Jesus' Gift of Peace

Jesus said, “I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don’t let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” -JOHN 14:27

In the Jewish culture, the Hebrew shalom is a customary greeting for both “hello” and “goodbye.” Shalom means “peace” and so much more. It implies a wish for health, prosperity, and wholeness. It also expresses a wish for an absence of both internal and external strife.

As Jesus prepared to say goodbye to his closest friends, it was the night of the Last Supper. He bid them shalom. Jesus’ words of farewell were far more than a traditional blessing. They were a gift only the Prince of Peace himself can offer. Jesus offered his followers peace of mind and heart. This peace was unlike the peace of the world they knew. It depended solely on his followers’ relationship with him.

These words of Jesus are like his Last Will and Testament. Just as a will records how to divide possessions among survivors, John 14:27 records our inheritance. Jesus bequeathed a priceless treasure to all those who follow him. In fact, his gift has set us up for life—both this one and the next. That’s because the wholeness found in Jesus’ gift of peace is at the heart of true happiness. As we pursue peace by pursuing Jesus, we’ll find we are holding the true key to living the good life.

Jesus’ gift of peace offers us an alternative to fear and worry, a foretaste of heaven available here and now. As with any inheritance, we have to accept it and use it to enjoy its true benefits.

The One and Only

You must worship no other gods but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you. Exodus 34:14 

The Israelites saw God part the Red Sea and save them from captivity in Egypt. But soon afterward, they gave up on the God who rescued them. They chose to worship a golden calf instead. When Moses returned from receiving the Ten Commandments, he saw the Israelites—God’s people—engaged in idolatry. Moses threw the tablets to the ground, shattering them just as the people had shattered God’s first commandment—to worship only God.

God is a God of second chances. God gave Moses new tablets and reiterated his commands. Those commands are as important today as they were for the Israelites because God designed his command for us to build relationships with him and with the people around us. Obeying God’s commands helps us to love as well.

God doesn’t ask us for worship because his ego needs stroking. He asks it because worshiping him alone is the best thing that could happen to us. 

The first commandment, that God alone is to be worshiped, is at the heart of them all. God doesn’t ask us for worship because his ego needs stroking. He asks it because worshiping him alone is the best thing that could happen to us. We don’t have to kneel before a golden calf to worship idols. An idol is anything for which we have a deeper devotion than God. An idol could be power, money, comfort, pleasure, or even religion. Worshiping God above everything else keeps life in the proper perspective. God is passionate about his relationship with us. Worshiping him alone helps us become more passionate about him.

Consider what’s important in our lives. Weigh your relationship with God in light of everything else. Ask God to help us identify anything that we give higher priority to than getting to know him better.

Source: The 150 Most Important Bible Verses © 2007 by GRQ, Inc. Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

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Father Knows Best

Jesus said, “Your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:8 NCV

Jesus gave his disciples the Lord’s Prayer as an example of how to pray. Right before he spoke those famous words, Jesus shared a few reasons why one should pray. To do this, he provided two examples—negative ones. Jesus said the Pharisees prayed in public because they wanted to be seen as holy by other people. He also said idol worshippers prayed, repeating themselves over and over, because they believed that the more frequently they asked for something, the better chance they had of having their request granted. After those negative examples, Jesus spoke the reassurance that God already knows what you need.

At first, his words may seem to provide a reason why not to pray, instead of why to pray. If God knows what we need before we ask, why bother asking in the first place? Jesus’s point is the purpose of prayer isn’t to be noticed by other people—or even by God. God already notices you. He knows everything about us and our life. Prayer is not a way to draw God’s attention to our needs. It is a way to draw our attention to how much you need God.

Our greatest continual need is to better know and love God. Communicating with him about details of our life keeps us aware of how involved he already is. It also helps us see how many of our needs he meets every day. The more we recognize our dependence on God, the more thankful we become, and the deeper we grow. 

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The Lord’s Prayer teaches you to pray for your daily bread. Jesus’s words from Matthew don’t contradict that lesson. They’re a reminder that God needs to be involved in your life, not merely informed about it.

Source: The 100 Most Important Bible Verses. W Publishing Group

Citizens of heaven

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies. And change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. - Philippians 3:20

Nine months. Yes, we have been back home in Thailand that long. We failed to return for two years because of the pandemic. So, the Thai immigration canceled our visa. They are extending our visa one month at a time.

The process of getting and extending a visa is a constant source of stress for us. We need to check our passport stamps to see if we must go to the immigration office for a ninety-day appearance. We need to follow all the rules and regulations of immigration if we want to stay here.

We do not have the same rights and privileges of the citizens of Thailand. These problems do not exist if we are living in our own country. We want to go home but at the same time we want to stay and continue the Lord's work here.

When Paul says, "we are citizens of heaven" we understand a little of what he means. Heaven is our home. Our true citizenship belongs there but he does not mean that we are waiting for our lives to be over and live off there. It does not mean that God will scrap our physical body and have no regards for it.

In this passage, what He means is that our Lord Jesus our King will come from heaven to earth. He will change the present situation. By His power He will transform our present body like His own then will put everything under His control. Heavenly citizenship is about human resurrection. When He finally gives the citizenship that we all long for when He transforms the whole universe.

