Compelled by Christ’s Love: A Call to Faith

Posted on by korgrocker

“If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
2 Corinthians 5:13-15 NIVUK

That was a bit harsh, calling Paul mad. Well, isn’t that what “out of your mind” means? Apparently, some in Corinth thought Paul was mad, and they were members of the Corinthian church. What must the unbelievers have thought? Those outside the church who knew Paul, perhaps the local Jews, were intent on doing him harm, as we read in the first chapter of Paul’s first letter, treating him as being mad because of his alleged blasphemy. Paul didn’t have much going for him in Corinth. But Paul certainly wasn’t mad. In fact, he was arguably more sane than any of them in Corinth, because he had discovered the truth. The truth about Jesus being the Son of God. The truth that Jesus left Heaven and came to this world to die on a cross so that mankind could be saved from the consequences of their sin. The truth that he shared at every opportunity with a passion that some considered irrational. Paul wrote that his apparent madness was proclaiming truth for the benefit of the Corinthian church, because if they hadn’t believed it, they were heading to a lost eternity. 

Today, we pilgrims might be considered a bit unhinged if we passionately promote the Good News about Jesus. Having strong opinions is something more associated with those on the fringes of society. Talking about Jesus is not the sort of conversation starter you find in a secular social gathering or in the office. The presence of a “dog collar” immediately puts someone in a box labelled “slightly mad”, but for those without ecclesiastical clothes, talking passionately about Jesus is not considered to be acceptable and good form. People will avoid us, talk disparagingly about us, even insult and abuse us, but as with Paul, we stand for the truth at every opportunity. 

Why was Paul so passionate and fanatical about the Gospel? Well, verse 14 in our reading today provides an explanation. “For Christ’s love compels us” is why. Paul wrote in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. This can be difficult to fully understand because we are wired by sin for self-preservation, in a selfish way that puts our own safety and lives above those of others. And yet there are rare stories of people who, when faced with extreme danger, put aside their own lives to save another person. But we should note that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, chose to leave the comfort and glory of Heaven and become a human being, born into a peasant family. He became a man, although still God, and preached messages that opened the door into the Kingdom of Heaven for everyone. He provided the gift of salvation for all who believed in Him, through what was ultimately a humiliating and excruciatingly painful death. That’s love. That’s Christ’s love. We didn’t ask Him to die for us. In fact, in our sinful natures, we probably didn’t even give the Son of God any thought. He died for people who were shouting for His death. They abused Him, spat at Him, and rejected Him. And yet He still died for them. In Peter’s Acts 2 sermon, we see the people’s response as they finally understood the enormity of what they had done. We read, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37). 

Paul was one of the Jews who actively tried to silence the new believers. Paul was there when Stephen became the first Christian martyr, holding the coats of those responsible for stoning Stephen to death. That obviously had a dramatic effect on Paul, because he next appears in Acts 9:1-2, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem”. But his encounter with the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road refocused his passion and fanaticism and we read, “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20). The present Labour government in the UK has been accused of many “U-turns” with regard to its policies, but Paul’s “U-turn” made them all pall into insignificance. So what caused Paul’s dramatic conversion? It was because Jesus loved and cared for him so much that He met Paul that day in an indisputable way. What else could Paul then do, other than be compelled and motivated to tell others about his Lord? This is not a guilt-driven ministry, pandering to an ego or a religious obligation. This was a ministry driven by love, God’s love, eternal love.

What about us pilgrims? Are we so sure and responsive to Jesus’ love that we, too, feel compelled to tell others what we have experienced? Or are we more blasé, paying lip service and no more? We need to remember that our pasts do not define us. Neither does our old life control us because we are no longer who we used to be. We may prove unpopular when we share our testimony and confront people with the truth about their future. But from the perspective of eternity, such fears are groundless and insignificant. The Lord loves us, and we love him. What more is there to consider?

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for Your love and grace. What else can we do other than share what You have done for us with others? Please help us, we pray. Amen.

The Urgency of Sharing the Gospel

Posted on by korgrocker

“For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.”
2 Corinthians 5:10-12 NLT

The Bible is full of verses on many topics. There are those that we like to read because they give us that warm glow inside, that God loves us and is looking after us. Look at Psalm 121, for example. Some great verses there of God’s protection, and the Psalm ends with “The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever”. And a Psalm much favoured for funerals ends with “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). I love this translation because it uses the word “pursue” rather than “follow”. Our God is far from being passive. But there are other verses that make us feel a bit less comfortable. In fact, they may even make us squirm a bit in our seats. James starts his Epistle with, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (James 1:2-3). We hope and pray that our faith never has to be tested by “troubles of any kind“.

