The book of Job
I just felt inspired to share something that I thought about during quiet time yesterday with Sunshine. He had read the book of Job, and we talked about why God scolded his three friends who had come to encourage him through the adversities that Satan had put him through. We were puzzled over God's unhappiness with what the three friends had said despite the content being only about how great God is and how Job must have incurred His wrath to make Him want to inflict all these tragedies on him.
Much later, we searched online for an interpretation of the book,and realized that God had scolded the three friends for trying to find reasons for His actions. That made me think about all those times people had told me (I'm guilty of doing this to others too) that God must have a reason for putting me through hardship and suffering and maybe He wants me to learn something from this.
But who am I to tell this to others? I am not God and do not know His intentions. In fact, this whole thing about Job started only because Satan had told God that he was sure that His people worship Him only because He is good to them. Once He removes these good things, they will curse Him and stop placing their trust in Him. It was definitely not because Job had sinned or because God wanted him to learn a lesson.
Throughout all this nonsense Job was facing, he merely questioned God's intentions and did not get angry at or curse God. I realized today that reading the book of Job was a rebuke from God, years later, about how I had been angry at Him for something I don't even remember...
What I can take away from this, coupled with all those times that pastors have talked about placing God first or in the centre of our lives in their sermons, is that I must always remember to look towards Him for direction, and not to be angry with Him for whatever He places in my life.
Hard to do, but I really must change myself :)
Labels: God-centered
Father's Day
This post has been delayed for a year. =P
It was Father's Day that Sunday, and my pastor, Reverend Barnabas Chong, who has since left us for another church, had talked about what FATHER stands for.
But I forgot what he had said, and wasn't quick enough to take it down then =P
The gist of his sermon included:
relationships are of great importance to God (Ephesians 6:4), and that the enemy is adept at creating disconnected relationships.God's Word says: And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4This means that fathers should not exasperate their children by not spending time with them, having high expectations, and not keeping their promises to their children. These are quite commonsensical points. One other important point worth elaborating on is that fathers should expect change in their children as they grow and develop into adults. Rev Chong had brought up the following example:A child is scolded by his father for being immature. He thus tries to change. However, his father continues to be biased and thinks that his child will not change, and tries to pre-empt his child's "immature" behaviour by chiding him. Eventually, the child says, "Dad, I've changed. But you haven't."Parents (not just fathers) should thus always try to pay attention to whether their child has changed for the better and change their own mindsets about their children according to their development."Wait" is also a word that parents should not always use to their children. Can you imagine how it would be like for a child who excitedly wants to show his parent a thing he finds interesting, but is always told to wait? The word "wait" would thus, with time, turn into a deterrent. The child may stop wanting to show his parent his new experiences, and their relationship would sour/never improve.Where possible, parents should be patient with their children and devote their attention to them wholeheartedly. Some things cannot afford a "wait".That's not saying that parents should give in to their children so much that they spoil them. "Wait" should be used to teach children respect. As the saying goes, everything should be done in moderation. If a child interrupts his parent's conversation with someone else and gets the attention he wants all the time, he will grow up to be a rude child. And this example explicates my point clearly.Further elaborating on "wait", it is a powerful tool that the devil may use to take us away from our relationships with others. Parents may be deceived that their work, for instance, is more important than a whining child who yearns for a playmate/attention. They may also think that they need to work more to earn more for a higher level of comfort for the family so as to make them happier.This is a very ubiquitous distraction that creates rifts in our relationships with others. Fathers may think: My wife can take care of and teach the children. This is a terribly wrong mindset. Both parents are just as responsible for their children! In time to come, who has the father to blame if he realises that he has missed out on the most important stages of his children's childhood and failed to bond with them?This distraction also prevents us from spending enough quality time with our loved ones. This is an expansion of the previous point on bonding. Quality time makes for bonding and bonding is what lets us feel close to others emotionally. Who can fathers blame if they fall into the trap of this distraction and their children run to everyone but them for emotional comfort? It is moderately alright if their children seek comfort from God, their mother, relatives and good friends, but what if their children seek comfort from bad company?No matter what, children need their parents to be involved in their lives all the time, and fathers should try as far as possible not to allow themselves and their families to fall into the devil's trap (because he knows that relationships are important to God, and thus he wants to destroy as many relationships as he can).Father's Day is coming up soon. Not all of us have wonderful fathers, but perhaps we could take the initiative to mend the bond (if it is broken), somehow, at our own pace. Nothing is too late. It just depends on how you do it, and the will to do so...pray for the strength to do so too =)
Labels: father's day
Blessed Good Friday (a recap on Palm Sunday)
Today is the day that all followers of Christ have designated as Good Friday. We commemorate Jesus' death on the cross for us because we want to remind ourselves of how much God loves us - He loves us so much that He sent His son to die on the cross so that we would be cleansed of all our sins and be fit to be with God in Heaven.
Jesus came to Jerusalem for human beings. Throughout His entire life on Earth, all the demons (e.g. Legion, in Mark 5) and animals (e.g. the donkey whom no one had ever ridden on but behaved in a tame manner towards Jesus, in Luke 19:28-35) he had encountered recognised Him as the Son of God, but not everyone whom He had come for recognised Him.
The crowd, who had been asked to decide which criminal they wanted back, chose Barabbas the murderer, rather than Jesus, the pure and sinless lamb of God.
Weird, isn't it? Why did the crowd do such a cruel and unjust thing? Jesus had done so many miracles in God's name and epitomised the love of God. Yet he was crucified on the cross rather than exalted and praised above all men.
I just got my answer! Haha. God did not want Jesus to be merely praised by men. He wanted Jesus to be crucified and raised to Heaven so that He could please God. That way, Jesus would be praised by BOTH men and God, because He did the will of God willingly and sacrificed Himself for all men.
Of course, this death may not seem as cruel to you because you did not witness it. That is something that hinders me from remembering how Jesus died on the cross for me, sometimes. But one thing that never fails to remind me of how painful His death was is the fact that He had nails driven into His hands and feet. With no anaesthetic, of course.
The point of my post is that Jesus died on the cross for all of us, and as long as we believe this fact, we will be saved.
Have a blessed Good Friday! =)
Labels: good friday
Look Within Yourself, Perhaps
I just read about a man who wanted to lose weight and prayed long and hard about it to no avail.
He's one of the authors of the devotional that Navert lent to me.
After a long period of weight loss and re-gain, he finally decided to shut himself away from everyone to try to listen to what God had to say to him.
He learnt that he had been like an alcoholic who wanted to binge drink and still not be affected by it. Effectively, he had a problem curbing his eating and still wanted to remain slim. That wasn't the right way to lose weight (in his case).
Thus he prayed for the strength to change his eating habits instead of to lose weight, and ended up achieving his goal.
The bottom line of this post is to learn to recognise when you are praying for the wrong thing. Sometimes, we tend to ask God to change the things around us. But often, the problem might lie within us, and not around us.
Labels: prayer
Forget Your Own Sins
It's been nearly 5 months since I lasted posted here! =P
Anyway, like what the title of my post says, "forget your own sins".
Many people may argue that that's wrong because we should remember our own mistakes so that we do not make them again, and if we had let someone down in that mistake, all the more we should carry that burden of guilt with us all our lives as a sign of remorse.
I say, that's a mistake.
For Christians, anyway. Because what does God's Word say?
"I will confess my transgressions to the Lord - and you forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:5b
When Jesus died on the cross for us, His holy blood had already cleansed us of all our sins, as long as we believe.
And since God has forgiven us our sins as long as we confess and are truly contrite, why should we forever remember the guilt of it and bear this unnecessary burden??
The devil actually makes use of our sins to torture us and spiritually maim us. Have you ever felt unworthy and useless in God's sight? That's because you are still bearing that burden. And in the process, you either fall away from God or really become useless. That's because God would not be able to use you for His purposes.
I was doing my quiet time today and came across the account of my book's author on bearing the burden of sin. We've all sinned and know how terrible it is to bear guilt, and I myself have of course been a victim of this many times before.
