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Monday, 29 May 2006

Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-10
Title: What are you doing here?
People/Place: Jezebel, Elijah, God
Key Verse: 9
Summary: 1-2, After hearing what Elijah did to her prophets of Baal, Jezebel swears to kill Elijah. 3-4, Elijah flees for his life and runs into the desert and lies down to die. 5-7, God provides for Elijah the food and the strength to make a journey 8-9, Elijah comes to Mount Horeb only to find God asking him why he is there 10, Elijah expains his circumstances
Message: After everything that God did through him, after everything that God showed him-- he wasn't afraid of over 800 prophets of baal, but he feared one woman's threat. He runs away into the desert and waits for death to take him, when he is at the lowest point in his depression. But God provides him with food and drink to give him strength to walk to Mt. Horeb where he asks, "What are you doing here?" I'm sure that God's asked us this question in our lives too, even though we may not have heard it. "What are you doing here?" After retreat, after mission or praise nights, after seeing the power and splendor of God, we get depressed and low over such trivial things and we cry out to God in our despair. And God, almost surprised, asks us, "what are you doing here in this low place? Did I not use you for my glory, did I not exalt my name and show you my power?" And it's such a wake-up call. Even when David was so low and surrounded on all sides by his enemies, immediately after that, he begins to priase God's worthiness and majesty, because he knows that even though he may not be able to see or feel God at that moment-- it doesn't change the objective fact that God is still in control and that He is still worthy to be praised.
Application: Even when I cannot feel God, even when I feel like He is far from me, I will hold to His promise that "He will always be with me. even until the end of the age" and praise His name.

Saturday, 20 May 2006

Passage: 1Kings 15:09-24

Title: Destroying the symbols of unfaithfulness

People/Place: Asa, Maachah, Baasha, Ben-hadad and God

Key Verse: 12, 13, 14

Summary: 9-11, Asa becomes king of Judah and followed the Lord, unlike his parents. 12-15, Asa puts away all of the sodomites (male temple prostitutes) from the land as well as the idols of his father and he burned the asherah his mother had made in the valley of Kidron and brings back the dedicated objects into the House of the Lord. 16-17, There is war between Baasha, the king of Israel and Asa, king of Judah, Baasha builds Ramah so that Asa is trapped within the nation of Israel. 18-21, Asa sends all the remaining tresures of gold and silver that were available in the king's house and sent them to Ben-hadad with a request that the same pact that once existed between their fathers be continued, and that he break the alliance with Baasha so that Judah might no longer be in peril. 22-24, And Asa issued a proclamation all throughout Judah that all should go and take of the city of Ramah and use it to beuld Geba and Mizpah. Asa's acts are hereforth written in the chronicles of the Kings of Judah and he slept with his forefathers and was buried with them in the city.

Message: Asa didn't have too much of a Godly future ahead of him at birth-- his father was not a Godly man, and set up idols throughout israel, and his mother worshipped the asherah. But somehow, his heart was called by God and he broke the ties of sin in blood and made a new covenant with the Lord. And although he destroyed many idols and the personal idol of his mother, he did not destroy the high places and rededicate them to the Lord as others in the Bible have done. But he also removed the male temple prostitutes, idols and the astoreth from the land. In removing the symbols of other gods, of desecreation and defilement he kept his heart pure before God and God had mercy on him and his situation.

What symbols do I have in my house that symbolize my dedication to other things before God? Do I have girls on my walls, enticing me to lust? Do I have cars on my walls beckoning me to materialism? Do I have guys on my wall calling for me to be like them, to emulate them? What is my computer desktop? For every girl I have on my wall, do I also keep a geneology of Jesus, or a picture of Jesus on my wall?

Application: I realize that sometimes I surround myself with 'motivators' to try to motivate myself to seek worldly success and pleasures, but I also realize that this is not God's desire for me, and He wants me to be motivated by spiritual things, by an eternal reward rather than a temporal one.

Prayer: Father, I realize that every good and perfect gift comes from You, and if cars, attractive women or good looks were always good and perfect gifts, then we would all be so. I know that each of those things can lead into temptation, or be, themselves a temptation to me and cause me to fall, or turn away from you. Help me to keep you in the limelight of my heart rather than the idols I make of such base materials as gold or silver. Nothing created can ever rival the creator, and I pray that you will help me to focus my heart on you at all times, instead of on myself or on others. Amen.

*Note: I never noticed how they always use the phrase 'sleeping with their fathers' and how it was different from 'being killed' or 'died'. I always thought it was just a nice way of saying it, like "passed away" but maybe it's a literal and fundamental part of their belief. Just as we in the American culture, by saying "passed away" refer to passing away and out of our lives, they literally mean that the person has fallen asleep and will, one day, awake again. When Jesus spoke of Tabitha, Jer...bah, forgot the exact name, but his daughter who had taken ill and died, he said that she had fallen asleep. By that time, perhaps the term had fallen into disuse due to change in slang, but He had then chosen to literally "wake her up". How much easier would our funerals and our grieving be if we saw all death in terms of "falling asleep" rather than passing away"!

