Unload!

“Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.” Matthew 13:7

This well known Parable of the Sower and the Seed teaches us many things. The Word is seed and only the seed which falls on good soil will bear much fruit. Perhaps we read the Bible and pray in the morning, but during the day, the cares and burdens of the day suffocate the Word. We do not stop to praise God for the good, and lift up our challenges. We do not stop for some quiet time to see our day and the people who bother us with God’s eyes. Irritation and anger comes in, even gossip. The seed has no chance to grow amidst these “thorns”.

In a little town in Russia a long time ago, women would have to carry their huge baskets on their shoulders to bring to the market to sell. They walked a long way and it was very hard work. We can imagine how happy they were when they built train tracks through their little town. They would be able to ride the train to market. On the first day the train passed through, the women waited at the station. Alas! they could not fit their huge baskets in through the train entrance. They tried carrying the baskets on their side, their back, on top of them, but they could not fit it in. “Ladies!” the conductor said, “To enter, you have to unload!”

The same way with us. Sometimes we are overloaded with our bags and packages of busyness, worries, quarrels, misunderstandings, unforgiveness and pains. Jesus said He is willing to take our burdens from us (Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 55:22, Isaiah 58:6, 1 Peter 5:6-7 and many more). Let us unload our burdens on Jesus and we will be free to plant seed in the rich soil of our hearts and bear fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty fold.

God is Faithful

"Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs on your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

This a good assurance especially after Jesus said in the same instance, “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Whatever you said in darkness will be heard in the light, and what you whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.” 

I can’t help but think of how prevalent false news is spread on social media. Reputations of good people are being destroyed, and the bad deeds of some are being praised and made to look like it is the best thing that ever happened to our country. I am sure we cannot imagine the evil being done behind closed doors, not only in political arenas, but in the Church, in schools, offices, on the computer, even sometimes in our own homes. 

We need to always be wary because we have an ancient enemy out to destroy each and every one of us. He wants to destroy our country, our political institutions, our churches, our work places, our schools, our marriages, our families, our children. It seems to me like the world is getting more and more rotten to the core. This is because the enemy is wily and is slowly getting us to compromise with culture, and destroying our absolute values by replacing them with relative values. 

That’s why it is assuring that Jesus said even the hairs of our head are counted. That means every second of every day, God knows what’s happening to us, because our hair is always falling off and there are new ones growing! Even while the enemy is plotting all the time to destroy us, to make us quarrel with our spouse, or to introduce our children to pornography or digital cocaine, God is there. Even while the global history is in God’s hands, our personal history is also in God’s almighty hands. We only need to turn to Him, to read His Word which is sharper than any two-edged sword that will reveal to us even our secret sins. If we repent, and intercede for one another, for our Church and our poor country, our God is faithful to hear us and heal us. 

God Will Enable

“...do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say.” Matthew 10:19

Every day I read the Bible, paint on it, or make a digital illustration, read Anawim or some other liturgical meditation book, and write down something to help me remember what I’ve read. I’ve done this for years. It was in 2006 when I started embellishing my journals to help me remember the Bible verses. Then in 2009, I started putting my meditations on my blog. I felt God wanted me to share His Word with others, and it was as if He had trained me for it, in the years I would just write and write on my innumerable journals. Sometimes I wonder why I do it, but then as long as He gives me the words, I know God wants me to do it. I believe whatever the task God gives, He will supply what we need to accomplish it. 

I’m not smart, and although I read a lot, I have a difficulty remembering what I’ve read or who wrote it. Google is my best friend because I just search something like “lady who lost her arm in war” or something like that, to remember a particular story with relevance to what I want to say. What Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 10 holds true for me. I need never fear what I am to speak, or write. He provides magnificently. And if He doesn’t, that’s all right too. He has another plan. 

I remember when I was inviting a friend to Bible study, and she asked me a question about the Bible. I could not answer, even if I felt it was an easy question. Anyway, the very next day, she asked the same question of a stranger who was at the right place at the right time. The stranger turned out to be a Pastor and she was able to answer the question to my friend’s satisfaction. My friend who was a nominal Catholic converted and became evangelical. I believe that was and is God’s plan for her. She homeschooled her children and became really active in church. 

