Friday, December 7, 2007
We Were Thirsty
Over the past three days my wife and I were at Phuket and dropped into a Seven-Eleven store to buy ourselves a drink. We saw this bottle on the shelf and it quickly reminded us of what the Lord had come to give us.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Know For A Certainty That We Are The Beloved Of Abba Daddy - 2
You must be wondering why I repeated the title for this post. This morning I received in my email a comment from "Jim" telling me that what I wrote about the Apostle John was not substantiated with scriptures and thereby inaccurate.
I am sorry if I have cause Jim any inconvenience. If we would all turn to the Bible and look at the 5 instances where the phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" we would get a better appreciation of where I am coming from - John 13:22/ John 19:26 / John 20:2 / John 21:7 / John 21:20.
Jewish customs tell us that the youngest member of the family gets to sit on the right side of the father during the Pesak meal (Passover Feast) and it is their custom that the youngest would prompt the father to re-tell the Passover account during the meal - part of their oral tradition and is still being practise in Jewish homes. Now the Apostle John is the youngest member of His team (some bible scholars think he was a teenager when he followed Jesus) and therefore gets to sit next to Jesus at the table and it is customary for the Jews in Jesus' time to sit reclining when they eat (resting on their left elbow and leaning back on the chest of the person on his left) and so when you look at John 13:22, we get a hint that it was John who was that "disciple whom Jesus loved".
When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He commissioned the disciple whom he loved to take care of His mother after He had departed from them. Who would you think is this disciple? It is not recorded any more after this verse but if we look at some of the archeological records from Capernaum, we might get a hint. When we visited Israel 5-1/2 years and again 4 years ago, right at the entrance to the ancient city of Capernaum hung a plaque stating that this town was the town of Jesus (meaning that He made it His hometown after He was rejected from Nazareth) and among some of the artefacts was a stone with the carvings "Family of Zebedee". Well, James and john were the sons of Zebedee who once wanted Jesus to command fire from Heaven to reign down on a Samaritan village who did not welcome them into their village (Luke 9:54) and so they must have great influence (and means) in Capernaum to be able to have such expensive carvings left at strategic places.
Also note that the account of Jesus "assigning" the responsibility of caring for His earthly mother to the "disciple whom Jesus loved" is ONLY found in the Gospel of John. Why? because none of the other disciples were there as He hung on the cross except the one who wrote about it - the Apostle John. The rest of the disciples deserted Him as He had foretold during the Passover meal the night before.
Luke 24:12 tells us that Peter went to the tomb and saw the burial clothes of Jesus laying by themselves while John mentioned Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved were at the tomb (John20:2). Now if you are writing your own diary and giving a personal account of what happened, would you not used a term that you are familiar with to describe yourself? As I mentioned earlier, John being a teenager outran the older Peter all the way to the tomb which is not surprising.
As I wrote in my earlier post, this phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" can only be found in the Gospel of John. John using this phrase to describe himself is not surprising. If we know how much Jesus loves us, we would also use such phrases to describe His intimacy with us. If you see the description of myself in my Profile, I addressed myself as the 'Beloved Child of Jesus Christ and of our Heavenly Abba Father'.
I am sorry if I have cause Jim any inconvenience. If we would all turn to the Bible and look at the 5 instances where the phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" we would get a better appreciation of where I am coming from - John 13:22/ John 19:26 / John 20:2 / John 21:7 / John 21:20.
Jewish customs tell us that the youngest member of the family gets to sit on the right side of the father during the Pesak meal (Passover Feast) and it is their custom that the youngest would prompt the father to re-tell the Passover account during the meal - part of their oral tradition and is still being practise in Jewish homes. Now the Apostle John is the youngest member of His team (some bible scholars think he was a teenager when he followed Jesus) and therefore gets to sit next to Jesus at the table and it is customary for the Jews in Jesus' time to sit reclining when they eat (resting on their left elbow and leaning back on the chest of the person on his left) and so when you look at John 13:22, we get a hint that it was John who was that "disciple whom Jesus loved".
When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He commissioned the disciple whom he loved to take care of His mother after He had departed from them. Who would you think is this disciple? It is not recorded any more after this verse but if we look at some of the archeological records from Capernaum, we might get a hint. When we visited Israel 5-1/2 years and again 4 years ago, right at the entrance to the ancient city of Capernaum hung a plaque stating that this town was the town of Jesus (meaning that He made it His hometown after He was rejected from Nazareth) and among some of the artefacts was a stone with the carvings "Family of Zebedee". Well, James and john were the sons of Zebedee who once wanted Jesus to command fire from Heaven to reign down on a Samaritan village who did not welcome them into their village (Luke 9:54) and so they must have great influence (and means) in Capernaum to be able to have such expensive carvings left at strategic places.
Also note that the account of Jesus "assigning" the responsibility of caring for His earthly mother to the "disciple whom Jesus loved" is ONLY found in the Gospel of John. Why? because none of the other disciples were there as He hung on the cross except the one who wrote about it - the Apostle John. The rest of the disciples deserted Him as He had foretold during the Passover meal the night before.
Luke 24:12 tells us that Peter went to the tomb and saw the burial clothes of Jesus laying by themselves while John mentioned Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved were at the tomb (John20:2). Now if you are writing your own diary and giving a personal account of what happened, would you not used a term that you are familiar with to describe yourself? As I mentioned earlier, John being a teenager outran the older Peter all the way to the tomb which is not surprising.
As I wrote in my earlier post, this phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" can only be found in the Gospel of John. John using this phrase to describe himself is not surprising. If we know how much Jesus loves us, we would also use such phrases to describe His intimacy with us. If you see the description of myself in my Profile, I addressed myself as the 'Beloved Child of Jesus Christ and of our Heavenly Abba Father'.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Train A Child In The Way He Should Go...
In Proverbs 22:6, King Solomon wrote, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn (depart) from it." How true I find this advice.
I recalled how when I was young my own parents taught me certain values in life and till today I can still remember them well and in turn I have passed some of these (plus others that I picked up along the way) on to my own children. And just the other day I was watching the 7PM Korean soap "Precious Family" and was being reminded how precious the early lessons were to the youngest daughter in this family. She broke up with her boyfriend whom she very much wanted to marry but because of family restrictions, she could not.
And at one point, out of her frustration, she arranged to meet up with her ex-boyfriend and they rented a hotel room so that they could talk and try to comfort each other. And it was there and then that she said she was very tempted to throw her virtues out the window so as to have one last fling before they go their separate ways. At precisely that moment, her conscience caught her and she retracted. She reminded herself that she was the youngest daughter of the vice-principal of the middle school in her district and being of a certain pedigree, she cannot let her family reputation go down the drain.
And that reminded me of how we should train our own children. No, I am not saying that we should nag at our children to guard our good reputation but rather we should show them Christ and His love for them and to encourage them as beloved children of Abba Daddy. Once they know their true identity, they will not want to go the way of the world but will learn to appropriate the love that Daddy God had showered on them and will bear His image.
Well, the Apostle John recognized that and he was so filled with the love of Abba Daddy that he changed from a hot-tempered, foul-mouthed fisherman to become the Apostle of Love and wrote the Gospel of john and his three letters to the churches to encourage them and there was a bonus issue - he got to meet with the Risen Christ in a vision and penned what he saw in the Book of Revelations.
I recalled how when I was young my own parents taught me certain values in life and till today I can still remember them well and in turn I have passed some of these (plus others that I picked up along the way) on to my own children. And just the other day I was watching the 7PM Korean soap "Precious Family" and was being reminded how precious the early lessons were to the youngest daughter in this family. She broke up with her boyfriend whom she very much wanted to marry but because of family restrictions, she could not.
And at one point, out of her frustration, she arranged to meet up with her ex-boyfriend and they rented a hotel room so that they could talk and try to comfort each other. And it was there and then that she said she was very tempted to throw her virtues out the window so as to have one last fling before they go their separate ways. At precisely that moment, her conscience caught her and she retracted. She reminded herself that she was the youngest daughter of the vice-principal of the middle school in her district and being of a certain pedigree, she cannot let her family reputation go down the drain.
And that reminded me of how we should train our own children. No, I am not saying that we should nag at our children to guard our good reputation but rather we should show them Christ and His love for them and to encourage them as beloved children of Abba Daddy. Once they know their true identity, they will not want to go the way of the world but will learn to appropriate the love that Daddy God had showered on them and will bear His image.
Well, the Apostle John recognized that and he was so filled with the love of Abba Daddy that he changed from a hot-tempered, foul-mouthed fisherman to become the Apostle of Love and wrote the Gospel of john and his three letters to the churches to encourage them and there was a bonus issue - he got to meet with the Risen Christ in a vision and penned what he saw in the Book of Revelations.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Know For A Certainty That We Are The Beloved Of Abba Daddy
Ever wondered why the Apostle John used the phrase, 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'? Initially when I was much younger in age as well as a Christian, I used to think that the Apostle was being prideful until recently when Pastor Prince shed some light on this phrase.
The Apostle John was the only disciple who ever used that phrase to describe himself; none of the other apostles used the term. Also it should be noted that the apostle used that term to describe himself, no one gave him that term. Was John conceated then?
