Jesus, the Sent One

Posted on by korgrocker

“While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.” Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.”
John 7:28-30 NLT

Jesus didn’t just appear in this world as part of the normal reproduction of human beings. He was born in humble circumstances as a male baby, the first-born of a Jewish peasant girl. He went through all the stages of growing up as a boy did in those days. However, when He reached the age of twelve, He knew His mission in life. He stayed behind in the Temple one Passover and His parents found Him there. We read in Luke 2:49, ““But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”” A reminder perhaps to His parents of that fateful day when Mary had a visit from an angel. We read in Luke 1:35, “The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God”. Jesus was born as a baby with Mary’s and God’s DNA. He was both human and divine. 

So, Jesus informed the crowd around Him at the Temple that, although they knew most of His humble origins, He had in fact been sent by His Father in Heaven. This statement of truth, however, was lost on the religious leaders who instead wanted to eliminate Him. After all, they couldn’t have someone claiming to be God’s Son around them, because if they believed Him, the consequence would be that there would be a tremendous upheaval to the political and religious life in Israel. We then have the intriguing statement that the leaders “tried to arrest Him”, but failed. The problem to them was that they were afraid of the crowd around Jesus – any attempt to arrest Him might cause unrest and threaten their authority. They needed to get Him on His own somewhere so that they could carry out their dark deeds. But there is perhaps a hint that Jesus’ Father in Heaven might have sent a few angels to protect Him, because John wrote, “His time had not yet come”. There would come a day when Jesus would be arrested but this wasn’t that time.

Jesus had been sent from God. It wasn’t a sudden appearance – that would happen at His Second Coming – but the first time round, Jesus had to come as a human being because in that way He would act as the bridge between God and mankind. We have a sinless, human and divine Saviour, who in spite of all the opposition, left us with a timeless message of love and hope, a message finally coming to fruition on a cross at Calvary. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for coming to this world in the way You did. Through Your sacrifice at Calvary we now have a way back to God, forgiven of our sins. Amen.

Stop Sinning

Posted on by korgrocker

“But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.”
John 5:14-15 NLT

The man healed by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda had been pulled up by the Jewish leaders for carrying his sleeping mat on the Sabbath. They accused the man for working on the Sabbath, exposing their nit-picking approach to religious life. But they sensed an opportunity to extend the focus of their policing, by asking for the name of the person who had told the man to carry his mat. Perhaps, they thought, there was an imposter interpreting the Jewish law incorrectly. But they were too late because Jesus had disappeared into the crowds.

But we read next in John’s account that Jesus found the man who had been healed in the Temple. Did he still have his sleeping mat with him? Was he there to praise and thank God for his healing? Or was he making his way home and found himself in the Temple because he had been caught up with the crowds? But whatever the reason for him being there, Jesus found him, “and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” An interesting statement, loaded with meaning, and one which was just as spiritually life changing as the physical healing had been. I suppose an obvious question we can ask is if the man’s thirty eight years of disability was due to some sort of sin in his life. The implication is there that it was. The psychiatrists and medics today have apparently made a connection between a mental state and a physical ailment. There are also some who may draw the conclusion that the man at the Pool had been punished by God for his sin. But Jesus wasn’t interested in the reason for the man’s paralysis – that was history. He was now concerned about the man’s future.

Regarding sin, we are all expected to follow repentance and forgiveness by a change in lifestyle or behaviour. So, for example, if a man repents of his addiction to pornography, he is subsequently expected to turn his back on the magazines and internet sources of the material. Repentance, God’s forgiveness, must be followed by a change in behaviour. Of course, we will stumble and fall again, but our heart-felt desire is to change and be set free from the sin that has entangled us in its web. Thankfully, God is gracious and merciful, and quick to forgive a repentant sinner.

