Mark 4:1-20

The Parable of the Sower

 ¹ Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”

 ⁹ Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 ¹⁰ When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables¹² so that,

   “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, 
   and ever hearing but never understanding; 
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

 ¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”

Sometimes we undervalue the importance of a good foundation of our faith in Jesus. 

Look at the disciples in this passage. We see that they are so confused even though they’ve spent a bit of time with Jesus already. You can say that their understanding on Jesus’ parables was limited could be down to their lack of foundation of their discipleship with Jesus.

Jesus is very clear in the second half of the verses. Let’s look at each situation:

Those who have the Word are snatched by Satan (v15a)

Does this imply that the reason for unbelief is purely down to the diabolic deception of Satan? I don’t think so. If the seed was sown on to ground that would cover them up and hide them from birds, the seed could indeed grow. Yet the seeds here are sown onto unprepared land which nothing can grow on it. This leads to openness to birds. Likewise if we receive the word and do not prepare our hearts to receive God’s word or value it and cover it up, then indeed Satan will snatch it up and there will be no growth. We must be prepared to receive the Word. Do not let let God’s Word come to you to an unprepared heart. 

Those who have the Word and have no root (v15b-17)

The implications here are real and obvious. I will use a secular example: say if you want to be a good mathematician but you cannot understand the basic number system, how far will you get? Faith in Jesus requires a strong root and foundation. Failure to do so will make our spiritual growth week and vulnerable to tough times. if we don’t have a good root in our faith in Jesus, there is no hope when times of suffering (which has been warned to us all so well in 1 Peter 3:12-19) spring up and attack our faith in Jesus. So have a good root in the Bible and faith in Christ. 

Those who have the Word and are choked by thorns (v18-19)

Some of us will become very successful and have great careers. This is a good thing since we can give our successes to the glory of God. A bad thing that can happen, however, can these things can deceive us and make us worry. Other desires may come and choke the Word that has grown into us. Consequently we don’t grow and become unfruitful. So it becomes important to weed out things that choke our faith in Jesus. We must cull things that draw us away from the hope of Jesus.

Those who have the word and produce a crop - thirty, sixty, or even hundred times what was sown. (v20)

Faith in Jesus with good roots, prepared hearts and protected lifestyle will always lead to fruitful harvest. There’s no telling how much harvest. It’s obvious some of us will be more fruitful than others but the focus is that we are fruitful regardless on the crop size. So we must ensure that the Word of God is received on a prepared heart. Let’s make sure we are rooted well in the faith in Jesus and let’s make sure that things don’t distract us from the hope we have in Jesus. There will be no doubt God will make us fruitful in living lives giving him all the glory! 

Submisssion!

Romans 13:1-7

¹ Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

 ⁶ This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷ Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Submission, humility, meekness are all words often replaced in this world with words like door-mat, weakness, pussy (excuse my choice of words but this is Australia after all :P). The idea that we, as proud and able human beings, should be willing to submit to higher authorities is quite foregin.

For a non-Christian, basically there is no problem. Your problems lie with not knowing Christ. Let’s deal with that on another post :P

But for the Christian, what is the call? There are so many situations where submission to authorities is hard, especially when they don’t seem to uphold the same faith in Jesus as we do. Let me name a few.

• Submitting to non-Christian parents 
• Submitting to greedy companies and their rules on “data sharing”
• Submitting to anti Christian goverments

All these situations are very personal from person to person. In each case it may seem hard to submit to those who seem to hoard it over us. But look at the Romans passage.

Where does their power come from? 

¹ Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 

It’s too clear! These people who we might think we should rebel against are actually placed by God. If we choose to rebel against them, we choose to rebel against something placed by God.

²Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 

And we know those who rebel against God get judgement (See the first 3 chapters of Romans). Of course we have been saved forever and there’s nothing we can ever do that will take it away from us.

But we can still be “judged” or “disciplined” by God. By the next couple of verses, Paul describes how the authorities we are placed under can be a instigator of that discipline. Since we should take any of God’s discipline as great lessons, we should too be adherent to our leader’s punishments. 

 ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

Of course not all leaders will sometimes not seem “for our own benefit”. I can name hostile non-Christian parents of governments as examples.

But remember what I mentioned before in that our salvation is never taken away from us. God by his grace has given us the gift of salvation through the one sacrifice of Jesus, so how can man’s iron fist or cruel words cause us to stumble?

In 1 Peter 3:12 it reads:

 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats^[k]; do not be frightened.

So even the what is harsh persecution is for our own good. This is no doubt hard to accept and I could never understand what it’ll be like to live under the roof of persecution.

But I do trust the words of the apostles who faced far greater persecution than anyone in this present age.

They were stoned, beat up, robbed, murdered, crucified…

And then you look to Jesus and what he went through for us.

