I belong to You

Romans 7:1-6 were the verses used for today’s sermon.

Before accepting Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we are bound by the old covenant, as written in Deut 5:6-21 (colloquially known as the ten commandments). Further along the lines, it says that if we follow ALL His commands, all the blessings you can possibly imagine will be given to you (Deut 28:1). However, if we don’t carefully obey ALL His commands, you will be cursed (Deut 28:45).

My Pastor used the imagery of a husband and wife to explain this better- with Law being the ultra-perfectionist husband and the wife being us. Law demands us to set everything in order – the shoes have to be lined the proper manner, clothing should be color-coded, spoon and fork has to be placed at the table in the correct order at the same place, towels should be hanged in perfect alignment, etc etc. in order to please Law, we have to work with all our might, all our strength to fulfil what He demands. How does that sound? But since we are bound with Him in a covenant before God, we can’t just separate from him. We are bound to Law as long as Law is alive.

This is the case of us with the old covenant. we have to work to be accepted by God, and we should not fail or trespass any of it at any point of time. The old covenant demands we fulfil them ourselves, without God’s grace and mercy. This sounds harsh and as humans, to fulfil the ten commandments fully would be an impossible task. So why did He make those commandments if He knows that we can’t fulfil it? Firstly, the commandments reflects the moral standard of God- He is Holy, blameless. and since we are created in the “image of God”, we are expected to rise up to His standards as well.

Secondly, it makes us realise that we can’t please God by our own strength. But God knows that we are not able to completely abide to the law, and for that reason, He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross. By faith, if you accept Christ’s redeeming work, “you also DIED TO THE LAW through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead” (Romans 7:4). as in the verses prior to this, the laws of marriage no longer exist if one partner dies. Hence, when we died together with Jesus, we are now free. Free from the law…

The law that is impossible to keep,

The law that condemns us,

The law that demands our every bit of strength and life to fulfil it.

The law that demands us to work by our own might and flesh to please God.

Jesus had died on the cross to cover all the transgressions of the law and sins I have made. So i am longer bound to law.

Romans 8:1-4 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,⁴in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us

Yet I did not only die. As as He rose again on the third day, He has also raised me (Romans 7:4)…He has given me a new life and a new Spirit, and the Spirit has written the laws in my heart, meaning – I don’t have to try so hard to fill them, because I already have..they are in my heart.

Back to the husband-wife imagery, Jesus is the Husband, and i am the wife who looks at the pile of dirty dishes, gets frustrated over it, smashes every plate unto the floor in my anger. My Husband comes home…looks at the mess I have caused.. the pieces of glass shattered everywhere… then looks at me, sweeps the broken pieces of glass away and embraces me.

No matter what I’ve done

No matter how big my sins are

No matter how many times i’ve sulked, complained about everything

No matter how ungrateful i am about the things He has done for me

I know Jesus still loves me.

Knowing that, It’s impossible not to love You back

For You have rescued me.

You have freed me from the law and restored my relationship with God even at the cost of Your life.

It’s not by my works that I have been saved, but only by Your grace (Eph2:8-9).

You came and saved me, not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are.

Because You have bought me with Your blood, now I belong to You.

Happy Easter Everyone ! :D

Dear friend

This is my …fourth year being a christian. My friend asked me last night, “So are you a fanatical Christian now”. I was stunned. “what do you mean”, i asked her. she said “you know, do you want your friends to believe in Jesus as well, do you close your eyes and lift up your hands as you sing, etc”. I  was stunned again. I remembered a conversation with this friend before I came to know God, during which I was guilty of labelling Christians as hypocrites. It’s as though she’s asking me if i was a hypocrite as well now. So, I paused before saying anything, not because i was ashamed to say yes, but i didn’t want to answer her wrongly, i didn’t just want to answer “yes” and leave her at that. She may think “oohh so she’ve joined THAT group now, she’s changed”

Dear friend,

I want you to know one thing. I am still the same person that you’ve known for years. i still laugh at your jokes, share stories with you, spend time with you. and you are still my best friend.

about those things, i’m not doing that as something my religion teaches me to.  They are not rituals. It’s not like, “lift your hands” and God will bless you for it. NO. Yes i do those things, but I do them as an expression of gratitude and praise to my Lord, Jesus. It’s something you may not understand now. Even I didn’t understand it in the beginning.

Over the years, i grew to know Jesus more, and He has slowly changed my life. I don’t think i need to tell you how He changed me- cause i’m sure you realised. Remember how i was such a timid person, very quiet and disengaging myself from social situations? well, that was because i felt very useless and my confidence had hit rock bottom. you may be surprised about this. you may think, “why would you feel that way..everything looks ok in your world”. Let’s just say, experiences i had to face left me dry and lonely.

