Saturday, April 05, 2008
Apr 5 (I will deal with Apr3-4 maybe later or another day)
Deuteronomy changed its perspective from a list of laws to what happened if you followed and if you do not follow the law that was given. Well, in short, if you follow the law, you are blessed while if you don't, you would be cursed. Two things striking though, I realize that there is a series of repetitions in the curses and blessings. Take for example, it said that The "They (the enemies) will come against you one way and flee before you in seven days" as a blessing from obeying the Lord. In a later verse when the Lord talks about the curses, this was what was written " You shall go out in one way against them and flee seven ways before them". See the nice contrast? And this is on the the only example, the whole passage from Deuteronomy is littered with this literacy form. With that, plus the long list of curses which would befall if the people don't obey the law, gave me shudders. I must admit this God of the old covenant is a just God but a scary one nonetheless. Pages of JUDGMENT. My gosh. Freaks me out. But that brights me to a new question, how is that applicable to my life? I do know that after Jesus, we do have a new covenant in Christ, so does that mean I can ignore the commandments? (Sounds weird to me) But if I were follow these commandments word for word, wouldn't that be the onset of legalism? And if I shouldn't follow the commandments, then why is it in even in the bible? What are the lessons am I supposed to draw from them?
Aye aye. Questions questions. I think I like the New Testament more =)
Luke had been a constant source of insight for me (yay). Today I started off with Demonology 101. Two things I learnt after Satan today, A) If Jesus was from the devils, He wouldn't be casting out demons. That would show a sign of disunity which did not make sense. Well, I guess for me (and us), I think we should view this in a broader perspective, taking the overall meaning and not just that literal meaning. I mean after reading a couple of books on demons and all, I think Satan is pretty sly and I won't be surprised if he did get some of his demons to cast off fellow demons just for the sake of showcase and misleading people. But I think what Jesus really means is that, Satan and his legion of fallen angels would be united in the aim to destroy the work of the Lord. They do not sway from the aim. That, I believe leads to the 2nd pt, a more hidden pt that Jesus was intending to make and that's the unity of the Kingdom of Christ. So many people were accusing Jesus of being a devil or asking for signs from heaven,. Di do believe that Jesus was also using the devil's kingdom as an example to hold it in sharp contrast with the scattered Kingdom of Christ. So in other words, it's Jesus's call for unity to the people against the united kingdom if the devil. He used a parable to illustrate the point. You can be a strong man who was able to guard the storehouse but when a stronger man overcomes you, you are dead. I think Jesus was trying to illustrate the power of unity here.
Well I shall skip a little of the middle and go on, since we are talking about me and demonology 101. Well Jesus said that when an unclean spirit has gone out of a person it would try to seek shelter but when he can't, he would bring 7 other spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there making the later stat of the person worse that the first. I am intrigued by how Jesus did not gave us a answer to this "problem" (okay maybe he did in other chapters. I am not sure) but instead left is hanging as that. That got me thinking. So what was Jesus trying to say here? My take is that, we cast out the devils in our lives (well, I still don't have a very clear def of who who's in demon world and what are demon caused and what are not, but anyway). For example, lust. We can cast them out, maybe ask professionals, or maybe pray it out or something. But if we stop there and don't do anything about it, they are going to attack us again and make it worse. Well, indeed, devils are only infiltrate us when we have so called holes/patches in our lives. So even if we cast away the devil, the whole is still there and it's an open invitation for other or more devils to fill it. And the solution of sealing this hole so that the devil will never come in? God. Because God is sufficient and God is complete. This basically means that devil can infiltrate us when we are not completely surrendered, walking well with God. Becoz only when our walk with God is lacking will there then be holes that the devil can move in. I don't think anyone can be so perfect as to have such a complete walk with God that there are no holes fro the devil to sip through but I feel that what is essential is that, once we found a problem, got the devil chased out, we should go back to God and renew a proper walk with Him so that He can patch our holes. If not, the consequences is deadly.
Moving on (oops, this post is pretty long already),
"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."
This one is pretty understandable. God is the centre, God is the focus. IF we do not put our lives with his as the centre, all else fails. If we do not come to together with Him as the aim, our group will always split. This talks about God being the centre of all things and HAVE to be the center before everything else works out.
The verse that was highlighted today is rather interesting.
"As He said these tings, a woman in the crowd raised her voices and said to him, "Blessed the the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed! But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
I had to take a break (to eat a biscuit. Marks & Spencer Dark Choc digestive rocks) to consult my study bible. It said that the line meant that indeed Mary was blessed (very blessed indeed) but obedient followers of Christ are "more" blessed. It seemed to be opening an invitation for all of us to be blessed. You see ther can only be ONE Mary and Mary was God-anointed. Then what about us? If blessings is counted by how big a thing we can do on Earth, then we would pretty sad. Coz there can only be ONE Mary, one John Wesley, one Martin Luther. But I think Jesus is opening an invitation to us saying, we would be bless after keeping the word of God after hearing it. Now that's some consolation =)
And I noticed as well of the word, HEAR THE WORD. Which kind of banishes all those pre believers who had never hear the gospel. That's apologetics 101 I guess. If they have heard the gospel, God would not judge them on the same basis as believers. And we all know He is a righteous judge so He will def do it well. =) I think God would instead punish the believers that He had called to share the gospel but have not. Because we are the ones depriving our friends about the goodness of Him.