But in the verses we are looking at today, Paul wrote, “Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others”. This is an action verse, one that demands that we do something. The word “fearful” doesn’t imply some form of terror but rather a great sense of awe about God, who He is, and what He has done for us. We do have a responsibility to Him because of Jesus, who took on the punishment we deserved on a cruel Roman cross at Calvary, and what He has asked us to do for Him since then. When we truly understand, we realise that our lives matter eternally and what we choose to do or how we live will have a spiritual impact. And as we recently considered, one day we will give an account of our lives before the Bema seat of Jesus. So the “fearful” bit must never paralyse us with fear, but rather it provides a reverence that mobilises us to do something for Jesus. 

Paul then wrote, “We work hard to persuade others”. Many Christians choose to keep their faith private. It’s their choice, of course, but that was never Jesus’ intention. Such people should be a bit worried about the third servant in the parable of the Talents. The servant who was given the one talent and didn’t put it to use. Instead, he buried it. He dug it up and gave it to the master when he returned from his journey, but received quite a rebuke. “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it’” (Matthew 25:26-27). Sadly, the parable ends, “Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Our faith has never been meant to stay private. Paul didn’t casually mention Jesus. He reasoned, explained, pleaded, and engaged hearts and minds. Paul was driven by a sense of loving urgency because the Gospel proclaims that eternity, either in Heaven or hell, is real. But because of Jesus, he knew that people have the opportunity to be reconciled to God through His grace and love. And because human lives are time-limited, urgency is required. Paul tried to persuade people because he had compassion for them. Why? Because Christ first loved him. 2 Corinthians 5:14a, “For Christ’s love compels us, …”. 

The next part of 2 Corinthians 5:10 is “God knows we are sincere”. Paul never considered human accolades. What mattered to him was God’s approval. He knew that God could see his motives, his struggles and his obedience. He wasn’t concerned about his reputation before men, but rather about doing God’s will. He knew that one day he would hear those marvellous words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. As we emulate Paul’s mission, God too sees our hearts and motivations, and with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even our stumbling, imperfect words can carry a weight far beyond their syllables. Paul goes on to write that he hopes the Corinthians could grasp that he was truly sincere. Paul’s life matched his words. He “walked the walk and talked the talk”. 

For us pilgrims, we must follow Paul’s example when it comes to sharing our faith. There are many people around us, not just our friends and families, who need to hear the life-saving words of the Gospel. Jesus did so much for each one of us, so how can we keep our testimonies to ourselves and not share them with others?

Thank You Lord for saving us from perishing in a place where we would never want to be. Please help us find opportunities to share the Good News about You and Your death and resurrection, to save mankind from the consequences of their sins. Amen.

Paul in Trouble

Posted on by korgrocker

“We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:7-9 NLT

Paul and his companions seemed to be in trouble. In fact, the trouble was so devastating that they thought they “would never live through it”, and they “expected to die”. We don’t know what this trouble was, but in other Biblical accounts, we can find out the extent of Paul’s sufferings. 2 Corinthians 11:23b starts the list, “ …I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again”. Why did Paul do it? Whereas today a preacher of the Gospel in the UK can expect to do so without fear of reprisal, it hasn’t always been so, and in some parts of the world, a missionary would be treated in the same way as Paul was. There is something about the Gospel that introduces a dichotomy into society, separating people into those who support the things of God and those who don’t. And the schism can become violent, on occasion. But sadly, the majority sit between the two extremes: people who are disinterested and uninvolved. Jesus had something to say that applies to this majority as well as the Laodiceans to whom it was addressed, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:15-16). 

For people with strong opinions on anything, there are always consequences, and that was true in Paul’s day as well as in 21st-century Britain, and the USA, from all accounts. Lifting our heads over the parapets of societal norms can put such people in the firing line for legal action or fear of arrest. Public preachers of the Gospel in the streets of our towns and cities are at the mercy of malicious accusations, and if they try to talk about Jesus near an abortion clinic, then they risk arrest for breaking a law designed to quash what should come under the heading of “free speech”. But the worst that can be expected is arrest, a court appearance, and a fine. Not so, however, in Paul’s day, where summary “justice” was the norm, with public whippings and beatings designed to keep order in a fractious society. 

