Friend of God

Many people know/heard of this song.

" I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend"

But how many people actually knows how big a deal this is? Actually, this is one of those songs that I would need to think further before singing because of the immense implications that I declare when I sing it.

To begin with, when one says "I am a friend of so and so", immediately a few things must be true for this statement to be true. A very broad definition of friend is someone whom you know, likes and trusts, and probably enjoy each other's company. Furthermore, declaring each other as friends immediately brings one to the same level as each other. Declaring "I am a friend of God" simply means that I am on the same level / talking terms as God! I cannot emphasize how great a deal this is!!

However, is it true that every believer is a friend of God ? Last I read or from what I know, God only ever declares Abraham to be His friend in Isaiah 41:8, and James 2:23. Of course other good guys like Noah, Moses (who happens to be on direct talking terms) and Job are surely friends of God as well, just not recorded only. Anyway the key question here is, what does it mean to be a friend of God?

And this is what Jesus says in John 15:9~17 (emphasis mine)

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other."

And this is what I learnt:

God calls me His friend if:

1. I do what He commands
2. I remain in His love (since obeying His commands = remaining in His love)
3. Love each other as He loved us. (This is a command!)
4. I know and is deeply involved in His business

Furthermore, God is the one who calls me friend, not the other way round. (I am chosen!)

The double emphasis of the command "Love each other" must be very high up in God's heart and so this shall be my application. Obey Him and to love each other as He has loved us.

Truly, will I be His friend.

Rest

So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:9~11

Rest. It is something that almost everyone I know wanted. Everyone is seemingly always tired. I know I am. Many of us so often tried to find rest by sleeping more, hanging loose with friends, watch tv and even play computer games, and yet we do not find rest. So what can we do about it?

The bible tells us in Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. What does it mean to come to Jesus for rest? How to rest?

Well, it is interesting what this passage in Hebrews had to say about rest.

Hebrews 3 mentioned that God's wrath with the israelites' disobedience and unbelief caused them unable to enter His rest. Similarly, God warns us in Hebrews 4:1 that while a promise of entering His rest is true for us, we should fear that we may come short of it. Rest comes only with faith and obedience.

Later on in the passage, our rest is likened to how God, Himself rested on the 7th day after finishing His works of creation. Furthermore, we are to be diligent in entering that rest, lest we also fall away like the Israelites due to disobedience.

hmmm...so how? what then is rest? Is rest just the recovery from bodily fatigue or does it entails something more than that?

well...

Rest is a geographical blessing in the land of Canaan during the old testament times where there is permanence and security.

Rest is the end goal of creation, since God Himself rested on the 7th day, and is promises us that we too can enter into His rest, even from Joshua's time till now. By faith and obedience of course.

Rest is absence of work.

Rest requires effort and diligence to enter into. Not hardening your hearts, and with faith and obedience.

In this light, I think true rest is spiritual rest in our souls, where we believe God in faith that Jesus has taken away our restlessness due to sin. In Him, we can truly rest from worries from work, struggles knowing that there is eternal rest in heaven.

Be rested my dear brothers, physically and spiritually. =)

Too rich?

It's been a long time since I last posted anything. So here goes...

I just watched a film fest show recently. Normally I wouldn't have the time nor money to watch any since I realised that I tend to splurge a lot on the movies. Anyway, I had to catch this show as it was the short film which I worked on a year ago. (Finally it's on the big screen! I will get the DVD to show you guys..it's beautiful) Some more my director sponsored my ticket so it was hard to say no.

I was quite excited to see the fruit of my labour - your dream coming alive. But I will leave that story for another day. What caught me was the second movie which was actually "bundled" with my show. It was called Aki Ra's boys.

It's a simple documentary about young boys in Cambodia who lost their limbs to the millions of mines and bombs still lying around in the land. A simple story of hope in spite of adversity and how they were able to live normal and purposeful lives.

I reflected upon this show and something that really struck me was the simplicity of the lifestyle of these children. They had simple lives and seemingly more purposeful than others as they served to educate the public about the mine-ridden history of Cambodia and also help remove the mines still lying around.

Suddenly the story of the rich young man came to mind.

Matthew 19: 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Very often I lament on the fact that I am poor. I don't have the luxury of getting cool toys, getting good looking shoes and bags and shirts and stuff. I still want my apple MBP, my dslr, my asics, get a flat, a car, etc.

Until I saw that these things doesn't matter for eternity. I did not see how rich I already am. I am borned in Singapore, I have a roof over my head, I have a good education. I get 3 meals a day and I don't worry about the daily necessities. I have 2 legs and 2 good hands. I am probably more blessed than millions of people out there.