The sign of Jonah. The previous time God sort of judgment thing ws said to the crowds bore reference to Sodom which was the city the God destroyed in Genesis (LOT and his wife! Salt pillars? Moses bargaining with God? Yep. That Sodom) and now we have Jonah. Jonah was the one who brought the warning of the judgment of God to Nineveh (yes and was in a whale's body for 3 days 3 nights but I think that's pretty much beside the point) I think Jesus was using a familiar biblical story to illustrate to them who He is and what He was for. He also wished to highlight what was the state of the people. They were like Nineveh part 2. (Sounds like us) and Jesus, who is greater than Jonah, had came to warn us and more than that, die for us. And the job for us(them) was simply to REPENT (like the Ninvehans). I guess Jesus was appalled as how unrepentant th epeople were. The Ninevan upon hearing the judgment of God put on sackcloths and MOURNED. But when He looked around, the contrary seemed to be true. people asking what right He had, asked Him to prove Himself yada yada. Nothing like Nineveh.
The last bit of Luke (I love the gospels) for today. The lamp on the stand parable. More than familar but def an apt reminder. We are the light of the world and if we are the light of the world, we don't hide at home (put in the cellar) or hide under other aliases (under a basket) but to stand and shine for everyone to see. A timely reminder that we as Christians were to walk in His loght, shine for the world that is so dark. (Wars wars wars. fight fight fight. corruption X 100) What doctrinal things, what theology, I think they are second when compared to A) Loving God and B) Shining for the world.
And that it ends off with something on lines of if one part of your body is dark, your whole body is dark, I feel that this had a slight connoation to having evil in our lives. There is no such thing, this is just a little sin (darkness in the eyes only). We still have 90% light so it's okay. I think Jesus makes it clear that a bit = everything.
I consulted my dearest study bible again and came back with a slightly new insight about Him. Well apparently according to the SB, the reason why Jesus said that whole lamp of the body thing was trying to illustrate to the people who kept asking Him for signs that He already showed everthing (He was the light on the stand) but the problem was with the eyes of the people (hence the darkness in eyes) that could not witness it. Pretty true as well, if we choose to be blind, OF COZ we can't see the light. Then it isn't really Jesus's fault right? That also links up with some of my "counselling experience" as well. You see, people come to me and they say, Oh I don't see God. I think he is in in some faraway land and does not care about me. Perhaps, the problem is not with God not showing Himself but with the people not SEEING Him. Since they can't see His light so what happens was that they felt their whole body is in darkness.
M. Interesting. Psalms now.
Psalms are always something that comforts my soul. It's like a nice reminder of the character of God and who He really is in a few words.
"Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favourable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
Are his promises at an end for all times?
Has God forgotten the gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"
A series of negative questions but my heart warmed when I know that answer to all of them is No. He was everlasting, He is everlasting and He will be everlasting, When He said He never will break His promises, he never will. And if His steadfast love, promises, grace and compassion still prevailed, why are we afraid? Isn't that more than enough?
And then the Psalmist went on a little historical journey, describing Moses and Aaron's exodus.
"When the water saw you, they were afraid,"
If God is with us, who can be against us? Even the uncontrollable waters (a reference to the Red Sea) is afraid of Him, and HE is helping us, it's more like victory 101 xD And if you read on, the imagery is just puurfect. "You arrows flashed on every side" Lightning. Lighting are His arrows to help us fend of our enemies.
And to end of today's piece,
"Yet your footstep was unseen"
Two things. First, sheesh, He can already caused so much things if He is unseen, then what would happen if He descended on Earth. I don't want to imagine. Second. He works in ways we cannot see, But the only reassurance we get is, He works for us. And that is more than enough.
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BB enrolment today. Not going. Have been busy. Wishes to be an introvert and stay at home (and perhaps write)
Today's entry is LONG. FINGERS HURT. i should learn to stop banging on my keyboard when I type. Got 2 more tuition assignments in the week (MORE MONEY!) and so less time for myself as well. But anyway God comes first.
A short little life lesson I learnt from yesterday. Trust Him. Woke up yesterday, got panicky coz I didn't know where my tuitions were. Then panic somemore coz street directory wasn't listening to me. And decided to skip typing my devotions yesterday (BIG MISTAKE).
And guess what, I think the lagging was God's way of telling me to SEEK HIM first.
And yes, everything turned out right at the end. Imagine if I had done my devotions? It woukd have used uo the same time with me panicking.
I actually have some thoughts about tuitioning and kids and people in general. YThat would have to wait. My fingers are ACHING. So till then =)
There's church tomorrow morning. And then tuition so maybe I can only do my devotions at night, or before i go church. Someone remind me =)
=)
Innocence
1:49 PM
