New Year’s Challenge

There are few books that constantly challenge me, day after day, to re-examine where I am with God. John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003/2009) is one of them.

Some days ago, I came across the bit in Piper’s book where he asks (with reference to 1 Peter 3:15):

“When was the last time someone asked you about ‘the reason for the hope that is in you’?” (p. 108)

That stopped me in my tracks. When indeed? And why not? Piper suggests the following reason:

“Why don’t people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don’t look like they are on the Calvary Road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don’t need to be rewarded in this life.” (p. 109)

I have to ask myself (and I hope fellow believers in Christ will ask themselves too): What kinds of messages are we sending with our lives? Are our lives, our preoccupations, our lunch time conversations, our favourite music, our outlook, our ambitions (and the way we talk about them), our responses to problems, our work ethic, our attitudes towards our possessions etc. so radically different from those of the people around us that we “shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15)? Does everything about us proclaim the fact that we serve Jesus, the risen Lord, in all we do? Are we so radically sold out for God that people take a second look at us and wonder, “What’s with him/her?”

If Christians are not noticeably different from everyone else, we can hardly expect anyone to ask us “the reason for the hope that we have”.

I know that my problem is that I sometimes forget. I know very well what is truly important on this earth. It’s not money. It’s not reputation. It’s not career. It’s not providing a comfortable life for our families. These are not necessarily bad things in themselves, and Christians are not called to neglect such responsibilities. But they pale in comparison to the weight of eternity. We were created to know God, to glorify Him, and to help others find their way to Him … because at the end of our earthly lives, only one thing will matter: whether God will say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21) and welcome us into His presence for eternity, or whether He will refuse us entry into Heaven, saying to us “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23).

John Piper has said that it is crucial for Christians to adopt a “wartime mind-set”. He explains why he finds this phrase helpful:

“It tells me that there is a war going on in the world between Christ and Satan, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief. It tells me that there are weapons to be funded and used, but that these weapons are not swords or guns or bombs but the Gospel and prayer and self-sacrificing love (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). And it tells me that the stakes of this conflict are higher than any other war in history; they are eternal and infinite: heaven or hell, eternal joy or eternal torment (Matthew 25:46).

I need to hear this message again and again, because I drift into a peacetime mind-set as certainly as rain falls down and flames go up. I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth “home”. Before you know it, I am calling luxuries “needs” and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I don’t think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached peoples drop out of my mind. … I sink into a secular mind-set that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set.” (John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, Crossway, 2003/2009, pp. 111-112)

At the start of this new year, I know that I need to challenge myself … to not love the same toys that the world loves, to not forget that my faith is to be in what God can do and not what man can do, and above all, to not forget that there is a war going on for the souls of people yet unsaved.

And to all fellow Christian believers, I leave this thought: May many ask you this year for the reason for the hope that you have.

  .

Photograph (by R Tang): Birmingham Botanical Gardens, 2011

Expectations

As a teacher, I often discuss the importance of expectations with my students. The expectations that we have of something will often determine how we respond to it. A simple example that I often use in class relates to the evaluation of textbooks. (My students are teacher trainees.) If, for example, one of the things that we expect of a good textbook is that it should be entertaining, then the failure of a particular textbook to entertain us will very likely result in our evaluating it negatively as “ineffective”. If, however, we don’t expect a textbook to be entertaining, then the fact that a particular textbook doesn’t entertain us is probably not going to affect our judgement as to its effectiveness, one way or the other.

This makes it very important for us to examine the expectations that we have of people and things, to make sure that we have right and reasonable expectations of them.

It just occurred to me the other day that the very same applies when it comes to our walk with God. One Bible verse that is very frequently taken out of context and quoted is Matthew 7:7 – “Ask, and it will be given to you.” I find that it can be misleading, to say the least, to dangle this in front of people who are exploring the Christian faith or believers who are new in the faith.

If we expect that God will always grant us whatever we ask for in prayer, then we are going to get disappointed and disillusioned when things don’t work out that way.

Henry Blackaby sums this up very nicely:

“Some Christians say with frustration, ‘I prayed, but God didn’t hear me,’ when what they mean is, ‘God didn’t do what I told Him to do.’ But God doesn’t intend to do what you tell Him to do. Prayer isn’t designed to get God to do our will; prayer is designed so that we can stand in His presence and know what His will is, and submit to it.” (Experiencing the Cross, 2005, Multnomah Publishers, p. 164)

We have to make sure that the expectations we have of God are right and biblical. If we don’t, we run the risk of coming to a conclusion about God based on wrong expectations.

For example, some people may think that a good God must want to give us what we want, to make us happy. And thus, if they don’t get what they pray for, then they may come to the conclusion that God doesn’t exist or that God isn’t really good or that they haven’t prayed hard enough. We have to realise that God in His infinite wisdom wants us to know true and lasting joy, and the Psalmist says in Psalm 16:11 that it is in God’s presence that there is fullness of joy. Thus, God’s purpose is not to give us everything we think we want, but to draw us to Himself.

Some people may also think that a good God must surely want to remove all the problems in our lives.  And thus, when prayers for problems to be removed do not seem to be answered, then faith crumbles, or they decide that God isn’t really there. But God’s plan is not to give us an easy life. His purpose is to help us grow into the likeness of His son Jesus. And Romans 5:3-4 tells us: “we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Expectations. God expects us to focus on Him, not ourselves.

As John Piper says in his book Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003/2009), “God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives” (p. 38).

In our journey towards knowing God, let’s make sure we get our expectations of God right. God does not promise an easy life. God does not promise to remove all our problems. God does not promise to give us and our families everything we think we need for a comfortable life. God does not promise that if we do good to others, we will receive good things in return from them.

God promises to give us the grace to endure problems:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

God promises that if we make Him the number one priority in our lives, always putting His glory ahead of ourselves, giving up our lives (literally or figuratively) for His sake, then we will “find life”:  

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.’” (Matthew 16:24-25)

God promises that if we walk so closely with Him that the desires of our heart are completely aligned with the desires of His, we can ask for whatever we wish, and it will be given to us:

[Jesus said] ”If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7)

God loves us, and He wants us to know that He loves us. But we must remember that He is God. He alone is worthy of all praise and worship. In Him alone is true peace, joy, and satisfaction to be found. Thus, the nature of God’s love for us is this: He will do what it takes to help us see that what we truly need is Him.

.

---

“Love is not Christ’s making much of us or making life easy. Love is doing what he must do, at great cost to himself (and often to us), to enable us to enjoy making much of him forever” (John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, Crossway, p. 76).

---

.

Photograph (by R Tang): Portobello Road Market, London

Christmas celebrates Christ

The run-up to Christmas this year for me was rather packed. I finished a very busy university semester only at the very start of December. I then went straight into two academic conferences. Almost immediately after that, I hopped on a plane for a short trip abroad with my family, only returning yesterday, Christmas eve.

So there is no Christmas tree in our house this year. (There wasn’t any time to put one up.) But even as I am kind of missing its presence, I am reminded that the Christmas trees, Christmas carols, and Christmas food that I love so much do not make Christmas special. It is Christ who makes Christmas special.

Here is a link to a post that I was led to write last year at Christmas time, for those who may be searching for the real meaning of Christmas: Dear Searching Soul

. 

Photograph (by R Tang): Detail from our Christmas tree last year (since, as you’ve just read, we have no tree this year!)

Something to celebrate this Christmas

As a student, I remember getting a buzz when a favourite teacher greeted me by name as I met her going up the stairs. And just a couple of weeks ago at an academic conference, I got a little buzz too when one of the keynote speakers mentioned my presentation in his closing address.

Why?

Because it feels good when someone “important” knows us.