We don’t hear any more about the man at the Pool. But I’m sure that after his healing encounter with Jesus he would have turned his life around. What else could he do? And for us pilgrims, we too have had an encounter with Jesus. We have turned our backs on sin and sinful lives, choosing instead to follow the Master for the rest of our lives.

Dear Lord Jesus. As the old hymn says, “I have decided to follow Jesus, … no turning back, no turning back”. We sing that song again and again, Lord, each and every day. Amen.

The Second Sign

Posted on by korgrocker

“This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea. Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.”
John 4:54-5:1 NLT

A miracle happened when Jesus turned water into wine, and here John records that the healing of the government official’s son was the second that had taken place in Galilee. Both events were, as John wrote, miraculous occasions, inexplicable to anyone taking them at face value, but there will always be someone who attempts to explain them away by attributing to them some natural cause. Perhaps, such people say, the healing of the official’s son was a coincidence. The boy might have been very sick when his father decided to journey to find Jesus, but in the meantime he became well through the normal course of an illness, in which some people get better and others died. Perhaps the water turned into wine was some form of hoax perpetrated by the bridegroom or someone else at the wedding reception. We will always be able to find the sceptics and deniers, people who don’t want to believe what they see or hear, because to do so would result in them having to abandon their world view and take on board something that will change and even transform their lives. These people are very comfortable with their sinful lives, for now.

Jesus said, as recorded in John 4:48, “ … Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” What was there about the Galileans that seemed to indicate that they didn’t believe Jesus’ message on its own? Was Jesus a bit exasperated that His words of eternal life were rejected until He reinforced them with a miracle or two? After all, He had a tremendous reception in Sychar, and the people there believed what He said, not what He did. John 4:42, “Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Saviour of the world.“”

The people in Jesus’ day had the benefit of the Son of God living with them. He walked amongst the Jewish people spreading His message of hope about the Kingdom of God. He preached in their synagogues, He taught in the fields and educated His disciples as they journeyed from one place to another. And yet, most people He met had a problem believing what He said. But before we condemn them, we need to walk in their shoes. If someone came to our societies today, even Jesus Himself, preaching the message that Jesus preached, what reception would they get? It would be even more difficult today, because the spirit of the age promotes any message, any ideology, that feels good. Anything that satisfies the sinful yearnings within human beings. So people today will reject any message that confronts their sin, even if their rejection of it comes with a warning that hell beckons, just over the horizons of their lives. There is a man who lives close by who I shared the Gospel with, and his response was that he would be taking part in the “big party downstairs”. Not for him a life with God in Heaven. Such a response staggered me, because its intensity in its rejection of the love of God was basically a self-imposed death sentence.

Do miracles happen today? There are many that have been documented, but still most people choose to reject the Gospel. They reject even the resurrection of the Man who was cruelly put to death on a Roman cross, perhaps the biggest miracle that this world has ever seen. But miracles or not, there is only one way to Heaven and that is through repentance and believing in Jesus. Our Heavenly Father loved the people He created so much that He was prepared to sacrifice His only Son to save them from the consequences of their sins. The people of Galilee had a choice, and that same choice is still hanging in the air, for now. It won’t be there for ever, because one day we will die and the option of believing in Jesus will die with us. We pilgrims have an opportunity to tell others about the wonderful future people can have, both in this life and beyond. And every time someone we tell about Jesus decides to believe in Him, they hold a party in Heaven. There is nothing more important in this life than the Good News brought to this world by the Son of God.

Dear Father God. All we can do is to worship You, with grateful hearts. Amen.

Light and Dark

Posted on by korgrocker

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
John 3:18-21 NLT

It is a fundamental physical fact that all earth dwellers experience light and dark. So when the sun rises it brings light with it, and when it sets darkness ensues. Biological functions such as photosynthesis rely on it. God created light as we read in Genesis 1. But this natural phenomenon is not what Jesus was referring to. He was telling Nicodemus about spiritual light and dark. God’s light, Jesus, came into this world as a once only event bringing an opportunity for the salvation of mankind. The Word illuminated the sinful ways of mankind, and we read in Hebrews 4:12-13, “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”. We associate the “word of God” with the Bible, Holy Scriptures, but we mustn’t forget the opening verse in John 1, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God”. 

