Understanding Godly Sorrow: Path to Healing and Salvation

Posted on by korgrocker

“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.”
2 Corinthians 7:10-11 NLT

Continuing with Paul’s theme of Godly sorrow, we look at the impact Paul’s first letter had made in the lives of the Corinthian believers. If we remember, it was quite hard-hitting, revealing issues that needed courage to expose. But then, some things are better delivered remotely, as in a letter. Paul must have been sure of a positive reception when he wrote the things that he did, because otherwise it might have done more harm than good. In the end, Paul must have received a positive response because he wrote, “Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way” (2 Corinthians 7:9). A bit further down in this chapter, we see that it was probably Titus who delivered the letter and then he stayed awhile, probably explaining and helping with the issues Paul had raised.

The first letter caused a sorrowful reaction in Corinth, but it was a Godly sorrow that “leads … away from sin and results in salvation”. And the positive result was to make everything right, and Paul listed some of the actions and emotions that emerged as the exhortations contained in the letter were applied in the church. Paul was assured that they had done everything necessary. 

We pilgrims come across situations in our lives where things need to be put right. It is not uncommon for a family falling out, usually over something trivial, to lead to a lifetime of estrangement and no further contact. In my family, many years ago, there were four siblings, a brother and three sisters, who had a row over wedding invitations. Now, nearly forty years later, they have all died, and they made no attempt to put things right. The brother never spoke to his sisters again, and he died a bitter man. But such an event is not unusual in families; friends can be chosen, but siblings and cousins cannot, leading to much grace and determination to resolve issues before they become irresolvable. 

Have we upset anyone? Have we stopped speaking to a family member or friend? Have we fallen out with someone, and are harbouring feelings within us that are corrupting our Christian lives? Is our conscience pricking away, nagging us to sort this out, but we’re at a loss to know how to start? Well, the words of Jesus will help, I’m sure. Matthew 5:23-24, “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God“. We need to apply this to our lives today, remembering that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. So we need to take action and reconcile the situation. If someone has upset you by what they have done, we remember Colossians 3:13, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others“. That’s a big one because our pride will get in the way, but we sometimes see news reports of a parent of a child who has been attacked choosing to publicly forgive the attacker. That’s how we should be, walking in forgiveness to all. There is no point in harbouring bad feelings; someone has said that resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Resentment is a kind of narcissistic bargaining, an insistence that our pain should matter enough to reach across time and consequence and punish the person who caused it. It usually does not. The other person may be oblivious, gone, or thriving, but our bodies keep the score anyway. Paul also wrote, “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). There is no point in unforgiveness and resentment, because Jesus forgave us for far worse. We also need to recognise that we live in a moral universe and that we will all, one day, be held to account for what we have done in this life. God will address the harm that people have done to us. Isaiah 61:8, “For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and wrongdoing. I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an everlasting covenant with them”.

Paul referred to “Godly sorrow”, which “leads us away from sin and results in salvation“. Ultimately, no relational troubles in this life are worth keeping alive. In the context of eternity, putting things right with another person is a very small requirement.

Dear Heavenly Father. Please forgive us for our stubbornness and pride. We pray David’s prayer, “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”. Amen.

Good Friday

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross. …”
John 19:16-18a NLT

Another Good Friday, many will say, as they continue with their work-a-day lives. The shops are open. Office lights are burning. Traffic is just as heavy. Even schools are still open in some places. When the societal amnesia is confronted, people shrug, as though to say, “What is that to do with me?” They might even add, “Anyway, what’s good about nailing a man to a cross and leaving him to die?” A lady in my office once said to me, ”What’s the big deal – a lot of men were crucified in those days”. But the scoffers, shruggers and deniers then go about their business, oblivious to the reality that the dying Man on a cross held the key to their future beyond the grave. One day they will know the truth, as 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”. There will be no exclusions, and today’s scoffers will realise that what they dismissed on one Good Friday was in fact the crucifixion of Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. 

The enormity of what Jesus did for us has never left me, regardless of the number of Good Fridays that have passed. I still marvel at how radical and complete God’s plan was, assuring all who believe in Jesus that they will receive the gift of eternal life. I still cast my mind to Calvary, the Cross and the lonely God-man, dying for me. I will never get over His gift of love, so complete and selfless. I mourn the fact that the sin of mankind required such a radical plan, but my thanks to God know no bounds.

