If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
As i read in 1 John, This passage astounds me, it is very clear about what God opines about sin and us. We would have sinned. We may not recognize it but we would have sinned. It a powerful statement that is always true. That no matter what happens we are helpless about our sin. This is an interesting fact that no one (or almost) can be sin-less. Because it is impossible for the claim to be true.
This fact is so fundamental, no one can claim we have not sinned. God's standards are so high that for a mere human to say that, it would be the impossible. How is it true that people have not sinned? If you do not recognize God you have sinned. If you recognize God and say that you have not sinned, then it would also be false because there would be a time that one did not believe in God. This result is a suprizing and yet important truth.
2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
I also thought the verses above us is interesting too. Especially in the times that we are in. Sometimes I have trouble telling apart who is with us or against us in the spiritual world. Especially since the lines are so blurred now a days. And this verse gave us a good litmus test to test if anything is with God or against. The simple test is if the spirit would recognize that Jesus Christ is from God. I think that is actually a very good way to discern what is the good and the bad. Any spirit or person that acknowledge that Jesus Christ is from God would also believe in Jesus Christ. And that believe would cause the person to believe in every of His word. That would also consequently say that Jesus is the only Lord! This is actually a sufficient condition!
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
judgment!
Dealing With a Case of Incest
5 It
is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a
kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his
father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get
rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you
really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”[d]
I find this passage interesting!! WHY? You may ask, let me tell you! Its because it deals with judgment. Well, we christians always say, let God be the judge! While that is true, there is an addition to that truth!! We see here:
I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.
Paul passed judgment onto the people of the church! What i really learn here is that sure, God is the final judge, but we are all capable of passing judgment in the name of Jesus here and now. While that is not to persecute anyone, it is meant to help people realize their issues.
However, the rest that he says is in consistent with what i already knew! We the church are not to pass God's judgment across other(non-christians), for that alone is God's job! Not ours!
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Law AND Grace? Law OR Grace?
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
How clear that verse is! Although we are no longer under the law, we are now under grace! This verse reminds me of some of the sermons preached by some preachers, they only preach exclusively about grace. Grace is good, but not to the extent that we do not learn the law. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ does not abolishes the law but gives us grace ontop of those laws. The law is like a sin mirror, reflecting to us what are the sins in our lives. Because on our own without God or Holy Spirit's help we would never be able to discover these laws on our own.
But God needs to make clear to us the laws through Moses and others to help us recognize these sins. Law is just a tool to let us recognize the sin, and subsequently repent. But it still holds that it is up to us to repent.
So in short, before the death of Jesus Christ, we need to recognize the sin using the law and then repent. However, as human beings, we have problems with both the recognition and the repentance of the sin.
Well, God knows this from the very start and He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that we understand the gravity of the matter. Then we do not need to spend so much effort recognizing and repenting.
Jesus made recognizing simple as when He dies, the holy spirit comes upon all who believe and that will always remind us of the law and what is sin. Talking about repentance, we just need to recognize and apologize to God about the sin. And Jesus's blood will wash us clean again. As when Jesus died on the cross, He died for ALL sins. Whether before or after. EVERYTHING.
But then, even with such simplification, its still hard for people and sin is still rampant. It all boils down to one thing- choice. Do you or do you not?
How clear that verse is! Although we are no longer under the law, we are now under grace! This verse reminds me of some of the sermons preached by some preachers, they only preach exclusively about grace. Grace is good, but not to the extent that we do not learn the law. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ does not abolishes the law but gives us grace ontop of those laws. The law is like a sin mirror, reflecting to us what are the sins in our lives. Because on our own without God or Holy Spirit's help we would never be able to discover these laws on our own.
But God needs to make clear to us the laws through Moses and others to help us recognize these sins. Law is just a tool to let us recognize the sin, and subsequently repent. But it still holds that it is up to us to repent.
So in short, before the death of Jesus Christ, we need to recognize the sin using the law and then repent. However, as human beings, we have problems with both the recognition and the repentance of the sin.
Well, God knows this from the very start and He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that we understand the gravity of the matter. Then we do not need to spend so much effort recognizing and repenting.
Jesus made recognizing simple as when He dies, the holy spirit comes upon all who believe and that will always remind us of the law and what is sin. Talking about repentance, we just need to recognize and apologize to God about the sin. And Jesus's blood will wash us clean again. As when Jesus died on the cross, He died for ALL sins. Whether before or after. EVERYTHING.