But sin brought evil into the world, a darkness that has prevailed ever since the days of Adam. There is something attractive about sin, and Jesus very perceptively pointed out to Nicodemus that people prefer to walk in spiritual darkness for one simple reason – if they go anywhere near the light of God then their sins will be exposed. A person thinks that their thoughts, and deeds done in private, are safe from scrutiny, but God sees all. But people are generally in denial, deluding themselves that what they do and think is just for them.

We pilgrims saw the Light of the world and brought ourselves into God’s presence. We exposed all our sins before His cross in repentance and received forgiveness. But there are many people who know all about the Light and refuse to go into His presence because they prefer to continue with their sinful lives. Around us in the work places, the schools or colleges, the leisure and amusement facilities, we see the outworking of sin. People’s behaviour exposes the darkness within them, and last thing they want to do is change so that they can live in the light.

A believer doing right in an evil world finds themselves in a difficult and lonely place. Shunned by evil-doers. Denied promotions in the workplace. Persecuted for their faith in God. But God is pleased with such people because “they are doing what God wants”. I think we all would prefer God’s approval rather than follow the crowd, as they stumble through the darkness.

Dear Lord Jesus. You said that You are the Light of the world. Please help us to reflect Your light to the people around us. In Your precious name. Amen.

The Lamb of God

Posted on by korgrocker

”The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ I did not recognise him as the Messiah, but I have been baptising with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”“
John 1:29-31 NLT

The sacrifice of lambs was an important part of Jewish religious life. We can perhaps remember the story in Exodus of the Passover, where a lamb was killed and its blood wiped over the door posts of the Israelites’ dwellings. The application of blood indicated to the angel of death that he was to “pass over” all those living inside. Also, lambs were offered as sacrifices in the Temple, morning and evening, as part of the offerings for the sins of the people. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the Jewish system of offerings all pointed to the coming Messiah, and the people hearing John’s message would have been familiar with the Passover celebrations and the whole purpose of the sacrificial lambs. The prophecy in Isaiah 53:6-7 clearly made the connection between the sacrifice for sin and the role in that played by the Messiah. “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.”

Today we pilgrims don’t depend on the slaughter of animals for the forgiveness of our sins. The “Lamb of God”, Jesus Himself, became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. It is only through Him that we can receive redemption. Isaiah wrote, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own“. Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). One of the constants we meet in life is sin, a spiritual disease endemic in every human being. But through Jesus we can be released from the consequences of that sin, and be able to stand before God clothed in the righteousness of the Messiah. So today, and every day, we turn to the “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.  There is no other way into God’s presence. Jesus made a profound statement, eternal in its reach and consequences. It is timeless and irrefutable. 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“. We pilgrims burrow our way into the implications of this verse, as we journey towards our goal. The gateway to the narrow path that leads to eternal life starts at the Cross of God’s Lamb, Jesus.

Dear Father God. Who ever heard of a god who became a human being! But Jesus did and we are eternally grateful. Amen.

Grace Upon Grace

Posted on by korgrocker

“From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”
John 1:16 NLT
“For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favour upon favour, and gift heaped upon gift].”
John 1:16 AMP

We can’t get past the word “grace” in our Christian lives. The reality that Christ took on Himself the consequences of our sin, dying on a Roman cross, so that we could stand before God clothed in Christ’s righteousness, is grace beyond anything we could expect, or even deserve. A reality that can only drive us to our knees in grateful thanks, in worship of God’s Son Himself. The acronym for grace – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense – is well known but it is underpinned by today’s verse from John 1. There is no limit to God’s grace. 