We pilgrims have been “washed in the blood of the Lamb”. We are assured of our salvation, and one day we too will see the prints of the nails and the hole in His side, as we fix our eyes on our wonderful Saviour. So we rejoice today that Jesus went through all that He did, just for the salvation of all who believe in Him. Today, we finish with a 300-year-old hymn by Isaac Watts, which has blessed many a person this day. With it we worship Him, the Son of God

Dear Father God, we thank You for Your Son Jesus and His sacrificial death on a Roman cross. We cannot help but praise You and thank You for all that You have done. Amen. 

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

Forbid it Lord that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ my Lord
All the vain things that charm me most
I sacrifice them to His blood

See from His head His hands His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ever such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all

Preach the Message

Posted on by korgrocker

“For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favour on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach, for we all preach the same message you have already believed.”
1 Corinthians 15:9-11 NLT

“For I decided that while I was with you
I would forget everything except Jesus Christ,
the one who was crucified”
(1 Corinthians 2:2).

Paul reminded the Corinthians that he and the other Apostles all preached the same message, the one they “have already believed”. But what was this message? An important question, because if it was fundamental to the first Apostles, it must be fundamental to us pilgrims as well. The answer is the basis for Christianity and our faith. We preach Jesus and Him crucified. The Amplified version of 1 Corinthians 2:2 reads, “for I made the decision to know nothing [that is, to forego philosophical or theological discussions regarding inconsequential things and opinions while] among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified [and the meaning of His redemptive, substitutionary death and His resurrection]”. This verse puts a focus on something very important – the simplicity of the Gospel. Paul was an educated man, who was able to debate and witness before the most senior members of his world. There was not only the Greek philosophers of his day, “He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods”” (Acts 17:18). He certainly grabbed their attention. They took him to the High Council, the Areopagus, to continue his message. On another occasion, he witnessed before King Agrippa (Acts 26). But Paul never forgot the ordinary man in the street, as we read in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some”. 

“For the Son of Man came
to seek and save those
who are lost“
Luke 19:10

But regardless of all his learning, Paul shared a simple Gospel about “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” at every opportunity he found himself in. This message is one we pilgrims are also required to share. The Amplified version of 1 Corinthians 2:2 puts its finger on a problem that can so easily trip us up if we let it: we can get bogged down in “philosophical or theological discussions regarding inconsequential things and opinions” in conversations with others. I recently heard about a street evangelist who was bombarded with a whole list of questions by a young man he was trying to share the Gospel with, and the last question from the young man summed up the irrelevance of the conversation: “Did Adam have a belly button?” Whether Adam did or not, such questions can distract, divert, and dilute the simplicity of the Gospel message. Adam’s anatomy has no relevance to the serious matter of salvation. In His conversation with Zacchaeus, Jesus told him, and anyone else listening, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). In a section entitled “Salvation is for Everyone” in his Roman epistle, Paul wrote, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). There is nothing complicated about these verses, I think we fellow pilgrims will agree. But the main reason that people put up a smoke screen of questions and arguments is that they don’t want to face into the consequences of responding positively to the Gospel message. I was speaking to a man recently who claimed to be a Christian, but who had not been baptised. When gently challenged, he provided a whole list of excuses as to why he had not taken the next step in his faith. But in love we pilgrims persevere in sharing the simple Gospel message because that is what Jesus has asked us to do. Nothing complicated.

Dear Father God. Please lead us to the mission field that You want us to labour in. By the power of Your Spirit, please give us the words to say and the people You want us to share with, so that You will receive all the glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Judgment

Posted on by korgrocker

“For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.”
1 Corinthians 11:29-32 NIVUK

In a previous blog, we considered what it means to discern “the body of Christ”. We continue to read today about what will happen to those who fail to “discern” what is really happening in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Reading between the lines of what went on in the Corinthians’ service of Communion, it must have been a bit of a riot compared with our sombre services today. They were apparently turning it into a drunken party, with those with the means to supply their own food and drink having a good time, and those without forced to sit on the sidelines and watch. And in some way, they considered that they were sharing in the Lord’s Supper by doing this. But before we condemn them and take the moral high ground, we must confess that some of us might be doing something equally dishonouring in our own thoughts. 