Sometimes we do not embark on something because we think we cannot do it. But I believe we need to be confident that if it’s something God wants us to do, He will be right there with us. If it’s something God wants to happen, we need to make ourselves available. Let us offer whatever measly “loaves and fishes” we have so we can be a part of God’s plans, whatever they are! 

Trust God!

“It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.” Genesis 45:5

The convoluted story of Joseph, who rose from being sold as a slave to the second most powerful man in Egypt, shows how God’s plans can be amazing and wonderful. “You intended to harm me,” Joseph told his guilty brothers, “but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20) 

Many people cannot understand why God who is so powerful and good does not always intervene when there is pain and suffering. Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist, insists in his belief that we live in a universe of blind physical forces, that some people get hurt, others get lucky, and we won’t find any rime or reason, or any justice. He attests that the universe we observe has precisely the properties we expect, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, “nothing but blind pitiless indifference, DNA neither knows nor cares, DNA just is, we all dance to its music.”

On the contrary, as Christians, we believe that God is good and powerful, that we can trust Him. He has not remained distant from human suffering but He became a part of it as He hung on the cross. And just as He used Joseph’s travails to save many lives, He uses the evil in the world, the cancers, the natural disasters, the famines and wars, to bring the maximum number of people freely into His Kingdom to find salvation and eternal life. As William Lane Craig said, “God has morally sufficient reasons for permitting the evil in the world.”

Forgive!

“In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world.” Genesis 41:57

The story of Joseph the dreamer, and the builder, is a marvelous story of what can happen to a person who does not get consumed by bitterness and unforgiveness. His envious brothers sold him to some traders, and told Jacob their father that he was attacked by a wild animal. 

The traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh of Egypt. He lands in jail because of Potiphar’s foolish wife. In jail, Joseph interprets two dreams correctly which gets him into Pharaoh’s court. After interpreting Pharaoh’s dream about years of plenty and years of famine, Pharaoh is impressed with Joseph’s wisdom. “You are the wisest man in the land!” Pharaoh then assigns Joseph to direct what to do and to be in charge of the whole land of Egypt. “Only I will have a rank higher than yours.” 

Can you imagine what would have happened if Joseph was just focused on getting revenge on his brothers? Would he have been concerned about his fellow inmates? “Why do you look so worried today?” he asked them (Gen. 40:7) Joseph was so helpful and efficient, the chief jailer put him in charge of the prison. The Lord was with him, making everything run smoothly and successfully! 

Wherever we are, whatever we do, we can be God’s presence in our little part of the world. Perhaps people hurt us, reject us, give us trouble, if we focus on our work and what we have to do for God, we can be fruitful like Joseph. If we are filled with resentment and unforgiveness we can be stunted in our growth because all we see are closed doors. Let us choose to be free, choose to forgive, so we can open doors and allow God to use us to build His Kingdom on earth. 

Let Us Not Tarry

Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Matthew 9:38

If the harvest is abundant, we all have to do our part and work to bring in the harvest, don’t we? But some of us think others do it better and so resign from the job. Others have all sorts of reasons not to do it.

Well, it is said that a long time ago, our ancient enemy, Satan, summoned three of his servants to plan how to stop a group of committed Christians from effectively bringing in the harvest. One of the top lieutenants named Rancor volunteered, “We should convince them there is no God.” Satan curled his lip, “That would never work because they know there is a God.”

Bitterness spoke up haughtily, “We can convince them that God does not really care about them!” Satan swiped at him and taunted, “Many Christians know that God does care! Can’t any of you think of how to destroy God’s army?” 

At last Malice, the ugliest of them all, spoke up. “We can allow them to go on thinking there is a God and even that He cares about them, BUT we will persuade them, keep whispering that there is no hurry, that there is no urgency at all.” 

Satan howled in triumphant glee and praised Malice for his brilliance, knowing the strategy would be highly successful. 

Let us not tarry, knowing our time here on earth is short and there is much to be done. 

Wait! There’s More!

