Cries for Help

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They called for help, but no one came to their rescue. They even cried to the Lord, but he refused to answer. I ground them as fine as dust in the wind. I swept them into the gutter like dirt.”
Psalm 18:41-42 NLT

Gruesome language from David in our verses for today. Not words that apply literally though; instead an allegorical representation of what David would perhaps have liked to do to his enemies. David was showing his disdain for his enemies when he wrote about grinding “them as fine as dust”, because dust is considered useless and of no consequence, a nuisance to be discarded. But what David felt about his enemies was not in itself a problem to them. After all, what people we don’t know think of us is not really of any consequence. What matters is having a relationship with people, such as our friends and family, that contains mutual love and respect. 

We turn to God and wonder what He thinks of His enemies, all those people who deny that He exists, or refuse to obey His commands. Does He consider them as “dust” in a world full of people numbered ” … like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore …” (Genesis 22:17)? In the brief life spans of human beings they have an opportunity to make choices about their relationship with their Creator God. But afterwards they may indeed become like “dust … swept … into the gutter like dirt”. There will come a time when God’s enemies will be in a place where they effectively don’t exist anymore. Like dust, they will be useless and will have lost the opportunity to spend eternity in a wonderful place called Heaven. Instead they will find themselves in a terrible place, regretting forever their wrong choices, hence the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42). They are dust, unloved, unnoticed and ignored.

In our societies, people without a relationship with God will nevertheless have a faint but tangible impression that there is a “higher power” somewhere, overlooking our planet. These people, however, will have rejected a personal and loving relationship with Him, putting themselves in the focus of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:23, “But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws’”. But notwithstanding this, such people, in a time of crisis, will call out to God for salvation from whatever they are facing. And they find that, as David recorded, “He refused to answer”. Why should God answer the prayers and cries for help from people He doesn’t know?  David had a great relationship with the Lord, and He had many testimonies of answered prayer, such as earlier in Psalm 18:3, “I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies”. But David noted that when his enemies called upon the Lord, He refused to answer. 

God always answers prayers, including cries for help, if we pilgrims are patient enough and sensitive enough to hear God’s voice. God’s answers fall into three categories – “Yes”, “No”, and “Maybe” or “Not Yet”. How long it will be before His answers to our prayers and cries for help come about is up to our faith. Jesus said, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Matthew 21:22 adds the word “faith”, “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it”. We understand, of course, that our prayers must align with God’s will if we are looking for a positive answer.

In John 9 we can read the account of the occasion when Jesus healed a blind man. In the ensuing, rather scathing and hostile conversation with the Pharisees, the blind man said, “We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will” (John 9:31). That verse showed an insight into God’s ways that applies to all who call upon His name for salvation. David’s enemies cried out to the Lord for help but “He refused to answer” because God didn’t know them – they were sinners. 

The Bible is full of references to the conditions necessary for God to hear us. Proverbs 15:29, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous“. 1 Peter 3:12, “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”. And a few words from the old Apostle John, “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:13-15). 

Dear Father God. We know that You listen to our prayers and always give us an answer. We understand that what we hear may not align with our human thoughts, but we trust You in knowing what is best for us. Please increase our faith, we pray. Amen.

Prayerful Assurance

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray. Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways. By your mighty power you rescue those who seek refuge from their enemies.”
Psalm 17:6-7 NLT

David expressed his assurance about his prayer life. Put simply, he prayed because he knew God would answer him. There is something about prayer that people misunderstand. We have our liturgical prayer books such as the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Or we can soon find books of prayers overflowing with feel-good poetry. And of course we have the Psalms, a wonderful God-inspired resource written many years ago. A dignitary might write down a prayer when asked to open an assembly, and we have the time of prayers at a school assembly. But prayer has become to many a stilted and flowery statement rather than what it should be – part of conversation with God. In a human setting, two people will engage in a conversation and will talk to each other in a way that communicates their thoughts and feelings, opinions and fears. Human communication is very much a two-way process of talking and listening, as issues are discussed and even problems resolved. But somehow we struggle to communicate with God. It could be that we can’t see Him. Or because He may not respond in a way that we need Him to, so that the conversation can continue. And so we have devised a process called prayer, a one-sided verbalisation of our needs and wants that we launch into the air like paper aeroplanes in the hope that one of them will fly all the way to God’s throne and He will pick it up and answer. Some people get quite good at praying, with long monologues full of “thee’s” and “thou’s”, spontaneously spoken out in a church meeting, and afterwards they feel quite good about themselves, considering the job done. A cynical view? Perhaps, but even Jesus’ disciples struggled with prayer – it’s not a new thing that only modern believers suffer from.