But in all this, Paul never stopped trying to convince people of the truth about Jesus and all that He had done for human beings. Personal danger was something he ignored. But Paul put his finger on an important factor in all this: the need to rely on God. The threat of death was no barrier to Paul because his faith in God was unshakeable: God can raise the dead. Having experienced so much, Paul was uniquely positioned to help those facing the same persecution that he was. Paul’s suffering was so severe that it brought him and his companions to the end of themselves. They were helpless and forced to put all their hope in God. Suffering can do the same for any believer, removing whatever we falsely hope in and landing all our hope in the powerful God we trust. Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote, “Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer” (2 Corinthians 1:6). Paul wrote this to the Philippians while chained to soldiers in a Roman prison cell: “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it” (Philippians 1:29-30). 

“Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.”
St Francis of Assisi

There is a cost to being a Christian. Jesus never wanted us to sit in a pew and be a passive Christian, never interacting with others in society. In my morning prayer walks and at other times whenever I can, I try to invade people’s personal space as inoffensively as possible because the message I have to share is too important to consider individual sensitivities. I may be rejected, but I always hope to plant a Gospel-seed that will ultimately lead to eternal life. A frosty reception sometimes needs to be endured for the sake of Jesus. Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to share their faith in this way, but we do what we can as the Holy Spirit leads. But whatever we do, I hope we never get into the trouble that Paul did.

Dear Lord Jesus. You commissioned us to make disciples wherever we are in this world. Please lead us and guide us through Your Spirit, so that we can introduce You and Your saving grace whenever possible. In Your precious name. Amen.

Our Testimony About Christ

Posted on by korgrocker

“I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NIVUK
“I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.”
1 Corinthians 1:4-6 NLT

Paul could see so much good in those early Christians in Corinth. He provides the picture of a people who seem to have a new confidence enhanced by the spiritual gifts they had received. They received an ability that came from being “enriched in every way with all kinds of speech and knowledge”. But that wasn’t unusual with the early believers. In Acts 3 we can read of a “man who was lame from birth” and who was carried to the Temple gate every day to beg. Then there came those epic words from Peter, “ … ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong” (Acts 3:6-7). Of course, the people who knew the disabled beggar “were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” and this gave Peter and John an opportunity to preach the Gospel in a part of the Temple called Solomon’s Colonnade. But this displeased the religious authorities and “They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day”(Acts 4:3). Peter and John were brought in for questioning the next day before a meeting of the Sanhedrin and they were asked, ” … By what power or what name did you do this?” (Acts 4:7). Now here’s the point of this story – the next verse started, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people!” ‭‭Peter started a discourse empowered in the same way as the believers in Corinth. They were all full of the Holy Spirit and the “gracious gifts He has given [them]”. After Peter’s defence before the Sanhedrin, the two disciples were removed from the assembly and we then read something very telling, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus“. That’s what Paul could see in those early Corinthian believers – men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, giving them powers that could only come from God.

Of course we remember the verses where Jesus told His disciples about the Holy Spirit. Jesus was recorded as saying, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12). The same saying of Jesus is in Matthew 10:19-20, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”. Both versions of what Jesus said stress the importance of recognising the Gift of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. I meet Christians who lack the confidence to speak out when an opportunity is presented, because they feel they won’t know what to say. In faith, we all know what to say, because the Holy Spirit will speak through us. 

Believers everywhere, pilgrims like us, have the responsibility, ability and, we pray, the opportunity to provide and speak out our testimonies about Christ. We don’t have to learn a script. We don’t have to stutter and be ashamed about what we know or about our faith. God will lead us and guide us in every situation we come across. How did we come to know Jesus? How has Jesus helped us in our daily lives? It is all there within us, just waiting for the Holy Spirit to form the words and speak them out through our lips, as Jesus said. Some of the best evangelists are new Christians, full of excitement and the Holy Spirit, desperate to tell someone about Jesus. Do we still have that same excitement that we once had?

