Black, White, and Grey Issues

One of the not so smart things one can do - is to blog about an argument/discussion they had with another person - and rewrite the story in such a way to justify themselves and prove themselves to be the victor.

well, as I was arguing/discussing with some friends of friend just now, some things came to my mind.

How controversial do you allow yourself to speak? If you know it your heart what the truth is, but speak with some sort of mystery - or maybe not mystery - but leaving loopholes where people can misinterpret what you speak, is it still "the way to go"?

How clear do you have to be in what you say - so that people will learn something?

How far do you go in staying patient like a teacher , and gentle - and when do you start arguing like you are talking to some heretic (though he is not)?

To determine this, is it a matter of wisdom, or is it a matter of personality - or most probably a mixture of both - and how much of each to what extent?

Can I take Jesus as an example? He did say many enigmatic things and most times quite controversial. Reading through the gospels once isn't quite gonna be as fruitful as reading it through several times, going through the concordance, reading commentaries, etc.

Should one speak controversial things and think "Even Jesus speak controversial and sometimes unclear things. The righteous will interpret it to correct way, and the wicked will always twist the clearest word for evil purposes".

Can the source of confusion be amoral? Surely we know how any law or command can be blindly taken and obeyed as a form of legalism - or twisted into some form of licentiousness. But the confusion can definitely be amoral right? And to what extent?

Am I to keep thinking of everything going on a case by case basis? Isn't there a simple rule to follow? In trying to follow a simple rule - am I being lazy and choosing not to think, or am I simply not trusting in my judgements as to whether I will make the best decision?

How do I draw the line of "I have said what I need to say, it is up to you to take it whichever way you want" while keeping a clear conscience that I have tried my best? Perhaps trying my best was actually to stay on for another hour to persuade the person to see what I see, or see what I think they don't see.

All in all, truth is not relative. I need to figure out some way to convey these words plainly, without making it overscholarly such that simpler minds think I am being cunning, but yet I am being true to my word. I can perhaps understand how you can do that when you have an hour to yourself to explain everything, but in debates/discussions/arguments where there are lots of misinterpretations before everyone gets what everyone else is trying to get at - how do you exercise this?

By raising these many questions - am I already giving the reader and impression that this is a highly complex issue and there is probably no way out. I do not doubt that some will think "Gah, this is too much for my brain in the morning/afternoon/night" or " God will handel it" or "Don't know, don't care" - but I want to find it out. But I am also thinking of the possibility that maybe "don't know, don't care" may have been just the correct approach - because at the end of the day, there are so many unknowns and variables which is hard to determine.

I am trying to work towards something. But it doesn't look like I am getting there. Many questions might be a good way to start and investigation - but not a good way to make conclusions.

Should I just pray to God and say "Thank you God, teach me patience and teach me love" after thinking that whoever I was talking to didn't get the main point... or do I keep searching and look for the "killer argument" and start replaying scenes again, and thinking how I could have said certain things in certain ways such that they would be totally convinced?

This is how arguments normally ends "one/both party(ies) think that the other never did got the point no matter how much they said they got the point" - and in the name of diplomacy say things like "that was a great opinion you have" - which could be taken as:

1) Being courteous - the truth is I think that you are the stupidest person to have thought of such a stupid idea like that
2) Being courteous - I'm not smart enough to judge which is right, but whatever you said sounded plausible
3)Not being courteous - That was so totally WRONG

well, there is probably option 4), 5), 6) - I couldn't care less about them. You see, for all I know - somebody couldn't care less about whatever I just typed - to them, harmony, peace, friendship, nice feelings, enjoyment is all that counts - if they had to choose between truth and all these - they would go for "all these" - for truth to them is defined as "all these".

It is hard to convince another person of what truth is. A famous quote from Thomas Cranmer:

"What the heart loves, the will chooses, the mind justifies"

Modern science that goes on evidence and empirical reasoning would like to believe in the reverse:

"What the mind justifies, the will chooses, the heart loves" -
which sounds like something you get from Tony Robbins if you get what I mean.

How true is Thomas Cranmer's statement? Which was why I was just thinking, could the confusion be amoral? But a slightly clearer question is - regarding a moral issue:

Could confusion spring from amoral motivations? Or the wicked heart is always destined to justify error as truth? the righteous will then always make the right decision?

Doesn't this model look over simplistic such that it doesn't deal justly with the subject? They say "the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart" - how much exceptions should I make for others and myself when I try to justify certain moral actions. Surely I should not degrade to some " God will prove me right during judgement day " sort of stupidity/arrogance? But what if time is the only thing that will tell?

What happened to trusting God to do His very special work in the hearts of men? What about confidence in what Scripture declares? Interpretation? Now that I suddenly thought of it, I might as well promote FWC here.

FWC 2010 Gospel and Interpretation

Sometimes, you want to do more good than harm - and you think you stand your ground and do the right thing. In the end of 70 years before you die, you realise that there are bad consequences which make you think that your initially taking a certain stand should have been different. But as you muse on whether you will/will not regret in 70 years time - you imagine the possibilities that your stand would have proven itself right in 500 years -

"the man who stood for the right things - who for a short while produced horrible consequences, but bore fruit for the next whole millenium"

What I think I can do - is to see and count as far as I can go - and utilize well what I know and have been entrusted - as to 100 years later - God knows:

Let the future worry for itself. For I am a mere man.

ps. Just so you know - I don't believe in grey. It is either black or white. Determining something as grey due to our ignorance is an act of arrogance (in believing that we have such foresight and intelligence to make judgements on things we are unsure of)

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Poor Question:
Is Beauty is in the eyes of the Beholder?

Better Question:
Who do you want to behold you?
Who do you behold?


"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful"

1 Peter 3
Peter the Apostle, Bible

A Responsible Use of Influence

Everybody has influence -

how much influence?
influence over who?
what kind of influence?

A dog has influence. Stray dogs have influence - the very sight limping stray dogs break people's hearts. Nice puppies bring joy to people around. I once wrote a poem about a cat who lost a paw, it got me thinking about it for quite some weeks, and made me reflect on my life.

From babies and beggars to celebrities and superstars. Angelina Jolie has influence over thousands and thousands in small little ways, yet her few kids that we probably don't know their names - they influence all her life.

Marketing companies use celebrities endorsements to sell a product. Celebrities earn their cash that way. Of course, there are those who use their name for better causes like charity and the sorts; but of course, most of it is used to promote materialism which the public desires so much.

Supply and demand they say, nobody is at fault. Since the whole world is innocent, maybe God is to be blamed. Or is it true that nobody is at fault?

Yes of course, it is him/her/them.

In the last day of the great Judgment before Jesus, nobody is guiltless. Not only will men be guilty for the things they committed as an individual, they are to be responsible for what they have been teaching people around them. The greedy man is not only guilty of restraining his hand to those in need, he is guilty of training his son to be a greedy young man. The man who saw a good deed and did not do it, is not only guilty for the good he did not do, but also the discouragement he gave to the onlookers who bought into his selfishness.

While this description is true for all of us, I am thinking particularly of Christians at this moment.

God has given us forgiveness of sins, reconciliation of relationship, and assurance of salvation. I wonder with such great gifts from God, and a mission given by God to evangelize - I do not wonder that most of us are not stewarding our influence well.

Much effort and much money is put into decorating ourselves, so that we may look good, and that people may praise us. Instead of speaking of the sacrifice, the judgment and the goodness of Jesus which leads to the glory of God, we happily pour our lives for the effort of directing praise to ourselves. We are given the opportunity of one person, the strength of one person at the very least - and God knows how He can demonstrate His Greatness in our weakness; but it is not becoming for citizens of heaven to indulge ourselves in earthly things.

Most of us are being very careless stewards. If any of us remember Jesus' parables.

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'

"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'

"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

I suppose, influence is just one of many gifts that different people can have. I can't help but think of some of my more physically appealing (beautiful looking) female friends, with their God-given beauty, they use it to direct all praise to themselves.

But of course, this whole finger pointing business has taught me many bitter lessons. At the end of the day, I really have to ask myself this, "Is my action consistent with who I declare myself to be?"

Jesus says, "A good tree bears good fruits, and a bad tree bears bad fruits. You know a tree by their fruits"

With all respect and reverence to God, I think that statement sounds childishly obvious. While many of us think of ourselves as "Good people who happen to do bad things", Jesus is saying that mankind is "Bad people doing what they really are". To ignorant and sinful mankind, that statement is hardly obvious. It takes God to tell us common sense.

God has given us life, time, money, influence, and resources of all sorts - I hope I don't squander it away. Careless stewardship might be fun for now, but it won't be funny when we meet God face to face. We will all give an account to God, not only for our personal lives that involves ourselves, but also those whom we have led to Christ, or led astray.


2 of the many things that might rise in our heads:

a) I am not responsible/ I do not need to give an account/ I am good enough/ I am not that bad/ whatever like the words above

b) God save me

Just so we know, a) isn't quite a valid answer. Or maybe, it is again the kind of common sense that isn't quite common.