There were consequences to the Corinthians’ behaviour, and Paul made the association between those who shared the Communion in a way that dishonoured Christ and those who were suffering from illness or weakness, and even those who had died. How could that have happened? There is only one explanation, and that is God has brought weakness, illness, and even death to them as discipline for their failure to observe Communion with proper respect for Christ’s sacrifice and for each other. This could be a stumbling block for Christians who think God is a God of love, grace, and forgiveness and would never do such a thing. But God does discipline His children, “because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son“ (Hebrews 12:6). Comparing with the discipline meted out by human fathers, we read, “They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10-11).

So, we pilgrims must approach the Lord’s Table in a way that honours Him. Paul wrote, “But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment”. We must judge ourselves first with sincerity. In other words, we must be brutally honest with ourselves before joining in the Lord’s Supper, and we must change our attitudes toward Christ’s death and all those He died for. Then we will not have to worry about God’s judgment afterwards.

But a word for all those anxious in these circumstances, and who fear for their salvation, Paul wrote, “Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). When God disciplines us, it does not mean that He has rejected us and slammed the gates of Heaven in our faces. He still loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him. 

Dear Father God. We are so sorry for the times when we have taken the emblems of Holy Communion in an unworthy manner. We pray for forgiveness and for the Holy Spirit to help us remember You the next time we have the opportunity to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Save Some

Posted on by korgrocker

“When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.”
1 Corinthians 9:21-23 NLT

There was a film released some years ago about a catastrophic event that would hit the world in which we live, an apocalyptic situation in which the US Army was instructed to do what they could to “save some”. In a sense, we pilgrims, too, find ourselves in a similar situation, with the world in which we live facing the End Times, which increases the urgency to tell people about Jesus and do what we can to “save some”. Not everyone will respond to the Message of Christ, but just in case, we must look for opportunities to set before people the gravity of their situation. In Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Jesus gave His disciples an answer to a question about the end of the world. Matthew 24:3, “Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?”” These two chapters would be grim reading for those who do not believe in Jesus, but such people most probably would not have a Bible on their favourite bookshelf in any case. But as we read down Matthew 24, we see many of the signs happening today that Jesus talked about, signs that are brought to a crescendo with verse 30, “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”. In verses 37-39, Jesus said, “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”. 

In Genesis 6:9, we read, “This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God“. God used Noah in two ways. The first was the witness regarding the building of that boat. He built it on dry land in a world that had never experienced anything like what was to come. Imagine the conversation with people who had probably never seen a boat and asked Noah what it was for. To be told what was about to happen made no difference, and the response that Noah received was probably one of ridicule. He was perhaps labelled crazy and shunned by those in his society. It took a great deal of faith to build that boat, as it was large and not something that could have been completed in a short time. In fact, the Scriptures seem to indicate that it took one hundred years to build. The second was that God used that boat to save all the animals and Noah and his family. Today, many dismiss the story of Noah as a fable or even a falsehood, despite evidence of a primordial flood all over the world, as documented in geological and fossil records. 

Paul wrote that he tried “to find common ground with everyone, doing everything [he] can to save some”. In our imaginations, we can picture Paul driven by the fear and expectation that Jesus would return very soon, putting an end to the world as he knew it. Thankfully, God, in His grace, has delayed the return of Jesus. Romans 11:25, “I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ”. How many is “the full number of the Gentiles”? We don’t know, but we discern the times. We see some of the signs that Jesus warned His disciples of in Matthew 24, and conclude that His return is closer now than it was two thousand years ago. Jesus said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had asked Him for a miraculous sign from Heaven to prove His authority, “ … You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow; red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times!” (Matthew 16:2-3). The “signs of the times” are with us, dear fellow pilgrims, and we must wake up and do what we can to “save some”. 

