The Power Of Our Thoughts

“I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Mark 11:24

The stories in the bible are sacred and powerful - not to fill our minds with information but to transform our deceitful hearts. Hence we need to “bookend” our bible study with prayer. What we read and understand with our minds is determined by what we believe in our hearts.  It is so important to study and meditate on the bible - not to know about God - but to listen to what God wants to tell us about what we are to do with our lives. The stories of Jesus in the Gospels are to teach us spiritual truths and spiritual laws for us to live by. So to discover them, we need to pray:

“Lord, open my mind to Your Word and open Your Word to my heart.”

Reflecting on the thoughts my small group had shared in our study of Chapter 11 of the Gospel of Mark, I discovered four spiritual truths. Firstly, Jesus came to deliver us from our spiritual slavery to sin and change us into a people of prayer. But the Jews were hoping for liberation from the political and military oppression of the Romans. They welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as their military and political leader shouting:

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is our ancestor David’s kingdom that is coming! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Mark 11:9-‬10 GW

Jesus came, riding on a donkey, to be a powerless, suffering Servant King and not a powerful, victorious and demanding king. But his anger was aroused by the commercialization of the religious activities when he went to the Temple. He exercised his spiritual authority, driving the money changers and the people who were buying and selling animals for sacrifices out of the Temple. He reminded them:

“Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves.” Mark 11:17 GW

Jesus died on the cross to reveal the power of God’s agape love to overcome evil. Jesus rose from the dead to transform our human lives into the living stones of God’s spiritual temple and ordain us to be a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:4-5). To be a follower of Christ is to be the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6:16) as well as to be the living sacrifices each day to transform our minds so that we can know God’s perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)\

Secondly, Jesus demonstrated the power of our thoughts and prayer. Jesus was hungry when he was on the way back to Jerusalem. He saw a fig tree with leaves but could not find any figs and said to the fig tree: “May no one ever eat your fruit again.” When they were leaving Jerusalem the next day, the disciples found that the fig tree had withered from the roots up and Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the fig tree. It was a grim reminder of the power of words to cause death as well as healing. The barren fig tree provided Jesus with the opportunity to teach his disciples of the power of our thoughts and prayer:

“Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Mark 11:22-‬23 NLT

It is a spiritual law that we will receive whatever we pray for with faith. We can pray for anything but not everything is good for our souls. The effect of the words of Jesus on the fig tree teaches us of the power of our words. With great power comes great responsibility and hence we need to follow the example of Jesus in the wilderness and in the Garden of Gethsemane. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he did not confront the devil as God. He confronted the devil as a man with the Word of God. When he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus did not resist and told his disciple to put his sword away:

“Don’t you think that I could call on my Father to send more than twelve legions of angels to help me now?” (Matthew 26:53 NLT)

Thirdly, the hunger and anger of Jesus is a demonstration of his humanity - to show us how to live with sin but not in sin. The theology of the cross teaches us that we can find strength in our human vulnerability. Vulnerability is not weakness. Through the cross of Christ, the stories of those who are betrayed, rejected, weak, lonely, sick, dying and afraid become parts of God’s love story. Jesus died on the cross not to appease an angry god but to transform our suffering in this world:

“Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.” Hebrews 2:14-‬18 NLT

Fourthly, we need to experience the joy of being forgiven in order to forgive. We are unable to forgive without the grace of God. Following Jesus is not trying to become a super saint or a perfect human being - it is living out the prayer of Jesus on the cross by the grace of God:

 “Father, forgive them. They don’t know not what they’re doing.” (Luke23:34 GW)

The discipline of meditation us to help us become more conscious of our thoughts and feelings so that we can be more forgiving. Discipleship is the exciting journey of discovering  the wonder of growing up as a child of God and to be fully human and fully divine. Our lives are all stories in the end and the most important question is whether they are a part of God’s love story or just a human story of futility, comedy or tragedy. 

 SDG

 

 

Heaven - God's Vision Or Man's Pipe-dream?

“Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering.  But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” Mark 10:39-‬40 NLT

Heaven is not nowhere but now here. Living in heaven here and now is not a pipe dream but God’s vision for our lives. In the Lord’s prayer, we pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is not a destination but a state of being in the eternal relationship with our Heavenly Father.

In the gospel of Mark, the stories of Jesus preparing the disciples for his crucifixion and of James and John asking to be seated on the right and left of Jesus’ glorious throne, are to help us to understand what heaven is all about. But like the disciples, we are all spiritually blind to the reality of God’s Kingdom. We need to cry out like blind Bartimaeus, “Rabbi, I want to see!” (Mark 10:52).

