Sunday, January 11, 2009
God’s faithfulness in Genesis 25:12. He promised Abraham that his descendents would be as numerous at the stars in the sky and the list of descendents of Abraham showed that God honours His promises to us. God promised me that He would always be there for me and I know He will.
I also learnt that everything is really planned by God. When Rebekah asked God how come she had such a difficult pregnancy, God told her that there were “two nations in your womb and the two peoples from within…. The older shall serve the younger.” Only upon reading the study bible did I realize the significance of this whole issue. Further down, I read that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob over a bowl of stew (on a side note, I guess God is also reminding me not to give up His promises for me over trivial matters. For example: Friends because compared to the promises of God, these are well, stew). On the surface it may seem that, Esau was plain stupid. But the study bible brought me back to the prophecy that God told Rebekah. God meant for it to happen. During Esau and Jacob’s time, the inheritance (or birthright) was always given to the older son so physically there is simply no way (even metaphorically) for the “older to serve the younger”, in other words, it is ridiculous. God thus knew and planned for this Esau incident to happen such that his prophecy would come true. This again refers back to the part about how God always keeps His promise. If He said it, He would do it. He would change the heavens and earths. I was reminded about the birth of Jesus. Isaiah prophesized that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem but obviously Mary and Joseph were not technically residents there. So how did God fulfill His promise? He moved the whole nation in a census just to prepare for ONE birth. The notion that God would also do that for me to fulfill His promise to me is simply gripping.
I also learnt how to please God. Genesis 26:4 God told Issac that all his offsprings would be blessed because “Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws”. It reminded me that I did not need to do funny services to please God (eg: Serve in 101 ministries) but rather what He was looking for was really obedience which is possibly harder than, for example, serving in 101 ministries. God is trying ask me to take a look at my life and remind me that a true Christian is one who obeys, so it doesn’t matter how “high up” I am in the church hierarchy.
The new testament shows me another side of Christianity which is pretty sentimental to me. Matthew was one of the first books of the bible I read and a lot of the truths are like old friends to me. First, Jesus talked about the price of discipleship in Matthew 8:20 where He said “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” and to another person He said in verse 22, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead”. In the first, I guess Jesus highlights how following Jesus means to we have to lose our homes. I don’t think He meant that we should all move out of our homes and live in nunneries but instead I guessed He meant that we would lose the citizenship of this earthly home. In the New Testament Paul said something to the effect of the world is not our home, we are simply ambassadors to this place called Earth and our eternal home is in heaven. I guess Jesus is implying that by becoming disciples of Christ we may be left out in the world and of course that doesn’t feel good and He is trying to warn this man about it.
In the second, leave the dead to bury their own dead. I remembered the first time I read this I began to understand that God calls for immediate action. He doesn’t want us to be “I want to wait until we work, I will wait until I will have more time to serve God” but He wants us to follow Him now. But today, when I re read this, it began to unfold another issue altogether. I guess the man whom Jesus directed this to must be quite upset that he can’t bury his parents, it is also a tradition that children should bury their parents. I begin to imagine the anguish of the man when he has to literally leave everything to follow Jesus. I guess Jesus also forewarns us that as disciple, there are sacrifices to be made, there will be times where we have to give up the things that we don’t really want to and it is going to hurt.
Here comes one of my favourite verses of the bible which comes as a rhetorical question: Why are you afraid, O you of little faith”. Every time I read this verse, I am reminded how faithless I am. Just take now, I am so worried about starting school on the wrong foot and God seems to be telling me “Why are so afraid, I am in control, do you not trust in me” and I get really embarrassed about it. So yes, point being, God is always in control, if He said He will, He will.
And there is this part in the closing of the Matthew section of today’s reading which I possibly missed the last time I read. But I thought it was pretty surprising. So, Jesus chased away demons by driving them into the pigs and the pigs jumped into the river. If I were the villagers I would probably be like “Thank you Jesus!” but apparently the contrary happened. The villagers “begged him to leave their region”. My reaction to this was : HUH? According to the study bible (it is the best invention in the world, seriously.) it was probably because the villagers were upset that Jesus chased the demon into the pigs and the pigs drowned themselves because it meant income loss. And yes, they decided that Jesus was less important than money and they rather have a demon around than to end up losing pigs (ie money). I guessed this is a real life analogy for priorities in life. So what is more important? Money or God? I mean me reading the bible would call the villagers stupid, honestly, if Jesus was alive today I would be like, stay for a while longer! It’s something on the lines of if Pastor Edmund were to stay in my house, I would be like yes! And I would consult Him about life and everything instead of chasing him out. But sometimes, I guess, we are too blinded with our money or worldly possessions and there are really times where I am maybe, studying hard and when God knocks and say, “Child I want to talk to you,” and I go, “Shoo, I want to study”. And I got to chance out of it. If God is indeed of paramount importance in my life, then, He will always come first, not other materialistic possessions.
Psalms reminds me that while the world says an eye for an eye, God says, lift it up today. Psalms 10 describes a man in affliction and his adversaries are closing in and what nots. But there was no hint of I will kill them or an eye for an eye. He goes to God and say that He knows (although it seemed like God is turning a blind eye to his sufferings) and He will bring justice. God reminds me to surrender all the hatred, all the revenge thoughts into His hands. He understands that I am upset especially over like him. I admit I do have faults in that but my mind keeps telling me that hey, He has a part to play as well! He deserves me screaming at him. But God is gently reminding me that hey, let Him do the justice. If indeed Jeremy was in the wrong, He will deal with it and not me. I have no right to exercising judgment when a)I probably do not know the whole story and b) I am sinful myself. Is like, pot calling kettle black which isn’t very helpful to any relationship. C) God wants us to love at the end of the day. I guess it also boils back to trust, I know God will deal with it at the end of the day, so I don’t have to hold on certain issues so tight (which God never intended anyway)
Last bit from the proverbs linked directly back to today’s sermon. It said clearly “Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil”. It reminded me strongly of what Pastor Edmund said about rationalizing. I guess God did give us brains to do theological contemplations but not what we think is right in the eyes of God, I,e: No adultery means no adultery there is no, but my husband don’t love me, I have the right to seek another partner. I guess that is also meant by fear of the Lord, at the end of revelations God did say something to that effect to John before, anyone who adds or subtracts anything from His word would be judged by God. I guess God is trying to point to me to especially when it comes to like my parents where I claim, “But mum is mean to me” but God says “Honour your parents” and other incidents such as I claim “I really can’t stand A” and God says” Love thy neighbours”. Looks like I really gotta start accepting the hard truths of God the way it is not the way I want it to. And it looks pretty hard.
On a side note, IDT is starting this coming Friday, I don’t know whether I can commit but I guess, if God placed me there it would be all fine right.
Prayer requests: I am hoping to drop my tuition in a godly way so that I can free up time to engage in more meaningful pursuits. I hope him and I can be mended in a godly way. I hope I can start school year right and cope with demands. I want to fully enjoy school for what it is. I want to fully commit to IDT and to growing in God.
Innocence
5:28 PM
