Fiery Trials

Posted on by korgrocker

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.”
1 Peter 4:12-13 NLT

We Western pilgrims can’t personally identify with the “fiery trials” Peter was writing about. Those early believers courageously stood up for their faith, withstanding all types and severities of persecution; some even experienced long and drawn out deaths. The first martyr was Stephen. He accused the Jewish leaders of disobeying God’s law, and we pick up the narrative in Acts 7:56, “And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand!” Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died”. A sad end for a Godly man, but an end that brought glory to God. Stephen was not the only martyr by a long way. Those early believers in Peter’s generation were stoned, torn apart by animals in the public games, crucified, beheaded and so on. They were ostracised in their communities, prosecuted for trumped-up misdemeanours and generally suffered greatly for believing in the same God that we do today.

However, in other parts of the world today, “fiery trials” are still being experienced by Christians. Believers in Asian and African countries particularly are suffering greatly. Pakistani Christians are being violently attacked; I have just read about an Iranian pastor who has been sentenced to a long prison sentence in Iran’s notorious Evi prison; in fact, according to Open Doors UK, 5,621 Christians were murdered for their faith last year, and that’s only the deaths that they have been able to discover.

One thing we pilgrims will have realised is that being a Christian does not make life any easier. In fact, it will probably make it harder. Jesus, in His long John 17 prayer said to His disciples, “I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do” (John 17:14-16).

Peter wrote that believers shouldn’t be surprised when they are persecuted. In fact, he encourages them with the thought that the persecution, the “fiery trials”, that they are experiencing makes them “partners with Christ in his suffering”. Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it”. In fact, if we are finding that the life of a believer is hassle free, then perhaps we should question our commitment. Following Jesus is not an easy life choice, because it involves setting aside our own personal selfish desires, and instead choosing to live life the Jesus way. Jesus asked the question, “ … 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). But we know that with God on our side, we are assured that whatever trials we are facing into, if we persevere we will come out the other side unscathed, and closer to God than ever before. He loves us, His children. And He will never leave us to fend on our own. Every prayer that we utter has four people present, God, the Father, Jesus, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. And us of course. An invincible combination I think we must agree.

Dear Heavenly Father. We pray that You will strengthen us to live faithfully for You, right to the end. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Trials and Testing

Posted on by korgrocker

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT

Life for a Christian must have been difficult in the five provinces in those days. Peter wrote about “trials”. We don’t know what they were but we can imagine. News reports today of the trials experienced by Christians in other countries dominated by hostile religions and governments will give us a good idea. For example, in India today, Christians are under attack, and the violence against them has been steadily increasing over recent years, with 2023 the most violent so far. So Christians endure arrests, beatings, and killings. Churches are burned down and pastors arrested and thrown into gaol. That would have been the life for those early believers living in the first Century Turkish societies.

Peter encourages the believers, saying that they “must endure many trials for a little while”. Why? Because there is “wonderful joy ahead”. Peter continued in saying the these trials are necessary to refine faith and ensure commitment is genuine. And as he pauses with pen raised, a picture before him of a worker in precious metals purifying gold comes into his mind, a picture that he immediately connects with the process of refining faith through trials. You see, no one is going to falsely claim to be a Christian for long if it is going to cost him beyond what he is prepared to pay. The trials, Peter was saying, will shake out anyone who is not prepared to pay the price for being a Christian.

The recent Covid pandemic with its lockdowns here in the UK saw church attendance plummet and, for many, it has not recovered. The Church of England has claimed attendance at weekly church services is down by a third. And that is without all the trials Peter was writing about. But regardless of pandemics and the like, there is still a substantial cost involved in being a Christian. We pilgrims are not running our own lives anymore, in accordance with our own sinful and selfish desires. We look to God for guidance and try and follow His ways which are often contrary to our own human viewpoint. 

Jesus once made a statement to the crowd of people following Him that was extraordinary in its implication. He said, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27). Strong words but they contain a message about the commitment required to be a follower of Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:15, “He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them”. 

So we pilgrims, mostly sitting in the comfort of our lives, look around us and reflect with the question – if this was all taken away would I still be a follower of Christ? My wife and I were faced with an extremely painful situation when we were called to discuss the prognosis and treatment for our seriously ill daughter. We were told that she would be unlikely to survive her illness and that we should prepare for the worst. I can remember that in our prayers we believed that God would heal her. But we also had to face the reality of what we do if she was taken from us. We concluded that we would still praise Him, follow Him and trust Him. Thankfully He did heal her but perhaps we briefly experienced the trials Peter wrote about. Many disciples stopped following Jesus because of His hard teaching, and as they disappeared over the horizon Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave as well. We read in John 6:68, “Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life”. We have before us the short-term cost of being a Jesus follower, but longer term we will find ”much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world”. When will that be? We don’t have a date but we do know that one day Jesus will return to this planet.  Let’s not forget that. We need to get ready for His return because it could be tomorrow.

