I Am Your Father Who Loves You

I just watched Blood Diamond, and there was a particular scene in the film which really took hold of me. In the scene, Dijimon Hounsou, as Solomon Vandy says to his son,

"I know you have done many wrong things.
And I am your father who loves you.
And you will go home with me, and be my son."

How beautiful it is to have a father who can say that to us. Even the hardest, most cynical heart has within the hope for redemption, for renewal, and God's arms stretch out long and wide to His children. No matter what sin or crime we have committed, no matter how evil or how vile, God wants to be your father, because He loves you.

In Jeremiah 31:3, the Bible says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." And further in verse 20, "Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,' declares the LORD." (Jer 31:20)

Maybe God is knocking on the door of your heart, asking you to come back to Him, to be His son. And maybe in spite of all the turmoil, the chaos, the lies, deceit, evil, and empty promises of this world, when it all passes away into nothingness from which it all came, God is there, offering Himself through His son who died for us. Jesus says in Revelations 3:20, "Behold! I stand at the door and knock! If anyone would hear my voice and open the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with Me."

Quoting Luke Leong

heh heh... pirated from luke leong:

"faith and deeds

i originally intended to blog about something else, but i learnt a lot from discussing the following passage and just sharing at fellowship this evening. it was great to meet up with the rest of the guys once again and find out how everyone has been coping with post-traumatic stress disorder post-ord syndrome. our band of brothers was actually established as an ns support group but we've since transcended the boundaries of our ns cycle and i feel truly privileged to remain part of its continued existence.

what good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? can such faith save him? suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. if one of you says to him, "go, i wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

but someone will say, "you have faith; i have deeds."

show me your faith without deeds, and i will show you my faith by what i do. you believe that there is one God. good! even the demons believe that - and shudder.

you foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? was not our ancestor abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son isaac on the altar? you see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. and the scripture was fulfilled that says, "abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. you see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

in the same way, was not even rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

james 2:14-26 (niv)

without going into too many details (our fellowship is top secret!), suffice to say that we all face numerous different struggles in life with no obvious solution (none that we easily accept anyway). while our faith is clear, living by it is sometimes another thing altogether. nevertheless, there's no denying the way, the truth and the life.

rehab, renew, restart

with driving fast coming to an end (test next tuesday!), i've decided to tweak my weekly schedule a bit. beginning this week, i'm going to reintegrate into fellowship at our all new time slot on tuesday evenings (been away for a while...) and start attending prayer meeting in church on fridays. important commitments indeed - time to take action!

posted by luke leong @ 1:39 AM 0 comments"

Making

Matthew 4:19"Come," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."This was my memory verse for the day, and I was quite irritated by it.I was irritated simply because it was so easy, and it seemed to simple, too flat, and I wondered if there was anything truly worthwhile I could glean off of it. Turns out, there was. And when I thought about it, it just blew my mind wide open.THe focus of the sentence for me became on the word "make" which really means to take artistry, creativity, and active effort to create, render, achieve and complete something. For Christ to say I will "make" you anything, is an incredible thought. It underscores not only just His authority and power, but His POWER. THe word "make" implies a change, a before and an after.

THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF FISHING AND ITS SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS

Before that, perhaps Peter, Andrew, James, and John thought that they were fishers. Maybe they hated their jobs, maybe they thought they found purpose and meaning through providing food for others. Maybe they just wanted money, capitalist minded. But for Christ to say, I will MAKE you, it meant that He would change their lives, He would turn their profession upside down, inside out, and they would catch men, not just mere fish. Where they previously imagined providing sustenance, they would now provide spiritual food through their roles as fishermen. Caleb's food chain describes it this way: plants are primary producers, primary consumers are fish and fishermen, secondary consumers who also become secondary producers. THey catch, and produce for others to consume as per the market mechanism- part of the benefits of organised society (Adam Smith 4 Stages of Development) In God's hierarchy, they were to become just that- secondary consumers and producers too. By catching other men for GOd, they would be consuming on a secondary level. However, those men would become fishers of men too, just like them, and thus be producers too. The chain goes both ways in God's kingdom, and it's all because Christ was going to MAKE them something that they were not.

HOW DOES ONE MAKE A FISHER-OF-MEN? AGAINST ALL ODDS

How was He going to MAKE them something they were not? The confidence of Christ in that simple sentence was surely unfounded- to be a fisher of men, He would have to plant the desire to catch and witness in them, He would have to equip them, and He would have to establish a system in which they could survive (much like the fish market system that a fisherman would be a partcipant of). They would resist His desire to plant His passion and His drive in their hearts surely, and they would prove to be incompetent and too dull to understand the complexity of all He was teaching them. And the church that they would lead and serve in would simply be too self-centred, and filled with problems, and ridden with wrong doctrine etc. But nonetheless, all Jesus said was, I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN., note the imperative form. Against all odds, Christ would do it.MAKINGTHe Lord Jesus Christ, who was there at the beginning of time and watched the universe created, would have no problems saying, I will MAKE you ____. The sentence alone seems to imply no free will - if I'm going to be MADE something, I don't really have a choice. If I'm made a fool, I can't change facts and not be a fool. ANd God alone has the authority to makership, to creation c.f. "Maker of heaven and earth". We try and make things all the time. BUt in reality, we can't MAKE anything happen, we only innovate, and capitalise on the appearance of things made. No one made electricity, we only figured out how it works. God made electricity. Similarly, only Christ could say taht He would plant His gospel in those fishermen's hearts and make them something they were not. Like them, GOd is making us today, and once He starts, He won't stop. The Bible says in Phil 1:6 "He who has begun a good work in you will complete on the day of Jesus Christ." God will make us complete one day, even as we ask Him to make us___. What does HE require for this to happen? He requires us to come, to make the free choice to come and let Him make us something beautiful. Making requires free will to subject ourselves to taht work and construction, that sanctification. ONce it begins, nothing can be reversed or changed. God is in the business of making us, and He will finish us all, one day.

A GOSPEL OF MAKING

THe word "making" holds so much depth, really. As God is making us perfect, as He makes us fishers of men, it reminds me that by nature, we are not meant to be these things. This is a form of intervention on God's part, His making makes us complete when our making of things just made it a big mess. Sin, the Fall were results of man's making, and only God's act of making things new, making things different, holds any hope for you and me today. The word "making" means gospel, because it offers us a chance to change and be saved, and for us to have a part to play in His evangelistic ministry. The next time we pray, let's ask God to make us more like Him, to make us fishers of men. ANd as we Come, Jesus will make us better.Lord, Make me an instrument of the peace. Amen.