But then, even with such simplification, its still hard for people and sin is still rampant. It all boils down to one thing- choice. Do you or do you not?
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
This righteousness!
This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
As i thought and mediate on this verse, I just want to thank God for the the salvation that He has given all of us! We only need to believe in that, belief that God had sent His son to die on the cross for all our sins. The fact that all people are not righteous is a key fact! We may think we are righteous, but to God's standards, we fall short. Our definition of righteous and God's definition is so different. God's standards are way stricter. There is no difference between anyone in the world, for everyone has sinned in the eyes of God and needs repentance.
Now what is the effect of that?
I would say that we can no longer justify ourselves, we cannot claim that we we are right and wrong in front of God, but we can only use God's standards to say this is an area we need to work on.
We can no longer judge anyone with respect to right and wrong. Because we no longer have any standards, as God has shown that His standards of people is the only standard, we cannot judge people based on our standards. We cannot also judge people based on God's standards, as for one we do not come up with those standards. two we have no right to judge them as we were also prey to the sin.
We cannot claim that our salvation is ours and rejoice. For the salvation that we receive is given to us by God.
As i thought and mediate on this verse, I just want to thank God for the the salvation that He has given all of us! We only need to believe in that, belief that God had sent His son to die on the cross for all our sins. The fact that all people are not righteous is a key fact! We may think we are righteous, but to God's standards, we fall short. Our definition of righteous and God's definition is so different. God's standards are way stricter. There is no difference between anyone in the world, for everyone has sinned in the eyes of God and needs repentance.
Now what is the effect of that?
I would say that we can no longer justify ourselves, we cannot claim that we we are right and wrong in front of God, but we can only use God's standards to say this is an area we need to work on.
We can no longer judge anyone with respect to right and wrong. Because we no longer have any standards, as God has shown that His standards of people is the only standard, we cannot judge people based on our standards. We cannot also judge people based on God's standards, as for one we do not come up with those standards. two we have no right to judge them as we were also prey to the sin.
We cannot claim that our salvation is ours and rejoice. For the salvation that we receive is given to us by God.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Be Generous!
This is a very famously quoted verse, in Luke 16:
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
These verses tell us that God has entrusted you with much because you have shown that you can be entrusted with that smaller amount. These 2 verses overshadowed the other verse which i find interesting...
9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
This would be a shocker, i mean everyone would want to hear that God wants to give us more riches to manage(after all all are His), if we can manage the smaller portion.
But to use worldly wealth to gain friends? To be generous and gain favour from people? That is not well thought to be, well Jesus used this parable of the master who commended the dishonest managers because of his shrewdness in expense of his master. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it pays to be generous! Not only to the church, but to everyone else! Be Generous!
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
These verses tell us that God has entrusted you with much because you have shown that you can be entrusted with that smaller amount. These 2 verses overshadowed the other verse which i find interesting...
9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
This would be a shocker, i mean everyone would want to hear that God wants to give us more riches to manage(after all all are His), if we can manage the smaller portion.
But to use worldly wealth to gain friends? To be generous and gain favour from people? That is not well thought to be, well Jesus used this parable of the master who commended the dishonest managers because of his shrewdness in expense of his master. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it pays to be generous! Not only to the church, but to everyone else! Be Generous!
Monday, July 14, 2014
Faith, what kind do we have?
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
We can have a lot of different levels of faith. Seen here, the centurion doubted that Jesus was the Son of God at first. Similar to the many jews then who saw Jesus also doubted. Why did they doubt? Firstly let us not blame them, for most of them did not see Jesus' miracles first hand nor experience His power. Moreover, some of them did not even meet Him before! There there were also many rumours of Jesus. probably good and bad. Given these conditions, i would say it is hard to believe. These people do not even have a relationship with Jesus.
Now the question is do YOU have the faith? You may have experienced Jesus in your life, in some way, maybe directly or witnessed His power through friends or healing of people. The question is after experiencing God in all kinds of ways, do you still doubt that Jesus exist? After the centurions witnessed the mighty power that Jesus commanded, they proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God. The question that for you, how many of these kinds of instances does it take for you to believe, to just have the faith?