“Then Jacob had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens; and God’s messengers were going up and down on it.” Genesis 28:12

Sometimes God gives us dreams or visions to emphasize His message to us. My friend Charmz shared the beautiful vision God blessed her with in our prayer meeting yesterday. When she heard Mass in the Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul in Singapore last All Soul’s Day, there was a symbolic coffin in the middle of the altar. She had her prayer time there, then while worshipping, she had a vision. She saw herself singing and worshipping the Lord with all the saints above her. Then she saw the coffin, her body was inside and she was dead. Although she was aware that her body was dead, she was one with the heavenly saints, united in worship. Then, she saw the faithful people who had gone ahead of her. They were all one in praising God. 

That afternoon, when she was heading towards the National Library, she took a different route without meaning to. She was led to enter the St Joseph Church. There she found another coffin at the center again. So she went inside and started praying in the middle of the church. When she went around the altar praying, she saw some statues of saints. When she looked up, she saw many more saints adorning the church.

 

My friend was amazed that the Lord made tangible the vision she had been given. She was genuinely grateful that the Lord allowed her to experience His personal love for her. But that was not all! 

Last month, my friend was blessed to go on a personal pilgrimage to Rome and other parts of Italy. She did not even imagine in her dreams that she would be able to see all those saints in all the churches she visited. Her vision became tangible on another level. The Lord was saying, “Wait, I have more..You have yet to experience your heavenly kingdom! I have something more for you in eternal life! You can have a foretaste of that everlasting joy while you are still on earth!”

 

What He let my friend experience in Singapore was a foretaste of what He revealed to her in Italy, and the Pilgrimage in Italy was just a foretaste of the eternal glory the Lord has for each of His disciples!

May we all hold on to the hope that one day we will be united with all the saints, all who have gone before us, and share in the eternal banquet that God our Father has prepared for all who run the race victoriously! 

“Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run the race not only for the prize, but as those who've gone before us, let us leave to those behind us, the heritage of faithfulness passed on thru godly lives.” (Lyrics from Steve Green’s song, “Find Us Faithful”)

Come to Me

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and LEARN from me... And you will find rest for yourselves..." 

Matthew 11:28-30

Sometimes I picture God shaking His head in frustration. He has already given us His 'instruction manual', how to live so that we will have peace in the midst of confusion, joy undeterred by sadness and pain, wholeness and strength in the face of circumstances around us trying to destroy what we have. Jesus says LEARN from me. Listen to me, follow me. Instead we want to do it, "My way!"

Imagine if we didn't know how to drive and we bought a really nice car and didn't read the manual that the manufacturers carefully put together so that the car would run at its optimum. Could we get far using it? Through trial and error?

That's what we do with our lives when we don't read our instruction manual, the Bible! I think when we get to Heaven and see our Creator face to face and talk to Him, we're going to say, "If only I took You more seriously! It would have saved me a lot of pain and frustration!"

New Wine

“No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:16-17

My mom liked the challenge of recycling old clothes. She used to buy from the ukay ukay. Then she would take the used dress apart and make a dress in a new design, but like the verse says, she did not mix old cloth with new. 

Same with putting new wine into old wineskins. In Jesus’ time, wine was put into goat, or ox leather skins. They still use this in Spain and in the East. New wine had to be put into new wine skins, as it would swell with fermentation and burst the wine skins if it was old and stretched already. Like all Jesus' teachings, He meant many things. How about the new wine being the gift of the Holy Spirit to us? If our hearts are like the old wine skins, hard, inflexible, judgmental, the Holy Spirit can't live in us! 

I believe God's Word is always new, ever fresh, eternally alive and exciting. However it does not always appear that way, does it? That is because it is put into OLD WINESKINS! We can't do the same old, same old. I believe that we all need to find fresh new ways of understanding, listening, obeying, teaching, loving. That is the only way we will grow in His Spirit. 

The Precious Blood

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.” 

Matthew 9:12

Here is a true story of John Wesley and a thief. I learned about John Wesley many years ago because my father was Methodist, and John Wesley was the father of the Methodist denomination. Wesley was always a passionate preacher of the gospel and he probably covered 250,000 miles on horseback going from one place to another doing so.