But we should also take note of something else. In Peter’s discourse before the Sanhedrin he quoted a Scripture from Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone“. The point is that Peter knew a Bible verse that backed up what he was saying. In the culture of His day, Jesus took it as read that the disciples would have had a degree of Bible knowledge, being schooled at least to a basic level as every Jewish boy was. We pilgrims will not have a religious education to the same degree. We may have been ignorant of Sunday schools when we were small. We may never have entered a church until we met Jesus. But that doesn’t matter because we can read the Bible, and the Holy Spirit will be able to put scriptures into our testimonies because they are stored away somewhere in our memory. But having said that, our God is also a miracle worker. There have been times when some thought or impression has emerged in my mind, and I’ve wondered where it came from, but it has been very relevant to the situation before me. 

Paul reassured the Corinthian believers of the authenticity of his testimony about Christ, and I’m sure his readers had the same. This is something that we pilgrims must also be serious about, also having a testimony about Christ, proclaiming all that He has done for us. It is not just about going to church on a Sunday, and behaving like everyone else for the rest of the week. We must shine like beacons, showing the Light of God to all around us, through our behaviour, speech, attitudes and faith. We present a counter-cultural view of societal life that everyone will see and take note of, and we look for opportunities to share our testimonies with anyone who will listen, using as a bottom line the words that Peter said in Acts 2:38-40, “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!””. We do indeed live in a “crooked generation” and must urge those in our society, those we know and don’t know, about the importance of salvation, and where will spend eternity.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for our testimonies, and we pray for Your presence to bring them to life in the ears of our listeners. It’s all about our Lord Jesus, and all that He has done for us, and we praise and worship You today with deeply thankful hearts. Amen.

Celebrating God’s Mighty Acts

Posted on by korgrocker

“You will wipe their children from the face of the earth; they will never have descendants. Although they plot against you, their evil schemes will never succeed. For they will turn and run when they see your arrows aimed at them. Rise up, O Lord, in all your power. With music and singing we celebrate your mighty acts.”
Psalm 21:10-13 NLT

If there is ever a time in history when we need God to “rise up” in all His power, it is today. We look around at the world and see the wars, not just in a physical sense, but also in the sphere of global macro-economics. We see the misery of people stuck in a hopeless cycle of drug and alcohol addiction. We read about the people who want to end their lives because living doesn’t appeal to them anymore. We see the tragedy of unborn babies being eliminated in the name of women’s health. But I expect many in our past have called upon God to rise up in power. What prayers and cries to God were going up during the last world war? What were relatives praying when their loved ones were dying in the Covid pandemic? What about the times when untreatable sicknesses were rife in Victorian days? And all the way back to David’s day and beyond, there were crises, one after another, when people cried out to God for help. And how many people are suffering today, persecuted and abused just for believing in God? Part of living in an evil and sinful world is the reality that there will be times of difficulty, misery, pain, and hopelessness. But having written all of this, there is hope. David finished Psalm 21 with the words, “With music and singing we celebrate your mighty acts”. That implies that there were, and are, times when God does act. In fact, I am sure that God is holding back most of the evil that is poised, waiting to be unleashed on a helpless world full of God’s creation, evil that the devil and his assistants are concocting to bring unbearable misery. 

When God created the earth and all that is upon it, He said it was good. All that we perceive as evil just wasn’t there, but a Heavenly being, an angel called Lucifer, or Satan, rebelled against God and had to be removed from Heaven, which is the sinless domain where God lives. Unfortunately, the angels are immortal beings so there was only one other place that the rebellious angels could go and that was Planet Earth. Isaiah 14:12, “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world“. And so there is a struggle between how God created us, good and perfect, and the devil and all his evil ways, that has resulted in a world tainted with sin. Many of David’s Psalms portray the struggle that has resulted. But in it all, David was close to the Lord, and could testify to the mighty acts of God worked out in his life during his reign as king of Israel. 

In our lives today, we pilgrims too can testify to the mighty acts of God. The first is the act of redemption and atonement that God Himself brought right down to Planet Earth. An act of love and compassion never before seen, and it will never again occur. It was a once only event, a time when Heaven and earth, the spiritual and the natural, collided and one that signed the death warrant for the devil and all his schemes. The devil thought that by bringing about the crucifixion and death of God’s only Son, Jesus, he would finally win the war between Good and Evil, but how wrong he was. There is now a conduit between earth and Heaven that allows human beings to escape from his clutches. Yes, we pilgrims are still living in a world of evil and sin, even to the point where we too are entangled in sinful ways, but as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we have been set free and we are assured forgiveness and redemption through Jesus. 

