Understanding Our Earthly Tents and Heavenly Bodies

Posted on by korgrocker

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee, he has given us his Holy Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NLT

Paul described his human body as being an “earthly tent”. Is that not a strange description? But Paul, being a tentmaker by profession, would have used the analogy from his experience. Here in Scotland, we’re so grateful that the great majority of the population doesn’t have to live in tents. Even modern tents, lightweight and easy to set up, lack the comforts we expect. I can remember camping trips in the wilder parts of Scotland in a tent; great times in the summer, but even then it is possible to be caught out, as I once found out on an overnight stay in May in the Highlands when the temperature dropped below zero. Tents are temporary structures and unsuitable for long-term living. But that thought must have dropped into Paul’s mind, as he mused about growing “weary in our present bodies”. Our human bodies might be good enough to carry us through the few decades of our natural lives, but they would be totally unsuitable for eternal life. Both human bodies and tents have limits.

A tent serves a purpose for a season. It shelters us on a journey, but is not the destination—it is accommodation along the way. Our earthly bodies are like that. They allow us to love, serve, work, create, and worship. Yet they groan, age and weaken. Paul does not deny this groaning. He acknowledges it. As believers, we are not called to pretend that suffering is pleasant. We feel the ache of living in this sad and bad world.

But something wonderful is coming for us pilgrims. We will receive “an eternal body made for us by God himself”. We don’t completely know what it will be like, although we do know that we will receive a body like Jesus’ resurrected body. 1 John 3:2, “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is”. In Philippians 3;21, Paul wrote, “He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control“. Paul looked forward to the day when he could put on his new Heavenly body like “new clothing”. How often do we pilgrims feel like that, as we struggle out of bed in the morning, feeling the aches and pains? Even the younger generations amongst us long for a “duvet day” every so often.

Death has no power over us

How do we think we will be in Heaven? If our spirits leave our earthly bodies and end up in Heaven, will they just float around without substance? That, of course, won’t be the case. Paul wrote, “For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies“. We do not understand totally what Heaven will be like because we try to make sense of it with our earth-bound senses. But, through faith, we will find ourselves in a body that is Heavenly not earthly, a new body that God has created for us. Paul also wrote that our “dying bodies will be swallowed up by life“. That’s quite a challenge, getting our minds around that one. We think of that moment when we die as being the end, but in fact, it is just the beginning. In his previous letter, Paul wrote, “Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Death has no power over us, because we leave behind our “tents” and find ourselves in a new Heavenly home, in a body made by God.

So, in this earthly life, we must look forward to the life to come. We may be living in a “tent” just now, a temporary home comprised of flesh and blood, but I’m sure our Heavenly bodies will be absolutely amazing. No more weariness, pain, and ageing. And all that groaning that we do will be a distant memory, if we remember it all. The tent is temporary. The house is eternal. And the Builder is God Himself.

Dear Heavenly Father. We look forward to receiving our new Heavenly body. Please help us to make the most of what we have, though, in gratitude for all that You have done for us in the here and now. Amen.

Test My Heart

Posted on by korgrocker

“Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth.”
Psalm 26:1-3 NLT

David was looking for self-vindication in these first three verses of Psalm 26. He laid out before the Lord His unwavering trust, his integrity, and his life lived according to God’s truth. Surely he was a man innocent of any wrongdoing, as David asked the Lord to confirm. But that was only his perspective. Jeremiah prophetically set out what the Lord thinks of the human heart, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Of course, this doesn’t apply to a human’s physical heart, that amazing pump that keeps us alive for our “three score years and ten”. It applies to our spirits within us, that part of us where our emotions and desires dwell. The Bible mentions this spiritual organ many times and we can assume that even God has a heart, as we read in 1 Samuel 13:14. Samuel was speaking to King Saul, “But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command“. If David was a man after God’s own heart, this implied that everyone had the same. The problem is that sin, evil and wickedness has destroyed the perfect that God intended, and as Jeremiah wrote, mankind is universally cursed with a deceitful and desperately wicked heart. No exceptions even for David – look what happened when he spied Bathsheba taking a bath.

