September 13, 2010 - Posted by mong - 0 Comments
This is true historical fact.
History confirms the amazing revival recorded in Jonah. According to nonbiblical sources, the Ninevites, a cruel and warlike people, suddenly became quiet and peaceful. For one generation, they ceased to attack their neighbours. This is an impressive social change brought about by one sermon.
Apparently, the Ninevites also found it difficult to maintain a strong commitment, for a later chapter of history tells us that the generation of peace was followed by a generation of war. Jonah refused to stay in Nineveh and nurture the new converts with the Word of God. No wonder their children turned from God and became vicious enemies of the Israelites! Strange as it seems, this next generation of Ninevites attacked and destroyed Jonah’s own village as they sacked and pillaged Israel.
Excerpt from my textbook, Principles of Biblical Interpretation by Carls Gibb.
If only Jonah had stayed back and discipled them, things might have turned out differently. Faced with the opportunity to preach the Word and evangelize a city, he refused the challenge till God sent a huge fish to discipline him and convince him. God sent a tiny worm to destroy his shade, yet even that did not change him to stay behind to convert and groom new converts.
When God sends a revival, He expects us to support the new converts with the Word of God. So, attend a bible study near you! SCG has a new term. Will share the information here soon.
September 11, 2010 - Posted by mong - 0 Comments
The foreshadow theme of the Old Testament points to the coming of the Messiah. All the imagery, symbols, narratives, commandments, etc point to the Messiah, that is, those things of the Old Testament are just foreshadow of things to come. The four gospel accounts then function to narrate the life and ministries of Jesus. The Book of Acts, and subsequently the epistles and the entire New Testament exhort believers to live a life worthy of Christ.
From Genesis to Revelation, the central theme of the Bible is God. It spells out how we are to live our lives worthy of His calling. It tells us who He is, and who we are, and it is definitely all about Him. One thing it is not – it is not about us.
Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins because it is the will of God to reconcile man to Himself. It is not about us. The Bible is not a set of promises to make our lives richer, more grandiose, more comfortable and more pampered. God did not give us His Word to pamper us, to heal us when we hurt our little finger on the right (although in His great compassion He does), to give us rain on a sunny day, or to give us sunshine during a thunderstorm. (Yet in His mercy, He still gives).
Neither is the purpose of His Word to promise us multi-million (or multi-thousands for some of us) business deals, to appease our girlfriend/boyfriend because (s)he is angry with us, or to give us a parking bay in a shopping mall on a busy Saturday evening, or to turn all red lights on the highways and byways for us so that we can speed through to our destination at the shortest time possible! Yes, God does give us those things, but those things are not the reason why Jesus came two thousand years ago.
Undoubtedly, most of us are pampered Christians. We are often angry with God when things do not go our way. We have treated God as though it is His responsibilities to ensure our lives are problem-free and stress-free. When problems come looking for us, we blame God for His failure to live up to His promises. Then, when we wanted something so badly, we claim we know God’s promises and we held Him accountable and responsible to what we believed is true. We expect God to come to our rescue in all our petty problems and childish acquisitions. We have reduced God to a mere immortal servant.
Yet, He is not.
I have come across people claiming “God, You have promised me in Your Word that….” yet, we do not meet the conditions to qualify us to claim for those promises. We are selective in what we want to believe in the Bible. We approach the Bible with a “mental grid” because we only read those “feel good” verses that promised us blessings and prosperity. We have chosen to neglect and ignore and close our eyes on the other parts which are as equally important.
But yet, God in His mercy, forgives us and lead us to Himself.
God is awesome and majestic, full of glory and resplendent in His beauty. His standard of holiness is strict and firm, yet not impossible. He made a way for us to reach Him and bridged us through His Son Jesus. We are privilege that we can approach the throne of grace with boldness and confidence.
God. We worship Him.
He is not a servant, waiting to serve us. When we get ourselves busy with church “ministries” and “church activities” as well as “church programs”, we are not doing Him any favour. Sometimes I think our busy-ness do us much dis-favour instead! Neither is He hungering and desiring us to serve Him through some form of church involvement. (Although church involvement is great!). He is not a waiter, waiting for us desperately to give Him a “command” through our “prayer requests”.
Instead, we should be the ones to wait on Him. We should be the ones to go down on our knees and ask Him for His instructions for every task at hand. We should be the ones to ask Him if there is anything in our lives that are not right, that we have to make right to. We should be the ones to cover our faces in repentance and ask Him for forgiveness for that angry thought we have of that unreasonable client! We should be the ones to kiss Him at His feet, to prostrate before Him and wait for Him to tell us when to get up. That, is our role.
My tears well up as I close my eyes to see Him. That sense of remorse that I am unworthy and a nobody, yet He allowed me the privilege to be in His Presence. Oh, that deep assurance, that awesome feeling that comes when He comes. God, He created us and made us, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
When we bow our knees before Him in humble adoration, ego and pride take no residence in us. At times, past undealt & hidden sins hindered His blessings to flow to us. And no, not financial blessings, but the blessing of knowing Him and being with Him. When we go down on our knees, humility takes dominance.