We start with our friends and families, persistently praying for them, sharing the Good News, and even begging them to make the right decision for Jesus. Where they will spend eternity is too important a decision to leave to chance and hope. God is full of love and grace. He is patient and kind, and is always ready to receive a repentant sinner into His family. In Heaven, we can just imagine a huge counter, continually ticking up as new Christians are born again, always getting closer to the time when God will say enough. To all those who say that a God of love would never send anyone to hell, we turn again to John 3:16, where we read “… whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will inherit eternal life”. We note the terrible alternative to eternal life, which is perishing. There is no other possible place for mankind. And so we pray, and pray, and keep on praying, that God will have mercy on our generation, on our family and friends, with the hope and expectation that we, through God’s grace and mercy, will “save some”. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We name our friends and family before You today, that You will draw them to Yourself as we share the wonderful Good News about Jesus. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

One Lord, Jesus Christ (1)

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

Paul made two unambiguous statements about God and Christ in the last verse of our reading today. He said we live for God the Father, but through Jesus Christ. They identify two separate roles for God the Father and God the Son, in that all things were created by the Father, but through Jesus. These statements are foundational to the Christian faith, and there is no alternative way of life for any pilgrim. We considered the Father yesterday, and now we turn to Jesus, “through whom we live”. 

All the way back in Genesis 1, we see that God “spoke” the heavens and the earth into being. Genesis 1:3, “Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light”“. But if we now turn to John 1, we find out about what was said. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him“. So we find the Trinitarian relationship between the Father and Son, because God spoke and Jesus was the Word, a partnership that has always existed. In Genesis, we read that humanity was created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26f), and we must consider what that truly means. God had already created the angels – we don’t know exactly when, but this probably occurred before the world was created – and He then created human beings, populating both the spiritual realm and the natural world. Two separate kingdoms have existed, one eternal and one bounded by time, but it was God’s desire that He brought them both together under the authority of His Son, Jesus, as we read in Ephesians 1:9-10, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfil his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth”. 

The mind-boggling truth is that through the Word, the logos, we find the God-man Jesus walking this world, bringing God’s love and grace to people dying in their sins. Jesus was, and is, the Logos, as described by John, who went to great lengths to explain and correct false beliefs and ideas about God, and to provide us with the proper and correct facts about Him. In discussions with the JW’s, we will find that they do not believe that Jesus is God, a member of the Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Their version of John 1:1 (New World Translation) reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god”, and that identifies the JW’s as a sect that denies the divinity of Jesus as He went about Palestine showing His love and grace for the people. There are other differences, but we need to beware of a religion claiming to be Christian but one which has been infiltrated by the devil.

One of the first things that Jesus said when He started His public ministry was, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). We are all very familiar with this verse but the word “perish” is often overlooked. We go for the “love” bit and how we must believe in God’s Son, but the consequences for people who don’t are that they will perish. Back to Genesis 1:26. Being created in God’s image means that with the package came free choice, a huge responsibility that is avoided by most of the people in our unbelieving society. It is a responsibility because those who don’t believe will “perish”and we know what that means if we read Revelation 20. And to those who claim a God of love would never send anyone to hell, we have to respond with the message that He would not overrule their right to free choice and turn them into an automaton. Instead, He sent His Son, full of unlimited love and grace, to take on the punishment they deserve and by His sacrifice ensure that they will never perish. 

There was a time in Galilee when Jesus addressed a couple of local news reports, brought to Him by the people there. The first was concerning Pilate, who had murdered some people in the Temple while they were offering sacrifices, and the second was when eighteen people died after a tower in Siloam fell on them. But Jesus turned the emphasis around, ““Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too” (Luke 13:2-5). Jesus’ response was clear. Don’t get caught up with temporal matters and neglect the reality that unless we believe in Him, repenting of our sins, then we will “perish”. 

We pilgrims live our lives through the lens of the Cross, where we lay our burdens down and believe that Jesus died for our sins. Paul reminded the Corinthians of that, and, with a sober and realistic perspective, we too take on board what it means to live through Jesus, the Son of God.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your Son Jesus and all He has done for us at Calvary. Thank You that through Your plan for salvation You have saved us from perishing in a terrible place. Amen.