Well, how about this? The Creator of this universe knows me too. In fact, He knows every single one of us. Not in a hi-bye sort of way either. God created us and knows us intimately. The Bible tells us that God created our inmost being and knit us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). God has numbered all the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30). God knows all the plans He has for us, plans for our good (Jeremiah 29:11). Before a word is on our tongue, God already knows it (Psalm 139: 4). God knows when we sit and when we rise (Psalm 139:2). He is familiar with all our ways (Psalm 139:3).

Someone once told me that she found it difficult to believe in the God of the Bible because she came from a background which had never known or acknowledged Him. Well, consider this: Whether or not we know God, God has known us all our lives. In fact, He was watching over us when we were formed in our mother’s womb, so He has known us since before we were born. And now He’s waiting for us to get to know Him.

This Christmas, let’s choose to worship the God who knows us and who created us to know Him. And let’s celebrate the fact that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

.

---

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

---

 

 

Photograph (by R Tang): Detail from my Christmas tree last year

“Patches of Godlight” in everyday life

There is a verse in Romans 11 which  I love (and which, by the way, appears as the first line of the Acknowledgements in my PhD thesis): “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36). I love it because I think that it just captures perfectly the true Christian experience – There is deep gratitude, as all good things are from God. There is peace, as all difficulties can be overcome through Him. And there is purpose, as we know that everything we do is in worship to Him.

I find that the verse also reminds us not to overlook the so-called “ordinary things” that we encounter in our everyday lives. If we know and believe that God’s hand is in all things, this should change the way we view the world around us, the people around us, and the circumstances we find ourselves in.  

C. S. Lewis in his book Letters to Malcolm argues that God can be glimpsed in the most ordinary of things if our hearts are disposed to do so. This is how Os Guinness summarises Lewis’s point: “A row of cabbages, a farmyard cat, a wrinkled motherly face, a tiled roof, a single sentence in a book—each can be seen as a tiny revelation of God as Creator. Just as fragments of sunlight break through a dark wood, so parts of creation seen for what they are act as ‘patches of Godlight’ in the world” (Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, W Publishing, 1998, p. 189).

Sometimes I think that we humans forget that God does not merely or necessarily reveal Himself through spectacular displays of fireworks. He is an infinitely creative God, and He speaks quietly through the seemingly ordinary as well.

Consider this passage from 1 Kings 19:11-13 in the Bible:

The LORD said [to Elijah], “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

.

Do we, in the course of our everyday lives, listen out for God’s gentle whispers? Are we grateful for the simple pleasures of everyday life? Do we even make a connection between God and all the wonderful (“ordinary”) things we see and experience each day? We see design and order in nature, in the way flowers are so intricately formed, in the way the sun rises and sets each day, in the way that birds are so functionally created so that they can fly, in the way that rain falls from the clouds to the ground and then evaporates to return to the atmosphere. We see buildings standing, electric lights working, lifts that save us walking up ten flights of stairs, spectacle lenses that help to refocus light to fall properly on the retinas of people’s eyes – all of which operate on the precise laws of Physics. (And where do we think the “laws of Physics” came from in the first place?) We have people in our lives who care about us and whom we care about. People may try to convince me of lots of things, but there is one thing I know for sure – what the human heart feels is too complex to be the result of molecules and atoms coming together by chance; Someone had to have created us to feel what we do.

Do we make a connection between God and what we see and experience each day? Or do we focus so much on the experience itself  that we, as C. S. Lewis puts it, “ignore the smell of Deity that hangs about it” (C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm (1964), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 90).

It is time for us to take an honest look at ourselves and what’s around us, and to recognise where God’s presence is evident. Dean Nelson in his book God Hides in Plain Sight (Brazos Press, 2009) says:

“Are we paying attention to the everday moments of our lives and seeing God in them, or are we living in such a chaotic frenzy that we hope we’ll have time to look for the presence and mystery of God later, when we have more time – say, when the degree is finished, the kids have moved out, this project is completed, or we retire? 

We have to look now. This is really all we have. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us look for, and see him in it.” (pp. 207-208)

 .

Photograph (by R Tang): Reflection in water, Bunratty Folk Park, Ireland, 2011

The phrase “Patches of Godlight” used in the title of this post is from C. S. Lewis’s book, Letters to Malcolm.

.

---

“We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.” (Annie Dillard, “The Meaning of Life”, Life Magazine, Dec 1988).

---

  

A clean slate

Forgiveness is a beautiful gift that God has given us. We’ve all done things that we know we shouldn’t have, that we wish with all our hearts we hadn’t done. I’m sure that I’m not alone in having found myself at the bottom of a sad and hopeless hole that I knew I had dug myself into. All my own fault. Wish I had known better. Should have known better. Never should have done it. And so we try to make amends, to put things right. But the thought looms large: We cannot turn back time. We cannot un-do things that have already been done. And so the cycle of despair continues. I’ve been there.

But the Bible is clear about the fact that the Christian believer is not called to carry the guilt of their past wrongs around with them.

In Isaiah 1:18 in the Bible, we read:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

I will never forget the day when I suddenly grasped that when we confess our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness, He wipes our slate completely clean. Human logic tells us that we cannot un-do things that have already been done. But God’s word promises: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). In God’s eyes, when we stand before Him, there will be no trace of that sin for which we sought and received forgiveness. We go from scarlet red to pure white, through God’s grace and forgiveness.

So whatever our past, there is always hope in Christ. And if we want an example from the Bible of how God can turn anyone’s life around and use them for His glory, we only need to look at the Apostle Paul, who called himself “the worst of sinners” in 1 Timothy 1:16. Before Paul encountered God and decided to become a follower of Christ, he mercilessly persecuted and killed many Christians. And yet, after his conversion, he went on to become a great disciple of Christ, bringing many into the kingdom of God, both during his lifetime as well as now through the many New Testament letters that we now have in the Bible.

The account of Paul’s life in the Bible offers us hope that any life can be turned around. And it also reminds us that we need to accept God’s forgiveness and forgive ourselves too in the process. It is NOT saintly for Christian believers to continually feel guilty for their past sins and to hit themselves over the head again and again with the memory of it. If we cannot get past our past mistakes, even after having confessed them to God and repenting, and even though God forgives us, it will be very difficult for us to live in the freedom and victory that God intended for us. Why? Because we are essentially telling God that we don’t believe what His Word says. And His Word says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). If GOD forgives us, shouldn’t we forgive ourselves?

Here is something I read recently by Steve Diggs that I think puts this across very nicely. It’s from an article published in crosswalk.com entitled “The Toughest Job: Forgiving Yourself“:

I appreciate the words of a man who himself had committed plenty of sins and hurt lots of people. Paul had jailed and murdered a multitude of Christians before he accepted Jesus himself. What a burden to carry! Can you imagine how many times he must have looked out at an audience and caught the eye of a woman whom he had widowed? How many young people did he preach Jesus to whom he had orphaned? And don’t you suppose that Paul wondered over and over, “Paul, you hypocrite! What right do you have to preach when you are the worst of the bunch?” Paul had to deal with this. I suspect he frequently drenched his pillow with tears and filled his waking hours with self-loathing. But instead of melting into a pity puddle, he saw the big picture.

These words from the good apostle have brought a lot of us through some deep waters. “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

God’s forgiveness allows us to put the past behind us, and to press on towards the future. A clean slate. White as snow. A chance to start over. Without a burden labelled “guilt” hanging round our necks.

  .

Photograph (by R Tang): Snow in Beijing, 2010

Is our work our “calling”?

I am a teacher. And I try to be a good teacher. Like everyone else, some days I succeed better in my attempts than other days. But, for me, striving to be a good teacher isn’t an end in itself. To be sure, teaching is a very noble profession. But it is also a very demanding profession. And (speaking for no one else but myself) I would say that if I were to make “being a good teacher” my ultimate goal, there would be a very real danger that I would soon burn out.

