For we walk by faith, not by sight

2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.

We normally walk by sight as humans. Among our 5 physical senses, sight is the one most of us depends on the most. However, this is contrary to the life that God wants us to walk. To walk by faith is to lead a life of faith. Rather than trusting what we can see in the physical world, faith requires us to place our trust in Yshua, not knowing the full picture of where we are going.

Love suffers long and is kind

1 Corinthians 13:4
Love suffers long and is kind

Suffering for long is not in the natural nature of man, and kindness may be in the same category too. However, love has the characteristic of long-suffering and kind. Love can be seen in both believers and non-believers - it is part of the image of God that is embedded in us, who are His creation. In fact the qualities of love are spontaneous, they happen by itself without premeditation. If it is planned, than it would not be love, rather it will have ulterior motive. Another act of love is in fact heroism, when a stranger risks himself to save another, without understanding the reason - our Lord said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends." (John 15:13)

It has not yet been revealed what we shall be

1 John 3:2
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

This verse refers to the transformation when we are finally with the Lord. It also highlights the fact that we do not know everything and the God has chosen not to reveal to us everything. We can only be certain of Him, not certain of everything that He would do. This is also part of faith. Our believe is in Him, not the specific doctrine per se, though we should all know the foundational doctrine well. It is also freedom in that although we are not certain about everything, yet we are certain of Him. This should also encourage us to leave our burdens to Him rather than find a solution for everything.

Joab had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom

1 Kings 2:28
Joab had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom.

This can be used as a lesson for temptation, which are usually a short time frame between the decision to sin. However, the decision to defect may have taken a long time for Joab to decide. He chose to be loyal to King David at one time, but later he switched to Adonijah. Even a well-thought out decision can sometimes be the wrong or unrighteous one, even though it seemed the right thing at the time. Having made a right decision, whether it is an important decision or not, does not always guarantee that we will know how to make the right decision in the future, though it may be a smaller decision. All the more we cannot be complacent about what we stand for and who we are.

And he said, "Here I am"

Exodus 3:4
God called to him ... And he said, "Here I am"

God called to Moses, and Moses was ready for God to assign him the mission. So Moses was actually listening otherwise he might have missed God's call. It is not that God is incapable of raising His voice to make us notice. It is because God is calling those who are ready to serve and one of the indication of readiness, is listening and waiting for God's call.

he put on his outer garment ... and plunged into the sea

John 21:7
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment ... and plunged into the sea

Simon Peter first responded to God's call at sea without thinking of anything else. He completely obeyed Jesus and stepped out into the sea. Soon, Peter was walking on the sea, just like Jesus, his Master did. However, soon he looked around himself, and his mind started to apply the physical restrictions that he was used to, such as man cannot walk on water. As a result he sank. For us, there are times when we are called by God and felt so empowered while doing God's task. It is important to know that once God uses us, He will continue to enable us to do greater things. Our part is to look at Him, and not look at the physical restrictions.

While you have the light, believe in the light

John 12:36
While you have the light, believe in the light

Jesus was speaking about Himself as the Light. He would be on earth for only a limited amount of time, yet almost none of those who saw and listened to Him realised this. When He is gone from the earth, He wants us to keep being faithful to God.

Today, this can also be applied to use when we have very positive spriritual experiences and we walk very closely to God. However, in the fallen world, such spiritual experiences may not last all the time. However, the faith that we are called to, the commitment to God that we profess should not be dependent on our spiritual highs. In fact it is in our most desperate times that it will be helpful, to have maturity and strength in our faith.

The high places were not removed

2 Chronicles 15:17
The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

Asa left some of the abomination in Israel, yet he knew the living God and he chose to walk with God in certain aspects of his life. Can we really leave some aspects and choose to follow God in other areas of our life. It goes back to the saying that we cannot have to gods, we will need to choose one or the other to serve. It is dangerous to allow anything else holding us back from a perfect walk with God.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me

Matthew 11:29
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus is talking to the believers, those who know Him. Everyone faces some kind of burden in their lives, some may be harder than others to face. What Jesus offer, is that if we trust Him enough to give Him our burdens, we will find some rest and peace. We also are required to learn from Him - there is a sense that He will not be taking our burdens all the time. Instead, we must learn from Him how to deal with the same burden in the future and also to assist others going through the same thing.

Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you

Psalm 5:22
Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

The Lord encourages us to place our burdens on Him. There is no mention of the types of burden, but it may be various burdents. From the context of the Psalm, this burden may be that of unjustified persecution, or being persecuted for following Yshua. It could be a burden arising in service to God's people, perhaps the workload is too heavy. Or perhaps it could be a burden that we carry because of our personal sins.

Whatever it may be, learn to cast it onto the Lord. The Scripture here says that He will sustain us. In another passage, it says to exchange with His burden which would be lighter on us. So we must come to our Lord with  our burdens instead of drifting away and trying to solve ourselves.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord

Romans 6:9-11
Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When Yshua rose from the dead, He showed to all that He had conquered death. He did not sin, but had the sins placed upon Him, which led Him to the cross. He had lived His life to God. We too can follow Him in giving up our lives of sin and live according to God. To do this, we must be alive in Jesus, that is letting the Holy Spirit guide us.

Certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection

Romans 6:5
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

When we accept Yshua as our Lord and Saviour, we identify with His Crucifixion, and then we also identify with His Resurrection. We should be dead to our sins and become alive in Him. The Holy Spirit who comes to live in us, is part of this Resurrection life. This process is also well symbolized by the ritual of baptism.

After this Resurrection, we still have our own will. However we are to give ourselves in to the control of the Holy Spirit. Though we have been made alive with Christ, we are still living and trying to conform with His perfect image.

that our old man was crucified with Him

Romans 6:6
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

We have heard the expression "crucified with Christ". While we know that our Lord Yshua do not mean for all of us to face the same crucifixion he went through, He does mean for us to crucify ourselves in another way. This way is suppose to be the crucifixion of our own sinful lifes. We have to put that sinful life to death deliberately, to put it on the cross, so that we can have the new transformed life waiting for us. Only in this way can we be free from sin, even in this life.

After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country

Mark 16:12
After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.

Is there a difference between those who see the risen Lord and those who believe in Him by faith. There is a selected few whom the Lord appears to, for the purpose of certain tasks God has assigned them, for example Paul was chosen and the Lord appeared to Him.

However, for most people it is through faith that we believe in Yshua. In fact He regards those people who believe by faith as more blessed than those who have seen Him, because once He is seen, then His existence is confirmed.

On the other hand those who do have the privilege of seeing the Lord are called to another level of mission that others are not be able to comprehend. With this privilege comes greater responsibility.

Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?

Luke 24:26
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?

Our Lord Yshua is obedient all the way to the Cross and He is gloried. He enters into the Glory of the Father. We cannot fully understand that kind of glory, let alone glimpse it. Only Christ enters into that Most Glorious position. However we are promised the resurrection and the Holy Spirit in us. We can walk with the Holy Spirit even here on earth, when we lead an obedient life to God. And when we are resurrected we too will have a glorious body like Christ.

They should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead

Mark 9:9
He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

On the surface we often think that this only refers to the disciples, that Jesus did not want them to reveal His plans to others. However, this can also apply to ourselves. It can be advice to us that unless we are ready, perhaps we should refrain from telling others about such things as miraculous experience and so on. The telling of the Gospel should not be limited in this sense. In fact, it is often new converts who are usually most excited and want to tell the new faith in Jesus to others. However there are other deeper spiritual matters that God reveals to us, that we can only fully grasp with the maturity in walking with the Spirit, only then perhaps we should council others on those matters.

Who Himself bore our sins

1 Peter 2:24
... who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree ...

Jesus, our Lord Yshua, put all of our sins onto Himself when He went to the cross. The agony during His prayer before the Transfiguration, maybe because of His realization of the separation from God because of the sins Yeshua put on Himself.

One very subtle point is that our Lord did not go to the Cross to prove Himself or gain acceptability as a sacrifice for our sins. Instead, it was to satisfy the Holy Justice of God, that the sins of humanity need to be paid for. And the only acceptable sacrifice is Jesus Himself who is totally pure.