But David was keen to be vindicated and at this point in his life he wrote “test my motives and my heart”. He must have been pretty sure of his ground to write that. However, as we read in Jeremiah 17:10, God has His eye on everyone’s heart, “But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve“. Jesus had something to say about human hearts, as we read in Mark 7:20-23, “And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you””. Ouch! We all have a heart problem, no matter how much we try to deny it, and the NHS has no remedy available. We are unable to go and acquire a doctor’s prescription to cure a personal heart problem. No psychiatrist has a solution to the evil within a person; instead they can only try to fool patients into the conclusion that they don’t have a problem if they think a certain way. Quackery in God’s eyes. Jesus said that the problem of a failing heart exists within a person, but even they can’t see a problem because they have been deceived by themselves. We know the problems we have and we try and rationalise them so that we can live with our sinful hearts. Sadly, through our thoughts and intentions, we have a tendency to feed our heart on things that increase the evil within. We know it all. “Just one more glance” or “surely another … won’t matter” (fill in your own speciality). But an evil and wicked heart, suffering from all the conditions Jesus described, needs feeding, and that is where our hearts can be cleaned up, with much help from God of course. If we stop feeding our hearts with the things that destroy, then those qualities will shrivel and die. So if a thief stops dwelling on thieving, then his thoughts of stealing will gradually disappear. But there is only so much that a person can do and God’s help must be engaged. 

Sometimes, people describe an emotional person as one who wears their heart on their sleeve. But aren’t we glad that all that is within our hearts is invisible to anyone we meet. I look at a random stranger and I have little or no idea about what they are thinking, and neither do they about me. But God sees all, and why He still loves human beings after that, instead of recoiling in horror at what He sees in our hearts, is one of life’s mysteries.

Ezekiel wrote, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26). In the end it is only God who can fix human beings and that redemption process started with Jesus and our faith and belief in Him. Through His death at Calvary, He took on our sins and started us on the journey to acquire that new heart Ezekiel told us about. Paul wrote, “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 10:10). Our heart surgery starts quite simply with Jesus. There is no other way to find a remedy for all the evil that is within us. The wise philosopher wrote, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23). Sound advice that we would do well to obey.

Father God, we lift our hearts to You, exposing all and asking for forgiveness and the surgery needed to clean up our inner beings. Only You have the remedies we need and we thank You and praise You for all You are and for Your unlimited love and grace. Amen.

Instinctive Law

Posted on by korgrocker

“Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.”
Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NLT

A human being is an incredibly complex organism. The physical content of bone, blood, muscles and organs is amazing in itself. But when the spiritual side of us, something that no researcher or surgeon can find, remove or dissect, is added into the mix, it is somehow incredible that so many of our scientists and educationalists believe it all happened by chance. Our ability to think, to meditate, and behave, with emotions that can be so unpredictable, somehow has to be connected to a wonderful Creator God. Human behaviour is something that is least understood by our medical and mental health practitioners, and often today a pill is prescribed to “fix” a problem that has a spiritual root.

Something that God designed into His creation, human beings, was a conscience. Somehow, we are programmed with enough of God’s law to understand what is right and what is wrong. Our behaviour is therefore shaped and directed by what God has put within us. But there’s a problem. We call it sin. And we end up in an internal tussle, with our sin dragging us one way, and our consciences saying something different. Every day we face into the consequences of this struggle and it will never cease until we achieve the reality of our salvation. We will come back to this very problem later in this blog.

The Old Testament prophesied that the Old Covenant between God and His people, the Jews, was not working out as God had planned it. Though there were a small minority who perhaps claimed that they were keeping His laws, the majority weren’t. Having a set of laws invites people to live a legalistic life, but God wanted to enjoy a relationship with His people. And being a box-ticker is not being a child of God. Jeremiah prophesied what God was going to do. We read in Jeremiah 31:33, ““But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people”“. With the benefit of hindsight, we know what happened “after those days”. God sent His Son Jesus to be our Saviour, something we are celebrating in this Christmas season.

The question for us pilgrims is this – what is the state of our hearts? Not the physical organ that pumps blood around our bodies, but that complex invisible organism within us that is our central processing unit. Where are thoughts and responses are churning away. Where are consciences are dealing with factors such as sin. Have we given up and instead have shut our spiritual life away somewhere and allowed sin to rule our days? Or are we in good spiritual health, walking hand in hand with our wonderful Heavenly Father? One of my go-to verses is 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness“. That verse wasn’t written to unbelievers but to believers. Fellow pilgrims on their journey to Heaven. Of course, we will screw up from time to time, but it is not inevitable, as we allow that God-made organism within us, our consciences, to function as they should. as we bring our thoughts and desires under God’s spotlight, He will expose any issues and help us seal with them. If we let Him.

Dear Heavenly Father. We are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made”. And we have You to thank for that. We worship You today. Amen.