I like the distinction that Os Guinness (1998) makes between a primary calling to God and secondary callings to one’s profession. He says: 

“Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him and for him. First and foremost we are called to someone (God), not to something (such as motherhood, politics, or teaching) or to somewhere (such as the inner city or Outer Mongolia). Our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him. We can therefore properly say as a matter of secondary calling that we are called to homemaking or to the practice of law or to art history. But these and other things are always the secondary, never the primary calling. They are “callings” rather than the “calling”.” (Os Guinness, 1998, The Call: Finding and fulfilling the central purpose of your life. Waco, TX: Word Books, p. 31)

Many people have said that they feel “called” to the teaching profession. Well, I didn’t know that I would love teaching until I started teaching. I am very blessed to be in a profession that I like, but I am very aware that teaching is not the central purpose of my life. I am first and foremost called to love the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and mind (Matthew 22: 37), and to understand that in all that I do, “it is the Lord Christ [I am] serving” (Colossians 3:24).

My primary calling is to God, not to teaching. And in a strange yet wonderful way, it is this very realisation that gives me the drive to continue  working towards becoming “a good teacher”.

.

Photograph (by R Tang): Flowers in Black Kettle, Ireland, 2011   

Work – an expression of worship?

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24)

Some people love the job that they do. Some people don’t, and dream of the day when they can pack it all in and do something else altogether.

I happen to really like what I do, but I don’t think that I would be going out on a limb if I said that, for all of us, there are days when our work feels overwhelming. There are days when the multitude of things that we busy ourselves doing feels meaningless. There are days when we face a mountain of tasks we have to do that we dread.

I was reading Dean Nelson’s book God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World just a couple of days ago, and was reminded that perspective makes all the difference. If we view the work that we do as just some necessary evil that we need to get done and get out of the way so that we can then get on with other more important or more enjoyable stuff, then it’s going to be hard to view our daily tasks with much enthusiasm or with a grateful heart.

Nelson, in his book, writes about Eugene Peterson’s view of the link between ‘work’ and ‘worship’:

Worship and work are inseparable, Eugene Peterson said. “What we’re after is a seamless world of work and worship, worship and work … Work is the primary context for our spirituality.” …[B]eing anointed by God, Peterson said, means given a job by God. There’s a job to be done, we’re told to do it, and we’re equipped to do it. … Our present day task is to “recover work as vocation – as holy work. … The key to living vocationally – that is, being ‘God-called,’ Spirit-anointed – isn’t getting the right job or career but doing kingwork in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.”  [1] 

Elsewhere, Nelson also says:

Martin Luther said that “the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks.” For Luther and for us, the peasant and the merchant, “the business person, the teacher, the factory worker, and the television anchor – can do God’s work (or fail to do it) just as much as the minister and the missionary.”  [2]

.

Perspective. Whether we’re teachers, students, engineers, stay-at-home parents, shop assistants, or factory workers, we all have aspects of our work that we don’t particularly relish doing or find terribly fulfilling. I am reminded that whatever I do, I am to work at it with all my heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). We need to remember that                          (whatever it is) is part of what God has called us to do for the moment, and thus we shouldn’t view it as a chore or some meaningless thing that we have to do to get it out of the way so that we can move on to better and more important stuff. What we (have to) do as part of our daily routines IS the “important stuff”, because everything that we do is important in the eyes of God, if we view our work as an expression of worship to God.

.

[1] From pp. 43-44 of Dean Nelson’s God Hides in Plain Sight (Michigan, Brazos Press, 2009). Nelson was quoting from pp. 27-33 of Eugene Peterson’s Leap Over a Wall (San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).

[2] From pp. 51-52 of Dean Nelson’s God Hides in Plain Sight (Michigan, Brazos Press, 2009). Nelson was quoting Martin Luther from p. 34 of Os Guiness’s The Call (Nashville, W Publishing, 1998).

Photograph (by R Tang): Bicycle outside post office, Bunratty Folk Park, Ireland, 2011

   

It’s gonna be wild

There are times when we do not understand the way God works. In my life, I have not understood why God allowed certain obstacles to crop up in a friend’s life which (in my eyes) seemed to interrupt and jeopardise her journey towards knowing Him. I have not understood why a ministry which seems to be good and fruitful may soon come to an end. I have not understood why God would impress upon me that He wants me to walk down a certain path and then make the road so incredibly rocky.

But I have to trust that God knows what He is doing. If God puts an end to something good, if God throws obstacles in our way that threaten to sap every ounce of our energy, then it must be because He has something even greater in mind to accomplish. I may not see it now. In fact, I may not ever see it in this lifetime, but I know that if we are walking in God’s ways, His purposes for our lives will prevail, and those purposes will be for our good.

I think, so often, we want to serve God in ways that we feel we are able to. We want to grow spiritually in ways we feel that we should. But God is God, and He has plans of His own.

This is part of a song that we sang during a worship service recently. It’s from the song “Come Away” by Jesus Culture:

“I have a plan for you
I have a plan for you
It’s gonna be wild
It’s gonna be great
It’s gonna be full of me”

I have to trust that God will bring to pass the promises that He has made to His children – the promises found in the Bible as well as the personal promises that He has impressed upon our hearts. And I have to trust that God will honour every genuine desire to impact this world for His Kingdom. And thus, whatever my future holds, God is going to be right in the middle of it. It’s going to be full of Him.

If I want Jesus to work in my life and use me for His purposes, then I have to let Him, and wait, and watch Him do more than my finite mind could ever imagine.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

  .

Photograph (by R Tang): Stepping stones, Winterbourne Botanical Gardens, Birmingham, 2010

Our purpose in life

“In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith.”

– Wikipedia entry for “Christian Ministry” –

A while back, I came to learn that one aspect of my ministry which has been a central part of my life for the past few years might soon be taken away from me. And I got worried. I worried that I’d feel lost with it gone. I worried that I’d lose my sense of purpose. Then I figured, if God is taking away something which is already bringing Him glory, then He must have something bigger in store.

Well, a couple of days ago, it dawned on me that, yes, God may indeed have something bigger in store for my life (in fact, I’m sure of it), but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bigger ministry. Our purpose in life cannot be tied up with a particular ministry that we do (however good and essential it might be). Our purpose in life is to know God, seek God, and love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind (Luke 10:27). No matter what we have or what we lose, that purpose shouldn’t change. And it’s the only purpose that we need to give our lives meaning.

Some people have spoken about the emptiness of a life without a purpose, and others have spoken about trying to find fulfilment in their families, in their careers, or in the pursuit of wealth and status. Well, I like something that the Christian writer Donna Partow has written in her book Walking in Total God-Confidence (Bethany House, 1999): “We have a hole in our heart the size of the Grand Canyon, so we hand our husband a bucket and say, ‘Here, you fill it.’ Or we hand it to our church, our friends, or what have you. We fail to realize that filling that hole is something only God can do. And he can only do it if we will let him.”

The Psalmist said, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).

Nothing that is taken away from me in this life should make me feel like I’ve lost my purpose in life, if my purpose in life is to know God, to seek Him, and to be in His presence.

.

Photograph (by R Tang): taken in Winterbourne House, University of Birmingham, 2010

What kind of influence?

Most in the Christian community will have heard that the beloved Christian writer and preacher John Stott passed away about two weeks ago, on 27 July, and that it was his funeral yesterday.

Reading the many reports and tributes to him available over the internet, it struck me how many mentioned that John Stott had been named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time Magazine in 2005. There is no doubt that John Stott ”shaped the faith of a generation” (Tim Stafford in Christianity Today) through the 8 million copies of books that he sold, through his preaching at his home church in London, and through his addressing of social injustice around the world. It’s quite obvious that I am not likely to ever have that level of influence in this world, but this led me to think: What kind of influence do I have? What kind of influence will I be known for when my time on this earth is up?