We can have a lot of different levels of faith. Seen here, the centurion doubted that Jesus was the Son of God at first. Similar to the many jews then who saw Jesus also doubted. Why did they doubt? Firstly let us not blame them, for most of them did not see Jesus' miracles first hand nor experience His power. Moreover, some of them did not even meet Him before! There there were also many rumours of Jesus. probably good and bad. Given these conditions, i would say it is hard to believe. These people do not even have a relationship with Jesus.
Now the question is do YOU have the faith? You may have experienced Jesus in your life, in some way, maybe directly or witnessed His power through friends or healing of people. The question is after experiencing God in all kinds of ways, do you still doubt that Jesus exist? After the centurions witnessed the mighty power that Jesus commanded, they proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God. The question that for you, how many of these kinds of instances does it take for you to believe, to just have the faith?
Friday, July 11, 2014
Judas Iscariot!!
Matthew 26:14-16
This passage always intrigued me for the following reasons:
John 12:1-6, Mark 14:1-10, Matthew 26:6-13
Note: this is not the same woman mentioned in Luke 7:38
Btw, a pint is 1/2 a liter.
All 3 passages correlate very well with each other. Note that in Matthew and Mark it was mentioned that some disciples, means not all but some...
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.
But in John we see that Judas along was mentioned. You know like how a convo or opinion started because someone led the conversation? Someone suggested something. Like how we always decide where to eat after LG but always end up eating Macs, because there are some who started the conversation with Macs, suggested Macs. So, in this case Judas was the one who probably started the conversation, that say hey why not we sell and donate?
From here we see that Judas was probably a very practical man, and sly at the same time. He was practical because he thought that that money would be better used in that situation(and from this we know that he knew and understood the value of money, hence the suggestion), but again, he probably had thoughts of stealing the money.
We observe in verse 6 that he was also the treasurer! But he was not very honest with the money! Hence, we can say that he values money and also has no qualms about stealing.
Hence we have some understanding of his personality and now we see the passage deeper with all these in mind.
Question 1:
Why did Judas betray Jesus?
Given his personality, if i were him, i would try to hog wealth. I would want to always launch myself to any opportunity to earn myself or steal to get that money. In the case of Jesus, we observe also in the passages that concern Jesus and Judas, there was no mention of Judas calling Jesus LORD/Master/God. Which most likely means that he only saw Jesus as a teacher, a Rabbi. (see Matthew 26:49). This deduction is very important in our answer here. Judas, a person who loves wealth, saw Jesus as a teacher of the law.
To answer this fully we look at question 3: What was Judas' intention?
His intention, which we can extrapolate from his "teacher" belief that he was expecting Jesus to be a king, a physical king. Because Judas heard Jesus talking about this new kingdom and all the prophesy about Jesus being king and people PROCLAIMING him to be a king, he probably thought that Jesus will be a worldly king and then he will be given a place in the kingdom, probably Chief Finance in the kingdom.
So, that answers his intention, we now go back to Q1.
He at this moment probably notice and come to realization what the other disciples long deduced by faith, that Jesus is Son of God and His kingdom is the heavenly kingdom, not the worldly one. So all his discipleship with Jesus has come to waste, he was not going to be chief of finance. All his planning and scheming has come to waste and he was thinking of ways to cash in(being a practical man). His chance came when Jesus made a ruckus in Jerusalem, in the temples and courts. He must have thought, this is chance to cash in in my investment, after all i spent so much time with this man and it all amount to nothing, now at least i can get something out of it.
Now we have answered question 1.
The second is the most intriguing question. Jesus already said quite explicitly here in John 13:
Judas knew that he was going to betray Jesus, why did he still do it? I hear you say because of Satan! Nope, you cannot blame it on Satan. Sure, Satan can encourage you to do bad things, but it is your will that matters. What you want to do? What does your heart desires? Desires Sin? In that situation, there are so many disciples why Judas? probably because of his heart condition. In the same way, then Satan can help you get to the sin. If we keep our heart with God and build a relationship, we can guard against Satan, not that we would 100% not sin anymore but we know our identity and are letting the relationship with God change your heart. Because ultimately if it is something you have no desire of doing and do not will to do it Satan cannot force you to do it, he can definitely entice you, tempt you but not force you.
