Where Peter and John were standing before the Sanhedrin, filled with the Holy Spirit and made the speech. The responses were ‘…Whey they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus..’
Being in the circle of highly educated and very capable people, it’s very easy to rely on our own knowledge and strengths. Often than not, our reaction to problems is to figure it out from our wit, our past experiences and our occupational know-how. Most of the times, it’s fine. Life goes on and people think you are smart.
Quite honestly, most of us can get by this life without really having to rely on God. If you are truly honest, you’d agree. We are living in a comfortable bubble, well educated, at a high paying job and unless something terrifying happens, this is what we call – life.
Is that it? To me, it’s a painting of a wasted life.
I wonder how our lives will be different, if we lived on the edge, lived according the leading of the Holy Spirit. Will then people see that it’s not our strength or our experiences in life, but that it is God who is doing it through us, and such that His name be glorified? and not ours.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Just imagine how much more great things can come out of you, if you only allowed yourself to be led by the Spirit, stepped out of the comfort zone, had bit more faith than just what’s in your hand. For we are not given a spirit of timidity, but spirit of power, of love and of self-control.
Who is it that people see when they see you?
I play with Google Earth a lot and I love space, so with the two things I often like to look at the satellite image of where I live, and then begin zooming out into the sky, and then space and eventually outer space.
First, you pass the moon, and eventually the sun, our solar system, the milky way and then soon enough after few thousand light years, you see multiple other systems etc.
Feeling small, like a speck of sand on the beach? Feeling insignificant?
Once I heard a wise saying. God didn’t create this big universe to make us feel small and insignificant, but to show His greatness; that even such small speck of us, He has created as the object of His love. He sent His one and only son to die for us, so that we can have the right standing with Him.
I wrote about how with all the chaos happening around us and all the hopelessness in this world, the last thing we should have is to bash each other in God’s Church (yes, the big C). Read about it here.
I saw a link on Twitter last night from Dateline interviewing Benny Hinn.
Got me thinking today while I was driving.
1. People are calling him fake or robbing innocent people’s money for his fake ‘healing’. I’ve watched his shows before but I’ve never been to his events. All I know is….how do you explain the supernatural? If the question is, how come that person says they were healed, but now is blind again. Shrug. Do they know why the sun sets on the west?
2. His organization has a private jet. Something about costing $10 million of the $100+ million revenue per year the organization gets in donation. I know few pastors have private jets because of their tight speaking engagement and with the increasing in security at the airports, this saves them time. I am not saying it’s the best way to use the money but hey, it’s not you nor me that have to report to the Judge on the last day. Maybe it is the best way. But are people complaining because they think $10 million is a lot? Let’s see, that’s 10% right? Question for those who point finger at this….What’s the percentage of your monthly salary do you spend on YOURSELF?
3. Whenever any church makes more than few million, it gets put under the light of scrutiny. Even organizations that sends missionaries out to the parts of the world where the gospel isn’t been preached. Missionaries raise money to go. Though people seem to have this mentality that missionaries are suppose to be poor. Why is that? If they are able to raise funds and God provides for them, is it so bad? What’s in the values of those paper bills anyway? There is so much of this worldly view ingrained in the mind of some people, it baffles me. Yes we are called to be good stewards, so why don’t we look at our own spending, instead of judging others? Yes You and Me! With a stable job at a big corporation with big pay checks, 401k, stock grants, medical benefits…are you spending your finances wisely? Where is your trust for your future? Is it God or is it your bank?
People who chose to accept the calling of being a pastor or church planters ultimately come under greater judgment. Like any humans, we all make mistakes. There is already plenty of work to do in the Church and enough adversaries trying to make it ineffective. Why be the pain when you can be the gain?
We are suppose to cast our world view into the world, let it shine and let people see. Not the other way around! We don’t need worldly world view into the church. What’s the point?
I obviously don’t spend my time following through with all the different ministries, televangelists or churches and so not really endorsing one of the other. But just saying….
One question:
What if today is the day you’ll be standing in front of Jesus?
Was thinking this morning what face do we see when we seek His face. When we go to Jesus, do wee see an angry God? unsatified and disappointed face? or a smiling loving face looking back at you?
How we see God, affects everything about our being.
Being an Asian, I can tell you that most often than not, the face I see is the disapproving face that is never pleased with me. Why? Well, that’s how often my dad was. Not that he didn’t love me, just that he never showed it and whenever he did say something, it’s always about what I could do better and failed to do.
I realized seeing God the same way will only allow me to experience a very narrow slit of God’s grace and love. A narrow experience.
Imagine the face on the father whose prodigical son just returned, what’s that face like? Just how much more would the smile and happiness on God’s face will be.
What would that make you feel?