All of us, no matter where we come from or what we do, have spheres of influence. All the people that we come into contact with in our daily lives form the spheres of our influence. Our friends, our colleagues, our bosses, our employees, our teachers, our students, the bus driver that we see on our way to work, the waitress at our favourite restaurant – they are in our spheres of influence. What kind of impact am I making on them? Is it a kind of impact that God is happy with? Through knowing me, are they nearer to knowing God or are they being driven further away?

I have come to realise that I am answerable not only for the kinds of values that I exhibit in my life, but also for the kinds of values that I influence others to have. Jesus’ words in the Bible are a sobering reminder that we will all be called to account for the kinds of influence that we have over others in our spheres of influence:

[Jesus said] “if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!”  (Matthew 18: 6-7) 

Fruit that will last

One verse has been on my mind for the past two weeks: 

[Jesus said] “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last” (John 15:16).

I suppose performance reviews are now common in most jobs. One by one, employees meet with their bosses and together they go through lists of performance indicators and targets, discussing areas in which the employee has performed up to expectation, beyond expectation, or below expectation. Each appointment grade has its own expectations and targets, and it can be a nerve-wracking experience anticipating the kind of feedback one is going to receive during one’s performance review.

In some professional contexts, the performance review can determine a person’s promotional prospects, even whether he/she continues to be employed, and it is not difficult to understand why some people get to a point where everything they do is weighed against the impact it would have on their performance review.

But what would happen, I wonder, if I were to stand before God tomorrow for my performance review?

Don’t get me wrong. The Bible teaches very clearly that I am not saved by what I do. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” However, the Bible also teaches that those of us who believe in Christ and already have eternal life with God will also have to stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:10, which is spoken to Christian believers, says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

So it struck me the other day that however hard I work at my earthly job, the most important job that I have on earth really is to prepare myself for my final performance review with God. And at that most important of performance reviews, only one thing will count: Did I use up all my time on earth doing things that make no difference in eternity? Or did I bear fruit for God that lasts?  

. 

Photograph (by R Tang): Birmingham Botanical Gardens, July 2011

God’s perfect provision

Someone gave something to me recently. As she excitedly told me what it was and described its features, it was clear that she had given much thought to picking it out for me.

There was just one little problem. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted. In fact, it was very far from what I would have picked out for myself.

Did I tell her I didn’t want it? Did I tell her I wanted something else? No.

Why? Because when someone so obviously cares enough to take so much trouble to choose something for me that they think is just right for me, I am moved and grateful and I can’t bring myself to hurt them by telling them that I don’t particularly like what they’ve chosen for me. Somehow, the fact that what is given isn’t to my liking doesn’t seem all that important in the light of the realisation that someone actually cares enough to specially pick out something for me.

Then I got to thinking. How is it that I would do this for a person, but so often I won’t do it for God?

The God of the universe knows us better than we know ourselves. We only have to read Psalm 139 to see this. God knows better than we do what will ultimately bring us joy. He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). He wants ultimately what is best for His children, and all that He allows into our lives has been “chosen” to perfect our faith in Him.

God puts so much thought and love into hand-picking what is best for each one of us, and yet when we are disgruntled with the situations we are in, when we are discontented with what we have, when we sit around and complain to whoever will listen about what we’re going through, we are saying in effect: “God, this isn’t what I would have picked for myself. Could you take it away and give me something else instead?”

In the Bible, we read of the Apostle Paul saying in his letter to the Philippians, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11-13)

I pray that one day I really will be able to say this along with Paul and mean it.

I need to trust in God’s perfect provision. God does not make mistakes.

.

Photograph (by R Tang): Red lilies, Regent’s Park, London (taken in 2010)

The Last Supper

Today is the Thursday before Good Friday, known to some as Maundy Thursday. This is the day that Christians typically associate with the last supper that Jesus had with His disciples before He went to the cross. Jesus knew that the time was coming for Him to face the cross. It was what His journey to earth was for. At that last supper with His disciples, Jesus made clear that His impending death on the cross had a divine purpose. His enemies were not “taking His life”. Jesus was giving His life up for our sakes. As He broke bread and shared it with His disciples, and as He shared the cup of wine with them, He made this abundantly clear:

“… [Jesus] took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” (Luke 22:19-20)

Jesus went to the cross for us. He poured out His blood for us. Jesus didn’t die because His enemies were too strong and He couldn’t fight back. He didn’t die because a disciple double-crossed Him. He didn’t die because the Roman Governor Pilate did nothing to stop the crucifixion. (In John 19:10-11, we read that Pilate tells Jesus: ”Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, ”You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”) Jesus died on the cross because He knew that was God’s plan all along. That was the only way that sinful humanity could be reconciled to the Holy God.

.

I was driving in to work on the expressway today when I saw a sign propped up by the side of the road saying “Fatal Accident”. The sign gave a date and time for when the fatal accident took place at that site, and urged motorists who had witnessed the accident to contact the police.

And it struck me what a thin thread there is between life and death. That driver had no way of knowing when he got into the car that day that he would never reach his earthly destination, but would instead see his eternal destination that very day. That driver had no way of knowing that the meal he had the night before was literally “his last supper”.

I was reading Susan Ellingburg’s article “How will you observe Holy Week?” on Crosswalk.com earlier this week, and one question she asked stuck with me and popped into my mind again when I saw that “Fatal Accident” sign:

“What would you do if, like Jesus … you knew you only had a couple of days left to live?
What’s stopping you from doing those things now?” 

Jesus knew when He was going to go to the cross. You and I don’t know when our time on earth will be up. We need to spend our time wisely, doing the things that matter. This includes sorting out where we will spend eternity. If you haven’t sorted this out yet, you may be interested to read this: If you died tonight ….

. 

Photograph (by R Tang): The Last Supper, St Martin in the Bullring Church, Birmingham, UK

The Lord is the answer

A few days ago, I was reading Proverbs 2 again and again, and it dawned on me that the Lord is the answer. Period. The Lord is the answer. In all things, God has the answer, and God IS the answer.

“For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6)

When everything is going swimmingly well for us, the Lord is the answer, for we know that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17) and that it is God who blesses us and “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

When we are in the midst of difficult circumstances, when we don’t know how to deal with difficult people, when we face mind-blowing responsibilities in our jobs and our families that we don’t feel ready for, when we are in trouble and can’t see a way out, when we feel alone and there’s nobody around for us to turn to … God has the answer. Proverbs 2 tells us that the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth (from the Bible, from hearing Him speak to us in our spirits) will come knowledge and understanding – knowledge of what to do, knowledge of how to respond in a way that pleases God, knowledge that He is in control, knowledge that nothing is ever overwhelming to God even if it feels overwhelming to us. And Proverbs 2 goes on to say that “wisdom will enter our heart” when we walk with God. What a beautiful thought.

Proverbs 2:1-11

“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 
turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path.
For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.”

 .

Photograph (by R Tang): Wildflower, Hyde Park, London

If you died tonight …

On my mind at the moment is a question that Christian writer and speaker Mark Cahill likes to ask the people he meets every day: If you died tonight, are you 100% certain that you would go to Heaven?

If this is not a question that you’ve ever thought about, don’t you think it’s a good idea to take some time to think about it?

[I finished reading two of Mark Cahill's books recently - One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven and One Heartbeat Away. Both of them made such an impact on me, and much of today's post is based on what I read in those two books.]

Most of us spend most of our lives trying to make sure that we provide for ourselves and our families the best we can in this life. But think about it: we’re only here on earth for a few years. After that comes eternity. What then? If you died tonight, are you 100% certain that you would go to Heaven? 

‘Eternity’ is longer than a hundred years. It’s longer than three hundred years. It’s longer than a thousand years. It’s longer than five hundred thousand years. It’s a longer time than most of our minds can process. If we work so hard to make sure that we’re okay for the 70, 80, 90  years we have in this life, isn’t it a good idea to make sure that we’re okay for all eternity? Isn’t it a good idea to make sure that the people we love will be okay for all eternity?

