Mustard Seed Faith

 

“Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!” Isaiah 7:9

In the NIV, we read, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” Jesus said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains! Can we imagine that, NOTHING will be impossible for us to do! And what is the size of a mustard seed? It is only about one to two millimeters in size but it can grow into a 30 foot high bush with a 20 foot spread! Unfortunately we cannot buy a seed of faith from Shopee, Lazada or even Amazon! But I believe every human being is born with some faith that God invests in us. We are supposed to make it grow, like the servants in the “Parable of the Talents” in Matthew 25. 

In the story, a master goes on a journey and entrusts his servants with a portion of his property. To one, he gave five talents, to another two, and to the third he gave one talent. He gave each according to his ability. When he came back, he found that the one he gave five talents to, doubled his money by trading. Same with the one he gave two talents. But the one he gave one talent to hid the money in the ground and did not grow the money he was given. The master was well pleased with his two servants and pronounced, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Let us not talk of the servant who buried the money as we do not want to be like him! 

How do we grow the faith we have been given? Saint Paul tells us the easiest way: faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) I believe faith is like a muscle. We need to read the Bible often, intentionally hear the Word by listening to preaching, and songs of praise. We also need to practice it all the time, use it, by praying and confessing the Word of God. We need to claim God’s promises, searching the Bible for this treasure God left us, so our faith will grow. But as the story of Jairus shows (Mark 5), we also need to surround ourselves with people of faith. Even Jesus could not work miracles in His hometown because people there scoffed and did not have faith. Faith is an amazing gift that God has given each one of us. He wants us to make it grow. We just need to walk closely with Jesus, read His Word, give it a chance to come alive in our life. 

One Man Took Our Place

 “...whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39

I like revisiting the exemplary story of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz in February 1941. He and his community had helped to house and feed 3000 Polish refugees, of which 2000 were Jews. He also broadcast illegally on radio and wrote about the atrocities of the Nazis. In Auschwitz, he would give away his meagre rations, pray over the sick and comfort those in need. He was beaten and tortured for his faith, singled out for hard labor until he passed out. 

In July 1941, three prisoners escaped and 10 random men from the same cell were chosen to be starved as punishment. When Franciszek Gajowniczek’s name was called, he cried out, “My wife! My children!” Father Kolbe stepped forward and said: “I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place because he has a wife and children.”

Father Kolbe and the other 9 prisoners were brought to an underground bunker stripped naked. One by one, they starved to death. One witness said that there was never any urine in the slop bucket when he came to clean it, for they drank it all. He would hear them singing and praising God led by the priest. Father Kolbe was one of a few who survived after two weeks. They were all injected with carbolic acid and burned unceremoniously. 

Father Kolbe was beatified on October 1971 and canonized in October 1982. Both times, Gajowniczek was a guest in the Vatican.  This man Saint Maximilian Kolbe gave his life for, declared, “so long as I have breath in my lungs, I would consider it my duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe."

How about us? One man took our place, and the eternal punishment for our sins. Are we so grateful that we would tell everyone who would listen about the amazing love of Jesus Christ? 

Bear Fruit

 “Because of Me, you bear fruit!” Hosea 14:8

Saint Teresa of Avila, at one time, fell off her donkey and got hurt. She asked God why this happened as it could not have come at a worst time. He answered her that that was how He treated His friends. She then retorted that that was why He had so few!!! This was not the only time she complained as she was often the butt of gossip and hostility at the convent.

Indeed when we are friends with God, it does not guarantee a life free from suffering and hardship. A friend of mine who had undergone a heart operation and almost died, had to undergo the additional torture, a mastectomy a few days before Christmas because of a fast growing cancer. I know she is God's friend, and she can rightly ask God why!

One bible verse is particularly apt- "Faithful are the wounds of a friend..." Psalm 27:6. I can't help but relate this to grafting. Why does God allow us to get hurt? Perhaps it is the only way we can grow, and bloom and bear fruit. He is the vine and we are the branches. We are supposed to abide in Him, attach ourselves to Him, remain in Him, "No branch can bear fruit by itself." In grafting, the tissues of one plant are inserted into the tissues of another so that the two sets of vascular tissues are joined together. The "vine" contains the desired genes to be duplicated in the branch! But we can't get connected without the wounds on both the vine and the branch!