Probably, I can be considered like the rich young man back in Jesus' days. Do you know that our modern lifestyle is probably much more luxurious and comfortable than kings and rich men. We are many times richer than them perhaps.

Am I willing to give up all these comforts? To follow Jesus.

Will I trust God to provide for me and to bless others in spite of my apparent "poorness"?

Tough questions which is probably easy to say yes but you end up living a life of "no".

Yet we know there is only 1 way.

God help us to follow You and not the comforts of this world.

Saul

I had been reading the book of 1 Samuel, and was intrigued by the first king of Israel, Saul.

As you probably know, the Israelites are demanding a human king to rule and judge over them, like other nations. “No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”, so said the Israelites.

To me, the ironic thing is that all the while, it is the Lord who has been delivering them from their enemies, yet they still demand another king to lead them into battles. Such is the sinfulness of the human heart to desire to lead their own fate.

God somehow still gave them a king, in the person of Saul. It is always interesting how God chooses people – He chose Saul, a Benjamite supposedly from the smallest tribe of Israel, and from the least of all families. (on the other hand, Saul is tall and handsome) I supposed God prefers to choose the humble and uses the least to confound the strong, making wise the simple.

So how did Saul fare as the first king of Israel? I would say that he started off on a good note, but ended badly.

Things he did well initially

1. God changed Saul’s heart, prophesized among the prophets
2. delivered the Israelites from the Ammonites under God’s anointing

Things he done wrongly

1. He disobeyed God by disobeying His prophet Samuel’s instructions to wait for him to come to Gilgal in 7 days time. He started to offer burnt offerings to God on his own, foolishly thinking that God would deliver them from the Philistines by doing so, while disregarding Samuel’s instructions.
2. He became increasingly ego-centric and put Israel at risk and unnecessary disadvantage by giving a foolish order. The fact that Saul said “until I have avenged myself on my enemies” tells us that Saul has made the war with the philistines a personal agenda rather than a battle for the Lord to deliver His people. Doing the right thing with wrong intentions is wrong.
3. He disobeyed God by not utterly destroying the Amalekites.

Finally, I think the most telling part about Saul was the last part when Samuel rebukes Saul and Saul pleads Samuel to honour him before Israel so that he may also worship the Lord, your God. I am deeply perplexed how Saul who has sinned against God is still so concerned about being honoured in Israel, about his personal status in the sight of men. In fact, we can see his increasingly alienation from God through his constant referral to “the Lord your God” instead of “my God” from his conversation with Samuel. In fact, I felt that Saul was trying to be “politically correct” and pious, so as to score points with Samuel so that he could make Samuel believe that he was repentant about his sin, so that Samuel would honour Saul before Israel and hence retain his kingship.

What have I learnt from Saul?

1. Success can get to your head if you do not recognize that success is given from God, not by your own cleverness and ability.
2. Obedience
3. Do the right thing with the right intentions.
4. Glorify God and not yourself before men.
5. Using God and religion for political mileage or even social standing
6. Worship the Lord my God – personal relationship with Him

Soil matters

The parable of the sower has always been a precious part of the scripture to me. Simply because, it was this exact parable that spoke to me when I gave my life to Jesus 4 years ago. And the first time I led a friend to God, pastor was also preaching this exact same sermon.

So when I heard Charles share with us that parable, it resonated deeply with me. So I would like to add on to what he has shared with us on sunday.

I would use the Mark account of this parable since it has some interesting details which the Matthew account excludes. It is found in Mark 4:1~25.

I found it most amazing that Jesus ended his parable of the sower with these interesting words,"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (verse 9) and also in verse 13, "Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?"

It seem weird to me Jesus would say those who have ears let him hear. Doesn't everyone has ears ?! So who is not hearing?

It doesn't help much in verse 12 that Jesus explains to them that some see but not perceive, some hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.

Apparently, parables are not easily understood. Even Jesus' disciples (whom Jesus said that to them have been given the mystery of the kingdom of God) have to ask Jesus to explain to them the parable of the sower and soils.

In my own opinion, I believe this parable is easily understood cognitively but not in practice. We cannot accept a superficial understanding of this parable also, since I believed that this parable is key to understanding all other parables as mentioned in verse 13.

What then is good soil ? How to be good soil ?

well... in my own understanding...