Well, assuming that people want to go to Heaven (and not its alternative, Hell), the next question is: What gets someone into Heaven?

In his books One Heartbeat Away and One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven, Mark Cahill reports asking various people why they felt they would go to Heaven after they died, and one of the most common responses given by people was that they felt they had generally been ‘a good person’.

But what counts as ‘good’? Whose definition of ‘good’ will be used when we stand at the gates of Heaven? Well, Heaven is God’s domain, so we shouldn’t be surprised that His standard of ‘good’ is going to be used.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, we read about the Law that God gave to His people. Most people these days have heard something about this. This is known to many of us as ‘the Ten Commandments’. They are found in Exodus 20:1-17. I will number the following so it’s clear that there were ten: (These words were spoken by God)

 

1. “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
2. “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
3. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20:7)
4. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
5. “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
6. “You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)
7. “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14)
8. “You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
9. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’” (Exodus 20:17)

.

This is God’s Law. How would you fare if this is the standard with which God judges the people who stand before Him? Here is how I would fare:

1. What does God mean when He says that we must not have any other ‘god’ before Him? He means that we are not to worship anything or anyone else aside from Him. If we do, that becomes a ‘god’ to us. Have I ever let my life, my decisions, my feelings of security, my every waking thought be dominated and dictated by something or someone else? Not for long periods of time, but for some period of time, yes, I’m afraid so. So, that’s one against me.
2. Idols refer first and foremost to physical and visible ‘aids’ that people create to worship God, e.g. a cross, a stained-glass image, statue, or picture of Jesus. It’s not wrong to have these things but to worship God through them is wrong. This, I have never done. But, idols are also anything that we focus all our attention on – e.g. our possessions, money, movie stars, food, boyfriends, TV, our jobs. If we value something in our lives to such an extent that it causes us to make decisions that do not please God, that something is an idol to us. For example, if we know that a particular TV programme is not pleasing to God, but we choose to continue watching it anyway because we like it, TV has become an idol. Have I had idols in my life? Yes. Can any of us honestly answer ‘no’? That’s two against me.
3. If we have ever uttered God’s name as a casual exclamation, or irreverently, or in any context other than as an address to the Lord God Himself, then we’ve “misused the name of the Lord”. Have I ever done it? I’m sorry to say it, but yes. It’s not part of my everyday speech, but even once is once too many. The Bible has a name for such people. It’s ‘blasphemer’. That’s three against me.
4. For years, I didn’t observe a Sabbath day. So that’s four against me. (Keeping the Sabbath – a day of rest focused on God – is something that I started doing very recently, because I’ve come to realise and appreciate that God’s original plan is always the best.)
5. Do I always honour my father and mother? Have I always? Unfortunately, no. Can any of us honestly say that we have never been angry with our parents, never gone against something they advised, never complained about them? So that’s five against me.
6. Well, I haven’t physically killed anyone. But the thing about God is that He doesn’t just look at our outward, visible actions. He looks also at the motivations and desires of our hearts. In Matthew 5:21-22, we read: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” and in 1 John 3:15, we read, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer”. Have I ever been angry, furious, livid with someone? Do I even need to answer that? So that’s six against me.
7. Adultery. The world has various ways of defining this, and if we take the most all-encompassing definition, this would be ‘sex with a person one is not married to’. At this point, some people could be breathing a sigh of relief, thinking that here at last is one commandment they haven’t broken. But … as I said above, God doesn’t just look at our actions. He looks also at our hearts. Matthew 5:27-28 tells us that if we so much as look at someone lustfully, we have already committed adultery with that person in our hearts. So that’s seven against me, then.
8. Have I ever stolen anything? Yes. An little incident when I was in primary school springs to mind. Where are we now? Eight?
9. Number Nine has to do with lying. Can any of us say that we’ve always told the absolute truth? So that’s nine against me.
10. Coveting – wanting what someone else has that isn’t ours to have. The Bible in 1 Timothy 6:6 tells us that “Godliness with contentment is great gain”. Have I ever looked at someone else and wished that I had some thing, some position, or some attribute that they had which I don’t have? Not very often, but yes, sometimes. Let’s see. How many is that? That’s ten against me.

 

Some people might say, “Well, but it’s not as if I break these commandments all the time. I hardly ever do. Maybe once in a long time.” And some others might fare better than me and say, “Well, actually, I’ve only broken three of these commandments. I’m okay for the other seven.”

Here’s what the Bible says: “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10).

The people who say that they think they’ll go to Heaven because they’re generally “a good person” are operating with the belief that God has a balancing scale, and that He piles their good deeds on one side and their bad deeds on the other, and if the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds, then they’re fine and will be let into Heaven. I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way. When it comes to entry into Heaven, there’s only SINLESS or SINFUL. There is no cline. Either we have no sin, or we have sin. Whether we have one sin in our lives or fifty sins or ten thousand sins, we fall into the SINFUL category. I think it’s pretty safe to say that all of us, myself included, fall into the SINFUL category.

.

So what next then? Did God give us humans The Law just to make us strive all our lives to live up to some impossible standard, only to feel miserable because we’ll never be good enough?

No. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:20: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” And in Galatians 3:24, we read: “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”

In other words, God gave us the Law so that mankind would realise that we have done wrong in God’s eyes (i.e. sinned), and that it is impossible and hopeless for us to try to “earn” a place in Heaven by doing “righteous” things. We will always fall short of God’s holy standard. Thus, we are all in the same boat. We all need a Saviour, someone to save us, or we will not be going anywhere near to Heaven. The Law, according to the Bible, was meant to lead us to Jesus Christ.

God knew that we would all fall short of His perfect standard. As the Holy God, He has to uphold justice and cannot change His standards of righteousness for individual people. Where a wrong has been done, the just thing to do would be to punish it. We would expect no less even from a human judge. The punishment for sin, according to the Bible, is death (i.e. eternal separation from God, i.e. not Heaven, but Hell for all eternity).

BUT … God loves us so much that He decided to provide a way for us to be saved, by sending His only Son, Jesus, to take on our punishment for us. In the book of John (the fourth book of the New Testament), it is said,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Read that again: Whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish, but have eternal life.

[This does not, of course, mean that those who believe in Jesus will not pass away from this earth, but rather that after our physical deaths, we will live with God in His presence eternally.]

.

How is this possible? To understand this, it may help to know that in the old days (before Jesus came to earth), priests used to have to sacrifice animals to God in order to atone for (i.e. make amends for) the sins of the people. God gave very specific instructions to His people detailing how the sacrifices should be done. But the people understood that the shedding of the animals’ blood was only an interim measure until the time when God would send His true “Messiah”. (“Messiah” means someone who comes to “redeem” the people, to “buy back” for God the human race who had no way of making their own way back into God’s Kingdom.) The animals, being from this world which was in essence already fallen and sinful, could never be the perfect substitute for human lives, and hence in the old days, the priests used to have to sacrifice animals at regular intervals, to atone again and again for the sins of the people.

But the perfect substitute came in the form of Jesus, God’s only Son.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was born into this earth in human form through the virgin Mary, that Jesus was “in very nature, God” (Philippians 2: 6), and that Jesus led a sinless life (1 John 3:5). He is referred to in the New Testament of the Bible as “the Lamb of God”, and He was, because of His sinless nature, an acceptable and total substitute for our lives.

When the right time came, Jesus allowed himself to be crucified (i.e. killed by being nailed to a cross). When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment for sin that should have been ours. And because Jesus was perfect, pure, and holy, this one-time sacrifice was enough to pay the price for our sin for all eternity. There is a line in the song “Before the throne of God above” which I love and which sums this up perfectly: “Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God (the Just) is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.”  Because of His selfless act, Jesus made available a way for us to be reconciled to God. It does not matter who we are or what wrongs we have done. Jesus paid the price for our sin in full. 

