Luke 17:12-19 (NASB)
As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine--where are they? "Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?" And He said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has made you well."
We all know the story of the 10 lepers and how there was only 1 grateful leper who came back to Christ to thank Jesus. Added to that was the fact that that 1 grateful leper was a Samaritan - a lesser class race despised by the Jews. The fact that Luke highlighted this is likely to show that the rest were all Jews, the chosen people.
It seems, however, that the ratio of 1 grateful person out of ten helped is often true even when we help out others. Not that we're hard-out for people to sincerely thank us. However, what was interesting about this passage is the fact that the one who came back to thank Jesus actually received something else!
Yes, we know through common courteousy that whenever someone does something good for us, we are to thank the person, but already its not often that we get people coming back to thank us. I'm not sure if it's easy to do it always, but comparatively, I'm sure it's easier to give thanks to a human than a God who we cannot see and results in us not remembering to thank.
When I read the passage, it dawned upon me that the different bible versions stated Jesus telling that 1 samaritan an additional blessing! The KJV reads, "Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole." It seems that that 1 leper was made whole! Young's literal translation states Jesus saying: `Having risen, be going on, thy faith hath saved thee.' The Samaritian man received his salvation that day!
It's not about getting blessings or having your wishes/wants come to pass and then talking to friends and people. Yes, testimonies before man are good, that's why Jesus told the people to show themselves to the priests. But in everything, before we run ahead of ourselves and bask in our new found blessing, we must build into our system a process to first turn back to fall at the feet of God and giving Him the glory for His amazing grace.
So firstly, we must remember to always give God the thanks for all that He has work done for us. Secondly, let's also remember to spend that thanksgiving time at the feet of God and make sure that it comes before we go ahead to testify before man.
Blessings,
M.
That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever. (Psalm 30:12)
26 September 2007
23 September 2007
Accepting the Weak in Faith
Romans 15:7
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
There's a difference between being chided for not living the life of an uncompromising Christian and that of accepting the weak faith of a Christian.
For the past years, I'm firmly believed the need for us to live uncompromising lives. Since the time before I entered the military service, I've often heard the many lame excuses for individuals to grow cold spiritually or to compromise their behaviour because of the crude and rough environment which every military male was made to go through. It is really a crappy excuse which we often use in our life for compromising our stand at army, school or work because it is just pushing the blame for sinning like Adam did over the eating of the fruit of knowledge - "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it"
Let's be clear about one thing, at the end of our life on earth, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Today, how you wander off stubbornly or cautiously tread inside the perfect will of God is a decision of your choice and of your own free will, therefore it is something that you have to answer alone before God.
However, this passage in Romans tells us of how Paul instructs the church of Romans to accept the believers whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. The key condition here is disputable matters. When we ask around in church about matters such as worship, as an example, we always end up with so many different perspectives. What's worst is when we do a cross-critial analysis of what is being done in different churches and unnecessary commentary come fast and furious. Paul clearly describes that one man considers one day more sacred than another, thus who is to say that what disputable issue which I'm convinced of is 100% applicable to your conviction?
Over the past week or so, I've been rather disturbed by a couple of people and instead of addressing it directly as I would in my younger days, I found myself being filled with a more moderate and deliberate spirit that I assume comes with a mellowness of age, and I hope, wisdom of age. I'm rationalising more and trying to come to grip with a balance needed to confront the uncompromising attitudes needed with the releasing of my conviction over what may well be a disputable issue which doesn't need my passing judgement.
I don't profess to have come to terms with how I'm going to deal with the situation but I'm really glad that I wasn't given the chance to jump at the situation earlier and be given time and scripture to be reminded of the need to bring praise to God through the act of accepting those who are weak in faith, just as Christ accepted me with all my corruptness and sinful blemishes.
At the end of the day, we work not for the good or extenion of the kingdom of God, but according to the master's instructions. Jesus says "The sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out". May the words of my mouth and the passing judgement be of my master and not of my own conviction, that it would result in God being praised and glorified.
blessings,
M.
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
There's a difference between being chided for not living the life of an uncompromising Christian and that of accepting the weak faith of a Christian.
For the past years, I'm firmly believed the need for us to live uncompromising lives. Since the time before I entered the military service, I've often heard the many lame excuses for individuals to grow cold spiritually or to compromise their behaviour because of the crude and rough environment which every military male was made to go through. It is really a crappy excuse which we often use in our life for compromising our stand at army, school or work because it is just pushing the blame for sinning like Adam did over the eating of the fruit of knowledge - "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it"
Let's be clear about one thing, at the end of our life on earth, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Today, how you wander off stubbornly or cautiously tread inside the perfect will of God is a decision of your choice and of your own free will, therefore it is something that you have to answer alone before God.
However, this passage in Romans tells us of how Paul instructs the church of Romans to accept the believers whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. The key condition here is disputable matters. When we ask around in church about matters such as worship, as an example, we always end up with so many different perspectives. What's worst is when we do a cross-critial analysis of what is being done in different churches and unnecessary commentary come fast and furious. Paul clearly describes that one man considers one day more sacred than another, thus who is to say that what disputable issue which I'm convinced of is 100% applicable to your conviction?