Then why did he still do it, since he knew he was the one to betray Jesus. Its the same thing like Julia, when she is choosing her university and I (as Jesus) tell her hey you are going to graduate from University of Melbourne. Would Julia still do otherwise? In doing do losing her free will. Because that is not her deciding but me. This is a very good question because this is a cyclic argument and there is a answer to it, but i will leave it to all of you as homework. When i was preparing this sharing, i felt HS telling me to concentrate on the point about sin and heart condition and not this even though i really want to share this.
Back to the point about sin. Now friends, we may now sit here and think oh if i am in Judas' shoes i would not sell Jesus for just 30 pieces of silver. Oh i caught you. just 30 pieces of silver? We may not sell Jesus for 30 pc of silver which in today's money should be around 10k. How about 100K? 1 Million? 1 Billion? 1 Trillion? Its exactly the same situation as Judas faced that we are facing today, who is your god? Judas failed with Jesus in front of him as his discipler and as a physical being. How much more are we likely to fail? Judas worshiped money. That was the god that Satan used to do his work against Jesus. It is so important to do the things that Judas failed to do and the rest of the disciples did. I will share a few things:
1. Recognize that Jesus is God over your life( this is easy to say but really hard to execute)
Judas only recognize Jesus as teacher. Who is Jesus to you? Recognize that Jesus died on the cross, he is Savior, King of kings of the universe, Jehovah-Shammah(omnipresent), Jehovah-Shalom(peace), Jehovah-Rohi, Jehovah-Rapha(healer), Jehovah-Jireh(provider), Jehovah-Nissi(love), Yahweh. Most importantly He wants to build a relationship with us, just like how he built relationship with the disciples.
2. Come clean about your sinful desires before God
Notice this is different from fixing your sinful desires then going to God. Note this is also different from sin, i said sinful desires. Any desires that can lead you to sin. Judas held on to his desire to be come rich and that over powered him, and then sin.
3. What takes precedence over God? Judas made wealth his god, what is yours? What would you trade Jesus for when no one is watching?
Whatever that you put in today may be a few dollars to God's bag and you may just forget about it tomorrow. The question here is when something else comes along, like a bag that represents wealth comes along how much would you put into the bag and how would it compare with what you put into God's money bag? How about success' money bag? And so be clear, the money bag can be replace with time bad and it would still work. Give you an example God's time bag is ministry. Now all of those who are done with BMT and DNA, now God is like passing his time-bag around and it reaches you, would you give? These time-bags will pass around periodically like cafe serving and planning for outreach and more. All of us can only encourage you(like Andy said previously about serving in the lifegroup), but the choice is yours!
Judas made his decision to put his time and money into the wealth money pouch, now its our time to make the decision.
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
14 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.This passage always intrigued me for the following reasons:
- The biggest question: Why would Judas betray Jesus?
- Why did Judas still betray Jesus?
- What was Judas's intention(different from why)?
John 12:1-6, Mark 14:1-10, Matthew 26:6-13
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.[b]” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.Note: this is not the same woman mentioned in Luke 7:38
Btw, a pint is 1/2 a liter.
All 3 passages correlate very well with each other. Note that in Matthew and Mark it was mentioned that some disciples, means not all but some...
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.
But in John we see that Judas along was mentioned. You know like how a convo or opinion started because someone led the conversation? Someone suggested something. Like how we always decide where to eat after LG but always end up eating Macs, because there are some who started the conversation with Macs, suggested Macs. So, in this case Judas was the one who probably started the conversation, that say hey why not we sell and donate?
From here we see that Judas was probably a very practical man, and sly at the same time. He was practical because he thought that that money would be better used in that situation(and from this we know that he knew and understood the value of money, hence the suggestion), but again, he probably had thoughts of stealing the money.
We observe in verse 6 that he was also the treasurer! But he was not very honest with the money! Hence, we can say that he values money and also has no qualms about stealing.
Hence we have some understanding of his personality and now we see the passage deeper with all these in mind.
Question 1:
Why did Judas betray Jesus?
Given his personality, if i were him, i would try to hog wealth. I would want to always launch myself to any opportunity to earn myself or steal to get that money. In the case of Jesus, we observe also in the passages that concern Jesus and Judas, there was no mention of Judas calling Jesus LORD/Master/God. Which most likely means that he only saw Jesus as a teacher, a Rabbi. (see Matthew 26:49). This deduction is very important in our answer here. Judas, a person who loves wealth, saw Jesus as a teacher of the law.
To answer this fully we look at question 3: What was Judas' intention?