A church leader I used to know was a great public evangelist, and one of his methods of gaining attention to the Gospel message was to try and hand out a bank note to a stranger in the shopping mall, emulating in a small way God’s grace. Many rushed on by, too busy or too uninterested, to stop and take the gift. Such are those who reject God’s offer of salvation, eyes blinded by the world and its sinful pleasures. They fail to see that the best offer they will ever receive in this life, worth far more than any of the world’s riches, has passed them by. For all those who have turned their backs on God, rejecting His free offer of salvation, spurning that “grace upon grace”, there is an awful alternative. Jesus said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The alternative to accepting God’s graciousness is eternity spent in a place, as Jesus described it, “where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:48). 

For those who accept God’s offer of salvation will truly discover “spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing“, as they journey towards their goal of eternal life spent with God. To send His Son to live and die with human beings was the ultimate act of grace. 

Dear Father God. On our knees we thank You for Jesus and His willingness to die so that we might have life. Such grace! Amen.

Look

Posted on by korgrocker

“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
John 1:10-11 NLT

John wrote that the people in the world failed to recognise their Creator. And even the Jews, God’s own chosen race, failed to recognise Him. Worse, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah, even though they had been expecting Him. And to this day, people fail to realise that the Messiah and the Creator visited this world 2000 years ago, a problem that is endemic. There were as many as 400 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament so how did the Jews miss Him? Specific prophecies such as in Isaiah 7:14, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” But the key word in Isaiah’s prophecy was “look“. The Jews had developed in their minds a picture of a different Messiah, selectively taking prophecies to suit their own expectations, particularly regarding the hated Roman occupation. They desired a Messiah who would come as a Man of war, not a baby in a manger. Not all Jews thought this way, though. There was Simeon, who was waiting for the Messiah. “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25).‭‭‭ Further on we read, “Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:28-30). There was also a prophetess called Anna. “Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. …  She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36a, 38). ‭‭

But back to that keyword, “look”. Isn’t it strange that when we look at something we find that our interpretation of the scenario before us is tailored by our thoughts and desires? We read Bible verses and try and extract a meaning from them to perhaps justify a sin, particular when the misdemeanour isn’t specifically mentioned. Or we look at a person, a politician or a pastor perhaps, and expect more from them than they can provide. And we try and get someone to follow a course of action to suit our world view rather then provide a remedy for the good of all. Isaiah said that the people had to “look” for their Messiah, implying that they must see what God was doing, not what they wanted Him to do. The people who heard Anna excitedly talk about the Messiah Child, were waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. God’s plan was salvation for the world. The Jerusalem Jews were expecting a political solution.

So how do we come to recognise our Creator and Messiah? There is rarely a day when I don’t thank God for His creation. In my morning rambles around the West of Fife in Scotland, there is always some wonder that catches my eye. The colours of the Autumn leaves. The birdsong echoing through the trees. The flowers bursting forth time and again each Spring. The deer crossing my path. I look up on a clear night and see a myriad of stars. There seems no limit to what God has done. And yet there are those who fail to appreciate God’s creation. There was a day recently when I stopped by a tree that stood out because of its vivid red Autumn leaves. I pointed out the beauty to a passer-by, but he was unimpressed and continued on his way. People fail to “look” for God and miss seeing their Creator in the natural world around them.

The Messiah came and was rejected by His people. But one day they will recognise Him. We read in Zechariah 12:10, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died“. They will “look” at last and will find Him.

We pilgrims have a personal relationship with Jesus, the Messiah, though. We have, as Simeon, seen His salvation. Simeon saw what was to come. We experience at first hand the saving grace of God. And we praise Him, and continue to praise Him, this day and forever, for all he has done for us and the rest of mankind, if only they would “look”.

