Thu, Mar 29th - 1:45PM
H O P E
I'm inspired by the tales of four leprous men written in 2 Kings 7:3-9. These four men were facing three complicated choices; all three choices that might lead them to death. Let us focus on verse 3-4 to observe the detail consequences of the three options they had.
Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, "Let us enter the city," the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die."
Then, was there any hope for them at that time? What's the use of hope? Is it just a dreamy desire or heart-comforter? The followings are what you'll get when having hope in Jesus Christ.
1. Heading for Better Things (Hebrew 6:9)
It's quite amazing to see how these four leprous men chose to go over the camp of the Syrians, though it means they had to put their lives as stakes. They did this on a very simple reason; they did not want to die! Isn't that remarkable? Moreover, some of us choose to die when hopelessly facing problems. We give up so easily because we're too afraid to see all those problems waiving our life. Are those four leprous men in better condition than us?! This is the use of hope in Jesus Christ, not for dreaming, but as the guidance that leads us to better condition. When we're in hesitation to make a decision, find that better thing by putting all hope in Jesus Christ.
2. Full Assurance (Hebrew 6:11)
To conduct uncertainty is very difficult. When these four men were close enough to see the camp of Syrians from afar, they might feel terrified and not wanting to continue their journey. Unnoticed by these four men, God made a miracle. God made the army of Syrians to hear the little steps of these four leprous men as the sound of chariots, horses and great army; so they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.
Have we ever seen the certainty of a hope? Only by faith and knowledge of Jesus' love and power, we can experience the full assurance of hope. God may allow great miracles to happen (without being noticed by us) so we can overcome our difficult problems. Having hope in Jesus Christ will free our mind from worries.
3. A Sure and Steadfast Anchor (Hebrew 6:19)
When these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Yet they then realized that their city also needed the food, so they passed along this good news to the people in their city.
Will we stop hoping in Jesus Christ when we have achieved our desires? Will we end it with our greed so we will ignore Jesus Christ? Are we convinced that we shall never encounter more troubles in our life? We often lose control and drag ourselves to bigger and worse problems. If we don't stain our hope in Jesus Christ, then we are like a sure and steadfast anchor. Problems may waive our life but we will not be carried away with it.
Comment (6)
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Sat, Mar 17th - 12:23PM
Fruity
I found a verse about a fig tree with no fruit and how God wants to cut the tree down (Luke 13:7).
Actually this verse is very simple but I'm not satisfied and even bear extra curiosity. Why the tree has no fruit? There's no sign of the tree being damaged or its trunk being broken.
Being graduated in Biology Major during high school, I did a little research on how the tree lives. The physical appearance looked fine, so there must be an "internal disease". Just like some Christians; they seem holy and have a great spiritual health in their outer appearance but their "inner spirit condition" are terribly dying.
Through my reading research in some biology books, I found two things:
(Assuming the root is Jesus, the shallow cambium in the tree trunk is us and the fertilizer/nourishing food is God's Words and Holy Spirit)
"The root has the ability to supply/push the nourishing food (or fertilizer) from the ground into the plants/trees."
Jesus Christ is the one who supplies the food/fertilizer into the cambium. We only have to distribute it till the end (becoming fruity). What's so difficult of becoming God's cambium? Are we too stupid? Even the dumb one is able to distribute things when being told so.
"The food is delivered through shallow cambium. The cambium is very shallow so the food should queue in line to reach the branches and leaves. When the front queue line moves forward one step, then the back line will also follow to move one step. But when the front part is stuck, then the back line is unable to move forward. This distribution movement should be supported by the 'magnetism force' between the shallow cambium and the food itself."
This reminds me of the verse in John 15:5; we abide in Christ and Christ in us. It's not a reversing in words-game but it's just the way it is and of this I believe as the "magnetism force" between the shallow cambium and the food itself. "God abides in us" obviously becomes the task of the tree root (Jesus), whereas "we abide in God" is the cambium task (distribute the nourishing food to the entire tree until the tree grow fruits).
We are often lack of this magnetism force. We often receive God's Words and even ask for His Holy Power without realizing that the next step is to "grasp and deliver" God's Words and Power in every aspect of our life to be fruity in Christ. We often become stagnant and our cambium stuck "the food" proper distribution (related to the second process I wrote in previous passage).
We can say that we've received too much of God's Words and Power; yet too little, moreover, forget to use God's Words in our daily life so we are lack of "the fruit" because the fruit we ought to produce is the action of God's Words in our real daily life.
Sometimes we also act like the wise ones. That's why Jesus said that Christian faith is foolishness to the world. So being fruity is becoming the loyal cambium to distribute His Blessing for our surrounding.
Comment (3)
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Name: adjiemind .
