Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Return to the Gospel

It's been a while since last time I blogged. Much has happened since then as I have grown through parenting, praying and through ultimately God's Word. As the summer approaches I pray that none of us will remain idle but be active in our spiritual life. I'm constantly being reminded of Jesus' words, "what good is it if you gain the whole world but forfeit your soul?" All the earthly riches that surrounds me will not and cannot buy the blood of Christ. It cannot save your pitiful soul from hell, nor can it give you eternal comfort that brings sustaining joy in Christ. It simply cannot satisfied God's wrath. We live in America as though we never had the wrath against us. It is as though we have never offended God, His great Holiness. We live with blindness that Gospel is optional, as sort of like extra credit from a class wasn't required to take. We often have disillusional view of what it means to be poor in spirit. We do not see ourselves as poor beggars needing the Eternal Bread, and needing and want to share with it to other beggars because we do not have such deep satisfaction from it. We cannot because of such devil's lies that comes to our hearts, promising contentment in living safe and clean community with respect of privacy and good family home. At least from outside it looks as though it's true. But as we dig little deeper and starting scratch the surface of our white washed tombs, we see the ugly selfishness and pride that shuns upon taking any risk of loving others or going out to reach to the lost, simply because we have too many excuses to make. We are too busy with our own plans. We have families. We have demanding jobs. We have kids to feed. We have to consume ourselves with activities that does not quench our thirst. Yet we keep chugging along like an aimless man who is full of activities. We are, in America, most to be pitied if we think that living in a Christian bubble will bring Christ His due glory. I'm reminded of the young rich man who comes to Jesus with such attitude that he has fulfilled God's law. Even though he has never fulfilled the law, the rich man approaches Jesus with such pride and self-centeredness. He does this by coming to Jesus to prove himself, justify himself that he has lived a good life. A good life meaning moral, upright life. He is craving for acknowledgement. Perhaps he may have come to Christ out of boredom because he thinks he has everything but he wants that extra affirmation, that he is worthy of praise from Jesus. He does not recognize that he is indeed poor in spirit. He is blind to the reality of his beggar's state: while he may be wealthy and upright citizen, he is absolutely guilty of his sin. He deserves eternal death sentence and yet he does not know it. How can he when he has been consumed by self-reliance perhaps all his life? Or perhaps he is like one of the regular church goers that keeps everything safe by not committing any heinous acts of sin, or crime. Perhaps he has a family and he worked hard to provide for his family, he has never cheated anyone or disobeyed his parents. Outside he looks like a clean-cut upright Christian man who is faithfully attending Church, perhaps even once in a while serves the community. But his blind heart has never been tested until He came to approach Jesus with such arrogance. When Jesus says to the young rich man to sell his possessions to the poor and he will inherit riches in heaven. Immediately the rich man frowns and despairs over Jesus' commands. The man never recognized nor acknowledged that the riches are also from God and it never really belonged to him in the first place. Oh how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven! Yet Jesus still loved him. I pray that I will continue to die to myself over these matters. I also pray that men in our Churches, our communities will find such delight in Christ and looking forward to the riches of heaven in Christ, that we can be radical and actually live through it. O Lord, help us today that we have been saved by Grace from You. We confess that we were once children of wrath, not indifferent to you, but rather hated you because we never wanted to have life. Yet You being in rich in mercy, you loved us through death of Jesus, who took our sins, to become sin for us, even though He was perfect and sinless. Lord, this is not a small matter to us. It is not a historical event that's no longer relevant. But it's a daily feed for us. So thank you Father for provoking our hearts to you to repent. Thank You for Your holy spirit that intercedes for us when we do not know what to pray for. For He searches our hearts deeply within our hearts to the will of God. Thank You for the Word that sharpens us faith. Without it, we would be utterly lost. Thank You Jesus!