Jesus came into a place called Gethsemane

Matthew 26:36,38
Jesus came into a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples .... 'Stay here and watch with Me'

The experience of Jesus at Gethsemane is something which we could not understand. It is the prelude that leads to the glorious and Divine victory of our Lord Yshua on the cross, that only through it that we can be saved. Only three of His disciples were given the privilege to be eyewitnesses of the event. Although they may have fallen asleep or may have witnessed some part of it, they later shared their experience through Scriptures and through ministering to others. Jesus was not doubting the plan but was faced with the enormity of it. God showed His approval by the visitation of the two heavenly beings and the Transfiguration.

you will be scattered

John 16:32
Indeed the hour is coming .... that you will be scattered ..."

We enjoy the fellowship with other believers for reasons such as security, similar interests, sense of being a family. But there are times that believers are scattered and left on their own. In these times it may be their faith that determine how they will carry on. The situation may be bad, but those in strong faith will have retain that peace of God that surpasses understanding. This faith comes from walking close with God which leads to having a confidence that is placed solely on God and not on surrounding circumstances.

But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Luke19:42
If you had known ... in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

There are things that God reveals to us, and there are things that God conceals from us. Those whom He regards as friends, He will reveal things too. To be considered His friend, depends on our walk with Him. As His children living in this sinful world, we are tempted by various things and falling for those temptations brings us further from God than before. That is why sometimes we fail to see the things God wants to reveal to us. Our hearts may become hardened as we are in denial or preoccupied with whatever sins we are involved in. However, it is not too late to remember that there is no condemnation in Christ Yshua and go back in repentance to Him.

Jesus has sent me that you may receive your sight

Acts 9:17
... the Lord Jesus ... has sent me that you may receive your sight ....

Paul was blinded following his encounter with the Risen Lord. In this passage, a servant was God was directed to pray for Paul and his blindness was removed. This physical blindness extraordinarily symbolizes the spiritual blindness of Paul before he met the Lord.

Once he received his sight, Paul was changed forever. The only thing he sees after that is Christ and all his life from then on was fully devoted to Christ. His life became a mission to tell others about the good news of Jesus. He lived a genuine life pointing others to the true Lord and nothing else distracted him.

And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit

Romans 8:34,27
Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Our Lord Yshua, died for us, seated at the right hand of God in glory and is our intercessor. Moreover those believers who examines themselves are in tune with the Holy Spirit who makes intercession for us. So both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are our intercessors. And if we are to live with Jesus as our examples, we too are supposed to be intercessors for others.

None of us are perfect and pure like Jesus, but yet this does not disqualify us from being intercessors. When we live a life with Jesus at the centre, a life in which is in the process of being transformed to be like Him, then we could intercede for others. In fact, this could be a natural result since as we become more like Christ, we are naturally concerned with others and therefore able to serve their needs and intercession is one of these needs.

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death

1 John 5:16
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.

God through Jesus forgives the sins of Man, we they would come and confess their sins. God also leads others to pray for those who seek forgiveness, the ministry of intercession. So to be useful to God, by being intercessors, we ourselves must first be right with God. We too must come and confess and receive His forgiveness. In addition, to know the mind of Christ when He forgive others, there is no doubt that we too, must walk right with Yshua, and be in constant communion with Him. Only then are we sensitive to the spiritual needs of others and fulfill our role as intercessors.

and wondered that there was no intercessor

Isaiah 59:16
And he saw that there was no man; and wondered that there was no intercessor.

God was saying that he found no intercessor in this prayer. This may be a wake up call for us when we pray for each other. It is often heard in Christian circles that we pray for each other. But the kind of prayer that is effective when we are requesting God to help our fellow believers are intercessory prayers. Such intercessory prayers can be hard work, and we need to put our intense spiritual and physical focus on the prayer. The prayers have to be honest and we should pray almost to the point that we are looking at the situation from God's view when praying for others. We have to be close to God, understand what is wrong from God's point of view and what needs to change from God's point of view, in order to pray for change for our fellow believers. It is no surprise at all that the greatest intercessor is Jesus Himself, who being God, is also fully man, able to empathize with us as well as understand the sinfulness from God's view.

Be ye therefore ready also

Luke 12:40
Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

The Lord promises to return when the hour that we least expect. In fact the exact time is only known by the Father God. Although End Times prophecies have various signs that are pointing to the season, the exact timeframe is unknown. However the teaching is also supposed to be applicable in daily lives. God has put this in Scriptures so that everyday, we have a sense of expectation. Although our sinful nature sometimes get the better of us, this is more reason to repent daily and have communion with the Lord in the expectation of His return.