them. It is particularly hard for a pastor leading a declining congregation, to realise that perhaps that particular ministry, that season, has come to an end and God has something else in mind. The secret lies in being open to what God wants us to do.

A dangerous prayer to pray goes like this. “Dear God, what do You want me to do for You today?” The answer might be a shock or a surprise. Or it might just be “keep going – you’re doing well”. There was a man called Ananias living in Damascus, going about his everyday business, when all of a sudden he heard God say, ” … Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight” (Acts 9:11-12). God can speak to us directly, as He did to Ananias, but are we listening? What if Ananias wasn’t listening that day? Or if he said to God, “No, this man Saul is bad news and I’m not going to risk my life for him”? 

But we pilgrims are here for this season, both in the society in which we live, and in this stage in our lives. Perhaps, though, God has a different plan for us, one that involves a decline in what we are doing and a door opening somewhere else for a new season. To be a Christian is not a boring, pew-warming experience. God has exciting things for us to do and it starts with “Yes Lord, Your servant is listening”. Are we prepared to lay down what we are doing, and move over to allow someone else to take our place? John the Baptist did, and so can we – if God wishes it.

Dear Father God. You have a mission for each one of us. Please help us to relax in You, our Leader and our God. Amen.

Christ is Lord

Posted on 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

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.

The Lord Watches

Posted on by korgrocker

“For the Scriptures say, “If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it. The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.””
1 Peter 3:10-12 NLT

This passage of Scripture from 1 Peter 3 includes a quotation from Psalm 34. In this Psalm we read, “The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil; he will erase their memory from the earth” (Psalm 34:15-16). This is not the only Scripture that records God’s watchful gaze. We read in Psalm 121:5, “The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade”. Proverbs 15:3, “The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good.” Jesus Himself warned about the outcome of God’s watchful presence, “The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear” (Luke 12:2-3). We may object to many security cameras and other devices intruding into our privacy, but nothing we do or even think escapes God’s scrutiny. 

Is such a thought a scary one? It may be for some, and of course we remember that God is recording it all in books to be opened on the final day of judgement. But more positively for us pilgrims it brings into play the picture of a loving Heavenly Father, who cares for us. He wants us to become more like His Son Jesus and through His Spirit He gently cleanses us, both in thought and deed. It won’t happen overnight and will take a lifetime to bring about any change for the better. But thankfully, as we confess our sins, God then forgets them. They are blotted out of His records. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offences like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free” (Isaiah 44:22). He will never reject a repentant person, sincerely approaching His throne of grace.

We pilgrims should note as well that God is attentive to our prayers. The NLT translation calls them “cries for help”. Either way, because God is always present and approachable, He listens to what we are saying. A prayer need not be formatted in ecclesiastical fonts and riddled with phrases from a bygone era. “Thees” and “thous” are not obligatory. As we share our thoughts and words with God, He understands not only the words but the stuttering and perhaps confused thoughts behind them. He listens, and He answers, in one of three ways – “Yes”, “No” and “Not yet”. But sometimes we just need to share our difficulties and challenges, assured that he is there listening. We may not need or appreciate an answer. We just relax in His caring arms, feeling His warmth and presence. Feeling the breath of His Spirit bringing the assurance that we are not alone. And we remember that every time we pray there are three others apart from ourselves involved – God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Peter didn’t include the last stanza of Psalm 34:16. About those that do evil, we know that “[God] will erase their memory from the earth”. And that is of course so very true. Evildoers are soon forgotten but those who do good are remembered and honoured. And there will come a day when the wicked will be briefly remembered, to be confronted by their evil before they are cast away for good into a place where there are no memories. The good will hear those precious words, “Well done …”. Those who do right enjoy the watching presence of God. As we pilgrims follow the right paths, He will care for us and protect us from evil.

Dear Lord. We pray “Deliver us from evil” every time we pray Your prayer. Thank You. Amen.

Pleasing the Lord

Posted on by korgrocker

“Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.”
Ephesians‬ ‭5:10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We want to please the Lord. Why would we want to make the Holy Spirit sad? Why would we not want to please God? We think back to the point when we realised that through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary, when He gave His life for ours, when He traded His righteousness for our unworthiness, when we realised how much He must have loved us, then we, from our knees, can only respond with a thankful heart, brimming over with a desire to please Him. We realised that our pre-Christian lives didn’t please Him one little bit; in fact God turned His back on our sins. But in the light of God’s presence, now being aware of a new dimension of living, we want to please the Lord. 

So what pleases the Lord? We know what doesn’t – worldliness manifesting in our thoughts, our speech, our behaviour, our deeds. It’s called sin. But Paul wrote verses elsewhere in his epistles that help. In one of them, Romans 12:1, we read, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” There’s another relevant verse in Colossians 1:10, “Then the way you live will always honour and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” From these two verses we get a complete answer to our question about pleasing the Lord. It’s all about living a surrendered life, surrendered to God and His ways. Sounds simple on paper, doesn’t it? But the reality of living a surrendered life is far from easy. You see, there is a basic desire within us to live a sinful life. Paul articulated the problem we face 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. 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.”‭‭ But thankfully, Paul gave us the answer in the first two verses of the following chapter in Romans, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” 

The Holy Spirit will help us lead a surrendered life that pleases God. And notice that the presence of the Holy Spirit is not benign; He has the power to transform our lives, if we let Him. And in the transformation we please the Lord. 

Four One’s

Posted on by korgrocker

“There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.”
Ephesians‬ ‭4:5-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians continues the theme of unity. And in these two verses he presents a fundamental view of God. Paul sets out the bottom line. The bedrock of our faith. A picture of God that is total and complete in every way. I see a picture before me today of an onion, and Paul is peeling away the layers, exposing truths that are seismic and fundamental to our beliefs. We have to peel away each layer to be able to appreciate the next. This view of God is so profound and true that if we cannot accept in turn each of Paul’s statements, then there is no point in continuing. This is a creed with five truths that underpins all other creeds. 

So for the first layer, Paul says there is “one Lord“. Believe it or not, in the world today there are many “lords”. And all except one are the wrong lord. We can make a loved one “lord” of our lives. Or even the devil. We have a privileged class in the UK of “lords”. And a part of our government here in the UK is the “House of Lords”. Many people make a “lord” out of their hobbies, or jobs. But Paul said there is only one Lord who really matters and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. If we hold a view that Jesus was anything other than the Son of God, a Member of the Holy Trinity, both human and divine, then there is no point in proceeding to the next layer of Paul’s “onion”.

The next layer refers to “one faith“. A sad phenomenon in some established churches today is the willingness to have “multi-faith” services. The bizarre spectacle of a Rabbi, Imam, Priest, Buddhist monk,  and a Clergyman holding joint prayers is directly at conflict with the God-truth of there being “one faith”. But is this what Paul was bothered about? No. I believe Paul was pointing out that true faith was not only believing that Jesus was, and is, the Son of God, that He died for our sins and that He sent the Holy Spirit to be His representative here on Planet Earth, but Paul was also pointing out that the faith we have extends to an unshakeable belief and assurance that God knows what is best for us, and regardless of our circumstances we will continue to have faith in Him. For an example, Abraham showed true faith when he placed his son on the altar as a sacrifice to God. True faith involves obedience to God regardless of the circumstances.

We continue to the next layer by considering what “one baptism” means. The New Testament mentions two types of baptism – baptism in water (Acts 8:36-39) and baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:16). The fact that Paul mentions baptism here is therefore significant. It is an essential, non-negotiable, part of what being a Christian is all about. In Acts 2:38 we read, “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit“.

The next layer of our onion is the all-encompassing declaration of who God is. There is only “one God“. I can remember a Muslim man I worked with telling me, some years ago, that we both worshipped the same God. But the God of the Christians, Paul’s God, our God, is different to Allah, the Muslim God. very different. Sadly, even amongst Christians there are different views of who God is. Some Christian denominations worship a God that is different to the One described in His Book, the Bible. But one thing is very clear. God is a God of love and grace. He is infinitely patient and kind. “The LORD is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” (Psalm 145:8).