Dear Father God. As we share Your messages with those around us I pray that You open their eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Returning To Sin

Posted on by korgrocker

“And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.””
2 Peter 2:20-22 NLT

This is a tragedy. I know people who once came to experience God’s saving grace through Jesus, who travelled for a while in His presence, but who then rejected Him and returned to their old sinful ways. Some of these people are personal friends and who are now in a spiritual desert, cynical, disillusioned and in denial. Often it is not God they have rejected, but the church, a fellowship of believers, who has turned them away. There may have been a misunderstanding, or a situation that was clumsily dealt with. But it may have been nothing to do with the church of which they were a part. Perhaps they started the journey but found the going too tough for them. Perhaps sin was so entrenched in their lives that they found themselves unable to rely on God and His love and grace. But in the end, they turned their back on the One who was their Saviour and Lord. 

Why is it that some people, who have received a glimpse of God and His Kingdom, who have even experienced God’s healing love and grace, then turn their back on Him? There was the case in Palestine of people who believed in Jesus but succumbed to peer pressure. John 12:42-43, “Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn’t admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God“. In the parable of the soils, there was the case of the good seed that quickly grew up but didn’t last for long. Matthew 13:5-6, “Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died“. In both cases, worldly pressure and the pleasures of sin created an environment where following Jesus was too big an ask for them. Their lives were dominated by short term considerations rather than the prospect of eternal life after they die.

After Jesus fed the five thousand, He went on to teach about Him being the Bread of life. We read the account in John 6. He said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh” (John 6:51). He went on to say, “But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day” (John 6:54). ‭Hard teaching indeed for a people who recoiled in disgust at anything that superficially looked like cannibalism. But the outcome was, “Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”  … At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him” (John 6:60, 66). There are some Christians who started their pilgrimage only to find some Biblical teaching that they couldn’t accept. A lady I know has a son who is a homosexual, and she was unable to accept what the Bible says about such a lifestyle choice. Even after much counselling infused with God’s love and grace, she finally decided that God and His ways were not for her. 

The writer to the Hebrews said this, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6). Hard words that surely must penetrate through the façade of those who have rejected Jesus. 

There are some people in my community who have known God in the past, but have rejected Him. People who think they are good people (and they are of course by the world’s standards) but are unable to once again turn to God. Of course, “It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance” by my own efforts. But God will never give up on His children. His Spirit will always be there, drawing them towards the One who has the words of eternal life. Sadly, Peter had to write, “It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life“. But we pilgrims pray for those we know who now live in a life away from the One they once knew. God’s grace in without limit, even for them.

Dear Father God. What else can we do other than kneel at Your feet with grateful hearts? Amen.

Sodom and Gomorrah (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people.”
2 Peter 2:6 NLT

We read the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18. But we pick up the context from Genesis 17:1-2, “When  Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants”. At this point his name was changed from Abram to Abraham (“Father of Many”). Later on this chapter his wife, Sarai, also had a name change, to Sarah, but in the whole touching dialogue between the Lord and Abraham we see a relationship building. Chapter 18 in Genesis starts with the Lord returning to Abraham with two companions, and the hospitable Abraham fed them a meal, after which the men started to look across at Sodom. God had a plan for this city and He decided to tell Abraham about it. ““Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the Lord asked. “For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. … So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”” (Genesis 18:17-18, 20-21).

The two men with the Lord started their journey to Sodom, but the Lord stayed with Abraham, who had an inkling about what was going to happen. We then have the extraordinary conversation between the Lord and Abraham, where Abraham interceded for any righteous people who may have been found in Sodom. Genesis 18:25, Abraham speaking, “Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”. The conclusion was that God would not destroy Sodom if He found 10 righteous people there. Estimates about the population of Sodom vary widely, but it appears there may have been about a thousand or so. Living close to these two cities as he did, Abraham must have known about the wicked practices going on. But what do we pilgrims make of the Lord becoming interested in Sodom and Gomorrah because of a “great outcry” and “flagrant sin”? We read in Genesis 19:4-5, “But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”” So perhaps we can conclude that God was appalled with the sin of homosexuality and was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of it. Sodom gave its name to the English word “sodomy”, in the sense of “copulation between two men, whether consensual or forced.” But we receive a little more enlightenment from Ezekiel 16:49-50, “Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen”. 

