Day of the Lord

Posted on by korgrocker

“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.”
2 Peter 3:10-12 NLT

The phrase “day of the Lord” is often used in the Bible. In the context it seems to indicate an event during which an act of God brings about some outcome in accordance with His plans and purposes. An example can be found in Ezekiel 30:2-3, “Son of man, prophesy and give this message from the Sovereign Lord: “Weep and wail for that day, for the terrible day is almost here— the day of the Lord! It is a day of clouds and gloom, a day of despair for the nations“. The phrase is also often associated with the return of Christ, as we read in 2 Corinthians 1:14, “even if you don’t understand us now. Then on the day when the Lord Jesus returns, you will be proud of us in the same way we are proud of you“. There is usually a sense of imminence in the verses about the “day of the Lord”, but near or far, no-one knows when it will be. Peter graphically describes the day as coming “as unexpectedly as a thief”. In Matthew 24:42-44, Jesus said to His disciples, “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected”. Paul picked up the theme as well, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, “For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night“. 

If we pilgrims allow our minds to elevate into Heavenly themes, we can perhaps imagine carrying on what we are doing at this very moment and then, suddenly, something far reaching, catastrophic even, happens. Our eyes suddenly look up and we see what Jesus said would happen in Matthew 24:29-30, “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory“. Sometimes I believe it is that close, and, in their day, many in the Old Testament thought the same. Joel 2:1, “Sound the trumpet in Jerusalem! Raise the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us“.‭‭ 

Most people in our societies today have no idea that there will be such a thing as the “day of the Lord”. The situation will be as Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:37-39, “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes“. But Noah was ready for the flood. It had taken him a hundred years to get ready, but God was in no hurry. And He is in no hurry today, but there will be a day ….

Jesus went on to teach His disciples about being “a faithful sensible servant” (Matthew 24:45). We pilgrims are all servants of God, and He has entrusted us to administer His interests here on Planet Earth. So we are careful to live as He has commanded, in our personal holiness, in our lives at work or school, home or away. And we take every opportunity to warn those around us of the “day of the Lord”. It took Noah a considerable time to build the ark, and we can imagine the ridicule he would have experienced by those around him. But Noah made it into the Hebrews hall of fame (Hebrews 11). We read in Hebrews 11:7, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith“. 

So, fellow pilgrims, the “day of the Lord” could come at any moment. Are we ready?

Jesus, we echo the words at the end of Revelation 22 “Amen! Come Lord Jesus”. Maranatha. Amen,

‭‭

The Baptismal Flood (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear God. Thank You for our salvation. Amen.

The Baptismal Flood (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

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

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

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

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

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

Mind Control

Posted on by korgrocker

“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.”
Romans 8:5-8 NLT

What controls our minds? We have a thought life, that we think we can control. And it is true that, to a certain extent at least, we can align our thoughts to whatever interests us in that moment of time. We might find ourselves thinking about the latest news, or the next meal. We might have a meeting with a friend or colleague planned. There may be anxious thoughts about how to pay the next energy bill, or the mortgage. Thinking about the behaviour of a family member might be causing us concern. But in all of this, to say we might have control over our minds might not be true at all. Our thoughts are driven mostly by external circumstances. 

Are our thoughts sin though? Obviously, being human, there are human things that we have to think about. That’s why God gave us a mind. But Paul wrote that a mind dominated by its sinful nature would ultimately lead to death. And not just physical death, but spiritual death as well. Intermingled with all our necessary thoughts are sinful thoughts. For example, it is not wrong to plan how we can pay a bill, but sin creeps in when thoughts develop around doing something illegal to acquire the necessary funds. And before long, thoughts can become more focused on an evil way of life than a righteous one. A life “dominated by the sinful nature“.

In Genesis 6:5-6, we read, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart”. These verses were in the preamble to the story of Noah and his ark, and we know what eventually happened to the evil people God broke His heart over. God designed our minds for good, but sin corrupted them. In Noah’s day, God eliminated the problem. In our day He provided a solution.

God’s Laws, as given through Moses, brought clarity to people’s thoughts and behaviours. But sin still prevailed. There was nothing wrong with God’s plans, but in His grace and mercy He decided to provide a lifeline to help sinful men and women to be obedient to His righteous way of life. We know, of course, that the lifeline was God’s own Son, Jesus Himself. We read in Hebrews 4:15-16, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most”.

In Hebrews 4:12-13 we read, “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. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable”. Regardless of our circumstances, we have a loving, caring God who has provided all the resources we need to live the life He designed us to live free of slavery to sin. By living the Spirit-filled life we will find peace because no longer will our minds be fighting God because of our sins.

Dear Heavenly Father. How grateful we are that You chose to help us to live a life free of sin through the power of Your Spirit within us. We worship You today. Amen.

The Fourth Seal

Posted on by korgrocker

“When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a horse whose colour was pale green. Its rider was named Death, and his companion was the Grave. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭6:7-8‬ ‭NLT

Now the fourth living being gets involved, with another shout of “Come!” And in John’s vision a fourth horse appears. This one was a pale green in colour, perhaps an appropriate shade, as his rider would be introducing sickness and disease into the world. This rider had a name, “Death”. And he had a friend with him called “Grave”. And his mission was to create havoc in a quarter of the world’s population by stirring up war and fighting, introducing food shortages and diseases and, almost as though for good measure, unleashing wild animals to attack and kill people. What a dire and dismal prognosis. 

We are just emerging from a global attack of disease in the form of Covid. Millions have died in spite of extraordinary attempts and spectacular successes to mitigate and reduce the impact of this rampant virus. But in previous centuries we have seen similar plagues such as Spanish flu, Black Death, and so on. Has this horseman already been active in our world? Surely we would have known and people everywhere would be aware that God is judging the world in response to its evil and sin?

Jesus gave us a few clues about the end times in Matthew 24. And one thing he did say was that in spite of the signs, people would effectively ignore them. In Matthew 24:37-39 we read, “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realise what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes”. Sadly, in spite of extensive evangelising and spreading of the Good News, most people don’t want to change their ways. And one day, all of a sudden, it will be too late for them to respond.

So we pilgrims keep picking away, sharing our messages of hope, not just by our words, but also with our deeds. Sharing our love of God with those around us. Being kind and caring to one another. So that when Jesus returns He will find us doing what He has asked us to do.

Dear Father God. Thank You for giving us such a tremendous message of hope for the wicked and sinful world within which we live. Please increase our opportunities to share what we have. And we pray that You continue to resource us for the tasks You want us to do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.