The Grace of God and the Life of Man

Since a man cannot, by any means whatsoever, commend himself good enough in any respect - such that no tiny bit of nobility in him can please God with all the strength in him; such that it would be true to say it is God who works and wills in us, which means that it is God who supplies both the desire and the power that we may become acceptable to Him - such that apart of Him, we of ourselves have neither desire or power to please Him:

Since a man cannot do that, how then shall he live in his thoughts that are God-ward? Since that our election is by grace alone, and works have no part of it, such that grace will remain grace from before Creation till Consummation which lasts forever - Does this man therefore ought not to live his whole life unto God being eternally joyful to an unmerited divine choice, in it recognizing the eternal indebtedness that he is in no position to possibly even working out a means to repay.

Since such is the case for this man's relationship with God, how then does it show up in this man's relationship with his fellow men? Since God is One and there is no other, it seeks the soul of the man, asking "What are you doing?" when a man lowers his honor to another man, not out of gratitude toward God, but in a manner, with thoughts knowing that the other man is flattered by such a gesture. Why does the man seek to please another man - not so much an overflowing out of his love for God, but in such a manner that replaces the pleasing of God.

Does he not know in such he is insulting the grace of God and denying God His glory.

Not in Vain

It has been 5 weeks since I landed in Malaysia. I landed in Malaysia with big ideas of wanting to bring the newfound theology I learnt from the Bible back to church.

I was thinking that perhaps, by sending books and audio sermons, and presenting the "different Joel" to the church leadership, they might just be persuaded. I thought that to persuade them to read the Bible for what it is was simple: to go through verse by verse, to read the passage in context was a very appealing thing to do.

Well, it wasn't. I now know again what it is like to have ideas just being patronized. Email replies that were just send to acknowledge you - saying "Yes, I received your email or your opinion". To some extent, I expected that - but I'm in for some good surprise.

Most of the "higher position" people in church would continue of with their agenda... but there are personal friends in church, not exactly my superior in church leadership - they became interested in what I wanted to say!

But before going into that, lets start with home!

I have been sharing difficulties I encountered in sermons with my mother, and we discussed them with the Bible open. Then I prepared a quarter of my Christmas talk with my mother, and teaching her how to understand the Bible in context and make sense out of different verses at the same time. I got her some good Christian books and she is reading them - and as time passes, she is learning how to read the Bible for herself instead of just having to rely on a preacher on the stage to tell her what the Bible means. She is more and more convinced, and she is supportive of what I'm supportive now. Having said that, every time I talk with her, I wanted her to know that she didn't have to take my word as truth, but that she could find the truth in the Bible - and she did and continues to do so!

Besides my mom, it is my colleagues. After knowing that I'm a Christian, they asked me different things about the Bible (we did not steal time from the company to discuss these things, just in case you are wondering if I am talking about Bible things when I actually should be working - the answer is no, I did it after work was completed). 

How could it be authentic? Isn't the Quran more reliable? How could God be "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" but still be one God? Why can't Jesus just be a man? What about Prophet Muhammad?

And from simply having to reply questions, I got to explain different things about Christianity even clearer, and in the process, explain who Jesus is, and why we ought to become Christians.

Besides colleagues, I also got to share with church friends. Pointing out different areas of doubt about the sermons, highlighting different parts where the Bible was taken out of context to just support an argument of theirs - I got the opportunity to explain about how the whole Old Testament of the Bible is actually about Jesus. How good and proper understanding of the Bible will lead to good interpretation - and how all these motivates us to truly love and fear God. My friend is interested to know more, and I am happy - because it is not easy to find people who love God's Word more than their pastor!

Then besides my colleagues, there are Nepali security guards, I know that there are some Nepali Bibles around, perhaps I could get my hands on some of them and give them to the security guards. And perhaps if they have difficulty reading it, I could arrive early for work to explain to them! I haven't done it yet, but it looks possible.

Besides the security guard, now I'm trying to get to the music leader in church. Sometimes I just find that the Christian songs we sing are so void of meaning. Only filled with words like "i praise you Lord, I love You, I worship You, I give You my life", otherwise, it is meaningless. Therefore, I'm recommending songs that have more content, that would help us reflect on more Christian things - the cross, Jesus, God's Word, etc... as we sing. I hope we will sing new songs, that would be helpful in helping us understand God better.

As if these were not enough, I'm happy to see some friends who have came back from Australia, seeking to do Christian Work in Malaysia. It is such a joy to see them, to hear the reports of their labours, and of God's faithfulness in providing them with opportunities to share the Bible - and then also to discuss with them how to rejuvenate Malaysian churches.

It was really discouraging before this, but God has given me the opportunity to see that these labours are not in vain. I know some Christian friends who are trying to do the same thing, but they have yet to see the fruits of their labour - 

I ask these friends not to give up. We sow the seeds everywhere, and God will choose to grow whichever that He desires. Whether the fruit bears in our garden, or in another brother's garden, we rejoice. Talk for me now is easy, because I see fruits. But I'm pretty sure it will not be long that I will be discouraged in many ways, but it is all worth giving thanks for. 

Thinking back (I think I said this elsewhere before), out of 10 Christians I know back in high school, only 2 are still Christians. They were the CF president, they were the little teachers, they were... and they WERE. It is sad and discouraging. But we still move on sharing the Gospel, because God still have lost children out there - just waiting to be found.

Preach it Brother!

One night, when I was talking with another pastor in a private conversation and told him that there were things that could be improved in his sermon, and listed out some things specifically. 

Admittedly, I wasn't as gentle as I should have been. This was somewhat the reply I got:

Knowing the facts is one thing, and communicating the facts is quite another. Maybe you should try preaching one day.

Being 20 years old, this was some exciting stuff. It was like "Oh yeah, you want to challenge me?" in my mind. Then I came to my senses a little later.

"Joel, you couldn't be that childish can't you? You want to learn to preach so that you can prove yourself worthy? No Joel, don't be that stupid"

It has been a week or so since that incident. 

Last Friday, I got an opportunity to share from the Bible to a small group of 30 people. I vividly remember that I got 2 other opportunities to speak last time - I was just babbling from my own experience, and trying to make some sense out of the Bible as I was speaking. It was horrible.

But this time, as I was preparing the Bible talk for Friday. I was thinking in my mind... 

"Joel, this time you have come back to Malaysia after claiming to have received sound teaching from the church in Australia. Serve the people well by sharing the Bible clearly, explaining it plainly and don't twist the Bible to suit your message. Don't shame the people that invested in your life. Gahhh! I'm so nervous"

Well, the Bible talk went quite okay. I made mistakes here and there, but generally it went well - its good to have people who are tolerant with you and put up with your mistakes.

Today, I went to church. I heard the sermon. I thought that there were aspects I couldn't agree with - but this time, I don't want to do the simple work and correct only certain points. What could I do?

• The truth of the matter is that I want to learn to share the Gospel clearly, being faithful to the text.
  

• I don't want to be looked down upon also because I am young.
  

• But neither do I want to preach the Gospel to prove myself worthy. I think it is a wrong motive altogether.
  

So, I think I want to take up the challenge:

Study the same passage that was preached. 

Put in time. Take it as a training for the future.

Preach it. Record it. Share it.

This is the current plan now. Am I willing to do it? and stick to it?

Sounds like an exciting challenge if you ask me. I think I want to take it up.

God Is On My Side?

Who is it? Who is going to win the elections?

Both believes God is on their side

Months and months of campaigning, both of them have picked up bits of Scriptures from the Bible to put in their speeches, both have quoted famous men and women, both have hurled insults that were politically correct and incorrect.

Somehow, when somebody wants to win - God seems obliged to help. Take it from Sarah Palin - the hopeful Republican VP.

"Tomorrow, I hope, I pray, I believe that I'll be able to wake up as vice president-elect and be able to get to work"


At least according to Osama and Friends, Allah seems to be on their side too. Of course, there are other Muslims who are not in the Osama and Friends group, who claim that Allah is not on their side.

America is catching up.

Suddenly, the American generation is somehow the David Generation, somehow it is the Elijah Generation, somehow Barrack Obama has likened himself to Joshua - the successor of Moses. And somehow, the Americans have become the Israelistes.

Most of us, if not all of us want to be someone great, or at least part of something really great.

Like REALLY GREAT.


The idea that God would also want us to be someone great is pretty good too.



"If somehow God endorses my desire for greatness, then I really going to make it"



Not only politicians make us think that way, motivational speakers make us think that way - as though that were not enough: We have pastors and self-proclaimed prophets to make us think that way.


Let me share with you an experience of mine:

About 5 years ago, I was sponsored to attend one of the seminars founded by Robert T. Kiyosaki & Friends. (please pardon me of my "and Friends" thing, when I don't quite remember all the names involved, I just group them together that way).

If some of you don't know who Robert T. Kiyosaki is, you might know his book entitled "Rich Dad Poor Dad". Now this course is much more than being just business in nature, as it seeks to transform your mindset into one that accepts much more possibilities so that you would take hold of more oppurtunities in life, and create the change that you want in life.

Of course, they also teach you necessary skills to make and maintain those changes, while providing lifetime support.

It is here that I met this woman called Shantelle Gold. One of the New Age gurus. Well, the title is actually something like "Clairvoyant and Spiritual Counsellor".