Such was the relationship between God and Abraham that Abraham was able to remind God of His righteous obligations. He said, “Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” It is something that we pilgrims sometimes forget – God is a God of righteousness as well as love. Of judgement as well as compassion and kindness. God is perfect in all His ways – Psalm 18:30, “God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection“. So everything that God is, is perfect. His attitudes, His behaviour, His thoughts, and His words. So the wicked behaviour in Sodom and Gomorrah was an offence to God and something that reached Him as “a great outcry”. We pilgrims sometimes take for granted God’s grace, in allowing us sinful people to continue our lives here on earth. But there is no sin greater or lesser than any other. Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). But, praise glory and thanks to God, we read in Romans 3:24, “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” Such grace wasn’t available to the ancient people living in Sodom and Gomorrah, but nevertheless righteous behaviour was not unknown to them. They knew the difference between right and wrong. Between righteousness and wickedness. They made the wrong choices to satisfy their sinful desires. 

There will come a day when the choices of mankind will bring them before God. There, “the Judge of all the earth” will do what is right. So we pilgrims share His grace to those around us, and by so doing achieve two outcomes – we hold back the righteous judgement of God, and we introduce sinners to our wonderful Saviour.

Dear God. In fear and trembling we remember that You are both a God of love and a God of righteousness. Thank You for Your grace. Amen.

Chasing Desires

Posted on by korgrocker

“So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.”
1 Peter 4:1-3 NLT

In his writings, Peter paints a picture of a restlessness driven by sinful desires. He writes about anxiety, evil, immorality, lust, feasting, drunkenness “and their terrible worship of idols”. We can just imagine a painter or sculptor of old representing such scenarios though his artistic medium. But Peter acknowledges that “godless people” enjoy doing these things. There is something about “sin” that is attractive and appealing, and is very hard to give up. Good people today might point out that these were symptoms of Peter’s generation and that they don’t apply to them. But as any street pastor will say, High Streets late on a Saturday night will find people enjoying alcohol-fuelled revelry. “Feasting and drunkenness and wild parties” were not just features of Peter’s society.

Peter reminds his readers that they have finished with sin. Rather, they must be “anxious to do the will of God”. Of course they are, because it is not possible to follow God’s ways and the ways of the world. Putting it bluntly, one way leads to eternal life and the other to eternal death. There couldn’t be a starker choice between two extremes. Jesus taught much about life in His Kingdom being so different to life in the kingdom of the world. The dichotomy between them is illustrated in His teaching about money, which is a worldly commodity. We read in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money“. 

The key word Jesus used was “enslaved“. In a conversation with some of His followers, “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). In Galatians 5:1, Paul wrote, “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law“. He repeated what Jesus said in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free“. I have included the words of the old Bob Dylan song in blogs before, but the words of the chorus are profound.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

By default, people gravitate to being sinful. Their fleshly desires prevail over that other small voice within, and “the evil things that godless people enjoy” are the result. And they end up enslaved to a lifestyle that is against what God desires. But all that changes when we meet Jesus. Suddenly, all the sinful desires we have are exposed by His light and we realise what they are. The Holy Spirit exposes our sinful lives and helps us realise that God’s way is the only way. We become “anxious to do the will of God” and start to apply and enjoy the freedom we gained when we repented of our sins and believed in Jesus.

Living God’s way is a lifetime task. One that He helps us with, but one in which we can so easily get caught out when our old sinful nature emerges into His light. In Ephesians 4:21-24, Paul wrote, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy“. The theologians call this process sanctification. We are being made holy by following God’s ways. And one day we will be truly perfect, set free from our sinful lives for all eternity.

Dear Father God. We don’t want to chase after sin, but so often we get caught out. Please help us day by day, as we journey through the sinful minefields of life. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen.