Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Better write before I get on MSN on the net. Distraction has been prevalent.
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Apr 1
Let me so a brief one on Apr 1, ie Yesterday's passage. While the Deutronomy passsage has been really boring and non inspiring, the gospel had been shedding new insights for me everday. The Luke passage touched on The Transfiguration and I found out some very amazing facts from my study bible.
Apparently, Elisha (Elijah's successor)'s name means JOSHUA. Jesus's hebrew name is Joshua as well. So yes, we can see that Moses passed his unfinished work to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha and finally the both came down to ask Jesus to finish the final unfinished work. And that is precisely why when Jesus was on the cross He said, "It is finished" The Transfiguration is like an, official handover ceremony to Jesus and even God Himself graced the occasion. It had to be significant, for the other time that God Himself appeared was during Jesus' baptism.
So, now I know, the transfiguration was not just a WOW event. I mean, come on, it DOES look spectacular. But it had a lot of meaning to it and by understanding this particular event, I begin to realize how wrong people said that Jesus was just a good moral teacher. This incident portrayed clearly that Jesus was here to finish the work that Moses and Elijah have not and that was the redemption of mankind.
THAT was Jesus's purpose. To redeem sinners like you and I. Not any other nonsense like being a good teacher, or be a judge etc etc.
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Apr 2
Today's reading. I will just jump straight to the Luke chapter. Though I am amazed by how detailed God's law in Deutronomy is. It's so detailed. God really pays attention to ALL the details.
Luke today addresses the issue of "How to follow Jesus". "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head". If you ask me, this sounds pretty sad. I mean how can the Son of Man have nowhere to lay his head, but I guess, it's an apt descrrption of the follower of Christ. Who ever said the follower of Christ have to leave in luxury. I think if we want humanly luxury we shouldn't be Christians in the first place for the bible already told us clearly that we were to take up our cross to follow Him. Cross is painful!
And moving on, I like this line "Let the dead bury the dead". The first time I read it I glanced through it, but the next time I did, with a John Piper book in hand, it opened new insights for me. Apparently the 1st dead is the spritually dead and the 2nd is the physically dead. So what Jesus meant was, let those spiritually blind bury the dead relatives, you come and proclaim the Kingdom, I think my parents would be MAD if I ever did that. But I guess it's a dilema that we all have to face. And Jesus puts it clearly, that He comes first. His kingdom comes first for "No one puts his hand onto the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God"
It seemed to me that God is saying, do MY work first. And He will take care of the rest. I mean I still cannot get away the nagging feeling that I should "abandon" my non-Christian friends to proclaim the kingdom of God. I mean He is a compassionate God as well right? Well I guess if He is a compassionate God then perhaps, I should do His will and He willdo the rest? I will need to chew on this.
"The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few"
Is that a confirmation for a trip to KK?
Wait. Now that I think of it, maybe that's what God is trying to say. Go for KK, leave mum to me.
Hmm. I will pray about and wait for more revelations.
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Recently the Psalms have been going on some of the same themes. This one is a very clear distinction. The Psalmist is lamenting about how they are so many enemies around him and God didn't seem to do anything. But in the second half of the Psalms, he recalled the things that God has done, the things that He promised and found reassurances in them.
I guess, the moral is that, God may not rescue us NOW but He will rescue us becuase He had rescued us all along and promised that He would rescue us. Our job was just to sit there and worship Him and stop limiting to what He can do. Who are we? Are we greater than God> If we aren't then I guess we have no right to control Him at all.
Faith, indeed, is believing without seeing. But there is always the promise of God that can hold on to =)
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As a sidenote, I think God is building quite a bit of my head knowledge recently. I have always been an emotional kid, I think God is trying to nail some facts into my head recently so that next time, whatever happens, I would be able to em, use them instead of my feelings.
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Was out with the KK kids for dinner. They were WUNDERFUL. Thinking of joining them for Chalet next week, but I need to see how my schedule runs. I don't think I can stay overnight either. But I will pray about it and see how the thing goes.
Anyhows, had a new chat with Gareth last night as well. Shared some stuff abt our lives =)
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Innocence
12:38 PM
