God's Patience

“All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.”

2 Kings 17:7-8, NIV

In 2 Kings 17 7-23, it showed that the reason why Israel was exiled to Assyria was because of all the evil they have done in the eyes of the Lord – they worshiped other gods, followed the practices of the nations the Lord has drove out, and the evil practices that their kings has introduced to them. They were already warned beforehand by the Lord to not do these evil things and observe the law that was given to them. The Israelites, however, did not listen. They had become disobedient and rejected what the Lord has said to them – and because of this, the Lord grew angry to them and gave them this punishment.

When I was observing all the events starting from the rule of King Jeroboam until King Hoshea’s reign, I could see that the Lord’s patience for the Israelites is very, very long. Though the Lord has given them punishments for their evil deeds, He still delivers them out of them. The Lord continues to show His power and saving grace to them to prove His faithfulness to the promise He has given to the Israelites, but still, the Israelites continued on their evil ways.

It actually made me think that the Israelites, because of their hard-headedness, are very annoying. If I was in God’s situation in that time, my patience on them would quickly run out. But here, it shows that even though many generations of kings has passed in Israel, God is still patient – waiting for the Israelites to turn back from their evil deeds. But also, it was revealed to me that even though God has a very long patience, that patience still has an end. In 2 Peter 3:15, it says that the Lord’s patience is our salvation. Putting this verse in another context, we could say that outside the Lord’s patience, or when the Lord’s patience ran out, it is our condemnation – like what happened to the Israelites when they were exiled to Assyria (but we must know that God still didn’t left the Israelites after they were exhiled).

This revelation could be translated directly into our lives – that when Jesus died on the cross for our salvation, God’s patience started working on us. God is waiting for all the people to accept Christ in their lives in order to receive God’s gift of salvation, and also for those who are already believers of Christ who continually lives on sin to repent and go back to Him. God is patiently waiting for all of us to fully commit our lives to Him, until the time He has set – the time of Christ’s second coming. Until that time comes, we are still under God’s patience, and we shouldn’t waste it like what the Israelites did for many generations.

With this revealed to us, we should now check what kind of live we are living in now – if we are living in obedience to His commands or not. If we are not, then we must know that it’s still not too late for us, as we are still within the timeframe of the Lord’s patience. We should not abuse God’s patience and let it run out on us – as it would mean our condemnation. We should go back to Him and start living according to His will and purpose for us.

Shalom!

Original link for the photo: http://www.oneyearbibleimages.com/patient.jpg

Sin has consequences – What should we do with it?

“Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favour, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel.”

-1 Kings 13:4, NIV

In 1 Kings 13:1-9, Jehoahaz became the king of Israel. In his reign, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord as he followed the ways of Jeroboam, which also has caused Israel to commit sin. Because of the sins that Israel has committed, God became angry, and for a long time, the Israelites were under the oppression of Hazael, king of Aram. But then, King Jehoahaz sought for the Lord’s favour, and the Lord listened to him as He could see how Hazael oppressed Israel. Then the Lord has provided a deliverer for Israel to escape the power of the Aram. The Israelites, then, went back to their own homes but still did not turn back on their sins. And as for King Jehoahaz, only few soldiers were left under him as the Aram has destroyed the rest.

In this event, God told me that like King Jehoahaz and the whole of Israel suffering from the consequences of their sins, we, too, have consequences we have to face for the sins we commit. These consequences will most of the time put us into a deep misery, like what happened to the Israelites when they were being oppressed by the Aram. But we must always remember that even though we have done evil in the eyes of the Lord every time we commit sin, God is always there ready to listen to us. God knows all of the misery we are going through because of the sins we have committed, and if we only seek for His favor, He is more than willing to deliver us from the misery we are in – like how he delivered Israel from Aram. However, we are only delivered from the misery that the consequences of our sin has caused us, but the damage of the consequence of the sin we have done will still remain, like what happened to King Jehoahaz when only few soldiers were left to him.

And so from this, there were two things that God has revealed to me that we should always remember and apply into our lives:

First is that if we want to avoid the misery that the consequences of our sin will give us, then we should avoid committing sin on the first place! This is self explanatory – there would be no consequence for our sin if we avoid committing it. We should be able to control and discipline ourselves and strive for holiness, for we are called to be holy! We should completely hate and persecute sin, overcome temptation and the demons so that we could avoid committing any sin.

And second, if we already have committed sin, instead of hiding it and trying to solve its consequences by ourselves, we should seek for God’s favor, ask for forgiveness and deliverance from the misery that the consequence of our sin has brought us. God is always there and could see our sufferings, and He is always willing to listen and help us – and He will help us if we ask Him to. But also, we must be strong enough to endure the damage of the consequence of the sins we have committed as its mark will be left there even though God has delivered us from our misery.