She invited me to have a "session" with her, where she can read my "aura". Of course, I felt very curious. Its not the ordinary RM20 fortune teller that sits around the LRT with a pack of poker cards and a little buddha statue.

Apparently, I have this Bright White aura around me which was not common. She didn't tell me much, and she simply said things like I have great potential, a great leader (or something like that, at least that is what I would like to remember). Come on, I was only 16 years old.

Well, thats a little short story of liking to be someone great. Imagine Bill Gates coming up to you and say:


"Young man, I see great potential in you to be a billionaire richer than I!"


I'd be walking on cloud 9. If the idea of Bill Gates being on my side makes me fly, what makes you think that the idea of GOD being on my side would be any lesser?



The point is this. When we have little hopes that we hope so much for - and somebody comes along and tell us something along the lines we want to hear, everything just works.

They are GOD-SENT!
They are GOD's prophets sent to affirm your quest for greatness!

When you wish for the iPhone 3G or the new Macbook for your Christmas present, and you pray for it, and WALLA! Your parents buy you that very thing for Christmas!

God is so GOOD! HOORAY!







Now, whoever wins the presidential race this time. Half of America will say that he is God-sent. Really?


Now, I hope that you are already convinced that the whole idea of God-sent according to the definition that changes with our fancies is pretty stupid.

The Bible does teach the idea about people being God-sent -The Bible does teach that God has created everybody and placed them in their respective places. God made me Malaysian, male, destined me to be a Christian and study in UNSW and blog on my laptop today.

It couldn't be any other way simply because this is history.

The Bible also teaches that it is God who commands history. History is made in such a way that God is still its Commander when Hitler murdered 6 million Jews, when the bomb fell on Japan, when the woman was raped in the alley.

When Jesus-God Himself was tortured and hung on the cross until He died. That is also history, and God was and is still the Commander.

I do not know the exact reason for these tragic incidents, including the state that America is in now - but I do know that we live in a sinful world, and we are terribly responsible for all the wickedness and destruction there is in the world.

If Allah wasn't FOR Osama,
Osama would probably have made up a new god that would be FOR Osama.

If America learnt that God demands of them something that is inconvenient,
they will look for a new god.

So many people wants Obama to take over the office. He seems to be able to promise so much, and he also seems to be able to deliver it. Pretty much like the way many Malaysians want to see UMNO dethroned. Maybe not.

But this is what the Bible teaches. There is no hope in human governments. Very much like the way I was born Malaysian, the politicians are God-sent by default. They are not necessarily God-sent to make our lives rosier than it is or to fulfill our fanciful wishes. There is nothing wrong to demand a fairer system, one that has more accountability.


I am not being anti-hope, neither am I anti-dreams.
It is more like anti-selfish thinking.

The Bible defines security - not as in political security, or insurance security.
It is the security that you know when God forgives you as you repent of your sins and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus.

The Bible defines riches - not as in Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Wall Street riches.
Being rich in good deeds, godliness, these are riches. When God grants us forgiveness because of Jesus, that is riches.

The Bible defines greatness - not as in President of the USA, nor the CEO of a Forbes 500, nor the Commander of the Air Force.
It is to serve others in love and humility, following the footsteps of Jesus - to suffer for righteousness sake, to preach the good news so that people may get to heaven.

We should desire such security, such richness, and such greatness. Now, I don't expect many people to have taste for such noble things. For that matter, I don't exactly get thrilled over such noble ideas.

The good part about this is: The fact that we don't always delight in what is really good (or we only delight in what is good when it is convenient), having no pure desires is a good indication that we are wicked to the core. Not only we do wicked things, we think wicked thoughts.

Dear Human-Inspiration,

I am sorry.

I cannot, in good conscience dream the same dreams that you love, neither can I desire to continue desiring the things you continually consider desirable. Even the
Utopian dreams that you have, I am sorry to tell you I cannot sympathize with you that there will be another Saviour in this world. There is one Saviour Jesus Christ, who has declared that He will make a New World.

God's plans is such that people would be disgusted our their sins and realize that
there is a limit to human potential.

Human wickedness is much greater than human potential. Do not underestimate the forces of the dark side.

God's desire is that as they realize, they would resort to nothing else other than seeking undeserved mercy from God alone - whom they have sinned against... by not living their lives according to God who is the rightful King, and consequently hurting one another.

God's desire is that all the nations would recognize the Jesus' love and submit to His Lordship.

Until we realize that we are stubbornly believing in ourselves that the human race can be good one day (which we have failed since the beginning of human civilization), we live as God's enemies.

There is a New World, and the invitation to us is to leave the sinking ship - and board on to Jesus.

Your friend who longs for your enlightenment,
Joel

So:

Yes, God is on our side - If we are willing to give up our rebellion to go to His side.

No, God was never on our side at any point of time in history. It is inconceivable that God would ever take part in our wickedness.

The Man

Quite a fair bit is written about Jesus' birth, a handful about him as he grew from a tween to teen, many chapters about the 3 years of His ministry, and many chapters about the last few days of His life on earth.

I was somewhat looking for a model to follow - if Jesus is 20 years old, what is He like?

At 12, Jesus was reasoning with teachers in the temple. The record before this event is Luke 2:40

And the child became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.

Then after the discourse with the teachers - up till perhaps 30 years old, Luke 2:52 says:

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

If I am looking for a model to follow, I suppose this is all I have. Even reading through the entire Bible, one would find that authors were not so concerned with the in between years. It seems that almost everybody is a grown up man when history is recorded.

I thought through different reasons why this is so:

"Hey, they are recording history, isn't that how all history books are? Always describing the activities of man in form of the things they accomplished, countries involved, advances discovered?"

"Paper is expensive, they must have only recorded the most important things"

There are a few more similar reasons. But now I am considering this...

The Bible is God's Word, His story - perhaps by the way He chooses to reveal things (what He reveals and doesn't reveal) I can know what is important. By the proportion of chapters devoted to Jesus' life in the Gospel - it is apparent that it is His life and words during His ministry is most significant, only second to His death and resurrection.

I would not doubt this sort of emphasis do point us to the centrality of Jesus (and His Cross) in the whole Bible. But does this portion also imply that the whole point of my life is my ministry to people? Then my whole life up till before I become involved in some public ministry is just some sort of preparation? The Bible seems to always record a few significant events in a person's life and how that has played a role in the whole Bible - and more or less nothing more about the person's life. With the exceptions of a few characters of course.

I realize that because of my biased mind who is seeking for answers that perhaps the authour never intended to offer - I start to interpret passages the way I want to see it. Whatever that might be just a simple description I could be just making it to a model in life. Yet in the midst of all these things, I will hold on to the security of the 2 verses above that I think is crucial.

The first verse mention that Jesus became strong, filled with wisdom, and had the grace of God was upon Him - I take that to mean that God had favour with Him. The second verse mention that Jesus grew physically, grew in wisdom, and had favour with God and men.

So growing up physically and strong - I don't know if there is supposed to be anything significant with it. With the excpetion of intoxicants and unhealthy diet, i suppose this to mean normal physical growth.

The second one that would be more of interest is that Jesus grew in wisdom. So I'm supposed to be growing in wisdom during these years.

Jesus also grew in favour with God (this is common to both). How do I grow in favour with God?

The third was growing in favour with men. Now this is one thing I lack. But the Bible also teaches that Jesus did not seek the approval of men, yet he had favour with men. How does this work? I know too few people who do not seek the approval of men but still have favour with men - hence me.

I still have quite a bit to digest.

Christianity 1500 years ago and Today

When Joel have little personal problems to handle, he start thinking about the problems of other people. And on and on it goes - its always problems.



Christians no longer preach the Gospel at the cost of their lives. Everybody has a degree to complete... an unruffled life to live... a house to buy... a wife to marry... a comfortable life ahead... What happened to planning life with God in the picture? or is God supposed to fit into our picture of "the comfortable life" - the churchgoing version of Bill Gates being the symbol of success. Gospel work is reduced to tithing, being a witness to Jesus means simply letting others know I am Christian, meeting up with Christians is merely to "catch up on whats been happening" - WHY?



After church, people hang around and talk about the newest thing in town... what they will eat for lunch... WHY?



Now, I must admit that there are questions in life that to ask WHY is to ask in vain, but many things are explainable. After much thoughts, I believe the answer to this big WHY is that these people do not know God. There is some measure of profession. In fact, the godless America is the country that professes it the most - and that is where we get the "limelight church culture", "pro abortion", "using religion for political gain"... and mindlessly, we in in Asia who so wish that "we could be like them" in one way or the other follow them.



Indeed, many profess to Jesus - 'Lord, Lord!' - but Jesus concludes that it is FEW who will enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow path. Since Jesus was talking about those who profess - perhaps among us, yes, even us who profess to know Jesus... most of us will be echoing the exact words in Matthew 7...



"Lord Lord! Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not..."



only to hear Jesus tell us "Get away - I do not know you"



Yes, Jesus was not speaking to non-Christians. It is much easier to believe that Jesus was speaking to people who are supposed to be "salt of the earth" but ended up as "salt that loses its flavour". From being distinct, to being the same. This sends a grave warning to us if we live in this world and face no persecution. Perhaps, we have become like the world, and the world loves us.



