Like Noah

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." (1 Peter 3:14-15)

You know like how we always focus on the being prepared to answer doubts and stuff like that? When i read these verses again today it suddenly struck me that holiness is a prerequisite for the person giving a response for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. Setting our hearts apart for Christ our Lord is major part of the preparation. The single greatest obstacle to the impact of the gospel has not been its inability to provide answers, but the failure on our part to live it out.

I read somewhere that the Irish evangelist Gypsy Smith once said, "There are five Gospels: Matthew Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four." In other words he is saying that the gospel is often first seen before it is heard. The way one's life is lived out will determine the impact upon the skeptic. Too many skeptics see the quality of one's life and firmly believe that it is all theory, bearing no supernatural component.

"Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." It was clear to me that this is talking about the fear of Man. This reminded me of Noah. Imagine when Noah first started out building the ark, when he started collecting tools and timber. His neighbors probably thought he had decided to build a new house or something like that. Perhaps Noah was happy for them to think that way. It would be much easier not to correct their assumption, not to have to explain what a flood was and why his family was going to need a large boat to escape one and worse still, having to have to explain that animals were coming too.

Well, he probably did that but when as his construction gets bigger and more obvious (esp. when he starts coating it with pitch), people is bound to take notice. Then at that point of time he's is faced with the same choice we as God fearing Christians face everyday. He is being faced with a decision to come up with a plausible story or telling the truth and looking like a fool.

I remembered what Jeanie always said to her cell kids that "if Christ is so big in your life, he should be sticking out." For me, i do have a problem when it comes to this. I really want to grow and do things for the glory of God but at the same time i struggle with it as i don't want my faith to become big and noticeable. When people who are expecting me to be earning big bucks ask me where I am working, i struggle with telling them what i was doing. Many times when i struggle i always wonder about the strength of my faith. I guess in the eyes of the world, living a life that is radically countercultural is as difficult to understand as building an ark miles away from water.

Noah could have made his situation easier by only half-heartedly fulfilling the command of God. He could have as easily built a smaller ark, one that would be less noticeable. But Noah feared his creator more than he feared men, even to the point that he was willing to be considered a fool by those around him. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "By faith Noah, when warned of things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith" (Hebrews 11:7).

You know like how alot of us Christians call attention to our lifestyle and worldview, boasting of our righteous choices (not saying that it’s wrong) but in Noah's case, he didn't need to do this. The ark spoke for itself. His obedience to God proclaimed his faith louder than his words could have. And the same can be true of us.

Do we talk about resurrection but not living out its power in our lives? Before we try to answer what people ask, let us live our lives in direct obedience to God. Obedience is better then sacrifices.

The Boy and the Fly

Do you remember the times when you just feel so ignored by everybody? As i drew this i was reminded once again that the key point about this scenario is not about us being the boy in the illustration but rather more importantly, are we being the fly? As we being too busy or too obsessed with what we have to do and being too "sucked in" by our culture with a heavy efficiency accent?

I was reminded once again as i read Rachoo's blog that there is flip side to loving someone and that is to leave all others unloved for the moment or period of time. The more you love someone or something, the more time is spent for that subject matter and interest skewed towards a certain direction. The more you love a particular someone or something, the lesser time and interest you have for everything else.

Having said this, the question that Samantha asked quite some time back still rings in my mind; "How can we reconcile the concepts of love versus and that of divine love"; meaning to say that if the concept of loving means to leave all others unloved. How then can God's pure, undivided and eternal love be for an individual and yet that same love be for everybody as many individuals all the same.

Without going too deep on the doctrinal issues on God's omnipresence, omnipotence and divine love, more importantly i figured that any theological answer if given (for this question) would still leave one unsatisfied because the very nature of the question derives from the heart. The heart seeks to feel and the mind seeks to know. Somehow we need more then ever to rescue those answers from doctrinal statements and put it into our hearts. And therefore i would say that this question can only be fully answered by having a personal relationship with God himself, the strength of the relationship is defined as faith and this gives spirituality its meaning.

Lifted from Rachoo's blog and qouted from Lewis Smedes in his book "Love Within Limits", he wrote this, "When Jesus healed one leper, he left hundreds unhealed. His life was a continual series of choices to love one way and not another." The keyword here is continual.

The personhood of God is manifested through Christ. Yes we are not God and we cannot love all people at the same time but let that not be an excuse to just sit back with the we-are-made-like-this attitude. Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you. If we as Christ's disciples, all seek to be more and more like him, should we not then follow his example? Now i understand the reason behind the impetus that the late Mother Theresa had for her ministry in Calcutta.

When i was in Indonesia what impacted me most is the many "Mother Theresa"s that i met. I had the opportunity to most importantly witness them in ministry. Its really amazing how love devoid of all intentions can minister to people.

Has love lost its implications in modern context? I don't want that to apply to me. I pray that i'll be a good steward of the time given to me so that i'll be able to spend more time with people for they are also my ministry. To live everyday as my last or their last.

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ps: I have written a blog post in the past about loving devoid of all intentions and i thought that it would be a nice compliment to what i wrote here, you can read it at this link.