Judging the Church

Posted on by korgrocker

“It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.””
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 NLT

Now here’s an interesting Scripture. Paul said that it was the responsibility of the Corinthian congregation “to judge those inside the church who are sinning”. But didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 7:1-2, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged“? But actually, as we drill down into what Jesus said, we find that there is a standard by which believers will be judged, and that standard is applied to the believers in the church who are sinning. Yes, it is judgment, and the judges, the church believers, will themselves experience the same standards, but applied to themselves. In a previous blog, we considered church discipline, as Jesus laid out in Matthew 18, but how else could this process be followed without judgment being involved? So the guilty person or people have to be removed from their fellowship, as Paul and Moses said, at the behest of the congregation. I suppose that the problem comes if the congregation is split on the issue, some wanting to deal with the sin, and others saying, “let’s give him a chance – after all, everyone sins, don’t they?”

Earlier in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote, “Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns” (1 Corinthians 5:5). This is another mystery that needs further thought. The man has openly sinned, and presumably, he has refused to change his ways. Incidentally, the stepmother has not been included in Paul’s recommended disciplinary actions, so perhaps she is not a member of the church in Corinth and has been included among the unbelievers outside of it. If this is in fact the case, then Paul wrote that she is outside the jurisdiction of the church and therefore not their responsibility. Paul was clear that it would be God who judges the unbelievers, not the church. But the man himself must be handed over to satan. In other words, he has to be removed from God’s protection in the church because of his sin, and once on the outside with the unbelievers, he will perhaps be attacked and tested in the same way that Job was. We read in Job 1:12, ““All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence“. Other theologians think that this means satan will be given the freedom by God to end the man’s earthly life, either quickly or through a long-term illness. But there is always the hope that God may use satan’s destructive work in the man’s life to lead him to repentance. For the man, the hope is that this action will result in the eternal salvation of his spirit. It is unclear if the man is understood to be a believer who will ultimately be saved by God’s grace or an unbeliever who may come to genuine salvation by this act of removing him from the church. But the goal of church discipline is not retaliation, but rehabilitation: to convict the man of his sin, to encourage repentance and restoration. Galatians 6:1 “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself”.

There is a doctrine in some evangelical churches that says “once saved, always saved”, and they point to this verse in 1 Corinthians 5, amongst others, as justification. He may be outside the church now, but there was a time when he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. So, did God’s grace then apply to his situation eternally, and mean that regardless of his subsequent sins, even if he was unrepentant, that he would be saved anyway? Personally, I don’t think so, but there are probably those who do. Thankfully, it is God who is in control, and we pilgrims have faith and trust in Him that He can be trusted to do what is right.

Paul wrote that it is the responsibility of those in the church, the believers, to implement what he has recommended. But sometimes church members are reluctant to get involved, fearful of doing something wrong, or ending up in a situation that might, for them, go very wrong. There is also the incorrect interpretation of what Jesus said about judgment, which bothers some. But we know that through Jesus and by the power of His Spirit, we will access all the wisdom that we need.

Dear Heavenly Father. Please lead and guide us in Your ways as we stumble along through this life. We pray for our leaders and those in our churches, that they will hear Your voice and do what is righteous in Your eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Chosen By God

Posted on by korgrocker

“This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NLT

We’re going to take a break from the Psalms for now and spend some time in the Corinthian letters, which Paul wrote in the middle of the First Century AD. A few years earlier Paul had established the church in Corinth, and while away in other places, probably including Ephesus, he wrote the first epistle, followed by the second, three or four years later.

The authorship of the Corinthian epistle was clear, because the letter starts with the name of the author. Paul established the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey, as we read in Acts 18. Paul tried to convince the Jews there about Jesus, but eventually gave up – Acts 18:6, “But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles””. Paul therefore started the church in the home of a man called Titius Justus, who lived next door to the synagogue. It seemed to be quite a successful church plant with even the leader of the synagogue becoming a believer. Reading further, “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God” (Acts 18:9-11). ‭‭

Paul started his first letter by reminding the Corinthians about his credentials, “chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus”. Paul was different from the other early Apostles because he met the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road, on his way to arrest some early believers. We can read the account of how that happened in Acts 9, with the commissioning of Paul recorded in Acts 9:15-16 through a believer called Ananias. “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake””. A clear endorsement of Paul’s apostleship and he did indeed suffer much as he travelled around the Middle East on his missionary journeys. But what choice did Paul have, after such a dramatic encounter and conversion? Paul would never be the same again and all that zeal directed and focused on doing the early believers harm was now to be re-focused on spreading the Gospel. Paul was an extraordinary man, and very worthy of the title “Apostle”.