The cry of Bartimaeus to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” brings to mind the “Jesus Prayer” of the Anonymous Russian pilgrim in the 1800s who prayed, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He found that it was a way to pray unceasingly and to practice the presence of God. It is also known as the prayer of the heart in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is the basis for the discipline of breath prayers in Christian meditation. 

To follow Christ is to seek the Kingdom of God above all else and the practice of contemplative prayer or meditation helps us to do so. As I was writing this reflection,  a nephew shared how he had experienced God’s presence when he was about 29 years old. He was struggling to find meaning in life with a past that was full of pride and hurts and a future filled with worries. He felt led to try meditation with the breath prayer and experienced an awareness of his true self - a consciousness that is beyond his own mind.

In this “super consciousness” realm, he experienced the sensation of the energy or consciousness of the trees in the ground floor carpark.  He found breathing the air of life more pleasurable than that of smoking cigarettes, a habit he was addicted to at that time. Most important of all, he was in a state of divine bliss which was unspeakable joy. It was a foretaste of “heaven” which lingered with him for the next 2 to 3 days. He felt that his mind had been cleared out and reset and his body renewed with joy. He felt refreshed and healed.  God became very real to him after that night and he began to hunger and thirst for more spiritual food.

Before the crucifixion, the disciples were unable to comprehend what Jesus was talking about and they saw greatness from their egos rather than from the perspective of a child and servant of God. They were blind to the cost of following Christ and totally oblivious to the suffering that lies ahead of them:

“But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” Mark 10:38 NLT

The world is suffering from the horror of the COVID 19 pandemic. We are reminded of how fragile and unpredictable the future and life can be. COVID 19 forces us to face the stark reality that we are in fact living in hell on earth when we do not have God in our lives.  We are addicted to the pleasures of life which drown God’s gentle whispers of love calling us to return to His loving embrace. Spiritual experiences like those of my nephew helped me to understand the message of the cross:

“And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” John 3:14‭-‬15 NLT

Moses was told to make the bronze snake on a pole for the Jews to look at for healing when they were afflicted by poisonous snakes for their rebellious complaints against God (Numbers 21:4-9). Jesus drew attention to this story to help us understand the power of the cross. 

Heaven is not the absence of suffering but the state of consciousness that embrace and transcends suffering. The secret of living in heaven here and now is to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith:

“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:2 NLT

Let us not be tempted to dream or speculate about heaven.  We have a mission to bring God’s Kingdom into the world.  People need to see the resurrection power of Christ through the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives in the face of suffering and death. Let us seek greatness in the kingdom of heaven -  not by lording over others or to be served - but to serve others and to give our lives as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Let us be Christ’s ambassadors of hope as we journey through life on earth:

“For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)” Romans 8:22‭-‬25 NLT

As the children of God, let us encourage one another to live in the kingdom of heaven in the here and now.  Let us be beacons of light to lead the world out of the darkness of the COVID 19 pandemic.

 

The Impossible Love Of God

 "Jesus looked at them and said, “It’s impossible for people (to save themselves) , but it’s not impossible for God to save them. Everything is possible for God.” Mark 10:27 GW

Love is a many splendored thing but to love as God loves is humanly impossible. Marriage is instituted by God to help us experience the joy of a loving intimate relationship that is rooted in the love of God. Marriage is more than a legal contract between two human beings - it is the mystical union between a man and a woman that leads to the great mystery of God as our Divine Lover:

“As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”  This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Ephesians 5:31-‬33 NLT

The death of Prince Philip of Edinburgh in April 2021 brought to mind his marriage of more than 70 years to Queen Elizabeth II. Prince Philip was a model of loving from the center of his being and to play second fiddle. The marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip is a testimony of God’s grace and an inspiration to me as it is a revelation of God’s impossible love in the mystery of marriage. When the Pharisees tested Jesus by asking him if a husband can divorce his wife as Moses had allowed them to do so,  Jesus drew their attention to the fundamental truth of God being our Loving Creator:

“Jesus said to them, “He wrote this command for you because you’re heartless. But God made them male and female in the beginning, at creation. That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and will remain united with his wife, and the two will be one. So they are no longer two but one. Therefore, don’t let anyone separate what God has joined together.” Mark 10:5-‬9 GW

When we lose sight of God’s love, we will not be able to understand and experience what real love is all about. As Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, a rich man came to him and asked Jesus how he can inherit eternal life. He had been successful in his worldly ventures and thought he had been successful spiritually as well for he led an exemplary life of obeying the ten commandments. However, instead of being commended and assured that he has eternal life  he  was told  to sell everything he had and give to the poor before he can follow Jesus. But he was not able to do so and left with much sadness. The disciples were shocked and asked each other, “Who, then, can be saved?” (Mark 10:26 GW).