One night as John Wesley crossed Hounslow Heath near London, he was surprised by a robber jumping in front of him and grabbing his horse’ bridle. “Halt! Your money or your life!” the man shouted. John gave him the few coins he had and invited the robber to check his saddlebags if he wanted to. The man found only books and the Bible. Before the thief left, Wesley stopped him to say these exact words, “Stop! I have something more to give you….My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life. If you ever do, I beseech you to remember this: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.’”

The robber hurried away while Wesley prayed that God would touch him. Many years later, after John Wesley spoke in a regular Sunday service, a stranger approached him. He was the man who had robbed Wesley in Hounslow Heath and he had become a Christian and a successful tradesman in London. The man reverently took Wesley’s hand and kissed it. 

“To you dear sir, I owe it all.” Wesley, remembering what he had said all those years ago, replied, “No, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin.” Yes, we all need the precious blood of Christ to heal us, and cleanse us from all sin.

God Calls us

“Son,” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the sheep for the burnt offering.” 

Genesis 22:7-8

Like Jesus, Isaac carried the wood needed for the sacrifice on the mountain. It foreshadows Jesus carrying His own cross up Mt. Calvary. It seems that like Jesus, Isaac was also willing to give his life, in obedience to Abraham his father, because he was meek as a lamb when his father Abraham “built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar.” 

Isaac did ask his father in curiosity as they trudged up the mountain, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” Surely he was strong enough to fight his father for his life, but he did not. And so we see this as a prophetic reenactment of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. There are other instances in the Old Testament where God asks prophets to act out things to emphasize a message. He asked the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute to show how He loved the people of Israel even if they were unfaithful to Him time and time again. 

There are many stories in the Bible that may be puzzling, but the Bible is like a library of love stories told over thousands of years. God continues to call us to Himself even now. We just need to read His Words, to listen and to have faith He has the very best in mind for us. 

Out! Out! Out!

“They begged Him to go away and leave them alone.” Matthew 8:34

This is a very curious Gospel story. When Jesus went to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs came out from the area of the tombs. We are told they were so savage, no one could pass by that road. These men were evil, possessed by many spirits. Jesus exorcised them which to me is a good thing. But when the people of the town learned of this, they went to meet Jesus and begged Him to go away and leave them alone! Isn’t that the craziest thing? I would think they would celebrate! Two men were back to being normal, productive citizens, and they could all use the road to the tombs again. And a herd of demons were expelled from their midst! 

Sometimes however, people prefer the status quo to any form of change. The big thing for these people is they lost their herd of swine. The demons transferred from the demoniacs to the swine and the swine rushed down to the sea and drowned. Instead of rejoicing that Jesus was in their midst and they could learn things from Him, could ask Him to heal them, heal their daughters, even raise their people from the dead, they wanted him out, out, out! 

Some people think they’re religious and following God. I heard of one government secretary who starts meetings with prayers and quotes Bible verses. But those under him are dismayed because he shirks his responsibilities, hardly appears for work but shows up for pictorials. He squanders government funds and reprimands his people when they make too rigorous a schedule when they have meetings abroad. I am thinking this would be the kind of man who likes his life as it is, and would want Jesus out, out, out should Jesus appear in his midst. 

How about us? Do we want the Lord in our midst? Are we not afraid of change? If He asks us to give what we most hold dear, will we still choose Him? Or would we want Him out, out, out? 

Don’t Look Back

“But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.” Genesis 19:26

Why did Lot’s wife look back when the family was specifically told “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere on the plain!”? I would have thought she would be too terrified to NOT obey God’s messengers! But let’s study the synonyms for the phrase “look back”- it includes dig into the past, recall, remember, reflect on, think about, brood on, ponder on, reminisce about, be nostalgic about, relive, etc. 

We get the idea that it’s not just stopping and gazing at Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife who is nameless in the Old Testament books but who bears the name Adith or Irith in Jewish references, dragged her feet and dawdled. She did not want to leave. Her heart remained in the fleshpots of the two cities God destroyed with sulphurous fire. 