Finally, Paul continues with the statement that God is “Father of all“. God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. And as with any family, children can be naughty and rebellious. Well, that is how we started off in our natural lives. The religious jargon is that such behaviour is “sin”. Sadly, most people deny that they have a Heavenly Father. But saying we don’t have a Heavenly Father is the same as saying we don’t have a natural father. One day everyone will stand before God to give an account of their lives – most people will get a nasty shock if they continue to deny He exists! But it is so sad for those who don’t believe in God’s Fatherhood. He is the perfect Father. Loving. Fair. Helpful. A Guide when we need Him. Gracious. Merciful. God’s parental attributes could fill a book – well they do – His Book, the Bible. And the more we read it, the more we find out about Him. Imagine what it would be like to be in a situation where we never knew our natural father. But he left us a book about his life. I can guarantee we would read, and re-read the book he left us, to try and find out as much as we could about him. So it is with our Heavenly Father. He left us a book all about Him. And just for good measure, He threw in a shedload of information about our elder Brother, Jesus. Oh – and don’t forget the Holy Spirit – there’s a lot about Him in there as well. Three for the price of one?

The rest of these verses describe God as being, “over all, in all, and living through all.” Paul included these words just to make sure that what he had been saying was total. Complete. Nothing missed out. The word “one” is mentioned four times in these verses. Someone once said that if God said something once, we should take note. If He said it three times then we had better sit up and do something about it. Well, here is Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saying something four times. Something important, don’t you think?

Exile

Posted on by korgrocker

“Beside the rivers of Babylon, 
we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. 
We put away our harps, 
hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. 
But how can we sing the songs of the Lord 
while in a pagan land?”
Psalms‬ ‭137:1-2, 4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is a dreadfully sad Psalm, written by the Jewish exiles while in Babylon, a place where they didn’t want to be. A place of idolatry, of customs and laws foreign to the Jews, a place where they were separated from their God and His home in Jerusalem. And it ends with the gruesome thoughts of what they would like to do to the Edomites, who were apparently instrumental in the demise of their beloved city. Before we condemn them for their thoughts, though, I suppose we should think through what they had experienced, walking mentally in their shoes for a bit. The barbaric and cruel Babylonian soldiers had performed unspeakable atrocities on them, their families and their cities, and those that had survived had been force-marched for miles, away to a foreign land. Away from their homes, their homeland. And now, once they were there, their captors were taunting them, ridiculing them for their religion. They were at rock bottom.

But there was one ray of light shining out in this Psalm. In verse 6, the Psalmist’s memory of Jerusalem couldn’t be destroyed. Only death would take that away. Today, we mustn’t forget that there are many Christians in the world who are exiled. Dear brothers and sisters forced away from their homes into an exile in a place where they don’t want to be. A place with a different language, or dialect. A place where they are resented as refugees, treated as third class citizens. The Middle East has numerous examples of what is happening to our Christian brothers and sisters. Persecuted, they have little option other than move away. And in Western societies today, Christians are increasingly being marginalised. Thankfully not to a place where exile, forced or otherwise, is required, but if the current trend continues, one day this will perhaps happen. 

But one thing is for sure. We cannot be exiled from our relationship with God. We cannot be exiled from the Kingdom of Heaven, our home. The Jews in Babylon seemed to think that they could only find God in Jerusalem, so taking them away from their beloved city was in effect removing them from God’s presence. Thankfully we can find God anywhere we live. In Acts 17:28 we read, “For in Him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’” Paul was explaining to the people around him how close God is and, more, that we are His children. No exile will ever prove that verse wrong. Our loving Heavenly Father is always with us. We will always be His children. So with a lightness in our spirits, we can “sing the songs of the Lord”. Wherever we find ourselves.