The bad news is that it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven by human effort. Like the rich man, we struggle to obey God hoping that to earn a place in heaven. But self righteousness leads to arrogance and blinds us to the truth that we are perfectly imperfect human beings. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

The good news is that we can enter the kingdom of heaven with the impossible love of God that is revealed by the cross of Christ. It is dying to our egos and being reborn as a child of God that we can live in the kingdom of heaven as imperfectly perfect children of God. On the cross Jesus revealed the impossible love of God depicted in the parable of the prodigal son. God is our Heavenly Father waiting patiently for us to come home to His loving embrace.

The Crown is a dramatized television series of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. In episode 10 of season 4, there is a poignant encounter between Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher. Margaret was trying to solicit Queen Elizabeth’s help to stay in power. But Queen Elizabeth had been groomed since young to understand that the biggest struggle when one has power is to do nothing. For Margaret Thatcher, to be without power is to be nothing. When we have power, the temptation is to use our power to solve problems according to our wishes. But the greatest power is sometimes to do nothing in order that God's power will be seen in our power as well as weakness. Jesus submitted to Judas’ betrayal and went to the cross to demonstrate God’s power over evil. We can win the spiritual war against evil only with the power of the resurrection for nothing is impossible with God.

But instead of expecting God to do impossible things for us, we are to clothe ourselves with love in prayer so that our impossible situations will become possibilities to experience God’s unfailing love. As we do so, we will be filled with the peace of God:

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” Colossians 3:14-‬15 NLT

Without Christ, we are not able to have an intimate and personal relationship with God. With Christ, we can relate to God as our Shepherd of Love, as our Heavenly Father and as our Divine Lover. As I care for the elderly sick and the dying, I have the vicarious experience of walking through the valley of the shadow of death with Jesus as our Shepherd of Love so that I will fear no evil. My grandchildren have shown me the wonder of living the life of innocence, transparency and curiosity of childhood. I am reminded to live as a child of God with God as our Heavenly Father. Through my marital relationship with my wife, I am learning the joys of having an intimate relationship with God as my Divine Lover. And in times like the COVID 19 pandemic, I can learn to seek refuge in the Rock of Ages.

And so I  journey through the season of autumn into the winter of life to the embrace of God’s impossible Love with His wonderful promise:

“Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT

SDG

From Sunflowers To Son-followers

“Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.” Romans 12:9‭-‬10 MSG

Sunflowers resemble the sun and by the phenomenon of heliotropism, they follow the sun as it moves throughout the day. In an Upper Room devotional, Julie Sipe wrote about the breathtaking sight of a field filled with row after row of sunflowers during her morning runs. One overcast morning she noticed that every sunflower was facing downward as the sun was not shining that day. This led her to the truth that it is easy to look to God when we see God’s wonders around us. However, when life gets messy, it can be difficult to see God working. At such times, we may hang down our heads and turn our hearts away from God. 

At another time, she found a few sporadic sunflowers that are turned away from the sun. These flowers did not change the direction of the others.  This gave her the insight that she need to keep her focus on God even if others are turning away from God. Although all the sunflowers are filled with heliotropism, some of the sunflowers did not follow the sun. Likewise, Christians may be filled with the Holy Spirit but we may not all be walking with the Spirit. It was not being a sunflower but the sight of a field of sunflowers following the sun together that glorified God. In the same way, it is when Christians are shining together as the Body of Christ that God is glorified.

The journey of our Christian faith is a journey of discovery - from being a “Christian sunflower” worshipping God to being a disciple of Christ who is Son follower - seeing Christ in others and letting others see Christ in us. To follow Christ is to be a “Son-follower” who loves from the center of our being. Discipleship is not a training program to develop spiritual powers - it is the journey to the cross - a journey  Jesus described three times to the disciples in the gospel of Mark. But before the crucifixion, the disciples were unable to understand what Jesus was telling them about his death and resurrection:

“Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”  They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.” Mark 9:30-‬32 NLT