Dear God. We know that eternal life with You is the only goal we should consider. Please help us in our journey, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Strength of Character

Posted on by korgrocker

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.“
Romans 5:3-5 NLT

What is this entity “strength of character”? The dictionary defines the word character as, “the particular combination of qualities in a person or place that makes them different from others”. But the “character” that Paul was referring to was much more than that. Just to be different in character to other people is all very well, but Godly character is something else. This type of character is active, not something that is passive. Godly character is something that is constantly improving, drawing us closer and closer to the person God designed us to be. As we endure the hassles of life, our endurance in maintaining our faith and relationship with God strengthens us, so that when the storms hit, we stand firm.

Someone who has a Godly character is like the wise man in Jesus’ parable about the builders. In Matthew 7:25-26 we read, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock”. The wise man had the right character, because he knew, perhaps from previous experiences, the consequences of building on a dodgy foundation. Perhaps previous “problems and trials” had taught him much and honed his character. He knew that only Jesus had the words of eternal life and would lead him to the right outcome. But so many people instead put their trust on sandy foundations. They trust a friend, or a political party, or their bank account, trusting a substitution for God that will collapse like the foolish man in Jesus’ parable when the storms of life crash against them. They lose their jobs, or their friend moves away and cuts off contact. Their bank account is swallowed up by inflation and they find that there is too much month left at the end of their money. But whatever happens, they find that they have no endurance to get through the crisis. Their character fails the strength and endurance test.

We pilgrims are made of sterner stuff, of course. Not for us a trust in worldly systems that could collapse at any moment. We have built our foundations on the Rock that is Christ. Psalm 18:30-31, “God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. For who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is a solid rock?” Who indeed!

Father God. Only You can develop our characters through the trials and problems of life. Only You can hold our hand and help us. We praise and thank You today. Amen.

Endurance

Posted on by korgrocker

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:3-5 NLT

In the UK at present, in the natural, there seems little to rejoice about. The cost of living has gone up dramatically, impacting a new generation of adults who have never known anything other than very low inflation and interest rates. Energy costs have more than doubled over the space of a year or so and there seems no sign of them returning to the level enjoyed before the Covid pandemic. Eventually, wages will catch up, but “problems and trials” will abound for the foreseeable future. So why did Paul make the statement that the difficulties we are facing into will “help us develop endurance”?  

Paul wasn’t the only early first century Apostle who made such a statement. We read in James 1:2-3, “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”. 

So what is this “endurance”? It is that ability to persevere through “problems and trials” without going under, without giving up, without jumping ship and joining another with less hassles. The Christian life was and is never going to be an easy option. Not only do we have to clean up our own lives under God’s gracious and loving guidance, but we will be largely shunned by those in society around us. In some parts of the world, even the state authorities will be against us. We have many brothers and sisters persecuted for their faith in other countries like North Korea and Afghanistan.

Jesus told His disciples, “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”  (John 16:32-33). Jesus was facing into an incredibly difficult situation. He knew He was heading to the Cross and a horrible and painful death. And He knew His disciples would abandon Him to His fate. And here He was, encouraging His disciples with words of comfort. He told them that their future natural lives were going to be full of “problems and trials” and yet, through it all, they would have Jesus with them because, as they would find out later, His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would be with them, enabling them to “overcome the world”. 

There are many Christians who start well, but then become shipwrecked on the trials of life. Perhaps they are in a church that goes through a difficult time with splits and changes of leadership, and they get hurt in the process. Or perhaps a Christian friend is treated badly by another Christian and they decide that they want no more of this faith. So they stop going to church. They stop reading their Bibles. And before long they have failed to endure. 

What do we pilgrims do, when circumstances seem to conspire against us? Go down the tubes? Or rise up above the difficulties? A Psalmist, Asaph, was facing into an inexplicable situation that severely challenged his faith in God. We read in Psalm 73:2, “But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone”. As we read on, we see the gyrations that went on in his mind as he considered how the wicked seemed to get away with their behaviour. Bitterly, he said, “Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?” And then we read, “Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked. Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do” (Psalm 73:17, 25-26, 28). Asaph regained his perspective. There are many other examples in the Bible, of people who faced into trials and problems. We read about a few in Hebrews 11.

But through it all, we have a wonderful loving Heavenly Father who is always there for us. He will always help us through our times of trial. Somehow in His presence, the trials don’t seem half as bad. There is an old saying, “When the going gets tough the tough get going”. Much truth in that when it comes to endurance.

Father God. Your Son Jesus knew all about trials and problems. We thank You for Your encouragement and guidance when the going gets tough. Through You the world has been overcome. Thank You Jesus. Amen.