Original link for the photo: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/december/images/misery_news.jpg

Overcoming fear from troubles

…He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

-1 Kings 19:4, NIV

In 1 Kings Chapter 19, verses 1 to 9, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to tell him that he will be killed the next day. When Elijah heard this message, he was very afraid and ran for his life. Elijah seems to be giving up because of the trouble that is about to come to him – and on his journey in the desert, Elijah sat under a broom tree and prayed to the Lord to take his life, and after that, he fell asleep. Then an angel woke him up and gave him food to eat and water to drink. Elijah ate then lay down again to sleep, but the angel woke him up the second time and asked him to eat because the journey he took was too much for him. Then Elijah continued to eat and was strengthened by the food – and then he continued travelling until he reached Mt. Horeb.

God revealed to me what this event means to us in our lives. First is that the message of Jezebel to kill Elijah translates to the troubles we have in our lives. Our enemy, the devil, uses these troubles to pursue us until we give up and let the troubles we have kill us. And us, we are like Elijah who was in fear because of the trouble pursuing him. Now the tendency is for us to run away from it, and along the way, we also come to the point where we give up and wish that we would just die – like what Elijah prayed to the Lord. But then, God told me that what we don’t realize in these times is that we are still alive. We don’t realize that God is always giving us a new hope when He wakes us up the next morning, and that God also provides us food to renew our strength so that we continue on our journey. This is something that we don’t see when we have troubles – that is because we are always looking at the negative side, which is that these troubles would just kill us.

So now that this has been revealed to us, what then should we do?

First is that we should completely put our trust and hope in the Lord. By this, we could strengthen our hearts because we trust that the Lord will deliver us from our troubles. We must also remember that our hearts are now also being shielded by our hope in the Lord – this is so that our fear from our troubles wouldn’t consume us and kill us.

Second is that we should always realize the grace that God has given to us. If we only realize the grace of God, we wouldn’t be grumbling because of the troubles we have. If we only realize the grace of God, even when we are in the middle of the strongest storm of our lives, we would just always be in the mode of thanksgiving. We wouldn’t feel fear in our hearts, or any negative things – that is if only we realize the grace that God has given us. We must realize that our every breath, every beat of our hearts, and every food we eat is the grace of God.

And lastly is that we should continue to move forward in our journey. We are now guarded from our fear on the troubles we have, so there is no reason for us to stop from our journey. What we could only do is to continue to move forward!

Original link for the photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Scared_Child_at_Nighttime.jpg/250px-Scared_Child_at_Nighttime.jpg

Wrong Teaching and False Religion: Deception through the Word

He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.’”

-1 Kings 13:21-22, NIV

In the 13^th chapter of the book of 1 Kings, the man of God from Judah was commanded by God to bring a word to King Jeroboam. He was also commanded not to eat bread and drink water to the land of Bethel, and not to return to Judah by the way he came. After the man of God brought the word to King Jeroboam, he went back to Judah and took a road different from the road when he came to Bethel. However, a prophet from Bethel came to him while he was on his journey back to Judah offering bread and water. The man of God from Judah did not accept the offer, but the prophet told him that an angel by the word of the Lord told him to come back to the prophet’s house to eat bread and drink water – but it was written in verse 18 that the prophet was lying. The man of God, then, accepted the offer and ate bread and drank water from the prophet’s home. Then the Lord talked to the prophet and told him the consequence of the man of God’s disobedience, that he would not be buried in the tomb of his fathers.

In this event, God revealed to me that like the prophet who used God’s word to make the man of God from Judah disobey God command, His Word is also being used by many in this world to deceive people and disobey God’s commands. Many false religions and wrong teaching of God’s word has spread all throughout the world and has deceived so many people. And also, because of this false religions and wrong teaching of God’s word, many haven’t noticed that they are being led to their death, like what happened to the man of God from Judah, which is very horrible.

So what should we do so that we wouldn’t be deceived like the man of God from Judah? Well first, we should fill ourselves up with the word of God to increase our defence against the false religions and wrong teaching. Our knowledge about the word will help us discern what is right and what is wrong – that is why we should always study the word of God and read the bible.

Second is that we should always hold on to the truth the Lord Jesus Christ and obey His commandments. We must always remember that anything that goes beyond or against the truth of the word of God is a deception or a lie of the enemy which will surely cause us to sin. The man of God has sinned because he did not detect or realize that what the prophet was saying goes against God’s commandment to him. He didn’t held on to the truth of the word of God, which I believe God Himself has spoken to him personally.

Now we should learn from this mistake that the man of God from Judah has done. We should just continue holding on to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and His word and continue to obey it. We should not easily believe on what other people might say that could make us disobey the word. By this I believe, we could easily detect and ignore the deception being used to trick us.

