Unexpected blessing

In school yesterday the Gideons were in to do an assembly for year 7 and to give every pupil a little New Testament and Psalms (I will never understand why they leave out the Old Testament!)

Later on in the day I was teaching a year 7 class and some of the pupils had their little NTs out on the table next to their books. At one point a girl in my class was flicking through it rather than working on her Maths (the odd situation where I have to tell pupils to put their Bibles away and get on with their work). Well this girl told me she had found a verse which clearly told her to hit the boy behind her (say his name was Fred, she said "look sir this verse says 'Hit Fred'". So I got my own NT out (the Gideons had given me one too!) and looked up the verse. It was Luke 3 v 6 which actually says:

'And all mankind will see God's salvation.'

It's part of a quote from Isaiah 40: 3-5 (which, even if I had known that at the time I couldn't have turned to due to the fact it was only a NT!) but as I read it to myself I just thought wow what an amazing verse. Praise God that all mankind will see God's salvation - all kinds of people from all kinds of background. And praise God too that even those who will not be saved will still see that which they've so tragically missed out on and God will be both vindicated and glorified.

Amazing verse and such an unexpected blessing in the midst of my year 7 Maths lesson!

Are Christians to be pitied?

This evening I have been thinking about one of my favourite passages in Scripture. It can be found in 1 Corinthians 15:

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

It is a passage that is followed by one of the great 'But...' statements in the Bible:

20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Christians are definitely not to be 'pitied more than all men' because Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.

The context in which I have been thinking about this passage, however, is concerning those Christians who are not going on in their faith, i.e. not following on after Christ. What do I mean by that? I mean those Christians (and mainly myself to be honest) who are not spending that regular time, daily, meeting with God in prayer and in the Word. Surely these are the Christians who are to be pitied more than all men. They claim to believe in the Christ who has indeed been raised from the dead, they claim to believe something really great but are not doing anything with it. That is incredibly pitiful and miserable. Don't get me wrong, I am not really saying that they should just be pitied. I'm saying they should be rebuked for they are doing much damage to the cause of the gospel and that should not be taken lightly but there should be pity and much prayer for them also.

Are there people in your church who claim to be born again into so great a salvation but are living, in the secret and quiet place, just like the world. How would you know? Surely you can tell by the lack of joy, lack of anything fresh to share of the Lord, lack of distinction from the world, etc. Ungodliness is crippling our churches.

Let us resolve then to know the Lord and to:

"make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1: 10-11)

God bless + press on!