Instead of trying to understand what Jesus was telling them as they were travelling to Capernaum, the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest amongst them. They had forgotten what Jesus had taught them in the Beatitudes. Jesus had to remind them that “whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else” (Mark 9:35 NLT).  Jesus told them that they need  to be childlike to enter the Kingdom of God:

“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.  I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Mark 10:14-‬15 NLT

In fact, to enter the Kingdom of God we need to be reborn again as a child of God. Jesus told Nicodemus:

“Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’” John 3:5‭-‬7 NET

And as a child of God we cannot remain an infant. We have to grow up and to embark on the journey to the cross.  When we follow Christ we will be tempted like Jesus in the wilderness. To follow Christ, we will be “salted with fire” (Mark 9:49). We need to run for dear life from sin for sin separates us from God and drives us to hide from God. Jesus warns us in graphic terms of the consequences of sin:

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.  If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.  And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,  ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’” Mark 9:43-‬48 NLT

God’s will is not for us to be in hell but for us to be with Him in the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus died on the cross to rescue us from sin and to purify us from pride, lust and greed with the fire of love. With Christ we can hold on for dear life to good and to be the salt to preserve the world from sin as we bear the fruit of love, joy and peace. 

Just as the sunflower is heliotropic, as disciples of Christ, we are to be Cross-tropic - to see opportunities for spiritual growth in the challenges and trials of life. We will be tempted to be hedontropic - seeking worldly pleasures to quench our spiritual hunger and thirst. But when we are Cross-tropic we will be drawn to the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation as well as to feed on God’s Word. The bible is not a book of instruction for us to master but the spiritual manna to nourish our souls:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16‭-‬17 NLT

The stories in the bible are not fairy or mythic tales but sacred stories to transform our minds and to warm our hearts as we listen for the lessons that God wants to teach us through them. For example, the Kingdom of God is inclusive and not exclusive for Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven.” When the disciples tried to stop someone outside their group casting out demons in Jesus’ name, they tried to stop him. But Jesus told them:

“Do not stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” Mark 9:38‭-‬40 NET

We need to be careful that we do not use the bible to make ourselves look good or to use it to shame others. We are to feed on God’s Word so that we can share the love of God from the bottom of our hearts. When we do so, we will not only be spiritual sunflowers but we will be Son-followers lifting high the cross of Christ to draw our fellow human beings back to God.

 SDG

The Sacrifice Of A Broken Spirit

“The greatest sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. God, you will gladly accept a heart that is broken because of sadness over sin.” Psalm 51:17 NIRV

King David wrote Psalm 51 after he was convicted of his sin of adultery and murder by prophet Nathan. It was the expression of his faith in God’s mercy and steadfast love and his need for forgiveness and to have his heart purified. Beliefs are our thoughts about God but faith is the mustard seed of God’s love in our hearts which we receive when we are born again by the Holy Spirit. Like King David, we will all fall from God’s grace again and again for we have deceitful hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus died on the cross - not to satisfy an angry God - but to reveal the inhumanity, immorality and evil in the world as well as the separation of humanity from God:

 “The Lord looks down from heaven at the human race, to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks God. Everyone rejects God; they are all morally corrupt. None of them does what is right, not even one!” Psalms 14:2‭-‬3 NET

The story of Adam and Eve is a metaphorical narrative of our broken relationship with God. Adam represents our addiction to control - to be in charge of our own destiny and to control others. It is not God who breaks our hearts - our hearts are broken when our sinful desires, fueled by pride, greed and lust, are not fulfilled. We are in hell when we burn with anger, when we are blinded by envy, and when we are consumed by gluttony. The spirit of Adam is very much alive in us when we are spiritually dead. And as a loving Heavenly Father, God’s heart is broken to see us living in slavery to the sin of acedia - the “noonday demon.”

Jesus came to rescue us from our slavery to sin and evil. The season of Easter is a time to celebrate the wonder of God’s love that is revealed by the Lamb of God on the cross. When Jesus came down from the mountain after his Transfiguration, he found his disciples arguing with the teachers of religious law when they were unable to heal a boy who was possessed by a demon (Mark 9:14-16). Instead of being illuminated by the light of the fire of love, they were embroiled in the heat of debate.