Photo by ConvertKit on Unsplash

Learning to Listen

James 1:19-20

Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose. 

We have to admit it. We are not good listeners. Our own thoughts and concerns distract us from doing so. Doing what we want for others is not serving. Serving others is finding out what they need and help to meet them.

How do we know what other's needs are? By carefully listening to their hopes, fears, and concerns. Effective service comes from listening and it only happens when we give our time to others.

 “The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Prayer

Lord, please help us to give our time to listen to others especially those who are in need.

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

We all can pray

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

"We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." 

We can do many things for one another. We can love, encourage, help carry each other's burden. We can challenge, support, give, and serve. But we have to realize that we cannot do everything for others.

The pandemic shows us that we cannot be with our friends and families who are infected with covid or other sicknesses. We cannot do anything to show our love except maybe extending financial help.

Yet one thing we all can do is to pray for one another. We pray for people we know who are in need of healing, provision, and victory. We should pray for people who ask us to pray for them. And there is no reason under heaven that we cannot. 

“And above all, we must not neglect the greatest service that is left to us, our faithful daily intercession.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer,  The Way to Freedom

Thought

The greatest act of friendship is to pray faithfully for those we care about.

Adapted from Charles Ringma, Seize the Day with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

My Burden Is Light

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30

We long for freedom but create oppression. We strive for ease, but make it hard for ourselves. We seek to make our own way, yet become lost in the process. We run from God but create our own idolatry. 

So, we need to surrender to Christ to find peace. We need to embrace God’s words and ways to find true liberty. We need to walk the narrow way of obedience to find true fulfillment.

We need to surrender our own way, which finally becomes the way of sorrow, and enter the freedom Christ has won for us.

“If they follow Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Lord, make us your captive so that we can be free.

Excerpt from Charles Ringma, Seize the Day With Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The man who raised the Son of God

"But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.’" Matthew 1:20

Joseph does not get much attention in the Christmas story. The spotlight points to Mary and the birth of Jesus. And rightfully so.

But we can learn a lot about this good man. Joseph first appears in the Bible in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. He was a carpenter whose lineage went way back to King David.

Joseph was a man of strong conviction who put his faith into actions. The Bible described him as a righteous man chosen by God to be the human father of Jesus Christ.

What kind of man God has chosen to raise His own Son? God knew who that man was.  Joseph obeyed God. We can imagine how shocked he was when the angel informed him that Mary was pregnant.

Joseph never questioned God's plan in choosing him to take care of Mary and her son. In doing this, he gave up his own dreams. He dedicated his own life to them and remain faithful to God.

• He was courageous in believing the angel
• He was faithful in believing God's plan over his own
• He honored God by obeying His word

 "Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus, the man entrusted to raise the Son of God.  Joseph was also a carpenter or skilled craftsman. He obeyed God in the face of severe humiliation. He did the right thing before God, in the right manner."  - Mary Fairchild

A reflection on posting act of kindness

“When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”. - Matthew 6:3-4

“The most genuine acts of kindness are done without fanfare and when no one is looking.” ― Jason Pollock

Facebook and other social media platforms give us opportunity to advertise our activities. We can even do a live broadcast of our worship service and Bible Studies. Praise the Lord! 

Many people post their every act of kindness. They promote causes, organizations, needs, and ministries to inspire people to join. Much more so that others can contribute, take part, and help with acts of service.

Yet, we need to check the motives of our hearts why we do what we do. Do we use social media so that we can earn praise and admiration, or is it out of love for people and the desire to honor God?

But you know what? The Lord prefers that some of your acts of service need to be a well-kept secret between you and God. 

Dear God, please help me love others and honor You both in my words and actions. Amen

Photo from Unsplash

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A reflection on being a servant

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.- John 12:26

The church exists on earth mainly for three reasons. First,  to glorify God through our service. Second,  to edify the saints by serving one another, and last to make disciples of all nations by serving the non-believers.

In other words, the church exists for service. The church is here to provide us opportunities to serve. We are here to serve God and the community. God has called us to serve. He saved us to be a servant.  In John 12:26, we will learn three truths about being servants of Jesus.

Servants follow Jesus

Following Christ means being led by the Holy Spirit, make decisions and choices according to His guidance, do what He would have wanted us to do. Being a disciple and servant means we die to ourselves; we surrender our right to make decisions for ourselves. Jesus is our Lord. He determines where we live, how we live, what we do.

Servants are found where Jesus is

The idea is for us is we need to find out where Jesus is working and follow Him there. We can follow Jesus intimately and we will know.  This truth helps us see that our worship (even our worship service) should be a time that we encounter Jesus.  For some people going to church is like a duty or an obligation. But for us, it is about celebrating what God has done in our lives. We anticipate what God will do and where He is working.

God honors the servants of Jesus

When we serve the Lord with gladness with passion and enthusiasm, God will honor us. There is no earthly honor that can exceed that. Is it possible for God to honor us? According to the word of God, it is possible, yes, we can and it’s a choice. When we present Him our lives, our talents for his use, when we say take my life and lead me, Lord, He will.

