Saturday, July 19, 2014

Recipient of Grace

"He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." 
~Jim Elliot~

One of my personal favorite quotes and one of many missionaries' cry in the heart. We give up many things of great earthly value only because we have caught on to something greater, and definitely better. Here, we refer to it as the things which we cannot lose, but in Matthew 6:33 it's actually talking about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is one of my favorite quotes because it captures the heart of following God- it speaks with conviction and certainty, and the guy who said this justified its content in the most epic way possible- he lost his life and he gained a legacy. With gusto I confidently declare that same quote over and over again, and my, it felt good. 

He (I) makes the sacrifices to follow God, he (I) is no fool, he (I) is gaining something due to his actions. The world talks about this as if Jim Elliot was the man- he did everything right! Until one day, I began to question: would his ministry and Elizabeth Elliot become as effective if he hadn't died. I even commented that Jim's death was about the best thing that could have happened to Elizabeth simply because both of them decided to serve the Lord with ultimate fervor and abandonment. Then I want to bring us to remembrance- God calls, God equips, God fulfills.
For whatever reasons that we have come here for, I want to point out the prestige of being able to be here, and to be a part of what He is doing in Tanjong Pinang. Basically, He doesn't need us here.  I think that is the posture to adopt in service, so that we do not become disillusioned, nor do we become disappointed, but to always maintain that sense of honor and gratitude simply by the recognition that we do not deserve, yet by His grace we came. I come thinking that I'm doing the people or even God a great service, but truly, many who have gone on missions always make this particular remark: I came to bless, but I've been blessed much more in return. I reiterate: this is a position of great privilege, and we are the recipients of divine grace. 
I end the sharing with this story that I read from Kyle Idleman's "Not a Fan". 
There was a father. One day he was trying to shift a heavy furniture across the carpet, and it took him a while to realize that the most effective way to accomplish that is to flip that piece of furniture over, and slide on its back across the room. He did that, but the task was still a big one. After a while, this struggling father caught the attention of his 4-years old son, who cutely ran up to him, squeezed himself in between his dad and the furniture and offered to help. He was making little contribution, and the furniture would not budge. But his father was behind him, and working together, the furniture moved. After a while, the son looked up at his father, and quickly remarked, "dad, you are in my way." 
Sometimes in our lives, we take up so much, and we slowly began to remove God from the picture, even as we claim to say that we are doing His works. Today, I encourage us to take heart- commit and surrender. Believe in the depth of our heart that He is the one pushing the heavy furniture over our shoulders, not by what we might think is our strength, not even by what we think is our resources, but by a simple faith and a simple desire to seek His kingdom. Let us receive grace, and in receiving grace let us serve with grace, and let us show grace. 



For audio podcast, click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nz3PfhlzCo&feature=youtu.be

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

God is Love, and Love is God

God is love and Iove is not God conveys a subtle message that love is greater than God. Inherently, it is saying that there are some facets of love that our understanding of who God is disqualify Him from being the entirety of it. Ie. God satisfies some notions of love, but fails for the other notions of love.
This morning, I was reading an article titled "God is love and love is not God". The brief illustration of that idea utilized one single but arguably misquoted example to justify this point: if God is love, a loving God would never allow so-and-so tragedy to occur. This argument hinges upon our conviction of what love is and how it should look like. The flaw here is our understanding of love, not God's character of love.
So if we are talking about indulgent love, abusive love, insecure love, demanding love, then yes love is not God. But before we get carried away, these are no love at all!
The bible says God is love, in generic, for a purpose (I believe). It doesn't say God is a specific kind of love, only.
However, I want to propose this: God is love (this is established already), love is God (because God is big enough to satisfy the fullness captured by love), but love is not the entire God (simply because God is bigger).
Scripture says "we love because He first loved us." We are love, not because we can, but because He empowers us to. We get ahead of ourselves the moment we start thinking that we are capable of loving, by our own strength. 
What then is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 give us a pretty cool definition of love: love is patient, love is kind. In the bible, many different versions of love had been utilized with each capturing an aspect of the critical love factor in context. We have agape, philia, storge, and eros. But God encompasses them all- for in 1 John, it has been made clear. We cannot love God whi we cannot see if we do not love our brother whom we see. And when Jesus restored Peter, the depth of love Jesus demanded from Peter increased in depth for each subsequent challenge. 
Love in the right vein reveals God's characteristic of love. When love competes, and love confuses, those are also points whereby love is confounded. Love is simple, just love~