We pilgrims can also sing and praise God for His “mighty acts” in the way He has brought about events in our own lives. I can personally testify to many occasions when God has come through for me and my family, as we trusted Him for direction and favour in a time of crisis. And I’m sure my readers also have their own stories of how God has blessed them. And so together we can celebrate His “mighty acts” with singing and music. There is no God like our God. Who else is there who can pour out on us so much love and compassion? Who else can forgive us for our sins and bring us ultimately to our Heavenly home? Who else is there who can wipe away our tears and heal our diseases? But even in times when it appears the doors of Heaven are shut and our prayers bounce back unheeded, we can stand firm as Habakkuk did when he wrote, “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). We know that the battles waging around us will ebb and flow, but we are certain, as Jesus said, ” … the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). In the meantime we will sing and make music in honour, and to the glory, of the One who has performed “mighty acts”.

Dear Father God. You and only You are the One who loves and cares for us and our souls. We worship You with grateful hearts today. Amen.

The End

Posted on by korgrocker

“This disciple is the one who testifies to these events and has recorded them here. And we know that his account of these things is accurate. Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.”
John 21:24-25 NLT

The world today has an insatiable desire for information. Vast quantities of data flow along cables and radio waves throughout the world, a global information highway that transport data in fractions of a second. Telephone calls can be made across the globe. News reports become immediately available. In a sense the world is shrinking. But back at John’s desk, as he was penning his final words, he felt a sense of being overwhelmed. Have I written enough? What about that time when …? Did God want me to mention about …? These were all questions that could have been going through his mind, but in the end he concluded that he had done enough. Mission accomplished. We must also remember that what he wrote was inspired by the Holy Spirit so he would have felt a peace within as he added the final “full stop”. But John was right over one thing, if all that Jesus had done had been recorded in the way we have come to expect today, then there would not have been enough storage media available to record it all. 

In recent years, a device called a “lifelogger” has been produced that would take a snapshot every thirty seconds or so, providing a log of someone’s life. And then there was the Spanish scientist who started logging every detail of his life in a notebook when he turned forty. Now, nearly ten years later, he has filled 307 notebooks and there are more to go. But it begs the question about what value this could ever have to anyone. But it is different with Jesus. Superficially, the Son of God’s thoughts and deeds would be of immense value to humanity, but then we have to consider that He, through John and the other Bible writes, had divulged all the needed principles for life that would leverage our human understanding and intelligence. Jesus taught using parables, and the benefit of these is that they make people think, bringing understanding and direction for the way they live their lives. And the Holy Spirit brings enlightenment and direction. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). 

John concluded that his Gospel account was “accurate” and his testimony recorded. Job done. Book finished. And we’re grateful for the Bible writers like John who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote down just what God intended. 

Dear Father God. The Bible is Your own work, recorded by Your human servants. Thank You for John and men and women like him, who devoted their lives for the benefit of others. Amen.

You Must Testify

Posted on by korgrocker

“But I will send you the Advocate —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.”
John 15:26-27 NLT

The word “testify” appears twice in these verses, once associated with the Holy Spirit and the other time with Jesus and His disciples. Everything they needed to know about Jesus after He had gone would be revealed to them by the Holy Spirit, who would “come” to them “from the Father”. But just a few short years before, something happened on the shores of the Galilean Sea that would have far reaching consequences, not just for those concerned, but for the world ever since. Those early disciples are long dead but their legacy lives on in successive generations of believers. Mark 1:16-17, “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!””. Just a little further along the shore Jesus found James and John and we read, “He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men” (Mark 1:20). Did those four men have any clue about would happen over the next three years or so‭‭? Their world was turned upside down but they never turned away from Jesus. But here was their Master saying to them and the others, “you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.” 

And testify about Jesus they did. On the same day that the Spirit fell on those gathered in that Upper Room, on the first Day of Pentecost, Peter testified about Jesus, “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know” (Acts 2:22). And Peter’s last recorded words were, “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). The last verse in the Bible was spoken by the Apostle John, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people” (Revelation 22:21). Those early disciples, who had “been with [Jesus] from the beginning of [His] ministry” never stopped testifying about Jesus, fulfilling Jesus’ wishes in these last hours of His life.

We pilgrims, by extension, must also testify about Jesus. The Holy Spirit dwells within all truly born again believers and they too benefit from His testimony about Jesus. At every opportunity we must share how Jesus gave His life to save everyone, and in the process we testify how that made a difference to us. In John 1:4-7, we read, “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony”. John the Baptist was the first testifier about Jesus. He realised who the Light was and he testified about Jesus “so that everyone might believe”. 

