January 31, 2006 No comments

Colossians 4:10-18

10Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions–if he comes to you, welcome him), 11and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 12Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15Give my greetings to the brothers[d] at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 17And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”

 18I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

—Why ESV? http://www.desiringgod.org/library/topics/word_god/esv.html —

Reading all these names of fellow servants of Paul, it’s amazing to read about what great works God was doing through all these people.  Imagine, one of us writting a letter to Christians in a far of place, say Somalia….and mentioning the names of us who are praying for them, still remembering those whom we’ve touched in the past: it’s quite an encouragement.

There is signifiance I find in verse 17.  We’ve all been taught throughout our years as young Christians that our ministry given to us from the Lord, but in the end, it is up to us to perform it. And just like many of todays issues in this Christian life, we must see that God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility need to work hand in hand.  When God calls us to ministry, it is upto us, as the fruit of being graced by Him, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  From faith, to serve Him obediently with our hands and feet as He’s called us.

Consider your own call to this year’s CC ministry.  I’ve been considering my own, and also in the process, screening candidates for Worship Team.  Many have been graced with the “gifts” of ministry (and musical worship), but only those who are specifically “called” by God will be serving.  Without the call from God, we don’t serve by faith, and anything done without faith is sin.  But knowing we are called to serve and being affirmed of the calling from brothers and sisters, let us obediently let God use us as He rightfully requires.

January 22, 2006 No comments

Internal transformation, part 1

Colossians 1:24-29

24Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

-

At its very core, God does not ask you or me to live out this great Christian life.

What He is saying though is that ‘I want to give you the life of Christ on the inside, and He–Jesus–in you and through you is able to do what I know already that you can’t do.’ See.. God is not up there in heaven getting His own satisfaction in humouring Himself with our constant failures and inadequacies; it’s not like He’s trying to condemn us more and more for failing to obey Him and all that He’s commanded us. It’s not a saddist game He’s trying to play with us–He’s not asking us to do it! There’s only one guy in the whole world throughout its entire existence that has ever successfully 100% pulled off the Christian life–and He was so good at it, they named it after Him!! :-) < --His name is Jesus.

And so, Christ is saying to you, and He's saying to me: I want to live in you, I want to be life within you;-! It is Christ in us that's gonna make this life of ours work...it is the only way we can ever be acceptable sons and daughters of the Father: through His son Jesus living inside of us.

What is your hope of glory? what makes you complete? Is it Christ in you, the hope of glory? Or is that which makes you whole and supremely satisfied something else?!? Coz what I see, is that we’ve had a lot of other “hopes” in this vaporous existence of ours…this world that we live in has a lot of other hopes of glory, but it’s all external hope.

The world says that for you and me to be complete we need to have something done to you. you need to have someone with you… (it’s all about relationships–that’s how you feel complete.) You gotta have the right circumstances around you to have a sense of completion in life. you gotta improve your view of you, and have something said about you. to have a position or title or degree bestowed upon you, plus have more things that are owned by you, and to wear the right thing on you –that’s how you can feel more fulfilled. you only feel complete when great things that are accomplished through you.

These are all external things. They are all external modifications that the world says this is how you make your life complete.

But God’s shown me so much in recent days and weeks, that you and I have bigger problems than can be satisfied by all these external modifications. we don’t need any of these modifications to our external self. each of them in and of itself, and even all of them combined cannot merely encapsulate what is required to be fully sufficient as a person, to be rescued and saved from our spiritual death.

The Lord’s telling us, we need an internal transformation. You and I cannot find peace and serenity, joy or happiness, except in Christ…I need to be transformed on the inside, daily, not just one time. You have to be sanctifed by the daily cleansing of His Holy Spirit. And yeah, God with us is great–”Emmanuel” is His name–but that is still not good enough God knew before the foundation of the world…fellowship with our Heavenly Father cannot even cut it, I’m sure you’ve experienced this. “I know God’s with me, and He’s gonna get me through this.” But you didn’t get through it, you failed, you messed up again, allthewhile God was with you, and hence, you went back to rededicate your life to God. However, God knows it is impossible for us to be sinless, hence He gave us Christ in us, and allowed us also to be in Christ.

He is our hope of glory, He is satisfaction, our sufficiency, our completeness. He is in us, and we too are in Him.