A reflection on knowing God

 Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.”- Matthew 9:22

Although we mostly come to Jesus when we have needs. We want Him to help us with our situations, heal our sickness, provide for our finances, direct us in making important decisions. In spite of this, He never rebukes us, but His words are gentle. When we pray, He takes the opportunity to teach us about Himself and learn about Him.

Most of all, God’s desire for us is spiritual wholeness—healing from the crippling disease of sin. Faith in Jesus is the key to receiving healing from God, and the Son of Man has power over everything that troubles us.

We come to Jesus who does miracles, and we leave knowing Him more.

Photo by Hans Moerman on Unsplash

That Time Will Come

 

Mark 13:32-33

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert. You do not know when that time will come.”

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has infected more than 8 million people worldwide since November. World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a global pandemic. Together with other events like the worldwide riots because of racism, and recent developments in technologies like chip implants, 5G networks among others.

Many conspiracy theorists and Christian groups flood social media about the end of the world, the emergence of the antichrist, and the eventual second coming. Christians need to understand that these theories are not relevant in our belief that Jesus will come again soon. With or without these events, sooner or later, He will come again in God’s perfect timing.

The Bible has a different concept of time than us. We are concerned with the “passage of time,” in Hebrew there is no word for the chronological time. Instead, the emphasis is on "providence” of timing or the “purpose” of a certain time.

This is especially clear when we listen to the words of Jesus Himself. They are all be found in the New Testament. He often used words such as “day”, “age”, “generation”, “hour.” He spoke of “my hour has not yet come”, “the signs of the time”, “no one knows the time”.

But on every occasion, Jesus’s reference to time has to do with something significant or the importance of a specific event. Jesus is never concerned with controlling the time or getting more of it. He is only concerned with aligning with His Father’s perfect timing.

In the verse, Jesus tells us that no one knows the time. As Christians, we need to think differently about the time of His coming. Here are several things we can do.

Be prepared—we need to be alert and ready to present ourselves to God

Be patient—we need to trust that God’s timing is perfect in all matters

Be priority-driven—We need to pursue all accomplishments great and small with the sole purpose of knowing God, loving God, and displaying God’s glory.

One Minute Reflection

Do your activities show that you are ready for the Second Coming?

“Bible teaching about the Second Coming of Christ was thought of as ‘doomsday’ preaching. But not anymore. It is the only ray of hope that shines as an ever brightening beam in a darkening world.” – Billy Graham

Updated Command

Proven character

Romans 5:5

“We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

How do we develop a Christlike character?

Character is the springboard to a successful life. Developing a godly character in the face of our daily struggles is essential to having a more intimate relationship with Christ. Character is not just having integrity or being honest or even doing the right thing. A person’s character is the sum of his or her disposition, thoughts, intentions, desires, and actions. It is good to remember that character is developed over many experiences, not based on a few isolated actions.

Romans 5:5 says that our character develops from experiences of conflicts and tribulations. God uses trying times for our ultimate good.

Moreover, we are reminded in the Scripture that we can rejoice in trials because trials produce perseverance and perseverance produce Christ-like character and Christ-like character is a proven character, which leads to eternal hope.

Proven character comes from the word “dokime” in Greek. It is used to describe metals that had been tested and determined to be pure. The idea behind is that when metal is put through a fiery test and it comes out on the other side “persevering and enduring,” that metal is now proven to be genuine or authentic.

The same process happens when our faith is tested. If we persevere and hold up under the heavy load of difficult circumstances, we have “proven” that our faith and character are genuine and authentic.

One Minute Reflection

What tribulation God uses that shows your real character?

“The measure of every man’s virtue is best revealed in time of adversity—adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.” – Thomas Kempis

Excerpt from Tracy Fox, Having A Heart For God Devotional: 365 Days of the One Minute Bible Study.

Meeting Our Needs

Philippians 4:19

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

The Bible reveals God as our provider. Throughout the pages of Scripture, God is portrayed as the one who sees and cares for all of our needs.

Today we are examining the wisdom we can extract from Paul's New Testament letter to the church in Philippi, which was founded around 50 AD. Paul is sharing four important truths about having our needs met by Christ, Himself.

What can we learn from Philippians 4:19?

One

Paul uses the words “my God.” We can take comfort in the fact that God knows us intimately and deeply and is our personal provider.

Two

Paul tells us, “my God shall supply.” If we seek God, we can allow Him to supply whatever we need.

Three

Paul reports that God shall meet “all your needs.” This is where we have to separate out our desires from our needs. God will give us what we need to develop into the persons He originally created us to be.

Four

Finally, Paul asserts that God meets our needs “according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.” God's giving is not merely giving from His riches, but according to His riches. In other words, Christ, Himself, is the prize, not what we can gain from Him. It is a critical distinction.

One Minute Reflection

What do you need out of God's riches today?

“After the Lord has tried our faith, he, in the love of His heart, gives us an abundance. For the glory of His name and for trial of our faith, He allows us to be poor and then graciously supplies our needs.”- George Muller