Paul wrote, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. … But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke”” (2 Corinthians 4:7, 13). We faith-filled pilgrims may feel totally inadequate for the task of testifying but regardless we must speak the words of Jesus at every opportunity. Why? Because Jesus asked us to.

Lord Jesus. Because of Your grace and love what else can we do other than speak out our testimony of faith. Please lead us to the people You want to hear it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Personal Testimony

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” The Pharisees replied, “You are making those claims about yourself! Such testimony is not valid.” Jesus told them, “These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone. And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.””
John 8:12-18 NLT

The Pharisees seem to have been abandoned by the other Jewish religious leaders because John stopped mentioning them. But regardless, the Pharisaical attacks on Jesus continued, and they now start another approach. The Pharisees decided that Jesus was making claims about Himself that could not be substantiated by independent witnesses, so how could they be proven? Where was the testimony of others? Without it, the Pharisees said, Jesus had no right to make the claims He did. Claims like we read in John 6:35, “Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. And in our verses today we read another claim that Jesus made – “I am the light of the world”. Of course, to the Jews, the use of the two words “I am” was highly contentious because they were the name of God and many Jews wouldn’t even mention it. Exodus 3:14, “God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you””. 

Jesus told the Pharisees that what He said about Himself was valid, because there were two witnesses – Himself and His Father in Heaven. Jesus said His claims were true because He knew where He had come from and where He was going. His mandate couldn’t have been any higher. He was on a mission ordained by His Father. Effectively, He was saying to the Pharisees that He was the Son of God, able to make valid claims about Himself, so get over it!

Jesus also pointed out that the Pharisees were using human values to judge Him, something that did not apply in His situation. There was no higher authority than God and His Son, so human jurisdiction did not apply. Jesus then said that He didn’t judge anyone. We remember that He had previously mentioned this in His conversation with Nicodemus, recorded in John 3:17, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him”. At the time of His first coming, Jesus was not going to judge anyone – that occasion was still to come, as we read in Revelation 20. 

So, what do we pilgrims think of Jesus and His claims? They are all recorded in the Gospels and elsewhere in the New Testament. The people of His day were divided in their opinions of Him. Many believed in Him because of the miraculous signs that he did, and because of His teaching. But still more, including the Pharisees and the other religious leaders, did not. However, two thousand years on, we are followers of Jesus, disciples of the Son of God, believers in the God-Man who had the words of eternal life. The Messiah who was the bread of life, sustaining those who believed in Him. We don’t stumble around in the darkness of a sinful world, but we have the light of Jesus illuminating our every step. We worship a loving Saviour, who gave His life that we might live.

Dear Lord Jesus. We believe in you, and will follow You all the days of our lives. In Your precious name. Amen.

The Galilean Welcome

Posted on by korgrocker

“At the end of the two days, Jesus went on to Galilee. He himself had said that a prophet is not honoured in his own hometown. Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there.”
John 4:43-45 NLT

After a couple of days spent amongst the inhabitants of Sychar in Samaria, Jesus continued with His journey to Galilee. Amazing things had happened in Sychar, and the Samarians were left with the knowledge that they had met with God’s own Son, Jesus, the Messiah they had been waiting for. Perhaps Sychar was an oasis of revival in an otherwise neglected people. 

John wrote that Jesus’ ministry didn’t start very well in Galilee. We can read about that occasion in Matthew 13. John wrote that Jesus ” … returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?”” (Matthew 13:54). But to the people amongst whom Jesus grew up and worked, in His home town of Nazareth, there was a disconnect. The account continues in Matthew, “Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?”” (Matthew 13:55-56). At first sight, it is incredible to think that the miracles Jesus had committed and the words of the Kingdom of God that He had preached, were all rejected just because they had known Him differently. And in Matthew 13:57 we read, “And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.”” A really sad state of affairs.

But before we pilgrims take the moral high ground and claim that we would never have behaved in such a way, we should pause and think. Who in the workplace has not resented the promotion of a colleague, thinking that he or she is no better than they are and unworthy of the promotion? Who has had trouble receiving a message from a Christian brother or sister, because they perhaps have known them from another time? Who has become a Christian only to find that their family has rejected them? If Jesus was rejected by His own people, we should expect the same. We read in John 1:10-11, “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“. We sometimes expect that the deliverer of God’s messages, a prophet, should be someone who has perhaps been raised in God’s presence by a family of angels. But it is so different – Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 1:26-28, “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important“. So we pilgrims should always welcome what a brother or sister, whatever their pedigree, says to us, because for all we know, God may be speaking a message for us just through them.