And so, again, stop trying and start dying (to self power and self trying). Embrace surrender, trust God with our lives, put your faith in Christ who is life, and is the source of all Hope and Glory. To stop sinning, and for everything we do with our hands and our feet, with our bodies and our minds, with all our strength and soul–whatever it is we do must always testify to God’s glory and renown.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, ESV)

January 21, 2006 No comments

Colossians 1:1-8

Greeting

 1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

 2To the saints and faithful brothers[a] in Christ at Colossae:

   Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

 3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing–as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.[b] He is a faithful minister of Christ on your[c] behalf 8and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

-

What sticks out to me at first is verse 4, where Paul reminds us of the 3 essentials of what it is to be a Christian: faith, love, and hope.  These 3 things remind me of a catchy church mission statement i’ve read–”to be a community of followers of Jesus Christ, committed to live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope.” (Mosaic, L.A.)  Like me, you probably have heard these 3 things mentioned by Paul numerous times…thus, it must mean something hugely important if this same message is told to saints in many different places!

I’m thinking there is significance to the order that Paul writes.  Faith is first, because everything else comes from our faith in Christ Jesus.  Through our trust in God, we know He loves us, and such should compel us to love each other, as Christ first loved us and gave Himself up for us.  All this is only possible because of the hope of salvation & eternal life we will have in Heaven at the Father’s side.

This all sounds quite elementary at first…but in reflection, I am convicted that in times where I find it hard to love others, I should not be scrutinizing my relationship with others, but rather, I should be examining my relationship with God–whether or not I am truly embracing surrender, trusting Him through faith, and putting my hope only in Christ…all this reflection in essence is questioning my authenticity as a genuine Christian.

And hence, if you and I truly understand and embrace this Sovereign grace, when we sow the seed of God’s Word deep in our lives, the Fruit we bear will be life changing & God glorifying–a harvest that will testify to God’s renown in our lives.

SDG

January 19, 2006 No comments

Once dead but now alive

Just how dead is dead? Exactly what can a dead person do?

“even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)..”  - Ephesians 2:5

The Greek word here for “dead” is the word “necros“–which means dead like a corpse. As far as his relationship to God is concerned, man is a lifeless corpse, unable to respond or even make a single move toward God, unless God first brings this spiritually dead corpse to life. He is dead in trespasses and sins. It is a very strange kind of death because while dead, he is nevertheless up and about actively practicing sin. He is what horror stories call a zombie - dead but walking around. This is a fair description of what Paul says about human nature in its lost condition. He is biologically alive but spiritually dead.

The sinner actively practices evil. His will is enslaved (John 8:34) and he is also by nature an object of God’s wrath (Eph. 2:3). He has a will, most definitely, but this will has no desire to seek after God or submit to Him, in fact he cannot do so (Rom 3:11; Rom 8:7), without the direct and gracious intervention of God.

This is why without Sovereign election, evangelism would be the most futile activity imaginable.  It would be much like a salesman trying to sell his products in a graveyard. The dead need to be raised to life before a salesman can make a sale! The dead have no interest in skin cream products, double glazed windows, hair loss prevention treatments, air purifiers or the latest and greatest vacuum cleaner. They are not moved by even the greatest of sales pitches!

Why?

Well that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Its because the dead are, in a word…. dead!

….Colossians 2:13 also states, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him…”

In Ephesians 2:5, and in Colossians 2:13, the scripture says that it was when we were dead that God made us alive. Notice that not one mention is made of our role in all this.  It does not say, “when you were dead, you decided to cooperate with God’s grace, and He then raised you…” I actually don’t know how the Apostle Paul could have taught Divine monergism more clearly. It was when we were dead like a corpse (necros) that God made us alive.

Source: http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/01/dead_men_walking_by_pastor_joh.php

January 15, 2006 No comments

Yearning for strength in weakness

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Cor 12:9-10)

My heart breaks and aches each time I see/hear about a close friend who is weak.  They are suffering and struggling through a long season in this valley of life God has set before them, and I cannot do a single thing except to pray for them.  What more, they either seem to lack any humility to ask others for help or accountability…and they keep on trying to live the Christian life when I’ve said this a million times–the Christian life is not just difficult, it is impossible!  What they need, and what we all need is an internal transformation, not just external modifications.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

We already had the main internal transformation happen to us when we were ‘regenerated’/became a saint (holy and faithful one IN Christ), and called righteous+justified through faith…but what we as His people need now, as always, more than ever, is sanctification.  Sanctification basically means we have to set ourselves apart for the use intended by GOD our Creator.  Indeed, this may include external things like obedience to His Living Word, through simple day-to-day things like not skipping class, not indulging in earthly materialism / shopping, keeping ourselves sexually pure, and also reading His Word & spending time with Him daily…but these external things are meaningless and have no foundation unless they are rooted in the internal transformation of our heart soul mind and strength all together being set aside for His purposes.

