Abusing God’s Blessings

1 … in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem… 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.

2 Kings 18:1-4

Interesting story this one. Moses set up a pole with a snake design on top for the Israelites to get healed of a certain snake infestation attack. That whoever looked at the pole will get healed. Did Moses do the wrong thing? No. Because God asked Moses to make the snake pillar. And it was NOT meant for worship. It was for God to show His supernatural healing. Did it work? Since it came from God, yes, definitely.

But after that, the Israelites were found worshiping this bronze snake pole thing. God made a good thing. But Israelites turned a Godly good thing into a sin.

I find that this is human nature. We will worship the thing that bring us joy. And who brings us the most joy? The “obvious” answer is God! Yet, we worship church, we worship our leadership position, we worship the money God blessed us with, we worship our relationships, we worship the entertainment and hobbies God allowed us to have, we worship ourselves for being smart, pretty, funny, have good skills, have good opportunities, or for doing good things for people. We’re not that good. God is. It wasn’t us. It was all God.

Think about it for a while. What are you worshiping that was actually from God? What have you put more hope and more faith on than God? Was it/he/she from God? Probably, yeah. It was a great blessing from God Himself! An answered prayer! A miracle! Yet over time, we ended up worshiping it and remembering it more than God.

What can we do about it? Learning from King Hezekiah of Judah, he broke down that Godly Good thing, the bronze serpent pole that Moses had made. No matter how good something is, if it tempts you to sin, get rid of it. Do we have any entertainment, hobbies, material things that we need to break? Do we have any relationships we need to redefine? Do we need to have a vain-ness / self-love reality check?

I’m not sure about you, but I do.

The Knowledge of Christ

The words of Paul in Philippians 3 says

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.

I find myself asking what is this knowledge that Paul is talking about? This knowledge that can cause us to be found in His Presence and also in His Righteousness (v9).

What if Knowledge is an important key? Without knowledge, we would be believing in all sorts of made up imaginations. Let’s call this False Knowledge. With True Knowledge we would really know for sure.

Now WHY do we need to know for sure? I think it’s because knowledge brings forth faith. No matter if it’s false knowledge or true knowledge, it will bring forth faith. We practice faith everyday. Even in the simple things. We have faith that the chair we sit in will support our weight. We believe that the amount of salt we add into our soup adds the right amount of saltiness we want. But we also make mistakes of having faith on a pen that is out of ink, so we only brought one pen to class. Or leaving the powerbank at home because we remember (falsely) that we charged our phone at home.

Why do we need true knowledge? Because it affects our faith which affects our actions. The value of knowing Christ Jesus that surpasses every other knowledge. I have yet to achieve this level of value and regard to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. But I believe I will. Let’s press on into God’s will and words. Keep studying His word, keep looking to Him for perspective and leadership, and keep doing everything you can for His glory. And may He Grace you with revelation upon revelation.

Destroy!

‘You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. ‘ Deuteronomy 12:2-5

It’s quite unnatural for us who grew up in church to talk about destroying things. What more destroying EVERYTHING. The Israelites we commanded to destroy everything in the land they are about to conquer, because God knew that the Israelites were weak and easily tempted to serve other gods. And serving other gods is a direct sin!

Today as Christians, we don’t take temptation and sin very seriously. We think it’s just something we need to AVOID. But no, we need to find a deep hatred towards sin. Because sin is DEFYING God ON PURPOSE. In a culture full of sin, we are also tempted to see sin as not very serious. ‘If it doesn’t hurt anyone, how is it a sin?’ right? WRONG. That’s not how God sees it at all.

God wants us to face our sins and overcome it. Overcome sin the way you overcome an enemy in a war. You must show no mercy. And even though temptation itself is not a sin, we should not allow temptation to stick around as well. The bible says that if your eye causes you to sin, you should gauge it out. Wow imagery.

This sermon by Moses in Deuteronomy 12:2-5 reminds me of a powerful sermon by John Piper. Hope it motivates you to war against sin and your carnal self.

Love Is Not Safe!

By C. S. Lewis

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. From The Four Loves

Kneel And Bow

Lord Jesus may Your name abide in my heart. May Your glory be my highest desire. May Your Spirit fill me to overflowing.

Abide in me.

Less of me.

More of You.

Take the throne of my heart.

I step down as king and crown You, the Rightful King.

Will We Ever Understand Him?

God works in mysterious ways

If God Loves Us, He WILL Let Us Go Through Tough Times

As I was praying for Joey, I asked Him to just stop and fix a situation she’s in. I know He can. He’s the Master Fixer. He can heal anything. He can stop anything from happening. And He can make anything happen. It’s entirely up to Him.

But He reminded me that He let’s us go through tough times and tight spots because He loved us. 

He said He did it to protect us and strengthen us. What??… Isn’t that the opposite? I know He’s the Master Protector and Master Strengthener, but I forget He uses tough and bad situations as He pleases! Okay I admit, they’re probably more effective.

Tough times are like vaccines pumped into our lives. 

He’s in control just like the doctor control’s the dosage. He has our situation under control no matter what. 

He tells us it will hurt and it might even leave a permanent scar. He doesn’t lie about it being just an ant bite. He knows what a punctured skin and what scars feels like.

He knows our body will be able to take it and overcome it, thus effectively be immune to it. 

So He tells us to just hold on. You may feel a bit sick from it, but keep on keeping on. You can take the punches. 

Love This So Much

Amen

Does Life Really Suck?

​Exodus 16:3,8

And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.“
Can these Israelites really be complaining about the life they have? They have just seen first-hand His outstanding miracles. The pillar of clouds and pillar of fire, the fire barrier, and the parting of the sea. How can they be complaining?

When I complain about life, and I do, I’m not really blaming the world or world system am I? I’m just being ungrateful to God, because He provides all things. And I’m not having the faith to see where God is bringing me in and through what I’m facing.

Lord, thank You for Your reminder again. Sorry for all the times that I have complained or compared. Help me really look to Your face again everyday.

I Love You

 in Hebrew