Conversation with God is what prayer is really all about, and, like any other conversation, it is two-sided. David was assured of that, because he knew confidently that God answered his prayers. But what do we pilgrims expect when we pray? Are we equally as confident that God will answer our prayers?

Part of a conversation between two people is a getting-to-know-you process. The way another person responds to a question, or reacts to a statement, exposes their inner person and contributes to a relational process that either grows well, even into friendship, or it brings the conversation to a speedy end with incompatible differences. We can’t ask God direct questions about Himself, but all the information we need is contained within His Word, the Bible. And the more we read it, the more we will find out about our wonderful God.

Jesus taught about prayer in His Sermon on the Mount. We read in Matthew 6:5-6, “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you”. Jesus continued, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” And then we have what we call the Lord’s Prayer, a template for praying the God way. Matthew 6: 9-13, “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one“. How many times have we recited that prayer in a church service, words that we know from memory, but what do they really mean in practice? Jesus didn’t say that His prayer was all that there was. He said “Pray like this …”. There’s worship here, gratitude, expression of needs, an appeal for God to touch earth once again, a confession of sins, and protection from evil. Not a complete list of tick boxes, but an outline to which we add our own flavour, seasoned by our relationship with God.

With regard to his prayer life, David was a simple soul. He spoke out his fears and his needs. He reminded God of His obligations. He ranted and raved at God when under duress, emotional outbursts that we wouldn’t dare repeat in case we upset God. But David knew His Lord, and could confidently say that his prayers were answered. How about us pilgrims? Are we just was confident or merely going through the motions? But one thing we do know is that at the start of the day we need to get close to God. It may not always be convenient. Some days we won’t even feel like it, preferring to have extra time in bed. But the more we spend time with God in prayer, the more we will find that he respond to our stuttering verbalisations, giving us the assurance we need in times of need. The assurance we receive from God is indeed blessed.

Dear Father God. Once again we come to You in worship and with thankful hearts. We know that You are there for us, each and every moment, leading, guiding and assuring us on every step of our pilgrimage to Heaven. Amen.

The Lord’s Guidance

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety.”
Psalm 16:7-9 NLT

Have we pilgrims ever woken up in the morning with the answer to a difficult and seemingly insoluble problem solved, and in the front of our minds? Well, the answer is here before us today. David wrote “even at night my heart instructs me”. How can that happen? Well, we might spend the night sleeping but our wonderful God doesn’t. Psalm 121:3,“He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber“. God is awake and watching over us, night after night. We may toss and turn, fretting over the problem, but quietly and in the background, the Lord is working, and sorting things out for us – if we let Him. And here’s the thing. Why is it that we so often turn to God as a last resort instead of praying, asking for help, and, in faith, sleeping peacefully while God works things out for us. Of course, the solution He gives us might not be the one we would ideally like, but if we trust Him then He will resolve the issues.

David writes some wonderful promises of God in these two verses before us today. The Lord guides us, He is always with us. He is right beside us, and through all of that, we will not be shaken. What a wonderful picture of God’s care for each one of His children. David had no doubts because he knew, a positive statement of fact.

And because of these promises, David “bless[ed] the Lord”. How did he do that? By his praise, his worship. His prayers, his faith, his obedience – in fact by acknowledging all that God had done for him and for all His wonderful attributes. David had a close relationship with God, so close that as he went about his business he was conscious of God beside him, leading and guiding. Was this just for David and the saints of old, and not for us? Was a personal relationship with God just for the times long ago and not applicable in today’s world? Of course not because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), and if that is true of God’s Son then it must be true of Father God as well. 

So, how do we develop a personal relationship with God, as David did? It starts at the Cross of Calvary, where God’s Son Jesus died instead of us taking on the punishment for our sins personally. We confess our need for Him, admitting that we are sinners, and in faith look to Jesus as our Saviour. But this is not to be just a one-off experience. We then need to develop a personal relationship with Him, by prayer and reading all about Him in His only written Book, the Bible. Like David, we spend time with God, including Him in our daily lives, in our decisions, in how we relate to those around us, in our jobs and schools, and not just on a Sunday. It’s a day by day thing. And we find that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. In John 14:16-17, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you”. And, of course, we can’t do all of this on our own, because we must join a Bible-believing church where fellow believers can help us to grow spiritually. 