It really is that simple, and I’m again, going back to my passion here–God’s glory.  Since we were made BY Him, the only person who knows what we are here FOR is GOD Himself…so it is only right if we set our minds on things above & not on things on earth, and make sure we seek Him and only Him for purpose and reason and meaning for everything we do & our very existence.  All things being said, we have to do everything in Christ’s name to the glory of the Father.  And of course, God’s glory is never without His holiness–and this very essence of glorifying God is sanctifying ourselves to be holy–because He is pure glory, He also is pure Holy and requires us to be the same.

May God’s strength be magnified in your weakness, in our weaknesses.  And through our weaknesses, may Christ show His power to overcome all things.
Amen.

Holy Design
This place in time
That I might seek and find my God
My God

*Lord I want to yearn for You
I want to burn with passion
Over You, and only You!
Lord I want to yearn for You
I want to burn with passion
Over You, and only You
Lord I want to yearn!

Your joy is mine
Yet why am I fine
With all my singing and bringing grain
In light of Him

Oh You give life and breath
In You we live and move
That’s why I sing *

P.S. More on “Internal Transformation” vs “External Modification” later….

January 11, 2006 No comments

Colossians 1:9-14

If not now, when?  I’ve had trouble sleeping these past days…I just end up not…staying up real late/early doing God only knows what..surfing, watching some tv, watching/listening to old Passion Conference messages.  I guess i’m just avoiding dealing with it.  School’s started, things are going back on track, and I want to excel, but still i feel like there’s a black hole within me that is sucking the life out of me.  I know what it is…and i know why it literally sucks everything out of me & keeps me up early in the morning. It’s just…not dealt with, and i guess that is what bothers me.

What i think it is… is fear.  i’m scared to death right now.  i feel like my mind is just going krazy… not good crazy, but krazy stupid. like my mind is losing it, memory slips away, the faintest of all images are fading, and i do not know how to get it back, or even if such is possible.  the picture is lost, the image is vanishing from my mind…and like all my life of the past year flashes before me.  I’m lost and losing my way, in need of a rescuer, in need of a saviour. and only One can rescue and save me.

If not now, when?  what is holding me back from living?  the big part of it is the hurt and scaring I still carry.  I think i’ve barely recovered, but God knows i do want to.  i just want to move on with my life, and live.  i don’t want to be selfish in this and just be doing this for my own needs and fulfillment; nor do i want to be inconsiderate of her.  she deserves more than that.  she’s hurting from the loss of a close ‘friend’ also… i want to be fair to her and her feelings, where she is in life.  i only wish that she knew, which would make this whole process all the much easier.  where is she, and what she’s doing i do not know.  how she’s been i dont know.  but thankfully, this image is clearer.  this thing we have has been like an anchor in my life, keeping me from slipping and floating away out into the vast ocean of life.  i just want stability, devotion, undying passion.  i just want to live.

-

I’m sure we’ve all experienced what it’s like to have large amounts of time and space seperating us between our loved ones, friends or relatives/family members in distant places. It’s hard not to have that physical contact and direct voice of assurance that they are there for us.  At times, i get fairly discouraged without it–i’m a person who thrives on one-on-one communication, and if really not possible, over-the-phone talking.  Technology these days, has made it so easy to make the seperation by a million km’s feel like nothing. But Paul didn’t have what we have now; he never even met the Colossians (if i’m not mistaken; only Epaphras did). 

But still, Paul PRAYED for them–even while in jail.  He cared emmensely for his brothers and sisters in Colossae that they would sow seeds deep into the Word of God, and so be strengthened with HIS power to endure all the spiritual warfare & false teachings they were experiencing; He reminds them to keep the faith coz they have already been redeemed!

I remember reading this with my now ex-girlfriend when we first started doing a devo on Colossians together. … ..  I still see her like every week, I pass by her at school, see her at smallgroups, fellowship.  It hurts since she’s shared such a big part of my journey.  But apparently, circumstances has it that I can’t talk to her much or see her much anymore; our friendship is no longer what it was before no matter how much i want it to be / or even try. the physical distances don’t really seperate us, but still it feels like a billion kms.  i hear about her struggles and how much she’s grown recently, thru our mutual friends, or thru her blog..but it’s not the same.  I stillcare about her, in as much of a phileo & agape way as i know how, but i can only pray for her–and in this, I will never ever cease–our reconciliation, for His glory.  In our relationship not working out, I think I’ve come to realize that yeah, I wasn’t strong enuf, she wasn’t strong enuf–life turned, satan tempted us, i failed her, she failed me, it didn’t work out. We hadnt sowed that seed of the Word deep enuf into our minds & our hearts got hurt also as a result.  And so PRAYER: it’s the only thing I know how to do, and the fruit of this, the harvest of being rooted in His TRUTH, God only knows I guess…but I know God is faithful and will reconcile us soon.

I just pray and hope also, that she is praying for me.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Alex Leung
http://www.sixsteps.org

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