Jesus actually mentioned her in Luke 17:32, saying, “Remember Lot’s wife!” We too should remember Lot’s wife when we put the world before the Word of God, before prayer, before God Himself. Instead of being salt of the earth, Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt. Maybe God wanted to say if you refuse to obey, you are better off as salt where you can be useful in many ways. 

In the book, “Exposition of the Bible”, John Gill mentioned that Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian wrote that the “pillar continued to his times, and that he saw it.” Additionally, “Irenaeus, and Tertullian speak of it as in their times, a thing incredible.” Isn’t that fascinating? Lot’s wife as a pillar of salt was preserved for many years after! 

As salt is used to preserve food from rotting, Lot’s wife serves as a reminder to us that we ourselves should not set our hearts in worldly ways.

To Have Faith

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25

Thomas goes down in history as “doubting Thomas”. He had a crisis of faith and did not believe even if all his friends, and companions, were excitedly telling him, “We have seen the Lord!” So Jesus appeared especially for him, and Thomas had no option but to believe. “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,” Jesus said. 

How about us? Do we believe even if we have not seen Jesus? I’ve been listening to Frank Turec debate Christopher Hitchens about if God exists or not and it is really interesting. Of course I am biased and I think Christopher Hitchens just hates the idea of religion. Most of his reasoning points to how religion makes us slaves, and how it is used to manipulate society. In one of his most quoted statements, he claims, “Religion is poison because it asks us to give up our most precious faculty, which is that of reason, and to believe things without evidence. It then asks us to respect this, which it calls faith.”

I think however that our belief in God is reasonable, and it requires more faith NOT to believe in a God who is outside of space, time and matter. For one thing, if we study the Old Testament, we will see that the God of the Bible promises a Messiah who will come in a particular place and who will suffer in order to save us. Who can give several prophecies about the future that come true through many different prophets but God? 

I believe in a personal God who answers prayer, because He has answered my prayers, guided me concretely in my most important decisions, and continues to sustain me through my trials and challenges. To have faith in You, Lord, is to have wings! Dear dear Jesus, thank You for showing Yourself in many different ways throughout the course of my life! 

Paradox

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” 

Matthew 10:39

There are a lot of paradoxes in the Bible. To be rich, we have to give. To live eternally, we are supposed to die to ourselves. To be first, we should be last. One of the most confusing is Matthew 10:39- "Whoever finds his life, will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

I was very dissatisfied with a book I recently finished about a Zulu girl who was evangelized by the Catholic priests in the Convent mission her neighborhood. The book was named after the heroine, Kisimusi, a Zulu word meaning Christmas. It was written by Father Thomas Calkins, a Servite missionary who experienced living in the bush country for more than twenty years. The beautiful and sensitive Kisimusi was caught between the tribal and pagan practices of her people, and her ardent desire to obey the Christian God and His ways. 

One night when she was staying in her kraal, the Zulu homestead, instead of sleeping in the mission where she was also studying, she could not resist the call of the handsome Zulu boy who came knocking at her hut. Back at the mission she found she was pregnant and was conflicted. If she went to the powerful witch doctor, he could help her get rid of the baby and she could continue her studies and become a nurse. But her new religion forbade going to the wizened old man who hated her for abandoning the beliefs of her ancestors. She decided after confessing her sin to a priest and much prayer, to go back to her kraal and her people, and wait for the baby to come. When the witch doctor arrived to cure one of the old women of the kraal, he saw Kisimusi was there and he decided to get his revenge. He put some potent herbal mixture in her beer secretly and she got very very sick. The priest was called. He heard her confession, and gave her the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. He then brought her to the doctor in town. There was little the doctor could do as Kisimusi was bleeding to death.

As I read this, I was unhappy that the witch doctor was not caught and punished. Kisimusi was laid to rest in a hole in the ground amongst her people, and the priest gave a short simple homily about how Kisimusi would live forever with God, no more pain, no more suffering, no more conflict. He said that because she trusted in God, she triumphed over sin and death. All those who were listening, her mother and other relatives who could not understand the way of life Kisimusi chose, felt stirrings of understanding at last.