Paul was chosen “by the will of God”. But in a sense that also applies to all believers. In Ephesians 1:4-5, Paul wrote, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure”. Jesus said to His disciples, and by extension to us as well, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name” (John 15:16). In our arrogance, sometimes, we claim that we “saw the light” and chose to become a believer, but God knew otherwise, as we saw from Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:4. Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners“. Jesus didn’t have to do that. Perhaps we think sometimes that surely God must have had a Plan B for reconciling man to Himself, less demanding and dramatic, but God knew best, as always, and His Plan A was a demonstration of love so profound that it caught the devil on the hop and defeated him once and for all. But most importantly God provides an opportunity today for people to respond to Him, with grateful hearts in this season of grace, and discover His love for them, as they embrace Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins.

Regarding us pilgrims, Peter in his first epistle wrote, “ … for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). We pilgrims are royalty, chosen by God. What a wonderful place to be. God loved the world, and Jesus died as the outworking of that love. We pilgrims now have the opportunity to tell people about what happened two thousand years ago, and we take note of the sermon preached by Peter in Acts 2. At the end we read the corollary, “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (Acts 2:40). Peter didn’t try and convince his audience that God loved them, asking them to respond to that love. Instead he warned them of the consequences of refusing to believe in Jesus and in the process living a life the same as the sinful people around them. God has put before all human beings an open door with a sign hanging on it inviting everyone to step inside. Inside they will find the road to eternal life and a personal experience of God’s love, the consequence of being chosen by God.

Dear Lord God. We know that You choose us and love us, Your children, and we are so very grateful. But many around us are totally unaware of what lies before them beyond the grave. Please lead us to people with open hearts, people willing to stop, listen, and take note that this season of Your grace won’t last forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Rejection

Posted on by korgrocker

“Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Saviour. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”
Psalm 27:9-10 NIVUK

Being rejected is a terrible thing to happen to a person, especially if the rejection comes from loved ones such as one’s parents. David asked the Lord not to hide His face from him. The NLT’s version reads, “Do not turn Your back on me”, but the Bible translations all provide a record of an appeal from David against his perception that he was being rejected. As we read on, David sets an order of priorities, with the acceptance by the Lord being even more important than acceptance by his parents. But why would the Lord turn David “away in anger”? Perhaps David was having a wobbly moment, when he wondered about his status in God. He knew he was a sinner. He knew that he was imperfect and prone to do things that would displease the Lord. Things that might have been so bad that he feared the Lord would be angry with him. But in spite of his status as King of Israel he came before God as a servant, reminding Him that in the past He has been his Helper. 

It is a fact today, as it has always been when human beings have been around, that God gets angry with His created peoples. This is not because He is a petulant Being, taking the huff when rejected. God is omnipotent of course, and not reliant on human behaviour. God is perfection, in terms of love, grace, holiness, righteousness, justice, and so on, and He will become angry with anything that violates His character. In Isaiah 55:8-9 we read, ““My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts”“. Paul wrote about why God could get angry. Romans 1:18, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness”. We therefore get an insight into what David was so concerned about. Perhaps he had done something that was so bad that he feared that God was angry with him. Of course, we know about the affair with Bathsheba, where David broke three commandments at the same time. Did that make God angry with him? As Isaiah wrote, it is difficult for human beings to understand what God is thinking about them, and that made David rather anxious and fearful about God’s response to him. So he did the only thing he knew how – he came to the Lord with a servant heart. After Bathsheba David wrote another Psalm, which starts, “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins” (Psalm 51:1). David prayed for God not to ” … banish [him] from [His] presence …” (Psalm 51:11), for forgiveness (verse 14) and for restoration (verse 12). But the focus in this Psalm was in the way David came before the Lord – Psalm 51:16-17, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise“. 