Our profession of faith - unless shown by the fruit of the Spirit... is USELESS, and POINTLESS. Our declaration of undying PASSION for Jesus, our praying of "Dear God, I humbly come to You..." is EMPTY.



Before illustrating the main point. I would like to share with us all a little bit about church history - should my memory serve me correctly.



There was a time in Christian history long long ago, about the time of Constantine (about 4th century)- there was a period where Rome was ruled by Christian Emperors. The rule of Christian Emperors gave much privilege to Christians - the once persecuted Christianity has now become the state religion. Christians enjoy special rights - much like how Malays enjoy special rights in Malaysia. Church doctrine was standardized, heresies were cleared, Christianity spread all over Rome.



Many people became Christians: some of them sincere, some went into the church to gain favour with the Emperor - since the Emperor fancies this new religion. Yet, this period did not contain all Christian Emperors. Much like the Old Testament where there were good kings and bad kings - the good kings tear down shrines to cults to rebuild God's altar and calls people to worship, the bad kings doing the exact opposite - the Roman Emperors did something like that.



When the Emperor changed from a Christian Emperor to a pagan Emperor who did not know God - they persecuted Christians harshly. Christians who enjoyed Christianity in peace, suddenly had to flee for their lives and forced to deny Christ. During this period of transition, many Christians paid for their faith in blood. Yet there were also many who denied Jesus as Lord - instead proclaiming that the Emperor of the day as Lord to save their lives.



Then the transition came where the Christian Emperor took over the empire. The pagan Emperor is disposed of, and Christianity enjoys peace again. Yet, a new problem arose: The people who once denied Jesus now wants to join the church. Denying Christ as Lord is a grave sin the bishops of the churches say - how can we accept them again? When another pagan Emperor comes they deny Christ, when it is convenient - they proclaim Christ! How can this be?



Legalistic we might say? Well, the bishops had a good point. So they confered among themselves and wonder what to do with these group of Christians. They could not deny that some of them were sincerely repentant, yet they also had to account for the fake ones - what shall they do?



So they came up with a thing called PENANCE. What is that? Penance required these group of 'sinners' to do a certain amount of good works to prove that they are truly repentant. The argument is that the shallow profession of faith (which might be a fake faith) is too easy, these people had to prove it by good works.



And so, after doing a certain amount of good works, these people regained admittance into the church. Throughout the ages, as situations became more and more complicated, Christians who have sinned have to do more and more works to prove their repentance - more and more rules had to be added to ensure sincerity. Slowly and slowly, these group of church leaders defines that salvation comes not by faith alone - but faith and good works.



And this is one of the reasons why Catholicism has so many rules. To simply label them legalistic is too shallow an argument. Yet we know from the Word of God, indeed "it is by grace through faith we are saved, and not by our works so that no one could boast". Salvation by faith and works is incompatible with Scripture.



This is one extreme of the picture. Moving forward more than 1500 years, we come to America. There was a little boy who raised up his hand to accept Jesus in a Billy Graham crusade - everybody lifted up their hands. After jotting down the information to a counselor on site, this boy received a free Bible which had a date written behind it "27/6/1988" that marked the day of his "salvation". 10 years later, this little boy grew to become a young adult who lives a life indulging in earthly riches and gives none of his life to God felt that perhaps he might not be accepted before God.



This young adult slowly fears for his own life, he fears that God will judge him and throw him into hell. So he runs to church and looks for his pastor and said: "Pastor, I feel that I am going to hell". Then the pastor said: " Turn to the last page of your Bible... you see the date there? Tell Satan that you are saved and claim it by faith! You are saved!"



For a while, this young adult was relieved - live life the way I want, but God has gotta accepted me, I accepted him 10 years ago!



This age that we live in - is one where Christians live in a lot of tension. Sometimes, we think like the young adult... by faith isn't it? What do we do? Make a list of 10 things we vow to do for God.



1. I must do at least 15 minutes of quiet time.

2. I must go to cell group at least twice a month?

3. I must tithe 10%

and the list goes on...



Some of us do not struggle. We become like the young adult - believing in an "imaginary salvation" Jesus never offered. After bribing God with 10%... or at least enough so that our conscience is calmed... we spend money like there is no God. We buy the newest clothings, the newest gadget and whatevernots to make up for the self-esteem we so desperately lack + the imaginary needs that we cannot but help lusting after. Yet some of us speak like those in James 4:13-16



Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.



or did we forget Jesus parable? Luke 12:16-21



And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."



These passages speak for themselves.



If you haven't forgotten - I was wondering the many WHYs (it is white words in the beginning of the email, you can highlight them to read). I concluded that people must have not known God. Those who claim to know the God of the Bible... only claim to know an imaginary God who says "The Master delays His coming!" There are also those who say " I will bury my one talent underground and return it to God when He demands it". Truly, many of us are blind. We are those who:



'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'



The Bible is before us. Some of us read the words over and over... but we will never obey it. Some will, some won't. Some will recognize that God is the Possesor of Heaven and Earth... and our lives... us merely being stewards of His resources. Some of us will remain thinking that we own our lives - as though Jesus Christ did not purchased us... and some of us will think that way till the day we die.



Yet the sad thing is this - in the midst of our college, our university, our assignments, we have neglected God's Word. Forget about seeing but never perceiving - we don't even want to see! Some of us claim to have so much responsibility in studies and work. Then the question is this -



Which is more important?



Knowing God or getting High Distinctions in university?



I fear for you my brothers and sisters, that we might fall into indulgence in worldly pursuits - clothing them in the name of "excellent spirit in the book of Daniel". Have you been to Christian concerts when this preacher suddenly comes up and say:



"I sense that God is calling some of us to be great businessmen, great politicians, great .... Who senses that God is calling you even right now? raise up your hand so I can pray for you!"



Have you heard people come up and say: "I feel that God calls me into the business world/ to become a doctor... an engineer... a lawyer"



Had it never struck you why so many people claim to be called by God into such professions - but so few are called to become preachers? teachers? garbage collecters? Have you ever heard a person say "God has called me to be a garbage collector?" It seems that we have a "upper middle class Holy Spirit".



I fear for us that in our pride and indulgence in the things of this world - we have defined God to fit our convenience. The Christians 1500 years ago denied Jesus to save their physical life - we know that was wrong. But what about us?



Everyday we carry on our routine daily life as though God is not there. Yes, we deny Jesus daily. What shall our leaders say? Do some good work to proof your repentance? Look at the last page of your Bible and tell Satan you are saved? What can we do?



When our hearts have become hardened and we tell our Christian brother "who are you to judge me? are you not like me?" let us remember... we can't say the same thing to the sinless Jesus. Because He will reply, "I am God that judges you, I am sinless and I am not like you". The warning is grave - Judgement Day is a day of no return.



How can we hasten our feet into hellfire? It is simple. Tell God that we will obey Him tomorrow. and when tomorrow comes, tell God that day after tomorrow is fine too. When my assignments are done - it is fine. Convince ourselves that we will live long enough to repent right before we die.



But for some of us who have the privilege of God opening our eyes - what shall we do?



Pray to God for understanding to read the Bible.

Talk to a Christian brother/sister about obeying God.

Read the Bible with somebody else to find out how we can live to please God.

Buy a Bible study guide.



The whole idea of getting one more person is not only to "spread the word", but also to be an encouragement to others to do the same. Can I pronounce a judgement such as "Those who does not read the Bible shall be condemned"? Well - I can't say that - I am not the Judge! But if we do not obey God because we do not even desire to seek out how to obey God (by reading His very Word) - you do the math - and measure what you are putting yourself into.

A Time for Test

The time of testing has come again, and whether I pass this day, depends on whether I passed yesterday. If I was not responsible yesterday, todays load will be heavier.

A test for the heart. It is a hard test. It is not a test of time - but a test to trust God's goodness. To acknowledge that the truth is true, that God is good.

Oh God, I have never been good at this. I feel like I am like a weakling in this whole matter, I don't feel like a champion at all. Every time this comes, you will show me that I am not ready. How I wish that I am ready... but my continual wish for readiness is a sign that I am not mature enough. How ironic.

I want to be ready. I don't want to "want to be ready". Because I know as long as I want, I have never let it go yet. Let it go Joel, if it is yours, it will come back.

Such is life. Let it go. If it is yours, it will come...
If it isn't - and you don't let go now, you will lose it anyway.

God, You have taught me. I owe you my life. I wish that I would be a robot for this area of my life - incapable of making my own decisions but mindlessly and emotionlessly sweep through it... then I would not have to suffer such pain. But surely, Your plan is not so.

Your ways are not my ways, your thoughts are higher than mine. You desire to see Jesus formed in me. I desire insanity. Such God, are the struggles in my heart. God - I know of two things to do when I struggle...

Give in.
Grow up.

I want the latter. But the former is easier. Such is life, the better thing is always the harder thing to do. Why did Eve want to be like God? Wasn't she already like God - made in the likeness of God?

Why? I am not really wanting to know why. It is just hard God. I just want to assure myself that You know. I'm sure you know. I just doubt that I am assured of that.

Dear God, today I learn that You ought to be the rightful and loving ruler who is supposed to rule over my life - my failure to comply is sin. And truly so...

