Advent: Looking forward to the Kingdom of Christ

Jesus warned the church, and individual Christians, to expect to be persecuted and mocked, because the unbelieving world hates believers in the same way that it hates Christ (Jn 15:19; 16:1-4). Paul says "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim 3:12). To share in Christ’s tribulation is something that his followers should be prepared for and expect.

But Christians also share in Christ’s kingdom. Christ "has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father" (Rev 1:6). We even now are subjects of Jesus' Kingdom and under his authority (Col 1:13). And someday we will reign with Christ (Rev 5:10) and will be seated with Him at God's right hand (Eph 2:6).
Right now the churches' participation in Jesus' royal power is hard to see, veiled behind affliction, poverty, and little power (Rev 2:9; 3:8).

And yet, during the Advent Season, the 4 weeks before Christmas, we in faith are looking forward to the day when the kingdom of Jesus will bring all distress to an end. And Jesus who promised to return to us says: “Yes, I am coming soon." (Rev 22:20)



Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent: God sent his Son

During the next four weeks, until Christmas day, we will remember that Christ took on our weak, human nature and became one of us. We call this time “the Advent season”.

As the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Cor 5: 21: God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

This is what Christ did for us during that first Christmas day. In taking on ”weak human flesh”, he associated himself with our dilemma which is the result of our imperfections, mistakes, disobedience and sin. He came to live the life that God requires and we cannot accomplish, and live it perfectly, holy and without sin - in our place! The Son of God became our brother and he will never leave, nor forsake us.

I told this story before, but it’s a good one – so here it is again: Elderly Mr. & Mrs. Jones one Christmas received a microwave oven from their son. They were so excited that now they, too, could be part of the instant generation. Mr. Jones unpacked the microwave and plugged it in. Literally, within seconds, the microwave transformed two smiles into frowns! Even after reading the directions in the manual, they couldn't make it work. Two days later Mrs. Jones was playing bridge with a friend and confessed her inability to get that microwave oven to even boil water. "To get this thing to work," she exclaimed, "I really don't need better directions; I just need my son to come along with the gift!"

It sounds familiar. We have similar problems with camcorders, computers, electronic clocks in cars or bedrooms and a variety of other gadgets that are suppose to be part of our technological age. Like Mr and Mrs. Jones, we who are on the “wrong side” of 50 often need our children to show us how the stuff work.

During this season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we want to celebrate that when God gave the gift of salvation, he did not send a manual, or complicated instructions for us to figure out, or new laws and procedures that are beyond us. Instead, he sent his Son.

Jesus came to show us how salvation works. Jesus came to become our salvation, our joy and our security. Jesus came to give us everlasting life. Today he comes into our lives through his Spirit and ensure that we know how salvation works in our daily lives and challenges and in our work for the Lord.
And one day he will come again on the clouds to make our salvation complete.

The Advent message always remains that (John 3:16) God so much loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Lets trust in the directions of the Son. Lets rejoice because he did everything we could not do, to save us!
Lets pray that he will come again soon to dry all our tears.

May you experience a blessed and merry Advent Season

I will trust God!

According to Paul in Rom 4: 17 our God is “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not, as though they were.”

I believe in God the Father, almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Everything good that we see and experience, he called out of nothing and they are witnesses of his glorious power and love. He sustains his creation and keeps all of us through his love.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord!
God gave Jesus life and victory and our Lord has all authority in heaven and earth.

I believe in the Holy Spirit who teaches me how great my God is and that the salvation through the Son makes me a child of God.

Therefore I will not be troubled. This week and all my days I will trust in God. And I will trust in Jesus Christ my Saviour, my King and my Lord.
Because he is alive, I will live through him. And because I love Jesus, God will love me too!

Have a blessed week in fellowship with Christ, our Lord.

Why try to be good if you are saved by grace?

If we are saved only by grace, through faith, on the grounds that Jesus Christ is our righteousness and we know that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God - is there any reason why we should still be concerned with right and wrong? If I know I go to heaven in spite of not being perfect and that I will not be perfect in this life, why strive for perfection and holiness and obedience to God?

Let me share five reasons why.

1. We submit to Jesus because we acknowledge that he rules the world (Eph 1:22-23). He is in control of every thing. Our future is not determined by chance or other human beings, but by God’s. will. There can be nothing more foolish than to ignore his will. There can be no wiser choice than to seek his will.

2. Jesus is the one who will judge the world (Acts 17:31). On the last day nobody will escape God’s judgment. He will hold us accountable for every action. (1Cor 4:5). It will be based on truth and without prejudice. So even if we experience injustice, Christians entrust themselves to God’s perfect justice which will be fully made known on the last day (Rom 1:5-6; 12:19). We seek obedience to God’s Word in our lives, because nothing else makes sense and can be absolutely trusted.

3. We obey God because he loves us. (John 3:16). We love him because he first loved us, dying for our sins, so that we are forgiven and became reconciled with him. There is no greater love than this ‘that a man lay down his life for his friends’. And that is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. Such love compels us to seek his will and to not disappoint him or bring his Name in disrepute by our choices.

4. We are called to live out our identity as God’s people. We have a calling and a mandate to proclaim God’s justice, righteousness and holiness. ‘For you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may sing the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’ (1Pet 2:9). We are called to make a difference in God’s Name in this world and be the salt and the light that transform communities. We are called to be an example of God’s Kingdom that is coming and to bear witness of its glory by the way we live. .

5. We know that God knows better. We seek to practice his wisdom and to live his life, because it brings true joy in our lives and in the lives of the people whose lives we have an influence on. There is no greater joy than to love, worship and praise God and there is no higher quality of life than to bring into practice our gratefulness for his grace, his sacrifice, his victory and his forgiveness. We want to be restored into the person God wants us to be, because that person is the truly happy and satisfied one. The person who I am in Christ is the man or woman with a purpose that goes beyond this life. (1Pet 1:11-12).

God’s forgiveness and his mercy give us the assurance and hope we need as people living in a crying, dying, lost world. We are committed to show the light of heaven on this dark earth and to show true joy to every empty vessel on its way to eternal death without God. We live God’s will, as much as we are able to, in eager expectation of the perfect glory that will only be revealed when Jesus comes again. (Tit 2:13).

May our Lord bless you with the wealth of his mercy and grace.

How great and powerful is your God?

According to Rom 4: 17 he is “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not, as though they were.”

Our God gave life to Jesus when he died on the cross. Our God called everything that exists out of nothing. We agree with Rom 4: 21 that we are “being fully persuaded that God has power to do what he had promised.”

Faith in a great, almighty God accomplishes a number of important things for a Christian.

1. Faith teaches us. It grows us toward maturity. It builds us up and makes us stronger. As we exercise our faith, our faith grows.

2. Faith also exalts God. It glorifies his greatness. By trusting in God we are visibly expressing our confidence in his majesty.

3. Faith grasps the truth of God's word. Trusting in God brings us to the point where we are enlightened and fully persuaded of the Gospel truth in the Bible.

4. Faith enables us. It gives us possession of God’s promises. Faith expects from our God everything that Jesus died for and was raised from the dead to give to God’s children!

I know that the greatness and power of my God fully and completely compensates for my weakness. Because of the Lord, even my little faith will grow, will glorify God, will grasp God’s promises and will enable me to own his assurance of salvation!

Bless the almighty God for granting life-giving faith to me. Thanks be to God who called faith into my empty life that I too may be filled with the strength of the resurrection of Jesus!

Hallelujah!

My life has a glorious purpose!

God is not only the creator of all things, but all things have been made to reflect the glory of God. The Bible tells us that when God created the world, everything was good. He also commissioned Adam and Eve, as stewards of his creation, to look after and care for everything God has made and loves. God gave it to them to enjoy the beauty and majesty of what he has made. God created the world for us to live in and get pleasure from, yet under God’s rule and in ways that bring only glory to him.

Psalm 8: 2- 8 takes it even further. God who is the creator of the wonderful universe has, most of all, you on his mind and cares for us even more than he cares for anything else he created. God has also given us, the human race, the highest place of honour and responsibility in his creation. Whilst the rest of creation serves God with complete obedience, it does so because it has no other choice. It was made to do so. But we as humans serve the Lord, because we use our free will to choose to live only for the honour of his glorious majesty.

Ps 8: 3 – 8: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

God has created us and our world with a purpose. He loves our world. But the Lord loves us even more and gives purpose to our lives by gladly accepting our worship, praise, obedience and stewardship of everything that the he holds dear.

God has not left us to ourselves to discover the purpose of our lives. We are reminded that our lives are valuable, because God himself commissions us and through his expectations of us, he gives value to our lives.
You are more valuable to God than the entire universe. God who declares his divine glory in all of his creation, here tells us that we are more valuable than everything else he has made. That means that as men and women made in the image of God, we reflects his glory more than everything else in all his creation. And we reflect his glory, because, through faith, we know that he is our Creator, our Father, our Redeemer and our Comforter.

Our Creator God and Saviour has given our lives purpose, meaning and value.
We find this purpose by gladly submitting to our calling to only live to the glory of God.
Whatever we do. Anywhere we go! Whatever the task is we are called to fulfil today.
It has meaning, because it reflects the glory, the majesty, the power, the holiness and mercy of our Lord! And God invites us to enjoy all of this, because he takes care of us!

Redeemed!!

The original image of the terms redeemer and redemption introduces us to the language of the market-place and of commerce. The most basic meaning of "to redeem" something is "to buy it or to buy it back." It became a technical term in the ancient world for the purchase of a slave in order to liberate or free him or her. Redeem, then, refers to the release of someone or something by the payment of a huge ransom price.

In the Gospel the concept of redemption is central to the Good News about Jesus. In a familiar text Jesus says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45). And Paul writes to Timothy: There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. (1 Tim 2:5-6).

The Bible is clearly talking about redemption – about the payment of a price, the life and death of our Lord, in order to set his people free.

We need to celebrate redemption with our whole life. We need to celebrate that we now belong to the living Jesus. We are reconciled with God. We now only live for our Redeemer!

Yesterday we sang this song in church:

While I’m alive, or when I die,
I’m not afraid! You ask me why?
’Cause I belong, to Jesus Christ, my Lord!
I have no need for anything,
or any other solace.
Christ now owns my everything,
faithful Saviour Jesus!
In life and death, he remains, my Comforter.

I know my sin; it is forgiven.
I only live, for God in heaven,
It’s Christ alone, who guides me in my life!


Believe it!

We must become what we are in Christ!

We last time discussed the fact that we are not perfect, yet! This week we think about the fact that we are:
To become what we are in Christ.

Listen to these passages which talk about who we are, in Christ:
(Col 3:9-10) You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self.
(Eph 5:8) You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
(Rom 6:11) Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(Rom 6:2,4) We died to sin ... just as Christ was raised from the dead ... we too may live a new life.
(2 Cor 5:17) If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Over and over again the Bible calls God's children to live the new life because, in Christ and through the Spirit, they have been delivered from the slavery of sin. In Christ we are new or renewed. In Christ the old self of sin has been demolished.

Think of what we are in Christ: a new self, raised with Christ, light in the Lord, alive to God, a new creation. This new person that we are in Christ hates sin, strives for holiness and has the life of Christ himself. This new person that we are in Christ, is indwelt by the Spirit.

But if all of this is true – and it is – then why do we Christians still do bad things? If we are a new creation in Christ, why do we so often live like we are still part of the old creation? Why is it that we seem to be dead to the new life and alive to sin instead of alive to God in Christ Jesus and dead to sin?

The Bible says it is because we are still “in the flesh”! We are still human. And “our weak flesh” clings to even our best works for God.

So what happens? In our flesh there is a slumbering tendency which is both unexpected and fierce. With great power it seizes us. All at once a secret, smouldering fire is kindled. It makes no difference whether it is ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money. God becomes unreal to us. God loses all reality, and the only real thing is the desire to sin. It surrounds the mind and will of the Christian with darkness and we lose the power to fight and resist.

A Christian may be a new self, she may be raised with Christ, she may be light in the Lord, she may be alive to God, she may be a new creation, but she is also a sinner. Even in the Christian, sin remains sin. Even in a Christian sin is horribly displeasing to God. In fact, in the eyes of God the sins of the Christian are worse than the sins of the world, because the Christian knows better and is supposed to be dead to these sinful desires.

So, we have to fight the enemy within!

God doesn't want us to tolerate sin, learn to live with it and be complacent about it . He says:
(Col 3:5,12) Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature (“flesh”) : sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry ... Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

God wants us to become what we are. We are a new self, raised with Christ, light in the Lord, alive to God, a new creation. Now, we must live and act like we are. We must become what we are in Christ.

How do we do this?
Firstly, Christians must humble themselves before God. We have no reason to be proud and we have every reason to be small. By nature those who are Christian are not one tiny bit better than even the greatest sinner. And we are especially small before God. We cannot defend our sins in any way. We must be humble about our sins.

Secondly, Christians must flee for refuge to Christ crucified. We need Christ every hour of every day. As born-again Christians who continue to sin, we need what only Christ can give: His blood, his grace, his power, his forgiveness. We need Christ and must turn to him as much as the unbeliever down the street has to turn to him.

Thirdly, Christians must pray. We pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We pray, "Grant us victory, Lord. Keep us from falling."

Finally, the Christian is to strain for holiness. The Christian is to strain for holiness in the same way as the athlete strains for the finish line.

That's the effort we need to make, to become what we already are in Christ: a new person, raised with Christ!
Victorious Jesus, in his mercy, will do the rest.

How is faith born in my heart?

Romans 10:17 says, "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

The origin of faith in the hearts of believers is through hearing the word of Christ. Notice that Paul does not say that faith comes by hearing the word, but rather, that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word.

The picture is more than only of the believer and his Bible. The picture here is of the believer, the Holy Spirit and the Bible. It is by the action of the Holy Spirit, as we read the Bible, that we come to a place of spiritually hearing what God has to say through his Word.

We can hear with physical ears and never hear with spiritual ears. As we read God’s Book, or hear it preached or taught, we should prayerfully ask God to reveal and apply its truth to our lives. When we do, the Holy Spirit will be faithful to speak to our hearts the truth of the Word. He will apply it to our lives. And as the Spirit applies it to our lives, faith will be born in our hearts. We will not only understand the truth of the Word of God, but will be challenged and changed by it. Only then are we enabled to respond to the Word of God with eagerness and changed lives. And that is faith.

Lets faithfully read the Bible this week – examining the truth of the gospel through the magnifying glass of the Scriptures and be blessed with the faith we need to live victoriously in every circumstance!