Of course, our relationships with God don’t end with the grave, and we know that we continue to live with God, enjoying eternal life with Him forever. I had the privilege of being able to pray with a dear lady lying in a hospital bed, in her last hours yesterday. She had had a life full of troubles and problems but through them all, she had remained firm and vibrant in her faith in the Lord. And as my wife and I prayed, the peace that came over her was remarkable. She received a glimpse of Jesus, I’m sure, a preview of what was to come just two or three hours later. What a wonderful God we serve, and, as David did, we bless Him today, and every day.

Thank You Father, that You are with us day by day, Your presence always there. Amen.

The Groaners

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“O Lord, hear me as I pray; pay attention to my groaning. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you. Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”
Psalm 5:1-3 NLT

Oh dear! David seemed to be in a bad place when he started to write this Psalm. I wonder what was troubling him. Perhaps he was suffering from a sickness, or a physical condition that was causing him some pain. Or was it a problem that today we would categorise with a mental health diagnosis? Was he depressed or something like that? But whatever it was he was at least praying, communicating with his Heavenly Father. There are of course those who might question how these words from David’s pen could be inspired by the Holy Spirit, as they seem to reflect a very human condition. But they are an example to everyone, because they expose the fact that people hurt, and God understands how we feel. If David was able to pour out all his troubles before God, then so can we.

But David was not in a good place. He was groaning and sighing, not at peace with himself. He needed help and had obviously woken up a bit distressed. It is almost as though he was incarcerated somewhere because each morning when he woke up he prayed, perhaps for deliverance, and then waited “expectantly”.

In it all, there is much here that a modern day pilgrim like us can relate to. How did we wake up this morning? Well rested and full of the joys of spring, leaping out of bed, ready to take on all that the day was about to throw at us? Or did we wake up heavy in heart, groaning, tired after a sleepless night? There will be some who find themselves imprisoned by their circumstances, trapped in a loveless marriage perhaps, or forced to go to a job that they hate. In today’s society there are many reasons for being a groaner at the start of the day.

But David left us with a remedy for the groaners, a timeless solution that will never fail. He gave us three pointers that we would do well to follow when in distress. The first is to acknowledge God for who He is. David had no doubts that God was his “Lord and King” and he prayed to no-one else. The second point is to lay the problem, the one that is causing us to groan, before the Lord. Cry to Him for help. Ask Him to listen to our prayers. Voice out our prayer, audibly if necessary. Thirdly, we must do something that we are not particularly good at. We must wait patiently expecting an answer. God is always ready to speak to us, far more than we are to listen. Acknowledge, petition and wait. Three very simple pointers to write but perhaps a little more difficult to apply – that will take us a lot of practice and perseverance.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for David’s honesty, as he poured out before You all that mattered to him. Please help us to learn from his example. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Deliverance

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.”
Psalm 3:7-8 NIVUK

The language that David used in these verses today makes us recoil in a fog of discomfort, knowing that as pilgrims we should be reaching out in love, not hate, loving our enemies as Jesus taught. But here was the psalmist, David, expressing to God what he thought God should do with his enemies. We think that sentiments such as breaking our enemies’ teeth can’t be a valid position, or expectation, for a God-fearing believer. There will be many who will dismiss such thoughts and put them down to a less sophisticated people living in violent times. Others will perhaps be more charitable and sympathise with David, faced with trying to protect his people from nasty neighbouring nations. But then perhaps we should pause and think about ourselves and our own reactions to the behaviour of people who we encounter day by day. The motorist who does something stupid and nearly causes us to have an accident. The objectional person in the office who bullies and belittles the more timid members of the team. The keyboard warriors who pollute the comments section of a social media post with their vitriol and hatred. The list of disagreeable people is seemingly endless, but, be honest now, do we just shrug our shoulders extending a mental “Bless you brother”, or do we too, like David, ask God to do something significant with them, to teach them the error of their ways?