The good news and the sad news is that it is the same news.

Dear God, I know You will bring me through all this. Please, please, please grant me strength that I may endure this... that I may honour You... even if nobody ever understands anything.

The Little I Know About Marriage

As you read this post, it would be responsible for me to say first that the following words are from The Bible... Marriage from the Book. It is not a moral guide - though one may derive from it... but it is about God's Marriage - not so much about our marriage, but Jesus' Marriage.

Before the beginning of the world, the Heavenly Father was preparing a marriage for His Son - Jesus. It was not proper that Jesus doesn't have a bride - so God planned out an epic story where Jesus Christ will have to save the bride, save the day, and wed her one day. This is the marriage that will last throughout eternity.

And so, begins the creation of the world. God created mankind - but little did humans know they one day, many of them would join together as one body called church... and this body of people is called the Bride of Christ (Jesus). And so the saga begins...

God created Adam - then God said... It is not good for man to be alone - I will create for Adam a suitable (and equal) helper... and God created Eve. For this reason, a man shall leave his father (and mother) and be joined to his wife as one flesh. God then joined Adam and Eve together in marriage.

And so, this was the first trace of the marriage that will one day happen in heaven - but before that, man will take thousands of years to learn the purpose of the universe...

Some point in time, Adam and Eve rebelled against God and chose to dethroned God in their hearts. God as the Judge sentenced them to death, so that one day man will breathe his final breath and return to dust.

For that matter, the best marriages on earth will never last. Nothing may do them apart, but 'till death do us part' - it is an unwilling parting, since marriage was meant to last.

Rebelling against God (sin) and falling into God's Judgement, humans have nothing to save them. Yet, through the years, God reveals His Laws to show that mankind have turned away from God and have walked the paths that leads to death; meanwhile, God shows mercy on people and showers them with His love... God was preparing His Son the Hero to save these people.

And so, the hero who was waiting since eternity, Jesus came into the scene. He came to save His bride from the masses of humanity. Jesus came to show the full measure of God's Love, to lead His people back to God in repentance, to wash His Bride clean of the filth that has stuck to her as a result of her fornication...and to one day... be one flesh with His people-His Bride, to be so joined together...one flesh.

As Jesus came to this world in the form of a man 2000 years ago, some of the people rejected Him and hung Him on the cross, some of them entrusted their lives to God. Jesus had to die... His death was the payment for the sins of the world. What was meant to be God's Judgement on us, Jesus took our place and suffered the death for us - so that whoever believes in Him has passed God's Judgement.

For if Jesus did not die in saving us, we will be lost and there will be no Bride. And to those who believed Jesus, they became a part of the church which will one day be the Bride of Christ.

While we (Christians) wait on earth, even trials come upon us - so that we may be purified when we have endured the test... God Himself being our strength to overcome, so that one day, we will be a clean and pure Bride on our wedding day.

And so, the creation of the universe is this - that God may prepare for His Son a Bride... which will rule over a New Creation that God has prepared since forever. In this new world, The Father being the God of all, and the Son Jesus Christ ruling the world with His Bride and enjoying all Creation throughout eternity.

His Bride is the church/(are the Christians) then (not just those who call themselves Christians, but those who are truly Christians in heart)- who will also enjoy fellowship with one another as long as eternity goes.

Marriage is not a human invention. Marriage is designed to last. Marriage is designed to join. Marriage is designed for faithfulness.

Yes, today's world, those who are divorced is of the same number with those who are married. And not many people are truly happily married. The world is a twisted place, many things ought not to be the way it was in the beginning. But this is not the end of the story.

For us who are single, we look forward to the true marriage in Heaven. For those who are married, we strive - by God's help, to be a pattern of the one true marriage we will see one day in Heaven.

God has designed us for Lasting Relationships that will never break, True Security that will remain faithful... Assurance that will bring Joy and Peace to the heart; so that while we wait on earth and are despaired by the things happening - we look toward heaven and remain hopeful and steadfast in this world, yearning to be who we are really meant to be.

This is the meaning of life.

The Lust For The World

He who loves the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Do we murder? Do we hate?
Do we commit adultery? Do we lust?
Do we sin? Do we invite ourselves into temptation?
Do we steal? What about piracy?
Do we lie? Are we faithful?
Do we please God? Do we please ourselves?
Do we live for God? Do we live for ourselves?
Do we spend in a godly way? Do we waste God's money?
Do we love our neighbours? Are we selfish?
Do we hate God? Do we love God half-heartedly?
Do we save time? Do we waste God's life?
Do we work hard? Are we lazy?
Do we work for our selfish ambitions? Do we work to give others?
Do we bear good fruit? Do we bear bad fruit?
Do we walk the broad path? Do we walk the narrow path?
Do we hope in our works? Do we depend on Christ?
Are we the good tree? Are we the bad tree?
Are we filled with the Holy Spirit? Are we filled with alcohol?
Are our minds filled with God's Word? Are our minds filled with vulgarity?
Is our confidence in ourselves? Is our confidence in Christ?
Do we study God's Word? Do we read God's Word?
Do we give ourselves excuses? Do we justify ourselves?
Are we Jesus' friends? Are we the world's friends?
Do we worship God? Do we worship our boyfriends/girlfriends?

Where the treasure is, there will be the heart also.

Where is your treasure?

Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord" will enter the Kingdom of God...only those who do the will of My Father in heaven...

A Study of the Sermon on the Mount

True Righteousness Part 1 (5:1-20)
The Truly Blessed Man
Summary: Jesus idea of "True Blessedness" is closely related if not equal to "True Righteousness along with the Consequences and Fruits" of it. True Blessedness is not the way the world views it. True Blessedness is not a set of acts, but a person will be truly blessed - true blessedness belongs to a person, not something obtainable on our part without God's prior deposit.

In Matthew 5:3-10, one might have the inkling that these blessedness stuff is something that we do in order to obtain something. For example, one might think: If I will be poor in spirit, I will have the kingdom of heaven. Or again: If I will be merciful and forgive that person which I ought to forgive, I will obtain mercy from God.

Yet, I have an inkling that 5:3-10 (and 11) is not something about doing, but something about being. It is blessed are those who are merciful, not blessed are those who shows mercy. It is blessed are the peacemakers - it shows that there is a blessedness about this person.

Before moving further, I would like to define what this "blessed" word mean, or at least what is implied when the word is used - divine favour. Some would define it as "God looking our direction and is pleased".

With that, I would like to continue by saying from 5:11-14 - You are the salt of the earth, light of the world. Not so much you can "do the things that makes you behave like salt or light" - but that you are.

One might say, how can one be "salt and light" except by doing things that presents himself as "salt and light"? Surely, "salt" is marked by saltiness and "light" is marked by brightness - but Scripture does not support that we can "do" the blessed things and therefore be blessed.

Therefore, to a very large extent, we can only verify if we are "salt and light" whether we are "blessed" or not. Are we poor in spirit? are we those who mourn? are we meek? Do we thirst and hunger for righteousness?

Note this, a living person - going without food for a while - he will be hungry. Suppose there is a person who needs not food, can the person be made hungry? He has to be made a "normal" person, and he will feel hunger after a while.

Likewise, we are either hungering and thirsting for righteousness or we are not. Are we merciful? Are we pure in heart?

The more interesting question is this -

Are we persecuted because of righteousness? A thing to be careful here, a "righteous man" in the sight of man will probably be well liked - but a man that God consider's righteous, the world will persecute that man, like the way they did to Jesus and the prophets who speak the truth. If we are not righteous, we would find no cause to be persecuted! We can't just find ways to be persecuted for righteousness.

If you become a member of the opposition party and stick your head too far out for your party (for some cause of the party), you may be persecuted - but you are not persecuted for righteousness in God's terms. You may be insulted and false things may be said about you - for the sake of your party, not Jesus.

What I am trying to get at is this - I am reinforcing the point that a person is either this "blessed man" or he is not - it is not within our domain to try to be that man. As we will soon see, it is up to God to reveal to us truth, and as God opens our eyes and we realize it, we will become the blessed man.

What we can do on our part is this: Pay attention to God's Word, God's Word points to Jesus, Jesus is the image of God. The Bible defines eternal life as knowing God. If you know Jesus, you know God, you have eternal life. If knowing Jesus means knowing God, then we better find out what it means to know Jesus.

As for now, we will keep reading from 5:13 onwards in a chronological manner. The argument is quite simple, if a salt is no longer salty (we know that cannot be the case, but suppose there is such a case), it is no longer qualified to be called salt. Whatever that new substance is called, as far as the purpose of giving flavour is concerned, it is very useless, except to be thrown away. Jesus adds something which I think is pretty wierd here, it is not only that the salt is thrown away, but it is to be trampled over by men.

Why trampled by men? If trampled by men means anything, it would mean something that is not only useless, but somethig quite harsh and bad. The closest thing I can think of is an image of some form of judgement. I dare not thread further into allegorizing Jesus sermon. To add the phrase "trampled by men" is then to suppose that the disciples who were hearing this sermon (5:1) to some extent that they are called to be the salt and light - but also verse 11 onwards when the disciples will be persecuted for Jesus' sake.