Without faith in a power beyond ourselves, we will not be able to experience or see any miracles.   Our modern minds are filled with the wonders of science and devoid of the wonder of God’s creation.  We have lost the awe and wonder of God’s love that the psalmist experienced:

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place— what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” Psalms 8:3-‬4 NLT

When the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out the demon, Jesus told them it could only be done through prayer:

“Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer. ” Mark 9:28-‬29 NLT

So often our prayers are simply telling God what we want Him to do or what we think He should know. And we are disillusioned and discouraged when our prayers are not answered. We need to reframe our beliefs about prayer. Prayer has been described as spiritual breathing - an act that connects us with the spiritual dimension of life. Prayer is a time of sharing our lives with our Heavenly Father and listening to His whispers of love. The time Jesus spent on the mountain with Peter, James and John when he was transfigured must have been a very special time of prayer. It was a time when Peter, James and John had the awesome spiritual experience of hearing God:

“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.” Mark 9:7-‬8 NLT

When Jesus came down after the Transfiguration, the crowd was filled with awe when they saw him. There must have been something in Jesus that filled them with wonder. Jesus came to show us what it means to be fully human and fully alive as a child of God. To do so, we need to spend time in prayer and meditation to be in the presence of God. But the goal of prayer and meditation is not to seek spiritual “highs”.  Jesus told Peter, James and John to keep their experience of the Transfiguration a secret:

“As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.” Mark 9:9-‬10 NLT

The apostle Paul gives us the following wise advice about sharing visions and revelations from the Lord:

“I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses.” 2 Corinthians 12:2-‬5 NLT

We are not to boast about our spiritual “highs” but our weaknesses, flaws and failures. God’s  power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Without the cross and without suffering, we cannot understand the power of the resurrection. The cross is God’s guarantee that all our broken dreams and broken lives will be redeemed, restored and renewed. God is the expert in Kintsugi - the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold. God turns our flaws and imperfections into a more beautiful piece of His new creation with the blood of Christ.

The cross of Christ invites us to confront our demons through prayer and meditation so that we can be healed by the stripes of Christ. Like the father of the demon possessed boy, we can pray, “I believe, help my unbelief.” This is the sacrifice of a broken spirit.  Meditation is a simple way to do so. It is the practice to rest perfectly in Christ  - to do nothing, to be nothing and to have nothing. Only then can  Christ can do everything in us so that we are everything and have everything in Christ.  This is the prayer that God is patiently waiting to answer. 

SDG

Remember The Cross - the journey from hell to heaven

 Remember The Cross - the journey from hell to heaven

“But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:40‭-‬43 NLT

Pesach, or the Jewish Passover started on Saturday, 27^th March 2021 and ends on Sunday 4^th April 2021. It is one of the relatively rare years when the day before Passover falls on Shabbat or Sabbath. The Passover commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt - their transition from slavery to freedom. The main ritual of the Passover is the Seder - a celebratory meal to remember how God had miraculously set the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt:

“On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:12‭-‬13 NLT

Jesus transformed the Passover into the Holy Communion or Eucharist for us to remember his death on the cross and set us free from our slavery to sin. The first Easter was during a Passover which is like the Passover this year when it falls on the Sabbath. The Jewish Passover this year would then be in effect, Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the celebration of the Seder by Jesus before he was betrayed. Jesus was then brought before Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate and King Herod before he was crucified on the day before the next Sabbath. It had not seem possible to me that all these events could be fulfilled in the five to six hours beginning from the night of Maundy Thursday to the morning of Good Friday in Israel at the time of Jesus where there is no public transport nor mass communications. It was more probable that all these events happened during the week of the Passover. But what is most important is to remember that Jesus celebrated the Passover before he was betrayed and crucified. We can only truly understand the Passion of Christ in the light of the Jewish Passover.

By dying on the cross, Jesus became the Lamb of God to set us free from our fears, guilt and pride. He rose from the dead to be our Shepherd of Love to lead us in our Exodus from slavery to sin to freedom in the Promised Land of the kingdom of heaven. Before he died on the cross, Jesus instituted the Holy Communion is to help us to remember the cross of Christ - that his body was broken for us and by his stripes we are healed:

“But He was  wounded for our transgressions, He  was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 NKJV

The cross of Christ is the greatest demonstration of the wonderful magic and miracle of God’s amazing grace - the suffering of Jesus on the cross is to show us the horror of sin and evil that we see in the world but which is also present in our very own hearts. Jesus did not die to appease an angry god - he died on the cross to open our eyes to the horror of sin and evil and to see the awesome and wonder of the power of God’s healing love:

“No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,  so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” John 3:13‭-‬15 NLT

On Good Friday, I received the story of a man in China who was caught praying to Jesus and was sent to jail. The guard challenged him to cut out a cross from a piece of paper with a single cut of the scissors to prove that God is real. The man prayed for an answer and amazed the guard and the other prisoners by creating a cross with a single scissor cut of a folded A4 paper. Furthermore, he used the remaining pieces of the paper to form English and Chinese words to demonstrate the consequences of life with and and without the Cross:

1. With the cross, there is “love,”

2. Without the cross, there is “hell” but with the cross, there is “life” or living  with happiness.

3. Without the cross, there is “death” (word in Chinese) but with the cross there is “eternal life” (word in Chinese)

4. Without the cross, life is “empty” (word in Chinese) as well as “bitter” (word in Chinese), but with the cross, there is “glory” (word in Chinese).

