Voyage

In contemplation and in prayers...

His Word is my calm
To still my anxious heart
As I navigate through unchartered waters in the voyage of trusting faith

His Truth is my guide
Trustworthy and tested
A moral compass
Constantly pointing to the Northern Star

His Grace is my strength
To hold up the sail against adverse winds
To brave the storms and rain of life
Whilst awaiting the clouds to break

He is my Immanuel
My true companion and comforter
Who voyage with me
as the captain of my heart

Day and night, Storms and Calm
Friends and foe,
Voyagers and companions
Laughter and tears, Come and go

traits of an adventure and a journey
From port to sea and sea back to port
Onward seafaring with my Beloved
In His comfort and courage I follow

I came before Him and prayed...

Before your throne I stand
In honest tears and doubt
I looked and peered
Into the depths within
My heart in void and pain
Hope once risen and now forsaken
Faith once strengthen and now weaken
Love once so stable and now unsure

Before your cross I stand
In Truth, in tears and loved
I looked and peered deeper
Into the deepest of depth
A Light, A Warmth, A Name inscribed within
Hope once forsaken and now restored
Faith once weaken and now quicken
Love once unsure and now assured.

The Name I once heard
I now hear it once again
The Man I once saw
I now see Him once again
Therefore The cross I will cling
For there I see Grace supplying all my needs
For it is there where I met
My Saviour, my Lord, my King

Faith and Duty

Luke 17:5-10 (New King James Version)



5 And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."6 So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? 8 But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.' 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"



The apostles came to Jesus with a request to increase their faith. It is probably a faith to trust God so that they were able to do greater miracles or bring forth healing. However, Jesus gave an interesting reply of how a mustard seed size of faith is all that is required to the extent of commanding a tree to remove itself and it would be done. It seems almost magical. However, there seems to be a change of topic and Jesus began to focus on the duty of a servant. Is that a connection between faith and duty? And why did Jesus change the focus to the rightful duty of servants.



Jesus being around the disciples knew the them inside out and the bible recorded that the disicples were highly competitive in nature. It was recorded that they were in constant debate of who is the greatest to the extend of making requests to seat on the right and left hand of Jesus when He rules in His kingdom. It could be that Jesus must have felt that while the request was valid, the motive behind that request was not. It was rooted in competiveness, pride and insecurity.



Jesus addressed the issue by directing their focus on being a servant, a theme and guiding principle which how He lived His life. He was reminding the disiciples that the authority came from the Master to do the will of the Master and it was not meant to be trophies and medals which they use to boast of their achievements.



Thus the duty of the disciples and us likewise is to understand the gifts, position, status, financies, power, influence that God has bestowed upon us to do His will which is to bring restoration of all things by to God through Jesus Christ. They are not meant for coercing the weak or decorated like medals to prove our value being greater than others.



We lived in a world where much intimidation and bullying occurs through flaunting of affluence, political power, social status, violence, coercion, social pressure, economic pressure for personal gain. Jesus came as our example by assuming the position of a lowly servant by serving man thus declaing that the kingdom of God has a whole different set of ethics.



When we decide to serve, it means that we are secure enough to do the lowly things and that our self-worth lies not in the clothes we wear, the position we hold, the money we have, the size of our church membership nor the apprasial of man. our self-worth is based on the cross which He beared and died on to set us free that we may truly live.



Amen.

Reflection I - "A Rabbi Talks with Jesus" by Rabbi Jacob Neusner (chapt 1 - 5)

"We observe how deeply personal is the focus of Jesus' teaching: it is on Himself, not on His message..." Rabbi Jacob Neusner on his analysis of Jesus' sermon on the mount which is the reason why he would not have followed Jesus because to do so is to betray One Israel and turn his back against the Torah and the Source of the Torah.


This perspective gives us an insight of a probable reason of the Pharisees' rage against Jesus. Our maginalised view of the Jews of Jesus' days ought to be discarded and humbly approach the bible with an open mind and heart knowing that a lot of dynamics are involved in the actions and words spoken by the people of that era, culture and context.