Over the past week or so, I've been rather disturbed by a couple of people and instead of addressing it directly as I would in my younger days, I found myself being filled with a more moderate and deliberate spirit that I assume comes with a mellowness of age, and I hope, wisdom of age. I'm rationalising more and trying to come to grip with a balance needed to confront the uncompromising attitudes needed with the releasing of my conviction over what may well be a disputable issue which doesn't need my passing judgement.
I don't profess to have come to terms with how I'm going to deal with the situation but I'm really glad that I wasn't given the chance to jump at the situation earlier and be given time and scripture to be reminded of the need to bring praise to God through the act of accepting those who are weak in faith, just as Christ accepted me with all my corruptness and sinful blemishes.
At the end of the day, we work not for the good or extenion of the kingdom of God, but according to the master's instructions. Jesus says "The sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out". May the words of my mouth and the passing judgement be of my master and not of my own conviction, that it would result in God being praised and glorified.
blessings,
M.
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)
14 September 2007
To be with Him
Mark 3:14
And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach
Pastor shared about this passge on Sunday and suddenly it dawned upon me that truth that Jesus chose disciples first for the reason of communion and fellowship, not to delegate tasks for them to do.
For a long while, I've been very drawn into the acts of service. Honestly, every Sunday and Saturday, coming to church was really to do work. Even in service and before service, it's all about seeing if any of the Rangers were here, on time or just missing. Excluding the preparations for the Rangers' programme, was the 'need' to either do a little bit of tuition or catching up to see if people were indeed coping well in school and their work. Didn't help that the daily prayers always seemed to be rotating around the tasks and people in the ministry that I am involved in. so as you can see, it was really becoming a situation of me bring entrenched with the entire work-service purpose, rather than communion.
Yes, I know that life consists more than the abundance of work and tasks, and really doing the stuff in the ministry and dealing in lives is also a passion out of doing the heartbeat of God, but somehow, when the communion is absent in the abundance of work, it is time to recount the steps.
When I encountered that passage in Mark and it stirred in me, 2 biblical individuals popped into my mind. The first of which was Adam. The bible says in Genesis 5 that man was created in the likeness of God, and when Adam was created, God made him guardian over the entire Earth. Geneis 2:15 records that "the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it." Even though the task of man was to be the guardian of earth to serve the Lord, from the later accounts in Genesis 3, God walked amongst Adam and talked with him.
I'm almost sure that the conversations which God had with Adam were not that of a master giving his worker more tasks. I.e - "Adam, have you pruned this plant, harvest that fruit tree, found which lost animal..." Rather, it was a close communion which I assumed was centred around how Adam felt, what he learnt and saw....basically casual, never-ending chit-chat talks like that we have with our own close friends.
The second individual is Moses, a man whom spends so much time in the presence of God that God even acknowledges "I have known you by name."
It's time to get myself to refocus back on knowing the God whom I'm created for, rather than to serve the God whom I think I know. May you and I never serve out of a calling and forget to know more about the caller, that God will never say to us on the day of final judgement - "I do not know you"
Blessings,
M.
"Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. "(Genesis 6:9)
06 September 2007
Evil Counsel
2 Samuel 13:3-5
Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. He asked Amnon, "Why do you, the king's son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won't you tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I'm in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister."
"Go to bed and pretend to be ill," Jonadab said. "When your father comes to see you, say to him, 'I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.' "
I chanced upon this individual, Jonadab, as I was reading the juicy story of King David’s children in 2 Samuel 13. The bible describes him as Jonadab son of Shimeah, a nephew of King David.
As I read the 2 brief accounts of him stated in the bible, I can’t help but to label him as a scoundrel. Why so? Jonadab was the one who developed the evil scheme for Amnon to have incest with his own sister. What’s worst is that despite his disgusting deed, you still see him providing counsel to King David subsequently.
2 Samuel 13:32-33
But Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, said, "My lord should not think that they killed all the princes; only Amnon is dead. This has been Absalom's expressed intention ever since the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar. My lord the king should not be concerned about the report that all the king's sons are dead. Only Amnon is dead."
If you read the earlier verse of 2 Samuel 13:30, it’s indeed surprising that Jonadab was able to inform King David of the fact that Absalom only killed Amnon, even though he wasn’t there or was there a clear report given!
Curious over this evil character, I tried to search for more information in the bible to see if anything happened to him for his evil deed, but I found none apart from the 2 references to him. I then asked myself what was the purpose of having such a devious character named and immortalized in the bible and it dawned upon me that the character of Jonadab was to depict the spirit of evil counsel.
Clearly, when Absalom plotted to kill Amnon and had planned to do it, Jonadab knew that Absalom would eventually do it. However it seemed that for the past 2 years after the rape of Tamar by Amnon, King David never noticed the intention of his son. Perhaps Jonadab even provided an ear to Absalom and counselled him to plot against Amnon?
The spirit of evil counsel is not something which is only found in the most-wicked of all people, which we often feel that we are unlikely to befriend such characters. In Amnon’s and David’s situation, this evil counsel was found in their relative who lived with them!