Sunday, 14 May 2006

Scripture: 1Kings 13:11-24
Title: Fellowship with men
Key Verse: 17, 23
Summary: 11-14; The old prophet hears about the man of God from Judah and goes after him. 15-19; The old mprophet claims that an angel of the Lord came to him with a message telling him to give the man from Judah food and drink in his house, so the man from Judah relents and goes back with him. 20-22; While they were eating the old prophet receives the true word of the Lord and prophesies that the man from Judah will be buried in a place where he does not belong because he disobeyed the Word of the Lord by eating and drinking in a plae where the Lord specifically said not to. 23-24; On the way back to Judah, the man was killed by a lion and the lion and his donkey merely stood next to his body on the road.
Message: Although the Bible tells us what the old man did, why did he choose to lie to the prophet, especially after he had heard that the Lord had spoken that this man from Judah should not eat and drink in Bethel? The Bible does not specifically say why, but maybe it was because the old prophet had not heard the Word of God for many years now, and he hoped that somehow association with another man of God might rekindle the fire within him. Maybe the old prophet, in fear of his life, bowed down to the golden calves. That was the first mistake-- one does not rekindle a relationship with God through other men, but by speaking with the Lord and reading His Word. Yet, when the man from Judah hears this contradictory "statement from God" he simply assumes it's truth rather than inquiring of God and testing it to discern the true Will of God. That was the second mistake. But before they even began to eat-- BEFORE he actually ate and drank, the Word of God comes to the old prophet and he prophesies before the man from Judah. Yet in the very next verse, it states that "when the man of God had finished eating and drinking". Why did he, even after the old prophet prophesies before him, stay to eat and drink? Was his heart not repentant before the Lord? Why did he not rise up, in haste and leave that place to continue the Work God had given him by returning home? This is another story of man falling from the potential which God has placed within his reach; Jeroboam could've established a kingdom as great as David's, but he fell because he was afraid to lose the power he had gained. Likewise, this prophet lost everything he could've been for a meal. In Hebrew culture, to eat and drink together is to show good intentions, goodwill, and fellowship. Clearly, God did not want the man of Judah to have any kind of fellowship with any idol worshippers. In the same way, we should be wary of whom we have fellowship with-- are we declaring peace with those of this world, sitting and eating with them comfortably; cussing, gossipping, telling dirty jokes-- and then coming to church and praising the Lord with the same mouth? This sort of fellowship causes men and women of God to fall, as it did the Man from Judah. If he did not disobey the Lord, he would've probably gone on to do larger and greater things-- and he would not be unnamed in the Word of God. However, because he disobeyed, his name was literally wiped out from the Bible and he is only known as "a Man of God from Judah".
Application: In my fellowship with my friends at school, I will be more conscious about what I say, even in joking and will watch what kinds of things I am agreeing with, to discern whether this fellowship is glorifying God, or bringing down His name.

Thursday, 09 March 2006

Passage: John 21:1-14

Title: Fishers of Men

People/Place: Jesus, Simon Peter, James, John, Thomas, Nathanael. @ the Sea of Tiberias.

Key Verse: 9

Summary: 1-3: Simon Peter decides to go fishing, and many of the other disciples go with him. 4-6: Jesus appears on the shore before them, and tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat 7-11: Realizing it is the Lord, Peter jumps into the water and the other disciples also come to shore, bringing a harvest of 153 fishes. 12-14: Jesus feeds His disciples

Message: I might be...reading "too much" into this one but.. Well, a lot of the Bible seems to me, to be so much deeper than we take it for. Not only is the Bible full of stories with morals, but if you look beneath the superficial morals, there is a deeper play of symbols and allegories involved. for example, Jesus said to His disciples, "I will make you fishers of men". I remembered this while I was reading this passage, an tried to read this passage in terms of what Jesus said...if I take this passage in a metaphorical way..

Peter and the other disciples were 'fishing for men' on their own, that is, evangelizing-- but they were not catching any fish, they were not being sucessful. But when they heard Jesus, and cast their nets on the right side of the boat, they saved 153 souls. Peter in his passion for Christ, jumped into the water, trying to approach Christ first. I guess that could be that he kind of abandoned the task at hand-- fishing for men, while his fellow disciples attended to taking in the fish, and bringing them to shore. (maybe that's like following up after conversion) Jesus was already waiting on the shore, with fish He had already caught (the disciples?) and then He fed His disciples.

So many times I pray, "Lord, give me an opportunity to evangelize, show me the moment and the proper time" but I don't think that's really according to His Word. I think that, like the disciples, we're supposed to try our best first-- fish all night if we have to, to try to catch even one fish. It is only then, after He sees our heart, our intent, our determination to follow His Great Comission, that He intervenes and directs us. It is by doing His will, by sowing seeds and ministering that we are blessed, and that we are fed by Him.

Application: Instead of praying for opportunities and moments, I will pray for courage, and maybe even a bit of recklessness, to go into my ministry and work for Him.

Thank you.

Tuesday, 21 February 2006

Passage: John 15:1-17

Title: Love one another

People/Place: Jesus

Key Verse: 17

Summary: 1-3, Jesus is the Vine, the Father is the Gardener and we are the branches. 4-8, To bear fruit, we must abide in Him, those who do not bear fruit are cast out and burned. It is the Father's Will that we bear fruit and become disciples of Jesus 9-10, Jesus loves us as the Father loves Him and our relationship with Jesus should be like Jesus' relationship with the Father. 11-17, Jesus wants us to love each other, as He loved us

Message: As brothers and sisters in Christ, we should love each other as true brothers and sisters do, if not even moreso. In older times, this was easier-- communities were smaller and neighbors naturally went to the same church, your brothers and sisters in Christ were most often nearly your brothers and sisters by mere proximity. But now that all of that has changed, God's command for loving one another as Jesus loved us is a more difficult task; I find that because I don't attend the same school as many of my brothers and sisters, or because I haven't known them since I was a child, I don't know them very well, and I don't really love them as I should. This lack of brotherly love is the basis for the lack of complete unity in many churches, and in order to both make God joyful and to do His will, we must truly begin to love one another-- not simply recognize that "we need to love each other" yet do nothing proactive about it.

Application: Because I cannot come to know everyone and understand each person at once, I will begin with what I can do-- I will try to open myself up more to my , the people who attend my school and try to get to know them better as well as be a better welcomer for Youth Group