It reads in Hebrews 12

 ¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

So before you think about “Let’s be rebels! I want to show my love for my God against these jerks!”, I want you to think about how Jesus, even though he was God and he could have changed Pilate’s mind and destroyed that cross he was nailed on, He endured the pain that came with being submissive and humble. And yet he was exalted to the right hand throne of God. 

 ⁶ This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷ Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

So now for some practicalities. I have two main issues at the moment with Tehillah (hohoho)
First is piracy. Yes I do think software and music companies can sometimes seem to overcharge their products. And I would love to live in a world where information is freely exchanged and open source rules.
But this could not be more clear. Digital copies are still products that we SHOULD take value in. If we want them so much then we should be willing to pay whatever cost that is needed. The cost is usually determined by the supplier. We may not think it’s worth that or it’s overpriced (in those cases, there should be a clear “don’t buy it then!”) but in an act of Christ-centered submission, we should accept the costs of whatever we want in an act of love for the one who made the thing we sought after and in an act of love for our God who made that person who made the thing we loved.
Now I recently was going through my music library and found a lot of music where I could not really trace back the origin! It’s hard to delete them because they were music I actually liked (when I downloaded them, I don’t often listen to music much anymore) but it’s a good feeling to look at the rest of the collection and feel satisfied that I used money I earned by working to pay for it and to not feel I’m losing something huge by deleted all that K Pop. 
Isn’t that honouring to God more than anything? We as chosen people can discard the usual desires that this world thinks we must have to happy and put on the spirit of Christ and be glad. 
I encourage you guys to look at your collections and delete whatever you acquired via dodgy means. Think about glorifying and honouring those people who put the price tag on those things because in turn you are honouring the God who made them and gave them the power to make the things you love!
I will discuss the non Christian parents thing later cos I need to study : (

Tehillah camp post #2 - Heart

As promised, here’s my follow on/intro post for my previous post on yours-devotion. (directly below unless someone blogs very soon).

So this study gospel in life (from Tim Keller) is quite confronting. And shows you all the parts of the life you turn a blind eye to unwittingly or not. The parts with problems. And Satan rejoices when you do so. So how to change? The study starts appropriate with - the Heart.

Firstly, in the home-study session leading up to the actual group bible study/DVD discussion, I found it very fulfilling. (Yeah, it’s a pun, you’ll realise soon).

Somethings I need to work on (living the gospel, not religion):

• Motivation should be based on grateful joy, not insecurity and fear
• I should obey God to get God, and delight in and resemble Him. Not to get (even good) things from God. 
• My self-view is not based on moral achievement. I am simultaneously sinfully lost yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad He had to die for me, but He loves me so much that He was glad to. This should lead me to deep humility and confidence.
• My identity and self-worth are not built on my record or my performance, but on God’s love for me in Christ. I am saved by shear grace so I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace am I what I am. - He is all sufficient! =D
• My prayer life consists of gorgeous amounts of praise and adoration! My main purpose is fellowship with God.

One great analogy/check that the study included was one where I told a couple of people, and I probably did an alright and better job verbally, but here goes concise version:

A farmer presented to the king a giant carrot, saying that this was the greatest carrot he had ever grown, and that he wanted to give it to the king out of love and respect. The king was touched and gave him a plot of land next to the farmer’s that he owned. A noble seeing this, thought that he could gain something much more if he offered something of more value than a carrot. So he gave the king a horse. The king just accepted the horse and dismissed the noble. Seeing that the noble was confused, he explained: the farmer gave me the carrot, but you gave yourself the horse. [Touche right? =P]

Yeah, it was Spurgeon’s analogy, and the king reminds me of Solomon =P.

The bible study is a passage from Luke 18:9-14 about the bragging prayer of a Pharisee and the prayer of a tax-collector. Basically, the tax-collector was justified before God, because only God is able to justify (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). Main barriers to accepting justification include: pride -thinking you are better than what you really are, beating yourself up, viewing your failures as a barrier and low self-esteem. It doesn’t matter how crappy you are. Everyone needs God to justify them, and Jesus’ sacrifice is infinitely more powerful than your sin could ever be.

From the DVD discussion, we were shown that there were three ways of response to God: looking to God for salvation, looking to religion for salvation (own saviour) and looking to irreligion (own saviour). The DVD talked on the story about the prodigal son. Both the sons wanted the father’s inheritance (things/good things). They just went about it differently. The younger son went ‘irreligious’ and just took it all and wasted it. The elder son went ‘religious’ tried to earn it. Neither were right. But in the end, the younger son wanted the father, and not just his things. He asked the father to accept him and the father did - not letting the son be anything less than a son. What they both failed to see was that the father’s things were theirs as they were heirs. But we need God’s initiating love to see that we need Him. And not His things. Jesus, our true ‘elder brother’ was willing and able to sacrifice part of his inheritance so that the younger brother (us) could be welcomed back home with the feast.