Original link for the photo: http://covenantcommunity-church.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/557px-Singapore_Road_Signs_-_Warning_Sign_-_Danger.svg1_-300x264.png

Leader: A Listener; A Servant

 

The kind answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”

-1 Kings 12:13-14, NIV

In chapter 12 of the book of 1 Kings, the Israelites pleaded to Rehoboam to lighten the harsh labor and heavy yoke that was put to them by Solomon. Rehoboam said to the Israelites to come back after 3 days – then asked for advice from the elders. The elders advised him to be a servant of the people so that they, in return, would remain as servants to him. But Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice and asked for advice from the young men who serve him. The young men suggested to tell the people that he would even make their yoke heavier than the yoke Solomon has put into them. On the 3^rd day, when the Israel came back, Rehoboam spoke to them, following the advice of the young men. And because of this, the whole Israel (except Judah) rebelled against him.

On this event, God revealed to me two very important things about being a leader – especially as a Christian. First is that a leader must learn to listen from the advice of the elders. Why should we listen to them? Well, mainly because they have more knowledge and experience about leadership than us. They are the best people who could give us an advice on our role as leaders! The main mistake Rehoboam made was that he didn’t listen. He exchanged the advice of the more experienced men – the elders, to the advice of unexperienced ones – the young men. This mistake caused the Israelites to rebel against him. Now for us, as leaders, as the salt and light of the world, we should learn from Rehoboam’s mistake. We shouldn’t easily follow the advice of inexperienced people, and listen more to the advice of elders of the church – the pastors – so that we wouldn’t cause our fellow brothers to rebel against the church.

Second is that a leader must become a servant. In the book of John, chapter 13 showed an example by washing the feet of His disciples. In Philippians 2:7, it was said that Jesus even took the very nature of a servant, even though we all know that He is the Son of God! Jesus also has led so many people into their salvation, and He did it through serving them! Many sick people were healed, dead people resurrected, demon-possessed men were sanctified, hungry people were fed, and even Simon Peter was saved from drowning. This is how Jesus defined leadership! And again, Jesus described this in Matthew 20:25 where he said that Gentile rulers practices authority over the people, but not so with us. Jesus said that if we want to become great, we must become a servant just like what Jesus did, and even gave His own life for us. This is the reason why Jesus was exalted – because he became a servant. And that is what leadership is about – about serving the people, and even giving up your life for them.

Original link for the photo: http://bethelpoconochristianchurch.org/hp_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Leadership-480-x-163.png

Choose the right spouse! (“The Two”)

“As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been,”

- 1 Kings 11:4, NIV

In 1 Kings 11:1-13, it was told that Solomon had many women aside from the Pharoah’s daughter. He has wives and concubines that came from different nations – nations wherein God said “do not intermarry with them”. But Solomon, still, chose to love these women and disobeyed God’s command. As he grew old, his wives has lead him astray and made him follow other gods, aside of the Lord his God. God was very angry to Solomon because he turned away from Him, and because of this, God swore that He would tore the kingdom that Solomon has built, but not in Solomon’s lifetime, but in the lifetime of his son.

I believe that these events in this chapter of 1 Kings clearly spoke about the influence that our spouse could give us, especially in our way of living. Solomon’s wives and concubines came from a culture very different than his, and because he loved them very much, he has even adapted their culture – and even worshiped the gods of his wives and concubines. He forgot the covenant he had with God and has followed the other gods – unlike his father David who remained faithful.

The same thing also happens to us when we have a relationship to a woman with a different culture than ours. Because we loved her, we make sure that we adapt the culture of her living – we go to the places where she goes, meet her friends and spend a lot of time doing her activities. We don’t recognize it but we are now starting to love the things she loves until it also has become a part of us. We’ve now forgot that we are Christians and don’t recognize that we are now not living to fulfil God’s purpose for us. That’s the danger of choosing a spouse who has a different culture than ours.

I now understand the reason why our pastor always warned us on having relationships with non-Christians – it is because they could lead us away from our relationship with God! Our pastor always share about the beauty of having a relationship with a woman who is rooted in Christ – the beauty of sharing the Christian culture together and growing your kids with correct values. Imagine how wonderful that is.

Now, the life of Solomon should be a lesson to us. Solomon married women from different nations even though God said “do not intermarry with them” because he followed his own desire. He knows God’s command, but he let his desire go above the command, and this is the reason why he became disobedient, and why God has punished him through his son. We should not follow our desire, like Solomon did, but we must follow God’s desire. And God’s desire, I believe, is this – to marry a woman that will not lead us away from God, but will help us have a deeper relationship with Christ.

Shalom!


Original link for the photo: http://drwetherby.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/relationship-counseling.jpg