Also note that 5:3-10 is a "blessed are those", but 5:11 onwards, it is Jesus speaking to the disciples - "blessed are you when..." I am led to think that Jesus thought it important to create a framework of what is true "blessedness" - then only to identify His disciples into this "blessedness" circle from 5:11 onwards.

The reason for such an argument is 5:3 and 5:10 gives an idea that 5:3-5:10 is one section by itself - but we also see that 5:10 and 5:11 is quite the same thing. 5:10 does not mention Jesus, 5:11 does; 5:10 seems to be somebody else, 5:11 is Jesus' disciples. Look at 5:12, this would probably confirm that observation, Jesus compares his disciples (who will suffer persecution for His name) to the prophets of the old (i.e. 5:11 is compared to 5:10).

With that in place, Jesus indentifies his disciples as the blessed people which is only useful as long as they posses that quality that makes them blessed. Just as salt is only defined as salt when it is salty - the blessed man is only defined as the blessed man when he fits the criterias by which Jesus call that man blessed.

Note again, salt IS salty, salt doesn't BECOME salty. We will learn, spiritually dead people doesn't BECOME living people, but Jesus makes us a NEW Creation. We learn words like new birth, new creation - because we don't somehow "improve" from dead people into living people. God gives us life, we have life. "Dead Person Version 1.2" is still dead person.

In verse 14, Jesus introduces some pretty interesting idea though. Salt is salty just as light is bright. But there can be such a way that the bright light is hidden under a basket. The bright light is not dimmed, but it is hidden. Jesus continues that the disciples are to let their light shine that the world may see their good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

This is not to say the disciples blow their own trumpet shouting "I have done a good deed, come praise God!" - for this Jesus rebukes this idea in the next chapter - "Be careful not to do your deeds of righteousness before men, TO BE SEEN BY THEM".

5:14-15 in simple sense means: Let light be light and serve its purpose by being light - light is meant to show and reveal, hidden light is no light(to hide light is not the right thing to do). God's good deeds is meant to be done by His blessed people who will be doing it simply by staying the "blessed man"(salt) they are called to be(good deeds will flow from blessed people), they will be one that "gives light to everyone in the house".

Note: In Matthew 7:15 later, we will also see that a tree is characterized by its fruit. A good tree will naturally bear good fruit. In the same way, the blessed people will produce good fruit.

The next part 5:17 onwards troubles me, why does Jesus suddenly say "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets". Was it something Jesus said that might have implied this idea? Or is it something that Jesus will say that will imply the idea that He is going to abolish the law or the prophets? How does this "blessed man" idea destroy the law and the prophets?

The answer is this: Jesus is about to say something that will (to the eyes of His hearers), abolish the Law and the Prophets. I believe Jesus is somewhat like saying "Be patient, what you are about to hear is almost like blasphemy(what is more blasphemous than to abolish God's Law and deny His Words?) - but it is not, not only it is NOT abolishing, it is FULFILLING". Jesus says His arrival is to fulfill the Law and the Prophets - Jesus promises the fulfillment of everything by saying NOT THE LEAST shall disappear from the Law.

The Law and the Prophets are the Old Testament. Jesus comes to fulfill not only the prophets like some of us think - Some of us think Old Testament is pretty pointless since it is suppose to just predict Jesus' coming. Old Testament does a million things more than just predicting Jesus coming - Old Testament is a shadow of the thing to come(which has already come) - JESUS!

If we know anything about shadows, there is a measure of resemblence between the shadow and the object, certain things look the same - but the shadow is not to be mistaken as the real thing.

A very brief examples of waht shadows are in Old Testament:
Adam as Son of God who rules the earth - Jesus as Son of God who rules the earth
Adam and Eve's marriage - Christ and the Church's marriage
Mighty prophet of God who delivers God's people from slavery: Moses as a type of Jesus
Kings of Israel to rule over God's people: Jesus the true King
Sacrifices that costs blood of lambs and bulls: Jesus the Perfect Sacrifice
High priest as the mediator between God and man: Jesus the True High Priest
Prophets who suffered for righteousness: Jesus who suffered for righteousness

There are tons of other things within the Old Testament which teaches us who Christ is. If we know not the Old Testament, we will have this prevalent Christianity in the world today - the Christianity which we learn of popular songs, Christianity in the form of cliches. If we know not what Jesus came to fulfill (giving meaning to the shadows and fulfilling predictions and more), I fear that our view of God will be a very little one. Nowadays, when a Christian mention that Jesus is great(or God is great), they are saying:

God gave me good grades in class
God gave me lots of money
God gave me a place in heaven
God saved me from that disaster
God gave me a happy day

WHAT?! Whatever happened to the definition of blessedness a few verses before?

Christians rejoice in "being in power" and not those who suffer for persecution
Christians rejoice in material gains but not in being poor in spirit

What happened to being meek? pure in heart?

Listen! Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. A great deal of that meant being:

The TRULY rejected man of God ( as the older prophets were rejected)
The PERFECT Sacrifice
The TRULY persecuted man
The TRUE definition of man
The TRUE definition of God

If a Christian should desire to be like anybody - we shoudl desire to be like Christ. Did Christ not ask his disciples to rejoice (5:12) because they can come into the "blessed" category which Christ who suffered is part of?

Moving on - Jesus says raises the standard of righteousness. Jesus says unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees (which the people of their day would reckon as the HIGHEST possible level), we will all be doomed. Now consider this, if the Pharisees as attained the highest level, and Jesus says unless we attain higher - we are doomed. We are left with very few options:

1) This man speaks truth - it is impossible to enter God's Kingdom
2) This man is blaspheming, i.e. abolishing the Law and the Prophets

The first one is not the one that is favourable to us. The second option sounds better. This gives us reason to see why Jesus has to do some beforehand explaination. Since nobody objected Jesus between 5:20 and 5:21, we suppose that Jesus calling them to "not jump into conclusions but listen to my explaination" phrase in 5:17-19 did work!

Now verse 21 onwards, Jesus will explain His Words. Now that we know 5:1-20, we get an idea of where Jesus is getting at. A quick recap:

Jesus defines the blessed man and true blessedness
Jesus gives an inclusion of his disciples
Jesus calls the disciples to stay distinctly blessed

BUT, a big BUT:
Jesus disagrees with the traditional method of entering the Kingdom of God - or at least the way the most "righteous" people in the community think they can enter heaven. Jesus calls for righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees: So afterall, Jesus calls for righteousness! but Jesus calls for MORE righteousness! So... what is this MORE righteousness?

Before we move on, we are reminded Jesus says He did not come to abolish - He also says that the least of the commandments will be obeyed and taught. What are some examples of these commandments - what it means to be more righteous, or TRULY righteous?

5:21-22 Jesus reiterates the traditional way by which the hearers would have done things. Its wrong to murder, but the intentions of anger and hatred) is not so bad. But Jesus says the person will be subjected to judgement because of his intention. Traditionally, hateful speech is subjected to some form of judgement in their religious court; but Jesus says hateful speech is a matter of hellfires.

Reading on 5:23, Jesus says if we are to worship God, we are to be reconciled to our brother first. Taking a step back, what do we see? 5:23 is saying if we want to be reconciled to God, let us be reconciled to our brother first.

Should Jesus not say this, the people would still think that it is perfectly okay to hate and be seperated froma brother (murder) and be joined (reconciled) with God! Jesus raises the bar - NOT! Jesus didn't raise the bar, Jesus was merely revealing hypocrisy. Anyone who reads the Gospel will know the Pharisees are hypocrites (just like us). With this in mind, we go a few verses back up - what is this more righteousness that Pharisee?

Jesus is plainly saying this: One has to be righteous to enter the Kingdom of God. The hypocritical standard of righteousness that these Pharisees has is not going to make it.

In other words, knowing we are naturally hypocrites, we have no better hope than the Pharisees! One thing we could glean from here is also related to Jesus statement of coming to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. By Jesus admitting that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, He is saying:

You want to know what the whole Old Testament is about? Me
You want to know what those Laws are about? Me
You want to know what Old Testament is pointing to? Me

There are a million rules in Old Testament. Collectively speaking, all the laws (all laws) reveal a few things about God:

God is particular about how we worship Him (laws concerning temple building, what sacrifices to offer, etc)
God is Holy (Different admission levels within the Temple/Tabernacle, no mixing different seeds and different textiles in one clothing)
God is concerned with every area of our life (laws that concern from animals to harvest to festivals to politics)
Perhaps even more that I know not of -

But Jesus, being the revelation of God - is also a revelation of God's intentions. If we want to know what God's love is - look at Jesus on the Cross. If we want to know what God thinks of our sin - look at Jesus on the Cross. We want to know what is a blessed man is - look at Jesus on the Cross.

True Righteousness Part 2 (5:21-37)
Self Invented Righteousness - minimizing God's Law at the cost of Hellfire
Summary: Don't make the checkbox for righteousness so small so you can tick it of thinking you have fulfilled the minimum requirement of God's Law. That very act itself is not based on true righteousness - continuing in such attitude will land you into Judgement. Jesus explains that true righteousness is not merely one of outward appearance, but one of shunning evil in the heart. This self invented tiny checkbox (well, I didn't kill people, I pass the test of God's Laws), is more explicitly proved to be one without power - shown in 5:33-37... it is God's Law that has the power, and God's Law looks at the heart - not mere outward appearances. the "looking at the heart" idea was not only from the "murder" and "adultery" examples, but "integrity and faithful speech" example.