How great is God’s love Agape! Not only does God initiate the loving exchange (even while we were still His enemies and disgusting in His sight)! He sacrifices himself to justify us, clothe us in righteousness and sanctifies us, and gives us an inheritance in Him! Friends, bros and sis’s, be confident in your inheritance in Christ. And humbly and gratefully love and serve the one who first loved us.

Re: love, work and dreams

Check out the OP here: @ Crossing-Kidron

Someone asked me what are the main issues for a young person in life, to which I responded “love, work and dreams”.

…

In actual fact, I believe that our pursuits of love, work and dreams should be driven, directed and provided to and from God. While we go along in life in pursuit of love, and working hard to achieve our dreams, we often think only of ourselves.

It’s ironic that the most important things, the things that I feel like I have no control over, I gave to God easier. Like love. I learned to give Him my dreams in the latter half of high school, for His plans for me are better than any of my dreams, even if they involve Firefly Model 3 + cannon, FTLT and Gundams.

And now, just now, I’m learning to give all of my work to Him. I guess it was because I always used to work hard, I wasn’t having much trouble in it, especially with my family and friends behind me. It was common sense in an Asian culture, even if my parents didn’t force me into any career path: study hard, get a good job, get a good life. But only from God can good things come, and only God gives life.

I was working hard for the wrong reasons. So I worked less hard, and Satan trapped me to become lazy. Thus without my hard work, my work deteriorated, my motivation gone. Procrastination took over and I was like >=/ this isn’t good, but couldn’t help it.

At Tehillah camp, we learnt that the gospel changes the motivation, the ethics of our work, and the conception of our work. Christ is my motivation, for we are to work like we are serving Him [Col 3:23-24]. We are therefore, to do our work with our utmost ability, but not worship the work. We are also called to witness (through actions, things we say, etc.) in our work [e.g. 2 Kings 5]. Finally, through the gospel, our view of work changes. It IS something which is of value, will last and be in the ‘New Jerusalem’, and is valued by God Himself.

We are to not only let Him direct where our work is and to work for Him, but also to enjoy it and to do good through it.

———————————————————————————————————-

I’ve kind of jumped the gun here … I posted this first, because I was prompted and because it’s been a big problem for me, and helped me to see why the gospel, and the grace from God through Christ Jesus is so important. I was supposed to go through the camp studies chronologically, so we could see WHY Christ is our motivation, but oh well. Keep your eyes peeled for gospel + heart + idol post(s), which will explain (yes, I’m jumping back to the beginning)! =P

love y’all and peace out, dudes =)

EDIT: If you want to comment and can’t find the reply button on your dash, comment on disqus in this post on my tumblr while we get disqus sorted for yours-devotion. Disqus is UP!!! Comment below guys!!! =D (If you’re on the homepage, click the comments and reactions link at the top of the post.)

Creation or Creator?

Let me start and ask you the question. What does the world think is sin? I guess more importantly, do you think the modern Australian think he or she is a sinner? Do you think the average person would think they are lacking? I think most people I know quite confidently say there’s nothing wrong with their lifestyle. After all it’s our own choice how we live! Sure some of us may live with more strict morals, but who to say that’s still not a good life? Sure we may not be saints and occasionally we might stuff up, but we all are still good people! I can be proud of my life if I were to look back.

However that’s not the case in the Bible. The problem is not what we do or don’t do (even though that is still a significant bit) but rather as it says in verse 21:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and EXCHANGED THE GLORY OF THE IMMORTAL GOD FOR IMAGES MADE TO LOOK LIKE MORTAL MAN AND BIRDS AND ANIMALS AND REPTILES.

Let’s concentrate on the text it’s self before we get carried away. Firstly from verse 18-19, we see that God’s wrath is now being revealed against the wickedness and godlessness of men.It also says that men should have no excuse for missing God because God has clearly made him shown.

However, we see that men in their wickedness and their desire to suppress the truth, ignore God and exchange trusting and worshiping the immortal, complete, almighty creator of the universe for worshiping and placing their trust in the creation.

I hear this talked about in all sorts of sermons in regard to sin and judgment. Pretty much in a nut shell, sin can be classified as mankind as not worshiping God and instead worshiping other thins like idols, animals and themselves.

This is the charge against humanity, as Paul states in this letter. It’s not the fact that humans are weak and indulge in all sorts of things. It’s not the individual acts that makes God angry. It’s the fact we choose to worship CREATION rather than the CREATOR. It’s ignoring the God as ruler of this world and choosing to place their trust in creation.