That should be the only way we approach Him.
Till we really know how to go to Him, we will always see “I” as the center and the reason why He came. (And that is a faulty thought).
September 4, 2010 - Posted by mong - 0 Comments
Today, I encountered two persons with anger problems, one a loved one and one a client whom I personally do not want to do business with anymore. I used to have that problem until God decides that enough was enough for me. A series of event in 2009 helped formed and shaped new behaviour which eliminates anger. While behaviour modification is tough and almost impossible, but by the grace of God I did it. Not that I have gotten rid of anger completely, but my consolation is that I rarely react with anger for quite a few months by now. And I am still learning not to respond with anger towards an angry person.
A close friend was right, anger does not have to be my only reaction towards unpleasant situations. And the world is right in this sense that anger is only one letter short of danger. I shiver to think back about my past and how I used to be such a horrible person with so much anger. My friend avoided me and reasoned with me, saying, “you have the right to be angry, and I have the right not to tolerate that anger”.
Our hearts are deceitful over all things, and we really do not know its intent until its fruits is shown. But at this point, I am most worried that this dangerous emotion seems to be very prominent in some relationships today.
God, help us to control our anger. I certainly do not want to be a walking volcano and taint Your Holy Name.
September 2, 2010 - Posted by mong - 0 Comments
Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Often times, this verse is singled out as an isolated verse and is preached by prosperity gospel preachers along the line of monetary giving. Most Christians would have innocently (and ignorantly) mistaken to think that the more they give of their finances to the church, the more monies they will receive.
But the truth is, this chapter was written to warn us of some impending dangers ahead should we choose to ignore certain warnings. Removing the “blocks in verses”, this is how the entire paragraph should have look like.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will come back to you. A good measure, press down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured on your lap. For with the same measure you use, it will be measured unto you.
He also told them this parable: “can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they both not fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take the speck of your eye”, when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
Obviously in the short excerpt above from the gospel of St Luke, Jesus was teaching us some basic and elementary Christian behaviour we should all learn to cultivate. Verse 38 was often abused by prosperity gospel preachers as they are the culprits who are highly guilty of converting this verse into a “feel-good” verse. If that is truly the case, then Jesus would have hinted it somewhere, but he did not, did he?
This verse is sandwiched right between two verses which forbid us from judging and condemning another, and also on avoiding hypocrisy in our conduct. Let me regroup these few verses for a clearer understanding.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will come back to you.
Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows”.
Jesus is teaching us to treat another fairly and justly with regards to our relationship with one another. When we judge, we will be judged (with the same measure we use to judge) because the bible says “give and it WILL come back to you”. It WILL. (In other words, our sins will catch up with us if there is no repentance found on our part).
And not only will it come back to us, but “good measure, press down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured on your lap. For with the same measure you use, it will be measured unto you.”. This frightens me so much as I shiver to think of the possibility of tasting a bitter taste of my own medicine somewhere in the future. I certainly do not wish for that! (nor for anyone else!)
Obviously by now, we understood that this verse is not necessarily applicable and limited to merely on financial giving only! It is applicable to every aspect of our behaviour as Christians, especially with regards to all our relationships.
When I speak curses to another, then a double portion, or perhaps a triple portion of some curses may befall on me if I did not seek God for His forgiveness upon my life, daily.
When I invest love into a relationship, I harvest love. When I invest hatred into a relationship, I will harvest hatred. When I invest peace into a relationship, then I will harvest a double portion of peace. But when I invest anger into a relationship, I reap perhaps a triple portion of the same amount of anger later. When I invest godly values into my relationships, I know for sure then that I will harvest God’s richest blessings on my relationships.
Luke 6:38 is not meant as an “insurance” and a “claimable promise” that God owe it to us to bless us financially when we drop our money into the offering bag. As a matter of fact, it is a privilege to give and a very tangible opportunity to express our gratitude to God.
Is God any richer when we arrogantly perform a religious monetary sacrilege when the offering bag is passed to us? Or is God any poorer should we decide to keep that soiled yet valuable paper in our pockets (or wallets or purses for some of us) instead of dropping them in? And when we did drop some monies into the bag, is it then God’s turn to fulfill His obligation us because He promised “to bless and prosper” us when we give? (bad bad eisogesis).
If this were Jesus’ original intended meaning, how then can we miss it? How can then we not have the fear of God in our hearts, and lives? God, so holy and we, so sinful. How then can we expect God’s blessings in our lives unless we obey every commandments written in His Word? God promised us His blessings and He will surely fulfill them as He cannot lie, but His blessings come with fine prints which require our detailed attention to His Written Instructions and regular communion with Him to understand His ways and to know Him better.
Once again, may we all be anointed by the Holy Ghost to practice godly exegesis and draws good and relevant principles from the Sacred Word.
And once again, may we all learn to know God through the Holy Spirit and not through other people’s lenses only.
May God bless us as we dig deeper into the Scriptures.