When God allows pain and suffering to enter our life, we are invited to join with Him. He sees we are strong enough to enter into a closer, covenantal relationship with Him. And He asks us during these times, "Do you still love Me? Do you still trust Me?"

Life is But a Weaving

 ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Matthew 10:7

Most people think of the Bible as a religious book, but it is really a testament, a covenant between a King and His people. It is amazing that God wants us to know His heart, what His will and intent is. That is why the Bible was written- so we would have a record of what God did to make us His very own.  The Kingdom of God is already in our midst, Jesus said. We are part of His royal family, as we are children of the King. Myles Munroe, an evangelist, once said that God had a colonization project. He wanted to expand His kingdom, to make earth a colony of heaven. Are we doing our part as God's children to bring His plan about?

His ways are definitely not our ways. Instead of giving us good times, prosperity, no problems, God uses pandemics, inflation, cancer, wars, insecurities, sickness and oh so many kinds of challenges. It’s not because He caused these calamities and upheavals, but because God gave man the very special gift of free will. We are free to choose whether to believe Him or not, to follow Him or not, to take Him seriously or not. Whether we see Him or not, He is God with us, He is with us in our journey, most especially when it is hard. 

He sees what we do not see. In the Château d'Angers in west-central France, there is a very special tapestry entitled Apocalypse. It is a 140 meters long by six meters high spread featuring 90 scenes from the Book of Revelation and woven in colorful and intricate thread. Making a tapestry involves a very complex technique of weaving colored weft threads through plain warp threads. When we see the tapestry, we will be amazed at the depth of detail, and shades of colorings depicting the war between angels and beasts, death and destruction ending in the victory of good versus evil. But if we see the underside, it would not make sense at all. It is a mess! We would have no idea what is on the right side! 

Here is one of Corrie Ten Boom’s favorite poems. Corrie survived the terrors of three concentration camps during the Holocaust. This poem which she always quotes in her speeches around the world was written by Benjamin Malachi Franklin. 

Life is But a Weaving

My life is but a weaving

Between my God and me.

I cannot choose the colors

He weaveth steadily.

Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;

And I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper

And I the underside.

Not ‘til the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly

Will God unroll the canvas

And reveal the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the weaver’s skillful hand

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.

He knows, He loves, He cares;

Nothing this truth can dim.

He gives the very best to those

Who leave the choice to Him.

Plant Good Seeds

  "Break up for yourselves a new field." Hosea 10:12

A plow is an implement used in a field to cut in, break up soil and cut furrows into the ground in preparation for sowing. The upper layer of soil is turned over and a fresh fertile layer full of nutrients is brought to the top. 

 A farmer does this several times and we too should take time to till the soil of our hearts now and again so that new seeds can be planted. It's not good to allow weeds to grow, and the soil to harden. Plowing breaks up the weed roots and disrupts the weeds from growing. We know how fast weeds can grow! 

Lord, may I never be complacent and allow weeds of discontent, envy, or unforgiveness to take root. May my heart be ever fresh, ever new for You to plant good seeds in it! 

The Harvest is Abundant

 

“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

Jesus sends each of us out into the harvest with these words, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19). In Luke 14, we read the story where the master says to his servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

I feel that never has there been a time when so many people need to hear the good news, and we have the easy means to spread it. In the apostles’ time they had to walk to far places and speak to crowds without a microphone, without any advance advertisements. They would even be stoned, put in jail or run out of town for doing so. Today, we have the freedom to speak to our office mates, the people we meet, and even place our messages of hope on social media. We can follow Jesus’ mandate to preach the gospel where we are with what we have. We never know whose heart is ready soil to receive the seed we are planting.

A well known evangelist was invited to preach at Washington High School. When he called to say he could not make it but was sending a young man in his stead, the principal asked, “Who are you sending?” 

He answered, “Billy Graham.”

“We don’t know him, we don’t want him. We will just cancel the event.”

“Just try him out.”

The Youth for Christ rally pushed through on May 12, 1945 and after it, the well known evangelist asked the 26-year old Billy Graham, “How did it go?”

“I don’t know. Only one young boy came forward to receive Christ.”

“Did you get his name so you can pray for him?”

“Warren Wiersbe.”