What is the result of this? Paul says in verse 24 that God gives humanity over to the sinful desires of their hearts. Here he highlights sexual immorality and no doubt Paul finds homosexuality very wrong  as well as the other vices. The pattern here lies in verse 25-26.

That man exchanged truth of God for a lie and worshiping and served created things rather than the Creator -> God gives them up to their shameful lusts.

So from what Paul is saying here, sin in our lives (that is the desire to worship creation rather than creator) results in to the shameful thins we may be so familiar with. They are the rotten fruit caused by ignoring God and exchanging the glory of the everlasting God for temporal objects. This includes ourselves.

Idolatry is no longer bowing down to a golden calf in the 21st century. It’s bowing down to flesh and bone. More specifically, our flesh and bone. Because we so willing to remove the glory of God from our lives, God allows us to live the lives we so chase and hold so highly.

We find ourselves worshiping our body easily. That is we as humans can succumb to sexual sin to satisfy ourselves. But that’s not the end of it, it goes on and on. Our desire to remove God from our lives results in evil and depraved things entering. Since we don’t desire the glory of God, we then we fill that void with the depravity of our desires.

That is Sin my friends. It’s not the fact we do this and don’t do that. It’s because indeed.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Burn these words instead your head. Can you say that your non-Christian friends aren’t like this? Can you truly say that, before knowing the never-ending love and grace of God through his Son Jesus, this is not what dictates your life?

Are your friends worshiping CREATION rather than CREATOR?

Are you worshiping CREATION rather than CREATOR?

This is sin. And because of this, the wrath of God is being revealed.

:( to be continued !

Music and Singing Praises

So, yesterday I decided that I wanted to find some verses in the bible that spoke of music, but to my dismay, “music”, “sing” and “song” were not in the concordance. Thus I decided to search around on the internet for some verses, and one of the first pages that I came across was this. I like this page.

Although I can’t say that my life revolves around music or that it plays a massive role in my life, I still love it. My friend James showed me a Japanese song the other day, and when I told him I couldn’t understand it, his prompt reply was “you don’t have to; music is universal.” And that’s exactly why I love music. It’s a manifestation emotion and power, something that will be understood by everyone.

When I think about the wonders of music I can’t help but think “Yes, God exists, and He is the mightiest in the universe”, because I really believe that only He could have created such a beautiful thing. That’s why songs that are sung to the Lord are the best kind. Isaiah 51:11 says:

So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

When we sing, let us sing with all our hearts, because we’re singing to the Lord!

Ooo… we have more followers now! That means I gotta post more stuff so it doesn’t look like George is the only person alive here :D

Romans 1:18-32 Preview

Wrath is the demonstration of of anger.

Unrighteousness is the opposite of righteousness. Righteousness is the act of being “right”

Before we start explaining the gospel to anyone, before filling them with notions of love and immortality, we have to explain to our friends, our family, the stranger that they are subject to God’s wrath.

Why?

Because of our sin.

However it’s not so simple to explain to someone in the street that they are in the wrong.

What is the subject of God’s wrath upon us?

Is it the things we do? Is it the things we don’t do? Is it how much money we don’t give or how much money we give to the wrong things? Is it how many people we sleep or don’t sleep?

Or is it something more serious?

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Romans 1:21-23

Romans 1:1-17

Romans has to be the greatest letter, if not the greatest book in the Bible (much debate because I also think the Gospels are the greatest books too :D ). After finishing reading it, you cannot simply say being Christian is just an emotional thing. It is not just something for us to feel good nor is it subjective.

Romans shows us that being a Christian takes intellectual thought. Taking facts and actual events and deciding whether you believe Jesus was truly Son of God. It’s not simply something we “could” believe in and if others believe it then woot but if they don’t it’s still okay.

Paul, as we read, has analyzed the facts and weighed the options and talked to Jesus and decided YES I BELIEVE. This is why he wrote the letters to the gazillion churches. He is so convinced that it is his desire to tell as many people as possible for the hope he has.

And it extends to us. Two thousand years later. These letters preserved, copied, translated and printed and digitalized for us.

Like the Roman Christians, we too live in a world where Paganism rules. Where worshiping false idols is king. Where being a Christian can be a dangerous and humiliating thing.

However Paul writes that being a Christian and believing that Jesus did indeed die and rise is not humiliating and yes while it can be dangerous, the treasure in store for us is greater than any false idol or hope on earth.

I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the jew, then for the Gentile. Romans 1:16

I challenge you to read Romans and challenge yourself to think carefully what Paul is writing. Let Christianity be an intellectual choice, not based on your emotions. Let placing your trust in Christ be based on actual facts, on actual events. That is, that Jesus, son of God, died for the sins of every man, woman and child. That Jesus, son of God, after being in the tomb for 3 days, rose again and was ascended into heaven. 

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with the power o be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 

Romans 1:1-6