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

It would not be possible for us to become ”righteous” in God’s eyes through our own efforts at keeping God’s Law. I think it’s obvious that no human being could possibly keep all of God’s Law. But we are told in Romans 3:22 that we are GIVEN a righteousness through faith in Jesus: “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

In other words, we cannot work to earn a place in Heaven. We have to accept it as a gift that is bestowed on us when we believe in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

.

Each and every person who (a) chooses to acknowledge that they have sinned against God, (b) chooses to repent of those sins (i.e. turn away from the wrongs they have done in the past), and (c) accepts that they need Jesus to be their Saviour in order to be reconciled with God, is saved.

.

Although Jesus died for everyone in the whole world, WE must make the decision to accept Him before we can benefit from His sacrifice. This is like someone holding out a gift to us. It’s there. It’s on the table. But we don’t “have” the gift, unless we choose to accept it. John 3:17-18 says:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:17-18)

Elsewhere, the Bible also says,

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

.

The Christian faith is unique in that the one who believes is saved and will go to heaven entirely through God’s grace. There is no person on earth who “deserves” salvation more than someone else, because there are no works that we can do to “earn” our salvation. Salvation is freely given to those who choose to trust in Jesus as their Saviour.

However, it should not therefore be mistaken that Christianity is cheap. Our lives were ransomed at a very high price – the life of Jesus, God’s son. And although Christians are not saved by what we do, genuine repentence (which is part of “accepting Jesus” or “becoming a Christian”) will result in a changed life, as the Holy Spirit, whom God places in our hearts when we believe in Him, gradually reveals to us (through our prayer and Bible study) how to grow into the person God wants us to be. Just as Jesus died on the cross with the sins of the world upon His shoulders and then was raised to life again on the third day to reign with God in Heaven, so if we genuinely accept Jesus into our hearts, our old sinful nature should die and a new nature that desires to please God will start to live in us.

The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5: 15, 17

“And [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. … if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

We believe that Jesus is just waiting for everyone to accept Him. The hand is out-stretched with the gift of salvation. It is up to us to step forward to take it.

.

If you died tonight, are you 100% certain that you would go to Heaven?

If you aren’t, isn’t it time to make sure you are? You cannot be too busy to take time to sort out the most important decision that you will ever make, a decision that will affect your eternity. One day (and we really don’t know when that will be), it really will be our last night on this earth. Our project deadlines, our sales targets, our laundry, our financial investments, our favourite movies, all the things that seem so pressing and important now – none of that is going to matter then. Mark Cahill has a motto in his book One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven that is well worth keeping in mind: “If it doesn’t matter on the day you die, it doesn’t matter.”

Make the time to sort out the important stuff. If you died tonight, are you 100% certain that you would go to Heaven?

.

---

If you are a student, friend, or acquaintance of mine who has read this, and you would like to talk more, please please let me know.

---

. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This post borrows heavily from Mark Cahill’s One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven, a truly inspirational book. Mark Cahill in turn credits Ray Comfort of Living Waters for the idea of using the Ten Commandments to help us see how we have all done wrong in God’s eyes and so are in need of God’s forgiveness and saving grace. You can find Mark Cahill at http://www.markcahill.org

Lord, You Are All I Want

Today at church, we sang for the first time the song “Like A Fire”, from Planetshakers’ 2009 praise and worship album One. And as we sang the chorus (the last line of which is “Lord, You are all I want”) for the fourth or fifth time, I suddenly realised that it was true: Jesus really is all I want.

It has not been an easy week or month or year for me. I’ve had tremendous highs in my spiritual walk with God, and also tremendous lows where I’ve seriously questioned the decisions that I’ve made. Everywhere we turn, this world tells us what we should be wanting and aiming for in this life:

• a secure, well-paying job with good promotion prospects,
• someone to marry, settle down with, and start a family,
• a comfortable home, a nice car to get around, enough money in the bank for eventual retirement,
• praise and recognition for our hard work (perhaps even some measure of “fame” in our particular spheres)
• material “things” that make us happy

These are not necessarily bad things to have and to work towards. All the material blessings that we have in this life are after all gifts from God provided for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17). The problem starts when we begin to think that unless we have them, our lives are, at best, not complete, and at worst, a ‘failure’.

I will admit that there have been times (in fact just this past week) when I’ve allowed myself to doubt whether it was worth it making the decisions that I’ve made which have led or which may lead to my forgoing some of the things in the above list.

Beth Moore, the Christian writer, writes in her book Believing God that it is important for Christians to actually speak out what we believe and not just think it. I understood that today. Singing that line “Lord, You are all I want”, it dawned on me that I was singing something that I really believed in. Sure, I would be ecstatic to have all the other things too. But if we strip everything away, the one thing that I really want is Jesus.

I need to stop letting this world tell me what to want in life.

I need to start letting God’s word tell me what’s valued in His eyes.

Matthew 22: 36-38

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.

.

If you’re interested, you can watch a video of Planetshakers’ “Like a Fire”. This was uploaded to YouTube by Planetshakers themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQx5E7OG3YU

.

---

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7-8).

---

 

Chinese New Year Blessings

It’s the fourth day of the Chinese New Year today, and I felt like writing something about the Chinese character “fu” (福), a word frequently displayed by Chinese families during the Chinese New Year season and arguably one of the most recognisable Chinese characters the world over. It’s frequently used to mean “good fortune” or “luck” or “blessing”.

Committed Christians don’t believe in the concept of “good luck” because we know that things do not happen by chance and that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17). However, the idea of God’s “blessing” is very much a part of a Christian worldview, and in fact the well-known verses in Matthew 5:3-11 of the Bible, which record the eight blessings spoken by Jesus in His “Sermon on the Mount” and which are commonly referred to as “The Beatitudes” in English, are referred to as “八福” in Chinese.

If we look closely at how Jesus defines those who are blessed, however, we will quickly realise that His idea of what it means to be blessed is miles away from modern society’s definition of being blessed. So many of us in this world (yes, Christians included) tend to think of blessings that take the form of good health, prosperity, a happy family, a safe home, material comforts, and so on. But here is Jesus’s description of the person who is blessed:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:3-11)

I’m not saying that good health, financial security, a safe and secure home environment, a good job, a happy and healthy family, freedom of worship, and material comforts such as clean water, electricity, air-conditioning and so on are not wonderful blessings from God. They most certainly are, and in fact I know I am often guilty of taking them for granted and not being grateful enough for them. But the challenge for all of us who profess to follow Jesus is to really take to heart the fact that even if all these were taken away from us, we are still greatly blessed, because the kingdom of heaven awaits us, because God Himself comforts us, because in God’s presence is fullness of joy.

We had a guest speaker at our church today - Dr Benny Prasad, an Indian musician who has travelled to over 200 countries in the world, playing for the Presidents of numerous countries, the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games etc., and a wonderful and creative “missionary to the world” with a compelling testimony of how Jesus has changed his life. Benny Prasad challenged us to think about whether we as Christians have subconsciously come to associate “being blessed” with the same material things that the rest of the world does. Christians are quick to tell others when their prayers for healing are answered, when they secure a job promotion against all odds, when they return safely from a missions trip to a country where Christians are persecuted. We tend to look at other Christians who have strong and well-adjusted children, responsible jobs, and comfortable homes, and say that they have been greatly blessed by God.

But what does it really mean to be blessed? That was the deeply challenging question that Benny Prasad put to us today.

He went on: If “being blessed” by God means having everything going swimmingly well for us, then does this mean that the committed Christians who are not healed even after much prayer are not blessed? Or the people who live by the principles of their faith and lose their jobs in the process? Or the Christians who live in parts of the world where poverty is rife? Or the Christian workers who are killed in the mission field? Are these Christians less blessed by God?