Personally, I recently confessed a sin to God and totally immersed myself in His forgiveness, was set free from my burden of that sin and felt close to Him once again. However, after everything died down, the memory of that sin returned to haunt me over and over again, and for a while, I felt unworthy in His presence.
Now, every time I feel that unworthiness, I remind myself that I've been forgiven and the sin has been erased by God. He does not take it into account any longer when He looks at me, and I have no reason to feel lousy. In fact, if I continue to feel lousy, I'd be sinning because I'm belittling His holiness!!
So right now, I encourage you, my brothers and sisters, to confess whatever sins you have to the Lord, ask for His strength to not commit those sins again, and forget the burden they entail, just as He has chosen not to remember your sins.
Labels: forgiveness
The End of Time
I went for the Youth Service for this week as I had Paint-A-Home on Sunday 10 June 2007. Anna accompanied me to it, and to my surprise the service was held at the Covenant Chapel instead of the Sanctuary, and I got a greater surprise when I walked into the Covenant Chapel and realised that it's so big and pretty. =)
Anyway, the service started with worship that was led by two youths. The singer sang beautifully, I felt. Her voice is very unique, and it helped that the rhythm of the songs we sang are very ex-Avril Lavigne like. =)
There was a song we sang that had a line that went, "All I need is You". I used to be able to sing this without thinking deeply about its meaning, but in JC, after I started liking guys, I realised I couldn't truly sing that line in many songs and mean it. It would be a lie if I sang that line when I wanted those people I liked to like me back that badly.
However, on this day, I suddenly realised that this line meant that all I need,
spiritually, is God. Only He can fulfil my spiritual needs. You know that kind of emptiness people get from being too busy with their lives and wondering what they are working so hard for at times? Once they know God, they will no longer feel this emptiness =)
The sermon was on Daniel 2, and it talked about Daniel interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
The king had forgotten most of his dream by the time he awoke, and demanded for someone to tell him what he had dreamt of and what it means. No one around him was able to tell him what he wanted, and he was furious. In the end, Daniel managed to interpret his dream, with God's help, and here is what it means:
The king saw a great statue with a head of gold (Babylon, which reigned from 605 to 539 BC), chest and arms of silver (Medo-Persian Empire, which reigned from 539 to 331 BC), a belly of bronze (Greek [Macedonian], which reigned from 331 to 165 BC), legs of iron (Rome, which reigned from 163 BC to AD mid 4th century) and feet of iron and clay (the divided Roman Empire, which is Europe).
A stone smashed the statue and it increased in size until it filled the whole earth. This stone represents God and after it struck the statue, the world ended.
The head was smashed first, followed by the chest and arms, belly, legs and then feet. If we consider carefully, we are actually living now in the time of the feet. This thus means that the time of the end is near...
I found this sermon very interesting. It captured my attention and I stayed awake throughout the whole of it without the help of coffee =P
Alright anyway, the main message is that we should think more about what we are doing now, and if we are wasting our lives on things that are totally unnecessary and don't mean anything to God, we should focus more on Him and do what He really wants us to - namely, tell more people about what He has done for us in our lives and how much other people need Him. We also have to shine more for Him in our lives and not only concentrate on fulfilling our own needs. Our own needs may be important, but we have to consider that of others as well at times, and also not be too obsessed with fulfilling our own needs to bother about what God wants us to do.
Labels: end
Believing
Have you ever felt bogged down by the "rules" in the Bible? I remember reading this part about women without long hair having to wear veils to cover their heads while in the church. There are churches around that practise this, and I think it's totally weird and unnecessary. This was done in Paul's time and is no longer required now. In fact, being bogged down by too many rules and forgetting about who really matters just makes things worse.
We should simply follow God and place Him in our hearts instead of adhering to rules , rules and rules "in the name of God". Recently, Rachel told me the reason why she had left her family church - they were too religious, in the sense that they adhere to a lot of rules and they let these rules run their lives.
But of course she did go to another church in the end =)
When we say we "believe", it is not a mere mental assessment (e.g. "I'm a Christian", "I was born in a Christian church", etc.). "
Believing" is a mind, soul and body experience - you act out what you truly believe in. Therefore, if you find yourself not having this experience, you might want to think hard about your faith and what you could possibly do about it.