His intention, which we can extrapolate from his "teacher" belief that he was expecting Jesus to be a king, a physical king. Because Judas heard Jesus talking about this new kingdom and all the prophesy about Jesus being king and people PROCLAIMING him to be a king, he probably thought that Jesus will be a worldly king and then he will be given a place in the kingdom, probably Chief Finance in the kingdom.
So, that answers his intention, we now go back to Q1.
He at this moment probably notice and come to realization what the other disciples long deduced by faith, that Jesus is Son of God and His kingdom is the heavenly kingdom, not the worldly one. So all his discipleship with Jesus has come to waste, he was not going to be chief of finance. All his planning and scheming has come to waste and he was thinking of ways to cash in(being a practical man). His chance came when Jesus made a ruckus in Jerusalem, in the temples and courts. He must have thought, this is chance to cash in in my investment, after all i spent so much time with this man and it all amount to nothing, now at least i can get something out of it.
Now we have answered question 1.
The second is the most intriguing question. Jesus already said quite explicitly here in John 13:
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.Judas knew that he was going to betray Jesus, why did he still do it? I hear you say because of Satan! Nope, you cannot blame it on Satan. Sure, Satan can encourage you to do bad things, but it is your will that matters. What you want to do? What does your heart desires? Desires Sin? In that situation, there are so many disciples why Judas? probably because of his heart condition. In the same way, then Satan can help you get to the sin. If we keep our heart with God and build a relationship, we can guard against Satan, not that we would 100% not sin anymore but we know our identity and are letting the relationship with God change your heart. Because ultimately if it is something you have no desire of doing and do not will to do it Satan cannot force you to do it, he can definitely entice you, tempt you but not force you.
Then why did he still do it, since he knew he was the one to betray Jesus. Its the same thing like Julia, when she is choosing her university and I (as Jesus) tell her hey you are going to graduate from University of Melbourne. Would Julia still do otherwise? In doing do losing her free will. Because that is not her deciding but me. This is a very good question because this is a cyclic argument and there is a answer to it, but i will leave it to all of you as homework. When i was preparing this sharing, i felt HS telling me to concentrate on the point about sin and heart condition and not this even though i really want to share this.
Back to the point about sin. Now friends, we may now sit here and think oh if i am in Judas' shoes i would not sell Jesus for just 30 pieces of silver. Oh i caught you. just 30 pieces of silver? We may not sell Jesus for 30 pc of silver which in today's money should be around 10k. How about 100K? 1 Million? 1 Billion? 1 Trillion? Its exactly the same situation as Judas faced that we are facing today, who is your god? Judas failed with Jesus in front of him as his discipler and as a physical being. How much more are we likely to fail? Judas worshiped money. That was the god that Satan used to do his work against Jesus. It is so important to do the things that Judas failed to do and the rest of the disciples did. I will share a few things:
1. Recognize that Jesus is God over your life( this is easy to say but really hard to execute)
Judas only recognize Jesus as teacher. Who is Jesus to you? Recognize that Jesus died on the cross, he is Savior, King of kings of the universe, Jehovah-Shammah(omnipresent), Jehovah-Shalom(peace), Jehovah-Rohi, Jehovah-Rapha(healer), Jehovah-Jireh(provider), Jehovah-Nissi(love), Yahweh. Most importantly He wants to build a relationship with us, just like how he built relationship with the disciples.
2. Come clean about your sinful desires before God
Notice this is different from fixing your sinful desires then going to God. Note this is also different from sin, i said sinful desires. Any desires that can lead you to sin. Judas held on to his desire to be come rich and that over powered him, and then sin.
3. What takes precedence over God? Judas made wealth his god, what is yours? What would you trade Jesus for when no one is watching?
Whatever that you put in today may be a few dollars to God's bag and you may just forget about it tomorrow. The question here is when something else comes along, like a bag that represents wealth comes along how much would you put into the bag and how would it compare with what you put into God's money bag? How about success' money bag? And so be clear, the money bag can be replace with time bad and it would still work. Give you an example God's time bag is ministry. Now all of those who are done with BMT and DNA, now God is like passing his time-bag around and it reaches you, would you give? These time-bags will pass around periodically like cafe serving and planning for outreach and more. All of us can only encourage you(like Andy said previously about serving in the lifegroup), but the choice is yours!
Judas made his decision to put his time and money into the wealth money pouch, now its our time to make the decision.
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