On the cross, Jesus was mocked by one of the criminals who shouted insults at Jesus: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Then save yourself, and save us too!” This is a reflection of the response of someone with a hardened and unrepentant heart and who is spiritually blind to sin and the judgment of God. This is in sharp contrast to the response of the other criminal who had a repentant spirit and whose eyes were opened to the mercy of God and the reality of the kingdom of heaven. He told the unrepentant criminal:

“You should fear God. All of us will die soon. You and I are guilty. We deserve to die because we did wrong. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you begin ruling as king!”” Luke 23:39‭-‬42 ERV

The good news of Good Friday is that the cross of Christ is God’s vaccine for the most deadly virus of sin. The cross is the demonstration of the power of God’s love to overcome evil and to set us free from the fear of death. God is calling us to face the reality of the hells of anger, gluttony and envy that we create for ourselves when the sin of lust leads us to the desire for control, when the sin of greed draws us to the desire to look good and when the sin of pride tempts us with the desire to be right.

Jesus went through the hell of the cross in order to open the way for us to live in heaven here on earth. Like the repentant thief, all we need to do is simply to pray, ”Jesus, remember me” as we lift our eyes up to the cross of Christ and to remember Jesus’ promise on the cross:

“Then Jesus said to him, “I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43 ERV

Holy Week marks the journey of Jesus to the cross -  a time of remembrance of the Passion of Christ. It is a time to reflect and understand who truly Jesus is to us. During Lent this year, as  I meditated on the parables of the Sower and the Wheat and the Weeds, I became more aware of the need to check on the condition of my spiritual heart. When my heart is a path, a rocky ground or a thorny ground, the seed of the gospel of God’s love cannot take root in my heart.

It is only when I come to my senses like the Prodigal Son and see Jesus as the Lamb of God and my Shepherd of love that I can go before God’s throne of grace, to seek God as our Heavenly Father and to find Jesus as my Divine Lover through the Holy Spirit. Then Easter becomes the spiritual springtime of my life and the beginning of my Exodus from slavery to sin into the Promised Land of God’s loving embrace.

SDG

Waking Up - Magic, Miracles, Mystery & Messiah

 Waking Up - Magic, Miracles, Mystery & Messiah

 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!”  (Matthew 16:15-17, NET)                                                                                                                                                                               

As we journey with Jesus to the cross in Holy Week, we are confronted with the most important question of who Jesus is. We need to search  our hearts to know who Jesus is to us. On the way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said, “John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets” (Mark 8:27-‬28 NET). It is not what others say about Jesus that is important but who Jesus is to us personally that is of paramount importance. Jesus came to wake us up to our spiritual identity as a child of God and to grow spiritually to become the person God created us to be.

After the feeding of the four thousand, the Pharisees and Sadducees demanded a sign from heaven from Jesus. Jesus rebuked them for looking for signs and wonders instead of paying attention to God’s presence in their everyday life. The disciples also failed to understand the spiritual significance of the miracles of feeding the five thousand with five loaves of bread and seven thousand with four loaves of bread. And Jesus had taught them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

In our modern world, some see Jesus as a spiritual magical ATM to provide instant solutions to their problems. Some see Jesus as a miracle worker to heal them of their diseases. And some see Jesus as the savior to save them from hell. When our expectations and motivations are misplaced or unmet, it is so easy to turn from a welcoming crowd, shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday to a condemning crowd, crying, “Crucify him!” on Good Friday. In the gospel of Mark, we read that Peter criticized Jesus for telling them about the journey to the cross:

“Then Jesus began to teach his followers that the Son of Man must suffer many things. He taught that the Son of Man would not be accepted by the older Jewish leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the law. He said that the Son of Man must be killed and then rise from death after three days. Jesus told them everything that would happen. He did not keep anything secret. Peter took Jesus away from the other followers to talk to him alone. Peter criticized him for saying these things. But Jesus turned and looked at his followers. Then he criticized Peter. He said to Peter, “Get away from me, Satan ! You don’t care about the same things God does. You care only about things that people think are important.”” Mark 8:31-‬33 ERV