Warren Wiersbe who died in 2019, was a Pastor, Bible teacher, conference speaker and prolific writer of 150 books. His Sunday sermons were broadcast on the “Calvary Hour” radio program. He became the Director of the Back to the Bible Radio Broadcasting Network. 

But we do not have to be an evangelist to plant seeds for the harvest. Stephen Baldwin of the celebrity Baldwin brothers, was evangelized by their Brazilian nanny. When Stephen and his wife Kennya hired Augusta, they noticed that she was always singing about Jesus in Portuguese. Kennya got so curious, she asked why every song was about Jesus. Kennya was taken aback when Augusta burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Quite frankly, I think it’s a little bit funny that you think I’m here to clean your house.”

To Kennya’s amazement, Augusta told her that someone prophesied if she went to live with the Baldwins, Stephen and Kennya would one day come to faith in Jesus Christ and be involved in ministry.

Stephen recounts, “Augusta goes on to tell my wife that before she had accepted the job, she prayed with her pastor and some church members in Brazil. I haven’t told this part of the story a lot. She had a dream and saw me, saw my wife and saw my first daughter Aliya.” And that is how the former bad bad boy Stephen Baldwin became a Christian. 

Let us just plant our seeds where we can, and spread Jesus’ message of love and hope when we can. 

Doubting Thomas

 “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, whose Feast Day we celebrate today, 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? Also who can conceive that our human body, our earth and universe has no magnificent and caring designer behind its creation?!!!

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 and surround me with grace 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!

Fresh Wineskins

 “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.

Revealed to the Childlike

 "You have hidden these things from the wise...and revealed them to the childlike." Matthew 11:25

"The good news is that God has made provision for our waywardness. He has given us the great gift of repentance.” I took note of this from the meditation booklet, “The Word Among Us”. I don't know why, but I like the word “waywardness". Somehow it does not sound so bad! But the truth of the matter is that sin is sin, whether it is serious or not. Mostly because small sins lead to big sins. Take David’s idleness which led him to murder the husband of the woman he lusted after. Then there's Saul, whose impatience progressed to rebellion against God! 

It is good to look at our ways honestly and see if there are little sins (sometimes we don't even  consider them as sins!) like telling white lies, unkindness, inconsideration, unmindfulness, impatience, lack of generosity, etc., and then repent and try to do better.

I deeply admire Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church. We visited her comfortable home, Les Buissonnets, in Lisieux several years ago during a pilgrimage. Her life became more vivid to me as I stared at her bed where she lay sick of a mysterious illness when she was just 10 years old. My impression of Saint Thérèse was that she was quite spoiled, as she got into temper tantrums frequently and even unreasonableness, but she entered the Carmelite Convent at the age of 15. While there, she confessed that she had a difficult nature and always struggled with even the small things. Through God’s grace, she shared with the Church her “Little Way”, the “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender” and humility before God. She had learned the childlike wisdom to offer to God even her mundane chores like folding napkins, and doing it with great love for Him. Indeed, we may be brought very low when we think of our many sins. But when we repent, God’s compassion can lift us up the same way He did with Saint Thérèse.

Courage, Daughter

 “Courage, daughter!  Your faith has saved you.” Matthew 9:22

Even the holiest of men can't explain why some people get healed and some don't. I've personally wrestled with my thorn in the flesh for several years now and have confessed every Bible verse about healing. I am sure Jesus SEES me, just like he saw the woman who was bleeding.

What I know is this, because I sought the Lord and keep seeking Him, He has answered me.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain, it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Corrie Ten Boom, who has experienced the most horrible of trials in concentration camps during the Holocaust, claimed with conviction, “Whatever in our life is hardest to bear, love can transform into beauty.”

I believe it is God's will to heal us, but meanwhile, if we are in pain or discomfort, if we listen, He will speak to us and teach us about Himself and His ways much more than we could ever learn without the trial!

You are Forgiven

 “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” Matthew 9:2

Sami Dagher is the founding pastor of the Karantina Alliance Church in Beirut, and the president of the National Evangelical Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Lebanon. Sami has been planting churches for decades in challenging places to bring people into God’s family. 