How does evil counsel destroy us? When we look at the character of Jonadab, we see that the spirit of evil counsel seeks to tap into our existing weakness and fuel our self-gratifying desires by instigating us to do what our flesh yearned for. It provides us with answers which we want to hear and helps us to fulfil our longings.
If Jonadab was a good friend and of the right spirit, he would have sought to correct Amnon of the evil, lustful desire which he had over Tamar. Instead, Jonadab developed the evil plans for Amnon to consider and fueled the feelings of lust into the required action step. Such is the ability of the evil counsel to deceive us and deepen our sin because it seeks out for an opportunity to mislead us and to overcome out faith with our self-gratifying desires.
Today, maybe someone just chided you and you are really irritated because you hate the judgement from that person - even if he/she was correct, or perhaps you’ve been in the wrong frame of mind and you just don’t feel like doing anything relate to God but to self-gratify yourself, or perhaps you felt the need to blast out at someone because of your self-righteous needs. Beware! If you don’t capture that thought or emotion and make it subject to the power of Holy’s Spirit, you open yourself to evil counsel that would cause you to go astray. It often starts from the tiniest of matters which takes over your will and instigates you to commit sin. Often it may also escalate into a full blown act of sinful gratification, similar to that of Amnon.
May you choose your counsel well because not everyone who you call friend is a true friend. Psalm 1:1 says “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers”.
Likewise, may we learn to subject our ideas and thoughts, so that our fleshly desires will not be tempted by any evil thoughts, suggestions or counsel.
Blessings,
M.
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. (2 Peter 3:17)
Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. He asked Amnon, "Why do you, the king's son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won't you tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I'm in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister."
"Go to bed and pretend to be ill," Jonadab said. "When your father comes to see you, say to him, 'I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.' "
I chanced upon this individual, Jonadab, as I was reading the juicy story of King David’s children in 2 Samuel 13. The bible describes him as Jonadab son of Shimeah, a nephew of King David.
As I read the 2 brief accounts of him stated in the bible, I can’t help but to label him as a scoundrel. Why so? Jonadab was the one who developed the evil scheme for Amnon to have incest with his own sister. What’s worst is that despite his disgusting deed, you still see him providing counsel to King David subsequently.
2 Samuel 13:32-33
But Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, said, "My lord should not think that they killed all the princes; only Amnon is dead. This has been Absalom's expressed intention ever since the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar. My lord the king should not be concerned about the report that all the king's sons are dead. Only Amnon is dead."
If you read the earlier verse of 2 Samuel 13:30, it’s indeed surprising that Jonadab was able to inform King David of the fact that Absalom only killed Amnon, even though he wasn’t there or was there a clear report given!
Curious over this evil character, I tried to search for more information in the bible to see if anything happened to him for his evil deed, but I found none apart from the 2 references to him. I then asked myself what was the purpose of having such a devious character named and immortalized in the bible and it dawned upon me that the character of Jonadab was to depict the spirit of evil counsel.
Clearly, when Absalom plotted to kill Amnon and had planned to do it, Jonadab knew that Absalom would eventually do it. However it seemed that for the past 2 years after the rape of Tamar by Amnon, King David never noticed the intention of his son. Perhaps Jonadab even provided an ear to Absalom and counselled him to plot against Amnon?
The spirit of evil counsel is not something which is only found in the most-wicked of all people, which we often feel that we are unlikely to befriend such characters. In Amnon’s and David’s situation, this evil counsel was found in their relative who lived with them!
How does evil counsel destroy us? When we look at the character of Jonadab, we see that the spirit of evil counsel seeks to tap into our existing weakness and fuel our self-gratifying desires by instigating us to do what our flesh yearned for. It provides us with answers which we want to hear and helps us to fulfil our longings.
If Jonadab was a good friend and of the right spirit, he would have sought to correct Amnon of the evil, lustful desire which he had over Tamar. Instead, Jonadab developed the evil plans for Amnon to consider and fueled the feelings of lust into the required action step. Such is the ability of the evil counsel to deceive us and deepen our sin because it seeks out for an opportunity to mislead us and to overcome out faith with our self-gratifying desires.
Today, maybe someone just chided you and you are really irritated because you hate the judgement from that person - even if he/she was correct, or perhaps you’ve been in the wrong frame of mind and you just don’t feel like doing anything relate to God but to self-gratify yourself, or perhaps you felt the need to blast out at someone because of your self-righteous needs. Beware! If you don’t capture that thought or emotion and make it subject to the power of Holy’s Spirit, you open yourself to evil counsel that would cause you to go astray. It often starts from the tiniest of matters which takes over your will and instigates you to commit sin. Often it may also escalate into a full blown act of sinful gratification, similar to that of Amnon.
May you choose your counsel well because not everyone who you call friend is a true friend. Psalm 1:1 says “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers”.
Likewise, may we learn to subject our ideas and thoughts, so that our fleshly desires will not be tempted by any evil thoughts, suggestions or counsel.
Blessings,
M.
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. (2 Peter 3:17)