David wanted terrible things to happen to his enemies, and he asked God to be the instrument administering his judgement, but he also asked for deliverance. And that is a prayer I think we should emulate. When our thoughts rise up in frustration and anger against the less considerate members of our society, we can of course pray for justice to be dispensed, teaching them a lesson, but it is better to pray that we should be delivered from the negative thoughts and even possible actions that boil over in our minds. “Deliver me, my God” is a good prayer to pray when faced with the events that seem to crop up with depressing frequency. 

Another thought that springs up is about the impact that negative and angry feelings can have on our spiritual and even physical well-being. Resentment and unforgiveness can have a devastating effect on our souls. And, of course, the person causing us so much distress will be unaware of the effect that their behaviour has on the lives of others. We might like them to drink a potion of hemlock as a punishment, but the impact of the poison is on us not them, as the anger and thoughts of immediate judgement eat away at our souls. We end up going down the tubes of depression and illness, facing a long climb back to emotional equilibrium. So we pray, like David, for deliverance. And our loving Heavenly Father will indeed pour out His blessings upon us, and deliver us from the evil that would otherwise beset us.

Dear Lord God. You are our Deliverer, the Keeper and the Provider of peace and healing for our wounded souls. Amen.

Many Other Miracles

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.”
John 20:30-31 NLT

The Gospel of John is drawing to a close. John is starting to wrap up his book, which had become a remarkable document of Holy-Spirit-inspired accounts written down by a fisherman called by Jesus from the side of a lake where he was mending some nets. He was perhaps reflecting on some other miracles, many in fact, that had happened but he hadn’t recorded them. He had done enough and he wrote down his account so that people would continue to believe that “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God“. Mission accomplished. 

Have we pilgrims anything to write down? Some thoughts and experiences collected on the way through life, that now may be of value to a future generation? That was how I started writing blogs in 2017, going through the Bible to record my thoughts. They may or not be of value to others but they have certainly helped me to understand more about God from the Scriptures that have be combined in the wonderful and priceless book we know of as the Bible, and we remember that it is all inspired by the Holy Spirit working in people’s lives, the ordinary men and women who put pen to paper during times touched by God.

John finishes this chapter by writing, “by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name”.There is, of course, nothing significant about Jesus’ name on its own. It is not a magic word that will unlock mystical results, such as healings. We cannot delay death, for example, by the use of His name alone. The power comes from the Man behind the name, Jesus Himself. About Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews wrote, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). When we call upon the name, Jesus, we call upon all that the name represents, undertaking a deep dive into the character of God Himself. 

There is an intriguing story in Acts 19 about seven sons of a Jewish priest called Sceva, who were using the name of Jesus to try and cast out demons. They were not believers, but nevertheless they used Jesus’ name in a vain attempt to emulate the Apostles works. We read in Acts 19:13b, “ …They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!”” And then in Acts 19:14-15 we read what happened, “But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered“. The result in the community was “the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honoured“. 

Perhaps we pilgrims are sometimes guilty of adding words like “in the name of Jesus …” to our prayers for the sick, but without really being in the zone of understanding about the implications. Do we wonder sometimes why our prayers are ineffective? We used to sing a song “There is power in the name of Jesus”, and, scripturally, that is correct but do we really believe that? Sometimes we omit faith and belief in Jesus from our lives and prayers.

Dear Lord Jesus. Please forgive us for the weakness of our faith and our failure to really believe in You. We confess that our faith muscles are sometimes weak or even non-existent. Please help us to know and understand more and more of the  power of Your name. Amen.

My Prayer

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory.”
John 17:9-10 NLT

In His prayer, Jesus now zooms in to pray for His disciples, “those You have given Me”. We must turn to Luke 6:12-13 to find out how they were selected. “One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles …”. In those days there were a number of men who were His followers, but Jesus spent a night in prayer with His Father to make the choices He did. We can only imagine what happened that night. Did Jesus present the men He knew by name, one by one, waiting each time for His Father to respond? Surely, being divine, Jesus would have had God’s view and would have been able to make the decisions on the spot? But when He came to this world, Jesus laid aside most of His divine privileges and had to do what we have to do – pray. And the result of that prayer turned the world of the first century upside down, with eleven of the original twelve men becoming the first Apostles. But if we were praying that night, would we have chosen Judas Iscariot? Jesus even selected the man who would later betray Him. But His Father knew how His plan of salvation would work out. 