When Jesus speaks of anger and hatred being equivalent to murder - He is simply saying: God is not fooled by you, God is a God who looks at the heart and intentions. There is no such thing as a superficial righteousness. You might have the entry "superficial righteousness" in your dictionary, but there is no such semi-righteous level in God's eyes. You want to be reconciled with God? Reconcile with your brother - or else you fool yourself into thinking that God approves your hypocrisy.

Then Jesus gives a challenge here. Settle it now while you have time. The same way that you try to settle your case with your adversary before you reach the Sanhedrin (the court), you better settle your case before you meet God in the court. The same way that you will not get out from the human court until you pay the last penny, what makes you think you can get out of God's court until you pay the last penny.

Jesus was speaking to a whole group of hypocrites - which we would do well and honest as we identify ourselves with them. Notice as Jesus speaks 5:25-26, my assumption is that Jesus assumed that the people ought to understand the previous verses the way I explained it (which i hope you agree that it is only logical). If Jesus did not make that assumption, 5:25-26 would be out of place - a wierd verse in the middle of nowhere (where many popular pastors like to use to preach whatever they like). Let us be clear with this, Jesus did not make that assumption. JESUS knew what was in the people's heart.

Many times we read the Bible as though it was talking about some person somewhere - but we ought to realize as much as Jesus is really not talking to us... Jesus could be equally talking to us! It is God's Living Word we are reading, and God speaks to us through His Word. It is not as though God "somewhat" speaks to us through His Word... but God's voice that we "hear" is the REAL Word. Here is the bottom line, the Bible is God's Word spoken to us 100% of the time, the voice we claim to hear is subjected to the Bible.

Bottom line, Jesus sees our heart - 5:25-26, Jesus calls us to settle it before we meet God in the heavenly courts, where hellfire is an option ( not ours, but the Judge's). Do we have any intentions that are unrighteous? Confess it to God, confesses to the person you offended. You either settle it here and now, or you settle it in heaven. I am not speaking of legalistic righteousness, for the salvation that Jesus gave is not the superficial salvation - but Jesus clearly says that intention is important. If you are too proud to confess to the person, what is the difference between you and the person in 5:23-24?

If you mourn in repentance now, Jesus says in 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. But if you choose to remain in error and stay in comfort now, God will make sure that justice is done and nobody will escape the last penny they ought to pay. True righteousness and integrity goes hand in hand - Hypocritical righteousness is no righteousness... and righteousness matters to the point of heaven and hell.

5:27-30, Jesus continues on with the pattern : You have heard it was said; but I tell you. The hearers hardened hearts recognizes not the truth of God - Jesus equates lust with adultery. Lust is the intention, adultery is the deed. Jesus could have equally said your intention to commit adultery is already adultery. But we have to be careful not to just take the next 2 verses to mean something merely for adultery. If any part of your body causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away - if there could be such a thing: it is better to enter heaven blind rather than having both eyes and go to hell.

A few things to note here. A few more issues such as divorce, untruthfulness, revenge, and love is covered by Jesus as the chapter goes on - but this is definitely not an indication that Jesus is only concerned about these few areas as though it was an exhaustive list. What the text hammers in is this - righteousness matters even if it costs you an arm and a leg.

How often have we allowed ourselves to indulge in the object of temptation thinking that we are strong enough to not sin - only to find ourselves weak every time? In our idleness, we sit at a quiet place fantasizing about people in ways we ought not to be thinking about them - as we think more and more intently, our minds become pornography, but we still let our minds go on. Even though we knew that we should have stopped much earlier, we continue thinking to a point where we feel too guilty to continue - and we stop and say things like "Oh, I didn't (did) realize I sinned!"

Why do we even sound surprised? We could have spent our time for godly thinks and fill our minds with godly thoughts but we love sin. For all of us, we could have taken steps to prevent it, but we do not - since it will cost us too much. Quoting the previous post:

When I first heard this sermon preached (this is a summary of his sermon), the pastor speaking to a group of University students said this was addressing the issue that we face with Internet Pornography - the convenience of it and how we can easily delete our browsing history after that. Many of us struggle with the sin yet we are not willing to let it go.

He said:

" C'mon guys, you know this. If you need to, you can just throw your computer out of the window - you can always use the university computer labs to do your assignment. How much is your computer? 2000 dollars? 3000 thousand? What is a more important? 3000 dollars or righteousness before God?"

The issue of adultery (from the passage) continues on up till 5:32. There were people who lusted for the wives of others - yet in their self-invented righteousness did not want others to know that they were already committing adultery in their hearts. Its quite simple, the man and the woman gets divorced, and marry each other.

See - God is not as stupid as us. When we want something bad enough, we find it easy to fool ourselves. God is not fooled by our apparent obedience to the Law, when in our hearts - we are schemers and adulterers. Jesus continues to speak on True Righteousness, and the people could not say anything against it (but they all heard with amazement, for Jesus taught as one having authority)... Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, He spoke the truth - our "appear good religion" is torn down by the one who judges without partiality, the one who sees through our heart and know that we are wicked to the core.

After adultery, Jesus uses another illustration to show our shrewdness. Sometimes we hear people say: "I swear to God I am telling the truth". Do you have less responsibility to tell the truth then if you don't swear to God? What is this standard you are using which permits you to speak half the truth all the time except if you swear by God?

Or we hear (an say): "I swear that I am telling the truth or else I will die being struck by lightning" - really? Jesus says "You can't even make one hair black or white", "and you want to swear by heaven, by God's throne"? Let your "Yes" mean "Yes" and "No" mean "No" - have some integrity! Can righteousness be without integrity?

Want to see some examples of having no integrity?

Don't murder, but hate. Don't commit adultery, but lust. Don't lie, just don't tell the truth. At the end of this all, please do feel good about yourself - because you appear to be pretty righteous in the sight of everyone else.

NO! Jesus says: You hate? You are a murderer. You lust? You are an adulterer. You speak lies, you speak like the devil. In all this, unless you repent, you are in danger of hellfire.

True Righteousness Part 3 (5:38-48)
Why The Raise of Standard?
Jesus does not claim to raise the standard of true righteousness(as in righteous acts), but Jesus does claim that to live with self-invented righteousness and to merely play things "fair" is not quite who God really is. God is the one who turns the other cheek when He was struck, walks the extra mile to calvary, had himself robbed of his clothes, loved his enemies and died for them, prayed for those who persecuted Him to the point of death - was that not EVERYTHING Jesus did?

Jesus says, "Be perfect - as your Heavenly Father is perfect". How do we become perfect like the Heavenly Father? We have not seen Him; But the Bible says Jesus is the image of God, Jesus told Phillip that the person who has seen Jesus has seen the Father! Do Christians not say we ought to grow to become like Jesus more and more; Yes, that statement is a direct reference to Jesus. We have to be careful not to think of the whole "Sermon on the Mount" as a "Sermon of Good Suggestions". As much as Jesus is preaching to the people, we learn through His preaching that Jesus is one who embodies what He preaches.

A hypocrite seldom think they sin (if ever) - I believe many hypocrites in denial would somehow qualify themselves as righteous from 5:21-48. After you, you my dear Christian friend, and yes, myself - How often do we read the Sermon on The Mount thinking that Jesus is speaking to... SOMEBODY ELSE? Well, Jesus haven't explicitly stated that yet, though very soon we will see Jesus telling the people - YOU THINK I AM TALKING ABOUT SOMEBODY ELSE SINCE JUST NOW? I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU!


False Riches vs True Riches, False Security vs True Security
Summary: The climax is coming, but before that - Jesus now speaks something that is closer to the hearts of the hearers. By the way, please note:Much of church preaching have painted Pharisees in a bad light, they are the self-declared "self-righteous hypocrites", and in speaking so, much of the congregation feels better, since there is somebody who is worse off than them. This thought - thinking that we are better because there is somebody worse... is exactly the kind of hypocrites that lived during Jesus time and have been staying alive until today.

Now Jesus will speak of the things we so commonly do...

When was the last time we did a good deed and we wondered... "Hmm, I wonder if anyone will see this and think good of me?" That probably wasn't too long ago, unless you never did any good deed at all.

This is what the hypocrites are doing. They give so that others may know that they are generous. Just to pull of from the previous section, these are some words Christians use to justify themselves:

"I blow a trumpet when I give... so that other people may know that I am a generous person, so they will know Christians are generous people, and they will glorify God"

See, our hypocrisy runs so deep, it is so in our blood that we actually think that God is like that. 6:7 "and when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words"

If you are a hypocrite, Jesus seeks to persuade you otherwise with this argument:

The up side (of hypocrisy) is this, you will receive your reward from men.
The down side is this, God will having nothing to do with you.

God doesn't care what you give.

God doesn't care what you pray.

God doesn't care about your devotion.