I am thankful for all the good things I have, the miraculous healing I’ve experienced, and the material blessings that God has poured into my life, but I pray that when I am seriously tested, I will be able to say as the Apostle Paul did in his letter to the Philippians: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13).

This Chinese New Year period, when we are all going round exchanging the traditional good wishes of prosperity and fulfilled dreams, let’s not forget that we are truly blessed in God’s sight when we recognise our complete dependency on God for our salvation (“poor in spirit”), when we thirst after the righteousness of God, when we are pure in heart, when we bring the peace of Jesus to the world, and when we persevere in our faith even in the face of persecution.

.

About the picture: Chinese exchange many traditional four word greetings during the Chinese New Year, mostly to do with wishing each other prosperity, long life, good health, and fulfilled dreams. The two Chinese blessings in the picture (zhu en chang zai, fu bei man yi) are not traditional Chinese New Year greetings, but I saw these being used by a church in the States and really liked them as they highlight that when God’s grace and mercy are with us, we are greatly blessed.

Our lives are in God’s hands

I’ve come to realise that so many of our fears and anxieties in this world stem from our over-emphasis on:

• what people (will) think of us
• what people can do to us
• how to achieve the things that we want in this world

We worry about whether we can achieve the goals we’ve set for ourselves. We worry about what will happen to us if we don’t achieve them. What will people think? What will they do to us? We plot and plan ways to achieve what we think we need and want in this world, and then worry that we’ve made the wrong choices. Should we have done X instead of Y? Would that have made a difference? We fret because we would like everything to be within our control and life just doesn’t work that way. Students who work hard don’t always get the grades they are aiming for. People who pour their hearts into their businesses don’t always get the results they want. Workers who put everything into their work don’t always get the recognition they feel they deserve. We can do the best we can, but there is so much that is beyond our control, so much that depends on the will and decisions of other people. And that’s a scary thought.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be mindful of the impression we are making on others, or that we naively ignore what might happen to us, or that we don’t make plans for our future. But I’ve come to realise that I shouldn’t allow these to consume my thoughts.

Certainly, there is much in this world that is beyond our control, but we need to remember that ultimately our lives are held, not in the hands of other people, but in the hands of our living God. It may appear to uninformed eyes that some other person has the power to decide what direction our lives will take (by virtue of their power to give or withhold grades, raises, promotions, privileges, recognition, friendship, love and so on), but the truth is that our days are ordained by the Almighty God who sees all and knows all. Our days are not ordained by some flawed human being.

I discovered Isaiah 40 a couple of days ago, and realised how beautifully it speaks of the smallness of man and the greatness of God. If we could just remember how absolutely GREAT and ALL-POWERFUL our God is, everything else falls into perspective.

Take a moment to think about it. Isaiah 40 tells us that our God is so huge that He is able to hold all the waters of this earth in the hollow of His hand. He can measure off the heavens using the breadth of His hand. He was the one who stretched out the heavens above us in the first place, like a canopy over our earth. If our God is that powerful and if He has “plans to prosper [us]and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] hope and a future” (as we are told in Jeremiah 29:11), I have to ask myself why there is any need to worry so much all the time.

There is no need.

We are small. The people around us who seemingly make the important decisions that affect our lives are small too. This is what Isaiah 40:6-8 says:

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

But God is great. I don’t think our human minds can fully comprehend how absolutely great He is, but this is what the prophet Isaiah says:

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? …

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.” (Isaiah 40: 12-14, 21-24)

For those who feel that the weight and worries of this world are sometimes just too much to bear, this is what Isaiah says:

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:25-31)

 .

Photograph (by R Tang): Wollongong, Australia

Real peace, false peace

At the start of this new year, I feel led to write about something which has been on my heart and mind for several months. This came to me one day while I was reading Romans 5:1-5 in the Bible:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:1-5)

. 

“Peace” seems to be what so many people are trying to find. I sometimes meet people who attend church regularly, read the Bible regularly, and even pray to God, who by their own admission are not Christians and are doubtful about whether they want to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

When I ask them out of curiosity why then they attend church, or read the Bible, or pray, they almost always answer that doing these things gives them a sense of peace.

When I hear this, a part of me rejoices because I know that Jesus really is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6), and what these people are experiencing when they come into contact with God’s word (through the Bible) or when they find themselves in a place where believers are worshipping God (e.g. at church) is due to God tugging at their heart and due to God in His grace allowing them a glimpse of the peace and blessings that He has to offer.

But a part of me is saddened, particularly when I meet people who have been in this position for years (i.e. attending church, or reading the Bible, or praying, but not willing or not able to take that extra step to give their lives to Jesus and ”become a Christian”). I don’t want to sound harsh, but too much is at stake for us to soft-peddle the truth. And the honest truth is that no matter how much peace the acts of reading the Bible, going to church, and praying bring to a person, that “peace” will ultimately come to nothing if they do not acknowledge and accept Jesus as their personal Saviour.

I believe that God in His grace reveals some of Himself to pre-believers as a way of drawing them to Him, so that they can experience Him and know He is real, and then make the decision to follow Him. I think it’s wonderful that people feel a sense of peace when they read the Bible, attend a church service, or pray to God, but ultimately the commitment must go further because the reason that Christians can have peace in God is given in Romans 5: “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. This means that when Christians stand before God (both now and at the end of time), the Holy and Almighty God looks at us, accepts us as one of His own, and gives us access to all His promises in the Bible … all and just because we made the decision to let His Son Jesus pay the price for our sins. This is what “becoming a Christian” means - We acknowledge that Jesus saved us in the sight of God by dying for our sins and we accept His gift of salvation. As the lovely song “Before the throne of God above” (by Vikki Cook and Charitie Lees Bancroft) goes:

Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

This is the reason for our peace, the basis upon which our peace rests. We can rejoice whatever our external circumstances. We know that nothing external matters because, on the inside, eternally, when it counts, we have nothing to worry about — we are saved for all eternity through our faith in Jesus, God’s son.

But any other kind of peace is a false peace. A deception. A temporary peace at best. Something that Christian writer John Bevere says in his book Drawing Near has haunted me since I first read it: “The deceived take comfort in a knowledge of a God they simply do not possess” (p. 87).

When non-Christians read the Bible, go to church, and pray to God, and experience some measure of peace, that’s great and I am pleased for them. (I am pleased whenever anyone shows any interest at all in God.) But we must all recognise that the commitment to God must go further, because the sense of “peace” that is not due to God’s Holy Spirit living in us and that is not backed by God’s justification, saving grace, and divine protection is only a false sense of peace. If we do not recognise this, then we are sadly deceived. After all, the Bible that gives us such comforting verses as:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) 

and

[Jesus said] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

and

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

also says in no uncertain terms:

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. … Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16, 18)

Let’s not be deceived. And let’s not settle for a false sense of peace that counts for nothing at the end of time, when true and lasting peace is available through faith in Jesus Christ.

.

Photograph (by R Tang): Winterbourne Botanical Gardens, Birmingham University, 2010. 

Strange way to save the world

This Christmas, here is a thought-provoking little song that reminds us that God often works in ways we do not expect. 

The song is called “Strange way to save the world”, and it’s sung by Mark Harris. The following rendition was recorded by Northland Church, where Mark Harris was the guest worship leader in November 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGsarig0V2c

.

The real Christmas story

The Lord says in Isaiah 55:10-11:

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

The Bible is God’s word to us. This Christmas, therefore, I pray that many will read the the account of Jesus’ birth in the Bible, and see in it God’s amazing love and the radical plan He put in place to connect with us and offer us a way back to Him.

It’s time to let God’s word speak for itself …

.

Luke Chapter 1, verses 26-38: The birth of Jesus foretold (an angel appears to Mary) (Luke is the third book in the New Testament of the Bible.)

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

.