But what is effective prayer? In its most basic form, it is no more than a conversation with God. Joyce Meyer said, “Prayer is such a basic foundation of a Christian’s relationship with God. It’s how we communicate and fellowship with Him“. I like the quote by Francis Chang, “When you pray, your prayers are heard by the same God who answered Moses’ prayers for water in the desert, the God who gave Abraham and his barren wife a son, and the God who made the slave Joseph second in power only to Pharaoh”. Jesus knew all about prayer and He famously taught His disciples how to pray. And our father God hears our prayers. He is always willing to listen, in fact far more than we are willing to pray.

In His prayer, Jesus said that at this point He wasn’t praying for the world around Him. Instead He was praying for His disciples. He was praying for a specific need, the future of His disciples, as we shall see several times in this chapter in John. Too often our prayers lack the focus they should have, as we lapse into lazy requests or general platitudes. Too often we pray “Bless Auntie Mary” prayers rather than pray the specifics of where Auntie Mary needs to be blessed. And of course our faith that God hears our prayers and will answer them is a fundamental part of our prayer.

Notice that Jesus’ prayer was devoid of the jargon that we often burden our prayers with, as though we think that God will answer prayers loaded with “thee’s” and “thou’s” and “We beseech thee …”. Some have called this the “language of Zion” but God really listens to us as we pray honest and humble prayers in everyday language. Remember the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, as recorded in Luke 18?

Prayers are an essential part of our pilgrim lives. Let us never the importance of conversing in prayer with our Heavenly Father.

Dear God. We confess our poverty of spirit and lack of diligence in prayer. Please forgive us, we pray, and help us grow in our relationships with You. In Jesus name. Amen.

Believing Jesus

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.” Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus.”
John 4:49-53 NLT

Perhaps the government official, the civil servant, was worried that Jesus wouldn’t heal his son. So he begged Jesus a second time to go with him to his home to heal his “little boy”. We don’t know the lad’s age but the impression was that he was much loved and in a family that obviously was fairly wealthy, because there were servants. But this was another example of Jesus’ compassion. He saw the man’s distress and immediately responded with the instruction to “Go back home”, followed by the reassurance “Your son will live”. 

But we should note the civil servant’s response. In spite of his begging, we are told two things about the man – he believed in Jesus and he was obedient to Jesus’ command. We read, “And the man believed what Jesus said and started home”. No more begging Jesus to come to his home. No more emotional pressure. We don’t know how he heard that Jesus was back in Galilee but he journeyed to meet the Master. The urgency of his son’s illness spurred him on. He was probably thinking about where he could find Jesus. What would his reception be? Would Jesus go with him? What if he said “no”? Doubts would have pressed in on his thoughts. But regardless of all of this he kept going, ignoring anything that would have made him turn back. That’s faith in action.

The man was hurrying home, desperate to see if his son was better. What was he expecting? A small improvement? Total healing? Would he find his son back to normal, playing with the other children? What did he think when he saw some of his servants coming towards him? Were they bringing bad news? Or was it the answer to a father’s desperate encounter with Jesus, the answer he yearned for? And then, the joy when he found out that his son was well, with the fever not present anymore, and it all happened at the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son will live”. 

We pilgrim believers are a people of faith. But do we have faith like that government official? Faith that will persevere through difficulties and troubles? God will always reward the faith of His children. We don’t have to beg, but believe what Jesus said, as we read in Matthew 7:9-11, “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him”. The problem is that we “people of faith” fail to ask God for what we need. We often try every other avenue until desperation or lethargy kick in and spoil the opportunity. Or as a last resort we fall to our knees in prayer and ask God to help us. I keep a prayer diary and often find myself writing in the answers to prayers offered up days before. It’s faith building to know that God not only hears my prayers but answers them as well.

This cameo of the encounter between Jesus and the government official ends with more joy. We read, “And he and his entire household believed in Jesus”. What a tremendous outcome to find that the whole household, presumably servants and all, came to a belief in Jesus. All through a few gracious words from Jesus and the father’s faith.

Dear Father God. It must grieve You so much to see Your children struggling with issues that You have the answer to. Please forgive us. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

A Kind of Food

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.” But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.” “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.”
John 4:31-33 NLT

The disciples must have returned from their visit to Sychar with a supply of food, and they urged Jesus to eat some of it. But they were confused by Jesus’ response, with their minds still focussed on their bread and anything else they were able to acquire. Physical food was of course very necessary, even to Jesus in those days, so the disciples even wondered if someone else, perhaps even the Samaritan woman, had brought Him food while they were away. So, what was this “food” that Jesus had consumed?