Jesus then taught the disciples the important spiritual truth:

“Then Jesus called the crowd and his followers to him. He said, “Any of you who want to be my follower must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me. Any of you who try to save the life you have will lose it. But you who give up your life for me and for the Good News will save it. It is worth nothing for you to have the whole world if you yourself are lost. You could never pay enough to buy back your life. People today are so sinful. They have not been faithful to God. As you live among them, don’t be ashamed of me and my teaching. If that happens, I will be ashamed of you when I come with the glory of my Father and the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-‬38 ERV

Jesus is the perfect model of a human being who is totally emptied of his ego and totally filled with the Spirit of God. Easter is not the end of the journey but the wake up call - to rise from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive to God. Jesus died and rose from the dead to give us the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit:

“But the Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name.  “I leave you peace. It is my own peace I give you. I give you peace in a different way than the world does. So don’t be troubled. Don’t be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going back to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. I have told you this now, before it happens. Then when it happens, you will believe.” John 14:26-‬29 ERV

Without being born again spiritually, we will not be able see life from God’s perspective nor to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” in our lives. In the gospel of Matthew, we read that Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as the Christ was revealed by our Heavenly Father and not a deduction made by the human mind.

Like the blind man, we need healing from our spiritual blindness. Jesus had to lay his hand twice on the blind man before he could see clearly. Healing is not a magical ritual but the experience of God’s healing touch. With magic, we see only what the magician wants us to see when our attention is distracted. Miracles are reminders  that there is a spiritual dimension that is beyond our thoughts and beliefs. Meditation is the spiritual discipline of emptying our hearts by transforming our minds as we wait on God in silence. It is not trying to find God but to be found by God.

The Message of Easter draws us to the Mystery of the Cross - of the power of the resurrection and the love of God to overcome sin, death and evil. The miracle of Easter is seen when our lives are transformed - from a futile and desperate journey to a meaningless death into the mysterious adventure of living the magical and miraculous life as a beloved child of God. It is a journey into the depths of our being to change our beliefs about God’s blessings into a faith in God’s agape love  rooted in a personal and transforming relationship with the Risen Christ. As we do so, we will grow in our trust in God’s promises and providence and we will seek His will and not our will more and more each day through the power of the Holy Spirit.

SDG

 

Purifying Our Thoughts

 Purifying Our Thoughts

 “Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” 2 Corinthians 4:10 NLT

 In my journey through this season of Lent, I felt led to reframe my viewpoint of suffering - to see my pain, problems, failures and weaknesses as opportunities to identify with Christ in his death so that his life can be seen through me. Pain, problems, failures and weaknesses become suffering when we see them as burdens to be overcomed or endured. When our primary goal in life is to seek happiness and success, they are mountains to climb rather than training sessions to teach us the secret of living the abundant life with the grace of God. Pain, problems and failures in life draw us closer to God and lead us to hunger and thirst for the Holy Spirit. They are times to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to transform our minds and to purify our hearts. When we do so, we have God’s promise of peace that is beyond all human understanding and joy unspeakable.

The prophet Isaiah warned the Jews of the danger of religiosity - of going through rituals to obey rules instead of cultivating a relationship with God:

“And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.” Isaiah 29:13 NLT

Jesus warned the Jews of the hypocrisy of superficial worship and man made traditions. It is so important to recognize and be aware of the evil that is in our hearts:

“It is what comes from inside that defiles you.  For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,  adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.  All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:20‭-‬23 NLT

When we share in the death of Christ on the cross through our suffering we have God’s invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace:

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16 NLT

The story of the gentile woman who begged Jesus to cast the demon from her daughter shows us the importance of a faith of a humble heart that is in tune with God’s compassionate love. In the face of Jesus’ apparent rejection of her plea for healing, she replied:

“That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.” Mark 7:28 NLT

Instead of being put off by what appears to be God’s favoritism, the gentile woman recognized her need for God’s grace and received what she did not deserve. So in times of trials and suffering, when we feel that our prayers are not unanswered, we need to examine our thoughts about God. We are to remember that God is our Heavenly Father - He is always with us in our struggles and we are not alone.