Afterall, if God cared about this pretense - then how can He be just? How can he be fair? God will regard and reward the person who does it in secret - this person lives with God as his audience, not men. Jesus says "The Father who sees it in secret will reward you". If you ever wonder who saw you doing that good deed again, God did. God will reward you.

*The Lord's Prayer is left out intentionally. There are tons of other materials writtn on that prayer alone. Our focus here is to get the whole idea of the sermon, so we shall move on.

"Rewards" is one of those catchy words - whatmore "Rewards from God"! How thrilling can that be - Christians today are so happy to hear words like "God's Blessing" and "God's gift".

Hear Jesus words: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What is God's gift? God's rewards? God's Blessing? God's Treasures? We would like to think of it as a string of titles after our names, a bank account that overflows, a comfortable life, and distinguished position in society - for me I would like to think of it as good grades in university, a stable risk-free life, and one day a wonderful wife. Different people might have different "wants" in life, but really, it is quite similar in nature.

Surely, God can give us all the luxuries of life as mentioned above - but Jesus cautions us that what He meant by rewards is not the rewards that we are thinking about. If we are to take the apostles as an example: We can be quite sure that their rewards doesn't quite fit our idea of rewards. Jesus calls us to store up our treasures in heaven - not on earth. One thing I know for sure: Jesus is NOT talking about earthly and material rewards.

A few verses down, Jesus promises that God will provide for our needs - but here, Jesus is not talking about earthly rewards, He made it explicit that the rewards are heavenly in nature. Jesus continues on to say that if we set our eyes on that which is good - our lives will be illuminated (which I believe to be a figurative way of saying goodness). Yet if we set our eyes on that which is dark (which I believe to be a figurative way of saying badness), our lives will be dimmed and doomed. What is it that the eye is the lamp of the body?

Does it mean our physical eyes? If we watch violent movies our thoughts will be filled with violence - and if we watch too much wickedness, we will be influenced towards evil? Perhaps so - this is a very sound and logical argument.

Yet I do not think that it properly fits the context of Jesus words. 6:22-23 is smack in the middle 6:19-21 and 6:24 - surely Jesus suddenly remembered something He didn't say, went off topic for a while and then continues his sermon on rewards? What I think would fit the context is this.

We are not to set our expectations wrongly. We expected rewards on earth in terms of material things - Jesus calls us to be careful of what we set our expectations on. If we set our eyes on true rewards - that is if we expect true rewards which Jesus promised, we are on the right track. But if we set our eyes on the earthly rewards (which is contrasted in the verse before and after - materialism vs God), we will be filled with darkness. This might possibly mean we have misunderstood it all, we will be confused as to why "things are not as I expected", we will be darkened in our understanding, etc - whatever it may be - these false expectations will fill our souls with darkness, and we know darkness is not the preferred condition.

Jesus goes on: We can only have one Lord. Not God and Money. It is God or Money. Not both, but either one. We cannot have a divided heart that serves two Lords. Jesus says we will either Love serving God and hate serving money, or that we will love serving money and hate serving God. It is contrary. Many of us have ambitions to "be some great person" someday and we would be more than happy if being "that great person" means getting a "great salary".

Jesus warning is this - you cannot serve God and money at the same time. Is this not true? If we desire to serve God - we will shape our education, manage our time, spend our money, and even choose our spouses so that we can serve God best.

Otherwise, this is what we will do. Find the course that will enables to give us the highest pay when we start working. We slave our lives to obain the promotion. We constantly spend money to decorate ourselves, add accesories, and buy bigger and newer things. Our spouses? Choose the hottest girl you can get! Who do we serve? God? Give me a break.

Before we move on. Get this straight. You are either serving GOD or MONEY. It is a mutually exclusive category if you know what that means. That means: If you find out now that you are serving MONEY, it means you are NOT serving GOD. You are not to believe that "I am serving money in this scope of my life, and I serve God in the other scope of my life". If Money is your god on monday, it means that money is your god everyday - God is not the God of sundays and church evangelistic events. The God of the Bible is the God of everyday and every area. Money is not the only limit isn't it? Money paints a whole picture of materialism - which ties in well with a verses on top.

This question which I challenge you with, I challenge myself too.
Joel, is there an area in your life that you are not letting God be God? Is there an area in your life where you would just say "God, thanks but no thanks, I will take care of this area in my life and I will do things my way"? If God is not God of every area in my life - I have very good reasons to believe that I only serve God whenever it is convenient to me. My convenience is my God - not the God of the Bible then. Going to church is convenient, forking out time on Friday isn't that difficult too - how hard can singing Christian songs be? Be careful - we might just be serving our convenience. Such a person cannot endure trials. When trials come, we will see who is God in their life - and we know the man who serves his own convenience would just conclude:

"Truly truly, Jesus is not in my heart"

Careful, we might just be living in self-deception now. We have cheated ourselves once and justified our evil motives before God., and it is not surprising if we can do it again and again. Practice makes perfect. Do it more and you might just never recognize truth again even if it is right before your eyes.

The next few verses 6:25-34 are only relevant if the previous paragraphs have caused you are considering to live for Jesus. It is not "decided", but considering. If you are not even considering, it is my personal recommendation that you do not read the next few verses as you will probably misunderstand the whole thing. Of course, this is just my personal recommendation, neither Jesus nor the evangelist tells you "DO NOT READ THE BIBLE, YOU MIGHT JUST LOSE ALL YOU OWN". But if you are interested in knowing God's promises for those who follow Him, do read on - but know that you have been warned.

Jesus says: Don't worry. God takes care of the birds even. God feeds the birds, THEREFORE God will also feed you. God clothes the lilies, THEREFORE God will also feed you. Why does the first statement (God feeds the birds) imply the second statement (God will feed you)? Jesus answers: because you are of much more worth than the birds. In Jesus' classical gentleness, He questions their unfounded ideas (about God's provision, or for that matter... non-provision) useless worries (who of you can add a single hour to life by worrying?)

We have to note this. I really think that Jesus is speaking to people who are actually considering to follow Him. If they followed Jesus - what are they going ot wear? What are they going to eat? Jesus was a rabbi in his days - and if you know anything about that profession, it isn't a 9-5 job that has a fixed amoiunt of salary with a pension fund when you are 55 years old. In some sense, the fears and worries of these people are reasonable, following Jesus could mean losing all these security - to what extent? To the extent that you won't really know what you will be eating tomorrow.

A few lines later Jesus says - do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. It must have been a real hard life Jesus lived. To follow Him is to find security (food, clothing, shelter, whatever other daily needs labeled as "all these things" in 6:33) in God alone.

The logic flows this way if they are to follow Jesus:

Tomorrow I will have food on my table, not so much because I have extra money in my bank account... but because the God who feed the birds will somehow feed me.
Tomorrow I will have clothing (protection and perhaps shelter), not so much because I have extra money in my bank... but because God who clothes the lilies will somehow clothe me.
The reason the above logic must make sense is because I am worth more than mere birds.
We ought not to worry, not so much because I have extra money in my bank account, but because God knows all these things and He has taken care of it.

Take God out of the picture - they are hopeless. No food, no clothing, no shelter and EVERYTHING to worry about. In our life today, we might think of them as standing on thin ice.

But Jesus counters that notion. Jesus says that we who hope in earthly treasures are the ones standing on thin ice. Moth and rust will destroy, thieves will steal. To Jesus, God's security is not the best security... it is the ONLY security.

If we remembered about Jesus temptation in by Satan - Jesus quotes the Old Testament. Maybe Jesus was quoting for Satan - but maybe Jesus was quoting Old Testament to remind Himself (being also fully human) of God's Word. In my personal opinion, the way Jesus phrase the words gives me a feeling that the words Jesus speaks to the hearers... are also the words He speak to Himself.

Jesus knows what it meant by "tomorrow will worry about itself. Today have enough troubles of its own".

Today Jesus is baptised, tomorrow He will fast for 40 days - and at the end He will be tempted by Satan.
Today Jesus hears Peter say "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God!" The very next moment, Jesus will have to tell Peter "Get behind me Satan".
Tonight Jesus eats with his 12 disciples, tonight He will be betrayed by Judas, tomorrow He will be crucified.

That is just my guess - but what is of more importance to us is the irony of these few verses.

The people that Jesus speaks to worry about their - what we call "basic necessities". What do we worry about when we consider the question "Will I follow Jesus?". Take some time to recall your worries. If you don't remember worrying, you are either:

a) So trusting in God that worrying is a rare thing for you
b) You have an imaginary Jesus that is rather convenient to follow

I think (b) would be what most people choose.

But if you are anything like me, I would have some worries.
I don't worry about having no food - but I do worry about not having the most delicious meal all the time.
I don't worry about having no clothes - but I do worry about having not so branded clothes.
I worry about driving a smaller car, living in a smaller house...
I worry about....

Ah, it is starting to sound idiotic isn't it? There in the Bible the peopl are fearing for their survival, here am I fearing that I will be less than comfortable. They worry about having no clothes, we worry about having less branded clothes.

The similarity of people 2000 years ago and people today is this:
Humans worry and are self-lovers

The difference is this:
We are much worse than them.

The thing that never did change for 2000 years is this:
Jesus

Jesus words which spoke to them 2000 years ago, speaks to us also. Consider it carefully.

I am talking about you! Decide!