He was a “teddy bear” of a man, small but packed with energy. One night at about 11 pm, Sami and his wife were in a car, Sami was driving along a road in Lebanon, when Sami stopped because there was a suitcase lying on the road. His wife dissuaded him from picking it up, but Sami proceeded to get out of his car and loaded it into the trunk. When they reached home, he opened the suitcase and he found it was packed with money. Every square inch was just filled with money. He was able to find a calling card and he called the number on it. 

“Hello? Is this Mr. So and So?” 

“Yes.”

“Did you lose something?”

The man on the other line was quiet for a moment, then, “Did you find it?”

“Yes.”

The man wanted to come over and get it, but Sami said, “Come tomorrow. I have no plans for your suitcase.”

When the man arrived the next morning he was so grateful to Sami, amazed that someone would return the money. He said that he had withdrawn all his money from the bank with plans of leaving the country. As a reward he offered Sami some money. Sami said, “No, no, no, I only accept that amount of cash in the collection plate. Come to my church on Sunday.” The man came with his family, and at the end of the service, they all went to the front to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. As they asked Jesus to come into their hearts, their tears fell. They knew their sins had been forgiven. 

“You thought you had your treasure,” Sami said, “but the real treasure is Jesus Christ and His Words.” He gave them a Bible. 

There is no treasure apart from You, O God. Whatever we are searching for, freedom, wisdom, power, riches, beauty or forgiveness. You are the source of all good things. 

Change My Life!

 “The entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged Him to go away and leave them alone.” Matthew 8:34

In Matthew 8, we encounter a very strange town. After Jesus exorcises a couple of very savage men possessed by several demons, all the townspeople crowded around Jesus and begged Him, entreated, pleaded with Him to go way, and leave them alone. Those men possessed by demons were so fierce and violent that people could not pass where they were. Back then, there was no Waze to help you find  another alternative route. They would just have to backtrack. One would have thought that the town would be happy to have that menace removed from their midst. But no, they preferred the status quo. They preferred to be left in "peace". They didn't want an outsider Force to change the way they lived. They were already comfortable.

Sometimes we can be like that. We are OK with OK. Change is scary. And the change that Jesus can bring into our life is scarier still. It requires a little courage to say, "Yes Lord, stay. Change me. Change my life!"

Food for Our Spirit

 

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid...” 1 Kings 17:13

How seriously do we take God’s promises? God is the same today as He was during Elijah’s time. The difference today is that we have a whole book of His promises to lean on. In 1 Kings 17, we meet the true prophet Elijah, whom King Ahab called Israel’s trouble maker. Elijah was hiding from the notorious Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, because just as she plotted to kill all the Lord’s prophets, she wished him dead as well. 

Elijah asked a poor widow in Zarephath for some water and bread. The widow informed him she only had enough flour and cooking oil for one more meal for herself and her son. “Then we will die.” 

Elijah said, “Don’t be afraid. First make me a little flat bread and bring it to me. Then prepare something for yourself and your son. For the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’”

The widow believed the words God promised through Elijah and she and her son did not go hungry. Today, Jezebel comes in many forms, but always she comes to destroy God’s people, His words and promises. There is widespread deception and cynicism, and the popularity of atheism and agnosticism. All to suppress the power of faith in God and His Word. If we believe and lay claim to His promises today, just as the widow in Elijah’s time, we will never go hungry in more ways than one. The Words of God are food for our spirit and soul, the part of us that will live forever.

Poor in Spirit

 “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Matthew 5:3

What does blessed mean?  

Partly it means that God turns His face towards us with divine favor. With all the good in Him. To be poor in spirit, what does that mean? It's not that we have no money or resources, I think it means being aware that we are spiritually bankrupt before the Lord. That we have absolutely nothing that we can offer Him because He is awesome, and mighty and does not need anything from us.

I used to give talks about our business to students. I never failed to mention that God is a partner in our business, and we are successful because of Him. Prayer is always a part of the way we do business.

After one particular talk, I was inordinately pleased with myself and sort of congratulated myself for doing a good job. Immediately, God took me to task and showed me verses from Luke 17. 

In it the master says, “When you have done everything that was assigned to you, you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have simply done our duty.’”

The Beatitudes are not about what we do. If we are a CEO, or a garbage collector, a priest or a toilet cleaner,  that is not what is important to God. What is important is what we are, our character. 

Are we becoming like Jesus every day? Because for all our roles and duties, God can raise up stones to do it all better than we can!