Good soil refers to someone -

1. who is teachable and available (so that satan cannot snatch it away)
2. rooted in the word, able to take persecution, affliction, tempted and not yield
3. in the world but out of the world
4. accepts the word and bear fruit
5. is a light on a lampstand and not hidden (shares the word and is visible as a christian) (verse 21~23) (it seems to me that is an additional point of Jesus to explain good soil)

All of us want to be good soil no doubt. But we never really know what kind of soil we are unless we have experienced persecution and yet persevered , constantly thinks and desires only God and NOTHING of this world, be fruitful and is a light to the world. This I believe is truly good soil. Anything less is not.

The question to ask now is how to be good soil then? I believe the answer is given in verse 24.

And he said to them, "Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (ESV)

I believe the key to being a good soil is to pay attention to what we hear and use it (doing the word of God). It is interesting to note that in the same account in Luke, Jesus ends the parable of the sower and the soil when his brothers and mother came to visit Him but He answered His disciples that,"My mother and My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it." (Luke 8:21)

In other words, the bad soil does not just refer to the condition of the heart where people cannot receive the word of God; the bad soil also refer to people who hears the word of God but did not apply it (the crowdedness of the thorns, the devil snatching it away, etc, are consequences of not applying the word of God), and they are not considered brothers of Jesus. They are NOT children of God and outside the kingdom of God.

As children of God, as Christians, as ones who professed faith in Jesus, we can only be 1 kind of soil, and that is good soil. Anything else is not good enough. That is why I believe that unless we understand this truth, the other mysteries of the kingdom of God cannot be revealed to us (verse 13)

God, help us today to be the good soil.

Help us to apply what we read, and be more and more like you.

In those days

Just completed the book of Judges. It is rather shocking read, seeing how the Israelites were behaving in those days.

There was an account of rape, similar to the one described in Genesis of Sodom and Gomorrah, except that it was committed by Benjamites, a tribe of Israel, God's people. There were other unspeakable crimes following that story.

There were many accounts of men taking concubines, harlots, etc.

There were wars against nations, civil wars within Israel, as a result of sin.

There were people playing religion, for example Micah. He stole money from his mother. Returned the money. His mum blessed Micah then dedicated the money to the Lord but...She had the silver melted and made into a graven image to be worshipped. Micah made a shrine to worship that idol, hired his own Levite to be his personal priest, thinking that surely God will prosper him. Unimaginable.

How did the Israelites ended up in such a sorry state?

God's answer to me was found in the last verse of the last chapter of Judges.

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Then the Lord showed me how many of us today are just like them.

Christians who are just as worldly, who did disgraceful acts, striving against brothers, playing religion, treating God as a a genie, while worshipping idols.

I shudder to think that we are like that.

Yet I dare not say otherwise.

God help us.

To enthrone You as King over our lives; lest we do things right in our own eyes.

The man who tried to be king

Here’s my first ever entry. Sorry for the lack of action on my part. I struggle with blogging as it is not natural for me to articulate my thoughts and reflections in written form – it takes me a long time to write anything. Looks like I just need to overcome this and just get it going.

I have reading OT lately, having just finished numbers (who would have imagined numbers is actually rather interesting) and now starting on the book of judges.

Today I read Judges 9. The context was that Gideon (also known as Jerub-Baal, the one who rescued the Israelites from the Midianites) has just passed away, and the Israelites upon his death began prostituting themselves to the Baals, forgetting everything how God has rescued them from their enemies on every side.

Israel is now without a judge to rule over them. It was during this period that Abimelech, one of the 70 sons of Gideon, forcibly claimed rule over them. In fact, in order to claim his position as king, Abimelech massacred his brothers in order to secure his position. He did this even though we read that the brothers were "inclined to follow Abimelech". Only Jotham, the youngest son managed to escape death. Jotham cursed Abimelech, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo (people who killed his brothers) to be consumed to each other by fire, before escaping to Beer. True enough, it was a short 3 years later that the curse came to past and Abimelech fought a civil war with his subjects before dying a shameful death, being dealt a fatal move by a woman.

What have I learnt from this saga?

1. Abimelech claimed rule by force, and was opportunistic for power
   
2. Abimelech turned against his own family for his own gains
3. Abimelech wanted to rule men (monarchy), he openly disobeyed God's plan of theocracy (see judges 8:23)
4. Interestingly Abimelech's name in hebrew meant "my father, the king"; something which Gideon obviously wasn't. He is only a judge, a servant of the King.

Anyhow, the take home for me was that God has a plan for His people. Our success in life shouldn't be marked by hunger for power, striving against men unhonorably to reach our goals.
Trust God to provide for you, to lead you where He wants you to become, whether or not you become the next president or a humble toilet cleaner.

What matters is -

Is God the king of your life or you are?