But that changed as I came to Melbourne, right? I became more chatty, more confident, more lively, more passionate about life. All that, is not on what I have done but it’s because I came to know who Jesus is, and what He has done for me. Yes, it was my step to believe Him but He did the rest. As i grow to know Him more and more, He told me who I am in Him, my purpose in Him, and He has blessed my life so so much that my heart overflows with joy and gratitude i cannot contain. so that is why, i do the things that you asked.

You may think, that we Christians are hypocrites. if you look around, you may see people who call themselves Christians yet not doing what they preach- or they may even do the opposite. maybe you see that in me as well. sometimes I may fail to do the things I know i’m meant to do as a Christian. You may think that we may pose the holier-than-thou attitude, continuously criticising for your wrongdoings yet failing to look into the mirror at ourselves. if that is how you perceive us or me, on behalf of all of them and myself , i’m sorry. But you have to know one thing, we are just humans, we make mistakes. Just because we are Christians, doesn’t mean we are above everyone else. Please do not look at our God based on what you see through us. He is the God who is full of grace and mercy, He does not condemn you if only you’d be willing to believe in Him (romans 8:1-2). we are all the same, Christians or non-Christians, we are all sinners and have fallen short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23). So there is nothing that we can boast for ourselves.

So, i just want you to know friend, I am still me – just a revised better version of me the situation in my life and how i perceive my life may have changed, but it doesn’t me I have as a friend. you can still share your jokes, your life, your stories..you can still depend on me.

I personally pray for you that you may come to know Jesus. not because I want to suck you into becoming religious, but I want you to also experience Jesus the way I had – how He filled my life with joy, how He calmed me through the harsh situations in this life, and how He gave me a purpose for my existence.

That is all for now.I hope that answers your question. I love you friend, and more than that, Jesus loves you too.

with love,

me.

Jairus

Mark 5: 21-43 A dead girl and a sick woman.
Some of us may have read this part of the scriptures- we know about the story of how Jesus healed the woman subjected to bleeding for 12 years, of how he raised the the synagogue ruler’s dead daughter. So this time, let me take you through a different viewpoint- namely, through Jairus’s, the synagogue ruler.

Imagine Jairus. Put yourself in his shoes. If a documentary was made on this event, Jairus would have said the following:

“My Talitha is dying, the doctor came by this morning, he said that the disease has seized her.. now it’s only time we’re waiting on. Oh dear Lord, what have I done, what has my Talitha done to deserve this? She is just a child… Oh how my heart is so filled with anguish. I would do anything so she may live. but what should i do? what could I do? Some people were talking about a teacher…Jesus was His name I think. They were talking about how He had cast out demons and healed the sick. Maybe, just maybe He would be willing to heal my daughter”

In desperation, Jairus went out to meet Jesus. Pressing against the crowd that had gathered around Jesus, he managed to get through and fell on his knees, begging Him to come and heal his daughter. So, Jesus went with him. The throng followed, i could imagine it would be very slow to get moving along in that condition. Jairus’s heart was thumping, “when will we get to my house if we’re moving so slowly”

As Jesus and Jairus was moving along, a woman touched His cloak and Jesus turned around to look for the woman. Jairus would have felt “what now?? we are already moving slowly against this crowd.. now this. will we even be able to get there on time. what if…”. You know what follows- a woman confessed and Jesus healed her. As anxious and desperate as Jairus would have been, i would think that his hopes would be lifted up to witness the miracle that just happened- it’s as though he’s foreseeing what could happen to his daughter, that she could be healed!

“But it didn’t last long, servants from my house came and delivered the news I feared the most – my daughter had died. My hopes crashed and burned. I couldn’t believe what i just heard. In my heart, i thought, why am i even bothered to be here? i should have been with my daughter instead of being out here. i didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. my heart was enveloped with guilt. but as i was playing those thoughts in my head, Jesus said…’Do not be afraid; just believe‘. My heart was full of remorse, but i decided to believe”

Jesus then came to his house, commanded his dead daughter to rise.. and she did. She came back to life.

Sometimes in life, we are at a place like Jairus’s- in desperate need of a miracle yet have no power to do so. We have cried out to Jesus for help but it seems nothing has happened, nothing has changed. But know one thing, that He is with us- “do not be afraid; just believe”. Even if it seems like God is not dealing with our prayers; even when miracles are happening to everyone around except you; even as humans say “it’s too late”, know one thing – with Jesus nothing’s ever late. In the story, even with death, which symbolises the end of life – a situation where it can’t be ‘undone’- Jesus can take that and breathe life into it. As to when He’ll provide a ‘visible’ answer to your prayers, it depends on His timing.

Everything will be made beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Like Jairus, if you are in his position, ask Jesus to come and take control over your situation, know that He has the power to handle whatever it may be, wait on Him and then – “do not be afraid; just believe.”

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