A deeper study of cultures of the Jew and even the geographical history of this people group is required in order to do justice to them before we make a spectacle of them in our sermons and preaching as if Jesus approved of such conduct.

If we truly believe that the Word of God is the ultimate answer and solution to all of human needs (as seen in the fervency and passion of our preaching and sermons), we should dive deeper into the Word and avoid dishing our aesthetically garnished catch-phrases or sugar-coated slogans as if they would truly satisfy the deep longing of the human soul.

If an unbelieving Rabbi would conclude that Jesus had come not merely like Moses to deliver a new Torah but to declare that He is Torah, and that it is core message is not His words but Himself, then we as believers should have a greater revelation of the Person of Jesus and that the Central Message is Him and not us.

A thought came to me as I read, i recalled the words of Jesus which He issued to all believers to "Follow Him" but the fact of the matter is that we are NOT able to follow Him. Not even the great apostles were able to, as we read how they cowardly fled when Jesus whom they honestly believed had come to deliver Israel from their oppressors. Afterall, wherever Jesus went, He drew crowds, He had the the mandate of the people to be the their deliverer. Not only that, Jesus Himself responded to the title as the Son of David and all Israel had been waiting for such a Son of David to deliver and to restore what was David's - a kingdom that has no end.

Back to Jesus issuing a call to all true believers to forsake all and to "follow Him". It is a command that is impossible for us to fulfill so that bring us to the question, " Why would He make such a demand?"

The scriptures recorded that Jesus stood before the judgement of governors and the people and was sentenced to die by the way of the Cross. He then was made to carry His cross by a certain way or route to Calvary Hill. Along the way, another Simon was forced to carry the cross of Jesus. From the scripture, we knew that Jesus was crucified and died alone pierced upon a wooden cross alone. Even upon the cross, the God whom He declared as the only Being who is good forshook Him at His greatest need. He was alone and alone for Him to bear and none followed Him.

His death was the end of the dreams of many but it was the beginning of a new Way, A new Truth, a new Life!

His call to us and to the world to Follow Him was not a challenge or merely a command but a declaration and an invitation to follow Him which He had gone ahead of us to prepare for us...

It is an invitation ...

To a New Way - A new way which has been opened for us to come before God the Father without the blood of bulls and goats.

To a New Truth - A new truth which they never knew that it is possible to see God and fellowship with Him and not die.

To a New Life - A new Life which is a life of freedom even while they lived under the regime of the Roman empire and a life that is so liberating that no one can take it away because the Son of God personally came to set them free!

It was an invitation to follow Him as a New Creation in the New Covenant which is made possible when we are IN Christ and by Christ and Through Christ.

It would be this following of Him that will give us the strength to pull away from the gravity of sin and condemnation.

It would be this following of Him that we are more than conquerers in Christ because He has conquered death the final enemy of man.

While the Jews were commanded by God to follow the Torah, Jesus invites us to follow Him because He is the New Torah.

Amen.

Led by the Father

Romans 8:14-15 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
¹⁵For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!

We often quote from Rom 8:14 that if we are sons of God then we should be led the Holy Spirit. In other words, if you are not led by the Spirit then you are not a son. As such, most sincere believers would abandon their common sense or even a sense of peace in their heart and transfer that decision power to someone whom they deemed to be more spiritual or authoritative. The fruit may be good, bad or neutral but the outcome is a life not of their own by others.

Apostle John says that to those who believe, we are given the authority to be children of God. As such, to God, the moment that we are born into His family, we are always His sons and children

In v15, it clearly states that the this Spirit is the Spirit of Abba Father! A good Father leads His sons into a great future and of peace. It is the Good Shepherd who leads us by the still waters.

It is always the Father leading son and not son leading the Father.

It is always the Father constantly leading the son even when the sons have difficulty being led by the Father.