The speaker at my church this week, Mr Steve Aherne, also mentioned about a young man who grew up in a Christian family but could never really commit himself to God. He then attended a Bible conference with his family and on the night before the last day of the conference, he got very fed up because he still didn't feel touched by God and so He told God to give him a sign that He is real; if not, he would not believe in Him anymore.
On the last day of the conference, he found everything that the people there did so inane that he gave up and started to walk out of the room, saying to God that he had given God a chance to prove Himself, but since He didn't, that's it.
Suddenly, his brother's girlfriend saw him and a thought struck her as she came to a realisation. She got up from her seat and pulled him aside, telling him that she finally realised that a dream she had some time ago was of him and not of his brother as she had originally thought. She then proceeded to tell him the contents of her dream, which were exactly what he had written in His letter to God the night before. The young man was very amazed, but at the end of it all, he asked her suspiciously, "Did you read my letter?"
Of course the girl did not know anything about the letter. And it was then that the young man realised that God had shown Him a sign about Himself, and he started to truly
believe.
The young man is the speaker's son. =)
Labels: believing
Why Are We Here On Earth?
Have you ever wondered why we are suffering on Earth instead of going to Heaven immediately? I believe in Jesus Christ - why am I not brought straightaway to Heaven? Why must God let me suffer so many years on Earth before I can finally taste the sweetness of Heaven?
There is a reason for His doing so - He wants us to be the salt and light of this decaying Earth, and to save souls. We must show that we, who have God in our hearts, shine through the dullness of the Earth.
When the Bible mentions unity, it means to be the same in heart, soul and mind, devoted to one true God. We have to put aside all our differences to unite as one wherever and whenever.
As long as we live here on Earth, we should pray to be strong men and women, and not for an easy life (e.g. ask God to solve problems for us). This is so that we will grow!
And if we pray for strength to solve our problems, we should also always remember to give all our glory and honour back to God, like what John the Baptist did.
After all this growth, it is only then that we are fit enough to face God and serve Him in Heaven =)
Labels: why
The Beatitudes
My church had an external speaker, Mrs Malar Solomon, on 19 May 2007.
She talked about the first three beatitudes in Matthew 5.
First of all, the word "blessed" in all the beatitudes means divine joy, and not just happiness (laughter, pleasure and worldly rewards).
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."God's presence would only fill the hearts of those who are constantly praying and longing for Him, as well as those who are very aware that they need God's presence, not those who are 'rich in spirit' and would not turn to Him or long for His presence. If we were poor in spirit, we would pay more attention to God and be more ready and forthcoming in sharing His word with others.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."When should we mourn? When, for instance, we are seated in church but our thoughts are not on God. If we mourn then, God would hear us and guide our thoughts back to Him. We would also mourn if someone we love has been taken away from us. However, only the one who is able to take away the sting of death can comfort us.
If we mourn and look to God, He will comfort us.
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."This meekness definitely does not refer to weakness in character! It means gentleness, kindness, humility, and the beauty of purity in a gentle self. Mary of Bethany (Martha and Lazarus' sister) displayed meekness in her actions. One instance of this is when she anointed Jesus with very expensive perfume oil even though she is not rich herself. She did this because she truly felt that she wanted to do a beautiful thing for her Lord and Saviour, and knew that He was going to die for her soon - it was her way of showing her grattitude.
After she did this, Jesus' disciples criticised her and said that what she had done was a great waste. However, Jesus defended her and said that "wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." The Lord defends those who are authentically His =)
Mrs Solomon also talked about her own conversion experience, where her friend mourned over her not being Christ's yet. Moreover, for years, Mrs Solomon didn't convert because she did not come from a family of believers and didn't want to convert rashly. She wanted a sign from God that He was real. One day, her friend brought her to watch The Passion of Christ and it was when she saw how He had suffered for her that she finally believed, and became fervent for Him.
It's always nice to hear about others' experiences =)
Labels: beatitudes