In the Old Testament days, time and again the Jews rebelled against God and He became angry with them. They were warned, as we read in Deuteronomy 11:16-17, “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you“. We know what happened to the Jews, with punishments such as being exiled and there were others, individually and for the nation as a whole. In those days, the human propensity to commit sin and rebel against God prevailed. But God was merciful to them and His love always prevailed. 

Fast forward to the New Testament and we read in John the Baptist’s introduction to Jesus about yet another example of God’s love, this time through His Son, Jesus. “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment” (John 3:36). A stark choice for humanity, and we see the love that Jesus had for mankind manifested in human form as He walked the paths of this world. As I have written many times before, we live in a season of grace, where God is holding back the consequences of His anger with evil and wickedness until the time comes to proclaim judgement. John 3:16 is a verse that seals the fate of unbelievers everywhere and at anytime across the ages because it determines which path a person takes after death. 

David knew in his spirit that God’s anger would be a terrible thing to face into, and he feared God’s rejection above all else. He needed God in his life above all else and he prayed that God would not leave him, forsake him or reject him. And at the end of Psalm 27:10 he received the assurance he was looking for – “the Lord will receive me”. What a relief! Blessed assurance! Are we pilgrims unsure about God’s feelings for us? We needn’t worry at all because of Jesus. Paul wrote, “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” (Romans 8:1-2). And in Romans 8:10, “And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God”. God hasn’t rejected us. In fact He provided a way back to Him through Jesus, regardless of how far we have fallen into sin. What a wonderful and loving God we serve.

Dear Heavenly Father. We know You are always there and You never reject us. Please forgive us for the times when we have rejected You, and we pray that You “renew a right spirit” with us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

The Salvation of the Lord

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Lord is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident.”
Psalm 27:1-3 NLT

Once again David wrote about the salvation of the Lord. To him it was something he returned to time and time again, because his life in the present and his ultimate future in the Lord were important to him and always foremost in his mind. Yes he had his wobbly times but throughout his life the salvation he was sure of in God was never in doubt. In those Old Testament days, salvation to the Jews meant deliverance from sin and suffering. It was a dual blessing, both for protection and safety for their bodies, and the same for their souls. But David wasn’t the only Old Testament saint who was aware of the “salvation of the Lord”. In Isaiah 12:2 we read, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation”. He was prophesying about a day to come when “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). If we read the previous chapter we can see who the Source of this salvation will be. In another example, Moses reassured the Israelite slaves, terrified of the pursuing Egyptian army drawing ever closer. “And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever” (Exodus 14:13). Spiritual and natural salvation; the Lord supplies all that we need, body, soul and spirit.

In the New Testament there is the story of Paul and Silas, whipped, imprisoned but not suppressed and downcast. There they were, feet locked in the stocks, in a damp, cold, and stinking Philippian jail. But they weren’t moaning about their lot in life and their sore backs. We read what they were doing in Acts 16:25. “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them“. After the miraculous unlocking of all the cell doors, the jailer asked Paul how he could be saved, and Paul’s answer was, “ … Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). Salvation comes in many forms and with many introductions, but it all can be traced back to Jesus. He said in John 14:6, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. In Acts 4:12 we read what Peter and John said to the Sanhedrin about the risen Jesus, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved“. And that is it really. Salvation is universally available through Jesus, and always has been, from the foundation of the world.

So we pilgrims don’t need to look back, satisfying though that is sometimes. We are a people who look forward to see the fruits of our salvation, in the Kingdom of which we are now a part. We are like the man Jesus told a parable about, who discovered a cache of treasure in the middle of a field. Matthew 13:44, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field”. Or the merchant who discovered a pearl of great value, and who sold all that he had so that he could purchase it. Although in monetary terms, our salvation is a free gift from God (“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8)), we are aware that it has cost us our old, sinful way of life. We are now new creations, as we used to sing many years ago. But the Treasure we have found has to be shared with others, because that is what Jesus has asked us to do.

Peter wrote, “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). We do indeed love God with a gratitude that will last forever as we trust Him with our lives for all eternity.

Dear Lord Jesus. Our salvation is all about our faith in You, because You came to this world to save us. Please forgive us for our doubts and lapses back into the old kingdom, and please help us, we pray, and keep us safe on the remainder of our journey in this life. In Your precious Name. Amen.