Without a submissive and obedient heart, we are spiritually deaf. Jesus knows all about human nature and what is in each person’s heart (John 2:24‭-‬25 NLT). When our hearts are a fertile soil, Jesus will open our ears to hear His voice more clearly like the deaf man in Mark 7:3-35:

 “Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” Mark 7:34 NLT

 In this year’s devotional for Lent, Rev Roland Chia makes the following observation:

“A person whose ears are open is not deaf to the still small voice of the Almighty. His ears are not blocked with the gunk and wax of worldly pursuits, spiritual indifference and carnal distractions that the divine whisper is no longer audible to him.

The person whose ears are open is always attentive to the word of God. He is always receptive to the commands of his Lord. He is always attuned to the Spirit and sensitive to His promptings and guidance.”

As Christians we are chosen to share in the death of Jesus - to die to our egos so that we will not be tempted to boast of what God has done for us which may only make others feel envious or deprived. Instead, like recovering alcoholics in the Alcoholics Anonymous program, we will testify of our struggles and problems and our total dependence on the grace of God. We will share, not how we have found God, but how God found us in our times of suffering and comforted us as His beloved.

A world in darkness and full of suffering needs to hear “the voices of those who trust God despite unanswered prayers.” Lent is a time to purify our thoughts and hearts so that others may see the life of Christ in us and be encouraged and empowered to overcome suffering and death as we lift up the cross of Christ. 

The Seed Of Grace

 The Seed Of Grace

 “Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.  Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.” John 12:23‭-‬25 NLT

The COVID 19 pandemic has dramatically revealed our need to learn how to live in a VUCA world - a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We need a “negative capability” defined by John Keats as “the ability to accept uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Brene Brown noted that we are in a spiritual crisis when our belief that’s there is something greater than ourselves, something rooted in love and compassion, is broken. The problems in our  modern society - hate, the dehumanization of others, the tolerance of bullshit, the profusion of fake news, the politicization of the pandemic and the commercialization of medical care are but symptoms of the loss of faith in a loving God.

We need to wake up from the illusion and futility of living a materialistic lifestyle - everything we are chasing to be successful in life is meaningless. We need to die to a lifestyle formed by a caterpillar mindset if we want to live a life with the mindset of a butterfly. We need to die to self in order to be spiritually fruitful in our living and in our dying. We are living in a world of spiritual poverty and in need of Grace - God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense - the power beyond ourselves to empower us to love one another and to bring God’s kingdom on earth.

We need to reframe our understanding of spirituality. Rabbi Yerachmiel described spirituality as simply paying attention to what God is doing in our daily lives:

“Spirituality is being present to what is happening around and within you. Spirituality is living in the world with compassion and justice. Spirituality is making the world a little better for having being born into it. Spirituality is meeting God in the ordinariness of our everyday lives.”

Genuine spirituality, according to Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchman, looks outside the self and beyond the immediate and the subjective and not at its nose nor in a mirror. It is the very looking beyond ourselves that we are taken away from the self-centeredness that is the human trap. Lent is a time to recapture our childlike sense of awe and wonder by receiving the seed of God’s grace into our hearts:

 “The Lord hath promised good to me,
  His word my hope secures;
  He will my shield and portion be
  As long as life endures.”

The past few weeks of Lent had been a time to prepare my heart to be the fertile soil to receive the seed of grace. Passiontide is a time to transform our EGOs from Edging God Out to Embracing God Only by following Christ to the cross and to die to our egos so that we can experience the truth:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 NKJV

The subject of death is taboo to many which is most unfortunate. The dying have taught me the truth that to live well we need to learn how to die well. The most important message of Easter is that Jesus has conquered death to set us free from the fear of death. Lent is the perfect time to learn how to die well so that we can live well. We are called to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our lives:

“Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10‭-‬12 NLT

The fifth week of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide leading to the events of the Holy Week of Easter. It is a time to reflect on the mystery of the Cross - confronting and embracing death - so that we can live our lives in such a way that our deaths will be fruitful. It is a time to give the broken pieces of our lives - the heartache of losing a job, pain from broken relationships, suffering from a serious illness - to God, and trusting that He will turn our brokenness into a kintsugi pottery of golden repair. And all our brokenness together are turned into a beautiful mosaic story of God’s restorative love.

We need to search our hearts for the weaknesses and imperfections which we hide from ourselves. We do not have to be perfect to be a child of God. Lent is a season for letting go of our weaknesses and imperfections, our addiction to control and our hidden resentments. It is not a time of trying to be perfect but a time to become aware of our imperfections and our need for God’s grace. It is the time for the seed of grace to bloom into a garden of love in our hearts as we journey with Christ to the Cross.

SDG