It goes without saying that physical food is necessary to nourish our physical bodies, and spiritual food is necessary for our spiritual bodies. But most people in our societies major on the first, and neglect the second. They end up fat and bloated after overeating all the wrong types of physical foods, but their spirits are shrivelled up and in danger of dying from a lack of spiritual food. The death of their spirits can result in people suffering all kinds of physical and mental disease, with physical remedies being sought to fix a spiritual problem. 

When He was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus replied on one occasion, “But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” (Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). So Jesus equated the physical food of bread with the spiritual food of the Word of God. In 1 Peter 2:2 we read, “Like new born babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment”. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:2, “I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready“. 

So the food Jesus received, while the disciples were away in the village of Sychar, was obtained through prayer with His Father in Heaven. He remembered the Scriptures in which He had been grounded in His early years. And He received all the sustenance He needed, and more, in preparation for what was to come when he met the people of Sychar. 

So, fellow pilgrims, how are our spirits today? Shrivelled and almost dead, or bursting with life and vigour? God said through the prophet Isaiah, “”Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink— even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk— it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food” (Isaiah 55:1-2). That invitation written down all those years ago is still valid today. In fact with our modern technologies, we have access to the Word of God far beyond what anyone could imagine in Isaiah’s day. Let’s not waste the opportunity to feed our spirits, our very souls.

Dear Father God. You fed Your people physical food in the wilderness and You still feed Your people with spiritual food today. We are so grateful. Amen.

Ancestors

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?””
John 4:10-12 NLT

The dialogue between the woman and Jesus continued, with the woman bringing in the importance of ancestry. But the content of the exchange is interesting – Jesus is talking about the “living water”, the Holy Spirit, and the woman still has the pool of water at the bottom of a well in her head. So superficially they might have been talking about water, but the two scenarios were totally different. The woman’s sceptical thoughts burst out into the accusation that because Jesus didn’t have the necessary accoutrements to bring the water to the surface, he therefore couldn’t access it. And anyway, she accused Him of making a claim to be greater than the man, Jacob, who found the well in the first place, many years before. 

Such misunderstandings in a conversation are common. The act of being able to articulate our thoughts to another person is a skill we acquire from childhood, but knowing the other person is an important factor in a conversation, because over time both people get to know what the other person thinks about, particularly when they talk about subjects that are familiar to them. This can be observed between a married couple who have been together for many years, for example. Amusingly to an observer, they will even finish each other’s sentences. Up to this point in the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman the connection between physical water and spiritual water had not been made.

How do we pilgrims communicate the Good News about Jesus, and all that He did for mankind? At Jacob’s well, Jesus used a common commodity important to the people in that culture to start a conversation. He could have sat by the well ignoring the woman, which would have been her expectation because of the hostile relationship between Jews and Samaritans. But the poor woman had to carry water in a heavy pot daily some distance back to the village of Sychar. If there was anything that would have grabbed her attention it was the possibility that she could be relieved of that burden. 

So we pilgrims pray that God will reveal something about who we are speaking with to form a relational bridge over which the Gospel can be delivered. Something to grab their attention and open up the conversation. I find that dog walkers are always ready to talk about their pets. Someone tending a planter outside our community centre will often respond to a question or comment about the plants or shrubs. But sometimes God will reveal something supernaturally about the person – but more of that in a future blog.

Paul wrote in Colossians 4:3, “Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains”. Paul didn’t hold back at all, and ended up in all sorts of trouble because of his zeal to share the Gospel with whoever he met. In the UK at the moment, street preachers are being arrested for sharing the Word of God on our streets, wrongly as it turns out but there is increasing hostility to the Gospel in our secular society. It won’t be long until this becomes a crime, along with other demonstrations about the Kingdom of God. We have a window of opportunity to start a conversation with a stranger at a modern equivalent of Jacob’s well. In a coffee bar or restaurant. In a supermarket. At the petrol station. In the office or classroom. And we pray for the communication skills that will transform the ordinary into the supernatural.

Father God. We pray that through Your Spirit we will have the words we need to say at just the right time. and we pray for the people we meet, that Your Spirit will go before us, opening hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name. Amen.