Well, John was one of the three disciples Jesus had handpicked as His inner circle of disciples - Peter, James and John. Peter is the Greek word for 'rock' or Law while James correlates to Jacob or 'surplanter' and of course John in Hebrew is Johanan or 'grace'. And so even the three names tell a very interesting message that our Lord wants to illustrate - The Law had been replaced (surplanted) by grace.
The Apostle grasped that rather quickly and decided that he will internallize Abba's love for him and keep reminding himself that he was 'the disciple that Jesus loves'. What an awesome revelation and what awesome results and blessings came his way just because of his confession of faith. And as he did that, even the storms of life could not deter him.
The Apostle John was the only disciple who ever used that phrase to describe himself; none of the other apostles used the term. Also it should be noted that the apostle used that term to describe himself, no one gave him that term. Was John conceated then?
Well, John was one of the three disciples Jesus had handpicked as His inner circle of disciples - Peter, James and John. Peter is the Greek word for 'rock' or Law while James correlates to Jacob or 'surplanter' and of course John in Hebrew is Johanan or 'grace'. And so even the three names tell a very interesting message that our Lord wants to illustrate - The Law had been replaced (surplanted) by grace.
The Apostle grasped that rather quickly and decided that he will internallize Abba's love for him and keep reminding himself that he was 'the disciple that Jesus loves'. What an awesome revelation and what awesome results and blessings came his way just because of his confession of faith. And as he did that, even the storms of life could not deter him.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
My Confidence IS In The Lord
My experience this week affirmed in my spirit the need to continue to put my confidence not in men but firmly in the Lord. Events had taken place so quickly this week that I could not even sit down and ponder over the developments.
In my post of last Thursday Nov 22 entitled, "Give Me Wisdom Please, Lord" I wrote that I had a call from a friend in Canada who wanted me to help him teach a whole week's worth of courses under his new license and also on that same day a few of us practitioners met up to discuss how we can form an alliance and teach another set of certification courses. Well, after agreeing to help my Canadian friend in his courses, I was confronted on Wednesday evening by the second licensee why I agreed to do what I promised without checking first with him and that I was making things difficult for him.
In the first instance, I never entertained this idea that I work exclusively for any one, other than under a permanent working arrangement as a salaried worker. And then I heard more horror stories last evening - two others had been talking behind my back and spreading doubts about my 'crossing of battle-lines'. Initially I was very annoyed with what had happened but then, praise the Lord, the Spirit arrested my spirit and comforted me. Why was I looking towards men for their approval for what i can or cannot do? after all they do not hold my future - Abba Daddy does and He will have the final say! all else will fade away, even my accusers.
I guess when that happened to me, I felt like the prophet Daniel whose enemies were trying to frame him and overthrow him. Of course their plans fell through and Daniel was delivered from his tormentors. I too believe that my situation will turn around and that the Lord will avenge me and restore me with more blessings than before all these took place. i believe that the more they tried to suppress me, the higher I was blob back up and float away out of their grasp. Yes, that day will be soon - Abba Daddy thank you for the blessings which my Lord Jesus Christ died to give these blessings to me.
In my post of last Thursday Nov 22 entitled, "Give Me Wisdom Please, Lord" I wrote that I had a call from a friend in Canada who wanted me to help him teach a whole week's worth of courses under his new license and also on that same day a few of us practitioners met up to discuss how we can form an alliance and teach another set of certification courses. Well, after agreeing to help my Canadian friend in his courses, I was confronted on Wednesday evening by the second licensee why I agreed to do what I promised without checking first with him and that I was making things difficult for him.
In the first instance, I never entertained this idea that I work exclusively for any one, other than under a permanent working arrangement as a salaried worker. And then I heard more horror stories last evening - two others had been talking behind my back and spreading doubts about my 'crossing of battle-lines'. Initially I was very annoyed with what had happened but then, praise the Lord, the Spirit arrested my spirit and comforted me. Why was I looking towards men for their approval for what i can or cannot do? after all they do not hold my future - Abba Daddy does and He will have the final say! all else will fade away, even my accusers.
I guess when that happened to me, I felt like the prophet Daniel whose enemies were trying to frame him and overthrow him. Of course their plans fell through and Daniel was delivered from his tormentors. I too believe that my situation will turn around and that the Lord will avenge me and restore me with more blessings than before all these took place. i believe that the more they tried to suppress me, the higher I was blob back up and float away out of their grasp. Yes, that day will be soon - Abba Daddy thank you for the blessings which my Lord Jesus Christ died to give these blessings to me.
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