Monday, June 30, 2014

Agree with your adversary quickly, .... lest your adversary deliver you to the judge


Matthew 5:25
Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

Jesus taught the above just after the Beatitudes, while He was explaining that hatred is regarded as murder. Rather than having conflict with our adversaries to the point of going to court over certain matters, it may be more prudent to agree with the adversary and move forward. We tend to regard our rights as all-important and would defend our rights. When our rights are violated, we try to seek justice including in the most civilised manner. However, despite the injustice of His arrest, Jesus asked His accusers to promptly carry on with the unjust trial and sentence. When we come certain trials and tribulations, unlike Jesus who is perfect, we have to examine ourselves and repent. A commentary said: "as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will allow the Holy Spirit to use whatever means necessary to bring us back into obedience"

Sunday, June 29, 2014

If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off


Matthew 5:30
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Those who know Yshua well would know that He is not advocating people to maim themselves nor is there other evidence to suggest that He likes people to hurt themselves. On the contrary, many of His miraculous deeds include healing people, which means Yshua loves to heal and make others whole. This particular verse in Scripture is written in dramatic fashion to specifically highlight the seriousness of sin. We are supposed to treat sin as such a danger that it is better to lose a limb if that can help avoid us from sinning. It also spells out the consequence of sin quite clearly and it is a dire warning indeed.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected

Philippians 3:12
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 

Paul started this verse recognizing the reality that we will never be perfect in this life, although we are in the process of sanctification. It is humbling and it is the reality, that God does not call on perfect people to do His work. God is using us the way we are and it is God who calls us for His work. Our own abilities may or may not be a factor, after all it is God who gives us all of our abilities. But we are never qualified in ourselves, for it is God who chooses any of us to do His work for His glory, not ours.


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you


Jeremiah 1:8
Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.

The Lord reminded Jeremiah of His presence and protection. We too need to constantly remember this. Whatever situation we are in, pay no heed of what we may lose but solely remember Yshua. One aspect that may get to most of us is when we are being treated unfairly. If we seek justice for ourselves, there is a danger of falling into self-pity and being diverted from our devotion to Him. A commentator said "Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it". So continue in what Yshua told us and He will guard us.


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Not to receive the grace of God in vain


2 Corinthians 6:1
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain

Receiving the grace of God should be happening all the time. It is not that we pray for the grace or we come to God to ask His grace during our prayers when we are in trouble. God, Yshua, has already poured out His grace. It is for us to receive daily to replenish ourselves. We need to be soaked in His grace so we operate and walk in His grace. A commentator said that the proof of being absorbed in His grace is that we are in a total humble state before others, with nothing we can think of to put ourselves better than others, and be happy about it.


But for this purpose I came to this hour


John 12:27-28
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.”

Our Lord Yshua is pouring His heart out to God the Father. He knows the trials that He will go through soon. As a man, the thought of saving himself must have spark his mind as the electrical impulses in his brain fires up the possibility. However, He is the perfect example that although unholy thoughts enter our mind, we have the free will to fight those thoughts and be fully devoted to God. Living on earth, we face all kinds of temptation - we just have to will it away by focusing purely on God. There is no other way, there is no in between, there is no tasting a little of the forbidden fruit. It has to be all out rejection of the things that we know would not be pleasing to God. Only then can we glorify God's name.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Luke 22:53
But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.

Our Lord Yshua was speaking to the priests and elders who came to arrest him. He recognized that the evil is dominating many aspects of human life. In particular the Evil One uses humans to do his dirty way and the way this is done is through the sins of humans. All humans sins as Paul mentioned that we all fall short of His glory. However those who belong to Christ know what sin is, acknowledge when they sin and confess it to God in total repentance. How many times would God keep forgiving us, as Yshua implied, it is for as many times as we come back to Him.


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