First of all, I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to prepare for the lovely Christmas party yesterday and everyone who came out to join in our birthday celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After having said that I would like to share few thoughts from today’s devotional reading. Mary was privileged to be used as God’s instrument to initiate the greatest mission of all, to reconcile His people back to Him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Mary was able to experience this blessing because she was humble and she had the hunger to see God’s kingdom to come which is clearly demonstrated in her song in the book of Luke. Humbleness and hunger… Those are the two things that this great country called America is working so hard to eliminate. The commercial industries make you believe that you are the king of the world and should be treated like one by buying their products. ‘You deserve faster car, clearer TV, bigger house, better wife or husband…’ That is what we hear each and everyday and that is what we can do in America. We can get anything that we want and that makes us less dependent on God. Humbleness is eliminated. Although we always want better things, we are generally comfortable and satisfied with our life here in America. Life is good, and there is no need to anticipate for something greater which is found in relationship with Jesus Christ. Hunger for God’s kingdom to come is eliminated.
We believe that the greatest spiritual battle is going on in the third world countries but I believe that there is also a great battle going on in this country. The devil has been perfecting his mastery in deviating the people from God for many years and I believe that he will not make his scheme so obvious to us. The devil is scheming to make us proud and complacent and I believe that his plan is working out pretty nicely in America. Let’s be mindful of what we hear and see. Let’s keep our focus away from ourselves and redirect it to our God so that we may be humble. Let’s not settle for the rubbish that this world offers us and ask God to open our eyes so that we may see the greater joy and satisfaction that can be found in Jesus Christ. I want to be used as God’s instrument and I hope you do too so let’s ask God to help us to be humble and hungry just like Mary.
Have a great week everyone!
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8 comments:
I want to join Il Bark in extending my praise and thanks to the ladies (Kwijung, Helen, Dulla, and Christine) who worked so hard to make our Christmas party so enjoyable. Thank you!
Dulla and I would also like to thank all of you once again for your generous gift!
Il Jr. this was a great reflection. I'll be joining you in praying that our heavenly Father will make our hearts humble and to hunger after Him.
Wow, the fact that you were able provide a commentary like that at 5AM is awesome.
I agree with everything you said and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I know we have a lot here but sometimes, I feel that things are much harder for us than those in the third world countries. As Jesus mentioned in one of his parables in Matthews, it's harder for a rich person to go to heaven. We have so much that our self centerness and pride prevents us from reaching out to God. Anyway, I didn't read this section yet but I'll try to read it when I get home.
I don't think I'm not on the same chapter as most of you or P. James told me the wrong chapters to read to fool me. I thought we're suppose to be starting from week 16 (Jesus geneology) or now week 17 (Nativity).
Oh yeah, great job with the planning ladies and thanks for all your dedication and efforts to make the party successful. gotta go, bye.
This is unbelievable... is that Il Sr commenting? Yes miracles can happen with persistence! Now if I can only get Kris and Lynn to comment...the circle will be complete.
Posted by Pastor James
Il Bark,
that really is amazing that you were able to post like that at 5 in the morning!
your post was very thoughtful and it helped me to really think of what and how important spiritual battle is.
for many people, this part of christianity is not thought of as much, which i think is a sure fire way to fall victim to the devil's attacks.
Thanks for sharing.
I think this blog goes by Pacific time. hahaha
All this talk about being "impressed" was based on PST. I've just changed that back to CST. Thanks Jeetae!
Pastor James
Thanks to Il Jr. for sharing your reflection and thanks to Pastor James for setting up this blog and encouraging us all to participate. As I read Jr's reflection on humility and hunger, I was reminded of how these two elements go hand in hand. In the past I've reflected on Jesus' reply to the devil as He was tempted to turn stone to bread: "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God". This verse is actually originally from Deut., when Moses told the Israelites that God let them hunger in the desert to humble them. I think it's amazing that Jesus Himself took the very words that was used to discipline the wandering Israelites and chose to take the position of humility. To me this is so profound that I feel I've only scratched the surface of the lesson on humility.
Perhaps Mary was able to behold the glory of God because she was so humble. And perhaps the Israelites were made to hunger so that they would turn to God and behold His glory.
thank you, il, for an excellent and insightful post.
the work of the devil in the third world, with all its suffering, poverty and corruption, is so very obvious.
but as you pointed out, he is working powerfully in the north american church, but in a very different way.
as il sr. said, we have so much here, that it is easy to fall "asleep in the light".
i'm reminded of something c.s. lewis said in his classic work, "the screwtape letters".
in the book, the older senior devil named screwtape advises his younger nephew, a devil named wormwood, on how to tempt christians to fall away from the faith.
screwtape suggests to wormwood that he arouse "minor" sins like impatience or irritability in his christian "patient", in hopes that the christian might stumble.
this is what screwtape tells his nephew:
"you will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report some spectacular wickedness.
"but do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God).
"it does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.
"murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.
"indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (from the screwtape letters, c.s. lewis)
how can we who have everything battle such a devious, subtle, attack from the devil?
the answer is to be like mary.
she hungered for God's righteousness. we are so filled with every kind of wrong desire, so satiated by worldly things, that we don't know what it's like to truly be hungry.
and mary was humble. emptied of self-importance, pride, emptied of self, period.
without both of these: hunger and humility, we will most surely not recognize the day of God's coming the next time it happens.
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