Matthew Chapter 1, verses 18-25: The birth of Jesus foretold (an angel appears to Joseph) (Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible.)

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” –which means, “God with us.”

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

.

Luke Chapter 2, verses 1-21: The birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version

Reclaim the wonder of Christmas

At any other time of the year, it’s contemporary Christian music that I like listening to. But when it comes to Christmas, somehow, it’s the old traditional carols that I love the most, songs like “O Holy Night”: 

“O holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Saviour’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices
O night divine, O night when Christ was born
O night divine, O night, O night divine”

(English lyrics by John Sullivan Dwight, 1855, based on a French poem by Placide Cappeau)

.

With familiarity, however, comes a danger, for it is possible for those of us who have been believers in Christ for a while to become so familiar with the old songs and tunes that we just sing the carols without reflecting any longer on what the words actually say and mean. Do we really get that we are singing about the night when Christ was born?

And on a similar note, it is also possible for those of us who have been believers for a while to lose the wonder of Christmas day.

At church last Sunday, our pastor told us a few stories of people whose lives have recently been touched by God, and who have recently decided to accept Jesus as their Saviour. He said that for these new believers, this coming Christmas is going to be profoundly different from all the other Christmases they’ve ever had before, because for the first time, they will know that they belong to the family of God. And all of us in the service were challenged to ask ourselves how this Christmas will be special or different for us this year.

So, in the run-up to Christmas this year, I pray that all of us will be challenged to reclaim the wonder of Christmas, and to let it really sink in once again that we are celebrating the birth of the Saviour of the world, our Saviour.  

. 

If you’ ve never heard “O Holy Night” before (or even if you have), you might be interested to check out Mark Harris’s beautiful rendition of it at his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/markharris/music/albums/christmas-is-13804180 (Scroll down – it’s number 9 on the list, and one of the nicest renditions of the song that I’ve ever heard.)

Photograph (by R Tang): Christmas angels, Birmingham Christmas Market (taken in 2007)

 

Dear searching soul

Dear searching soul,

Perhaps you are looking at the bright Christmas lights strung across the busiest shopping street of your city, or enjoying the malls decked out in Christmas decorations, or watching people hurrying around with arms full of wrapped presents for their loved ones, or listening to upbeat Christmas songs being played everywhere you go, or seeing supermarkets taking orders for turkeys and honey baked hams and Christmas log cakes.

Perhaps you’re enjoying the experience of it all, and you like the feeling that you are “experiencing Christmas”.

But perhaps there is a little part of you that is also wondering: Is there actually something real behind the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season? Behind the smiles and the glittering Christmas trees and cheery songs, is there a real meaning to Christmas?

Yes.

The decorations and the songs and the Christmas trees and the food are great – I love all of them because they herald the approach of Christmas and I love Christmas. But the “something real” behind it all is found in the Bible. And it’s a very simple message:

God loves us. But we are inherently sinful and hence cannot dwell in the same place as the Holy God.

So God sent His son Jesus to earth in human form, so that Jesus could take the punishment for our sins. A perfect, sinless sacrifice was needed, and Jesus was the only one who would ever fit the bill. Without Jesus, there would be no way for us to find our own way back to God, because God is completely holy and there is no way that we could ever be that by our own efforts.

Because Jesus died in our place, on our behalf, we now have a way of being reconciled with God. The Bible tells us that God “gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

And the Bible further explains in John 17:3 - “this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

When we believe in Jesus and choose to enter into a relationship with Him, therefore, we find that the door to knowing God becomes open to us. And I’ve personally found that in that relationship is found the true meaning of life. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has “set eternity in the human heart”. This means that humans were made with a natural restlessness, a natural desire to search for their purpose in life, their place in eternity. No one teaches us to have that searching soul. God put that desire in all of us.

The Bible further tells us in Isaiah 43:7 that we were created for God’s glory. So we can search all we like, and try to find fulfilment in all kinds of things (e.g. wealth, success, friends, family), but ultimately, we find our true purpose when we find God. In that relationship is inner peace, strength, true joy, rest for the soul, a sense of belonging and a sense of finally being who we were made to be.

So, to the soul who is searching for “something more” or “something real” this Christmas, I pray that you will look to the real meaning of Christmas, and try Jesus.

.

How does one accept Jesus?

• Acknowledge that we are sinful (i.e. have done wrong things in our lives) and that by our own efforts, it is impossible for us to save ourselves.
• Acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and that only He can save us.
• Believe that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, and that by His death, because He died on our behalf, we can receive forgiveness for our own sins.
• Ask Jesus to be our personal Lord and Saviour, and to help us to start living a life which honours Him.

If you can do this and tell this to Jesus, and mean it, you have just started your life as a member of God’s family. Do find a church or someone who is a believer in Jesus, so that they can help you to grow in your knowledge of Jesus.

The Gift of Christmas

Lately, I’ve begun to feel more and more saddened by the realisation that so many see Santa Claus, that white-bearded, red-suited guy with his red sack of presents, as the central figure of Christmas.

Jesus is the central figure of Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of HIS birthday, and with His birth those many years ago came the greatest gift that has ever been given to anyone - the gift of salvation into an eternal life of knowing God. 

And so I’ve been saddened at the thought of those who miss (or who choose not to recognise) the real point of Christmas.

But it wasn’t till I read a blog post written by Dave Burchett (and re-published by Crosswalk here) that I began to realise that what he calls the “Santa Claus is Coming to Town Theology” has more insidious implications. After years of hearing the catchy song being played in shopping malls all through December (and now increasingly all through November as well), have we subconsciously allowed Santa Claus Theology to take root in our minds?

The idea put forward in the popular Santa Claus song is that Santa sees everything and he makes lists of who’s naughty and nice, so we’d better not pout or cry or be bad or be found on the “naughty” list if we want Santa to bring us presents.

It sounds logical, doesn’t it? If we do good, we get rewarded. If we don’t, we can’t expect anything good to come along.

But God is not Santa Claus, and He doesn’t work in quite the same way.

If God kept lists of “who’s naughty and nice” and saved His gifts for those on the “nice” list, then there wouldn’t be anyone to give anything to, because all humankind would be on the “naughty” list. The Bible tells us after all, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10) and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). However many good deeds we do in this life, we still fall short of the glory of God.

But God in His infinite mercy and wisdom knows this, and in love, He provided the way for humankind to be saved. John 3:16-17 tells us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” – That is the gift of Christmas, the biggest and best gift there could ever be.

God does keep a list, but it is a list of the people who have chosen to accept Him as the Lord of their lives and to acknowledge that His son Jesus is the only way to heaven. “[Jesus said] I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). When Jesus was crucified on the cross, He took upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours. He paid the price. We get ourselves on the “saved and going-to-heaven” list (called the “Lamb’s Book of Life” in Revelation 21:27) not because of the good deeds that we do or because we are “nice”, but by believing that Jesus paid the price for us, being thankful for it, and accepting God’s gift of eternal life.

God does not offer us a way to join Him in heaven because we deserve it. He offers us this gift freely even though we don’t deserve it at all. That is grace. That’s what the Bible means when it says that we are saved by grace, through faith, and not by works. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Dave Burchett ends his piece thus: “Don’t let the Santa Claus theology live into the New Year. Go straight to the gift of grace that Jesus left under the Cross. Open it. And clothe yourself in His salvation, acceptance and love. It may be the best gift you have ever given yourself.”

Jesus, not Santa Claus, is at the heart of Christmas. And His gift of salvation is offered to everyone. Nothing that we have done in the past is too bad for God to forgive. All that God requires is a heart that is willing to believe that Jesus died for our sins, that His death makes it possible for us to be reconciled with God, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live a new life from here on, walking in the ways of God.

God’s gift of salvation has been offered. Our part is to tell God that we accept it.

.

Photograph (by R Tang): Our Lady of Carmel Church, Macau, taken in December 2010