In our verses from John 4 today, we read that in spite of all the contempt and rejection Jesus had suffered in Nazareth, the Galileans welcomed Him anyway. They had seen the miracles He had committed in Judea, because many of them had journeyed there for the Jewish Feast. When we make that transition from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, we are transformed. We become a new creation and we have access to all God’s resources. And through His grace and mercy He will use us obedient believers to deliver His message to those around us. That is, if we let Him. And we can expect opposition, particularly if the message is to our families and those who know us. To preach the message of salvation to our friends and family can be difficult, but we must persevere and pray. I know a man who is now a pastor of a church in a deprived area of Glasgow. He planted the church in the same community that he grew up in, and where he became involved with drugs, even becoming a dealer at one point. The police caught up with him eventually and he ended up serving a prison sentence. But in prison he was encouraged by the prison chaplain to consider spending time with Teen Challenge after he was released. But to cut a long story short, he came to know Jesus as his personal Saviour, went to Bible college, married a Christian girl in Dublin, and returned to Glasgow where he is now preaching the Gospel to his friends and family.

But Jesus was welcomed back into Galilee because He had credibility with the people there. They had seen at first hand the powerful miracles, and heard the gracious words about God’s Kingdom. It will take time for us pilgrims to achieve credibility as Christians with our friends and family, but persevere we must. And when they hear our testimonies, perhaps they too will welcome us as children of God.

Dear Heavenly Father. Through Your grace and mercy, we have a story to tell of our wonderful Saviour. Grant us the words to say, we pray, so that we can introduce others to Jesus. Amen.

Saviour of the World

Posted on by korgrocker

“Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 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.””
John 4:39-42 NLT

Why should people believe in Jesus because of what this woman, someone with perhaps a rather questionable lifestyle, said? Why should exposing her rather sordid past lead to many of the Sychar inhabitants believing in Jesus? In fact the simple statement “He told me everything I ever did!” resulted in Jesus being invited to stay in the village for a further two days. In fact, it was not just a casual invitation – they “begged Him to stay”. And we are told that “many more” heard His message and believed. The short stay however resulted in many believing in Jesus because they got to know Him, and His saving love and grace, for themselves. They were not depending on someone else’s testimony. 

Perhaps the personalities and relational dynamics in the village community were suddenly overturned by the testimony of the woman by the well. They knew of course about her reputation, and she was obviously shunned by the other village women, being forced to draw water from the well when there was no-one else around. So there would have been no surprises in the woman’s message to her fellow villagers – we can perhaps visualise the nods and winks, and comments behind her back. But the fact that a stranger knew, a passer by who stopped at the well for a drink, added impact to the testimony. And we know from a previous verse that she added weight to what she had to say by including, “Could He possibly be the Messiah”? 

But the important message to the Sychar inhabitants is the same today – we introduce people to Jesus by the power of our testimonies. This power was recorded in the Acts account of the early believers, as we read in Acts 4:33, “The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all“. For us pilgrims today, our conversion experiences, articulated in our testimonies, may be the only opportunity people have to hear the Gospel. It is of course possible for people to become Christians by reading the Bible, but the real power emerges when we introduce them to Jesus personally. 

Jesus was, and is, the Saviour of the world. Only He can introduce us to God, and only we can introduce people to Jesus. Our testimonies must be full of the excitement we first experienced when we found that Jesus loved us and died in our place for our sins. The woman at the well was so excited about her encounter with Jesus that she left her water pot behind and rushed into the village to tell someone. Do we communicate the same excitement and conviction when we share with others what the Saviour of the world, Jesus, has done for us? However, if we have lost our first love, then we must do what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus. “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches” (Revelation 2:4-5). 

We pilgrims have a message so important that we must tell everyone at every opportunity. Our testimonies of what Jesus as done for us must be communicated, by what we say and what we do, to the people around us, because Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is the Saviour of the world. By introducing people to Jesus we show them the way to eternal life. They may not have another opportunity.

Dear Lord Jesus. You said to Your disciples, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. There is no other way into Heaven. We are so grateful for Your grace and mercy. Amen.