Recognizing God

 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!

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.”<sup>[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!</sup>  

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?

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.

Be Generous!

<sup>This is a very famously quoted verse, in Luke 16:

10</sup> “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!

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?

Judas Iscariot!!

^{Matthew 26:14-16}

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: 

1. The biggest question: Why would Judas betray Jesus?
2. Why did Judas still betray Jesus?
3. What was Judas's intention(different from why)?

Before we look into these 3 questions, we need to examine Judas, his personality and his attitudes towards life. After some research, 

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.

The End.

24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.
⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.
²⁶ “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[b]

³⁰ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^{[d] 31} And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it^[e] is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

As i reflected on this passage, a sense of joy and sadness descended upon me. Firstly, joy because after the end times, there will be a new heaven and new earth! Like this is a huge signpost for the new heaven and earth to come. Then there will be no weeping. 

However, these are very scary times, look specifically here:

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.
⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Wars and rumours of wars. Then there will be world war and there will be killing and there will be a lack of food because of that. Then Christians ( i believe God was trying to say Christians as it said you, which referred to Matthew, who is a Jew but believe in Christ, so technically a Christian. Many would lose faith in God. 

Then the gospel will be preached and the whole world will know. I wonder how is it done, television? Hmm.. i don't know. In fact no one knows expect the Father. 

All we can do right now is to keep the faith and share the faith, and keep building up the faith, in case, just in case this is happening in our life time. 

If it does, the question we need to ask ourselves is, can we keep the faith? We can in peace and prosperity, but how about in war and famine?

The faith. (Part II)

That is not all! He did not mean that gentiles are stray dogs but domesticated dogs. In other words pets!

Now consider this situation, you are the owner of the house and you have children and you have pet dogs in your house.

The Children would always eat first before the dogs get food.

²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

The food was meant for the lost sheep of Israel. Now in this perspective, Jesus is the owner of the house, the Jews are his children and the pet dogs are represented by gentiles. 

Jesus came to bring the good news first to the Jews then through the Jews they were to make disciples of all nations. Jesus' ministry was the Jews and not the gentiles and the ministry of gentiles belonged to the Jews! In a way Jesus was letting His disciples take the charge, decide and He wanted to see how they reacted.

In the end they responded by saying 


“Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

and even opened the door for the woman to come in to meet Jesus. 

That was probably a satisfactory response as His disciples stepped up, as He kept quiet.

²⁷ “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Then when the woman came in, her response really impacted me. She humbled herself and mentioned that she was equivalent to this pet dog in this parable.  Really! Such humility!!

I really do not understand how much faith and conviction that this woman possess for her to answer this way to Jesus. 

Firstly similar to the Army commander who came to Jesus, she understood the nature of Jesus' power and had great faith. 

Secondly, she had insight to Jesus' parable and Jewish faith.

Thirdly, she humbled herself before Jesus. 

Through the whole process, Jesus did not deny her, only telling her it is not time. 

The disciples understood through the parable that their mission was to: 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Lastly, the woman was healed and was not insulted through the process.

The faith. (Part I)

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman

²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
²³ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
²⁵ The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
²⁶ He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
²⁷ “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
²⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Jesus Honors a Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

²⁴ Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.^[g] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. ²⁵ In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
²⁹ Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.


This passage is a very difficult passage. When i first read this passage, i was like WHAT?! Are you serious? Gentiles = dogs? In our modern perspective, to be called a dog is a huge insult.


But as i mediate on the word and research further, that was not the intention for Jesus. Jesus did not mean for all of us to be referred as dogs in today's context and meaning.

Jesus "withdrawn", from a fanatical crowd, refer to Mark 6, where it was mentioned that He fed five thousand. Jesus wanted to rest(after all He is in a Human body) and to provide for his disciples' rest. this was the extent of his ministry: Mark 6:31
³¹ Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

²¹ Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

 ²⁴ Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.

Then, while Jesus was "escaping from the crowd", and just wanting to rest and provide rest for His disciples,
Mark 7:24
He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.

This woman appeared after HEARING Jesus's arrival, stopping everything she was doing to come and plead Jesus for healing of her daughter. She was a Gentile and yet used the name Son of David. Not Jesus, but Son of David. She may have heard other people talking about Jesus and mentioning something about Son of David and the prophesy, but the fact remains that she probably did not read the bible and understand the full meaning of the title "Son of David".

So Jesus was here inside the house resting and ministering to his own disciples and this woman was crying out outside the house calling His Name and His Identity and yet His intention was to rest and keep his presence secret. 

Then Jesus did not respond to her. 
 
²³ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

Then His disciples suggested sending her away, healing her child. They went ahead to opening the door and letting the woman in without asking Jesus about it. After all Jesus just needed to command and the child will be healed. But the fact is that Jesus stayed silent. Silence, that is what many of us do not look forward to. Imagine you ask Jesus for something and yet He did not reply, he was just silent.   In many ways like this, Jesus wanted to test our response. And in this case Jesus was pleased with that response. 

Why?
Jesus was the Jewish messiah and He was sent for the Jews(and the rest too) and then through the Jews the word would be fulfilled and spread. In a way the woman being a Gentile, Gentile ministry was not Jesus's ministry, but the ministry of the Jews. 

It was clearer when the verse that proceeds.

²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
²⁵ The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
²⁶ He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

lost sheep of Israel is referring to the Jews. 

Now, then it would be very clear that  non-chistians = dogs.

Continued below...

bury the dead

¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
²⁰ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
²¹ Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

I found this passage interesting! Especially 21-22! Firstly we must recognize that the verses are not literal, when Jesus said in 22 let the dead bury their own dead, Jesus was not talking about the physically dead! To ask the physically dead to bury another physically dead does not make sense. After all how do you make a dead person bury another dead person? 

Jesus is talking about the dead spiritually, the people who are far away from God, that they do not walk with God. Jesus in other words were saying let those spiritually dead bury the dead, and do not deviate from your spiritual responsibilities that Jesus have given you. 

After all when Lazerous was dead, Jesus went to see him to raise him from the dead.

Authority

What does it mean to have authority?

What difference between 2 persons who do the same thing, one with authority, one without.

Let's all take a look at Jesus,

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

People preached; Jesus and pharisees both preached the same teaching. But there is difference in the teaching because one of them had the authority to do so. 

We can do a whole lot of things in out life. We can read the bible and do all our stuff. But if we do not do with God's AUTHORITY, then what authority are we performing it on? Authority is a very powerful word. Authority can do a whole lot of things and do it well.

Imagine if you are an person who is very good in war tactics. Now imagine you are a general in the army, then you would be able to use the authority vested to apply your knowledge. However, if you are just some Tom, Dick and Harry, then you would not be able to make a difference, even if you told some general about your plans it would just be a suggestion. Suggestion.

Words without authority is a suggestion but words with authority is a command. 

When Jesus teaches He taught with authority and that is the reason people were amazed, because he was responsible for the word and he was put in a position to teach. But authority comes with a price. The price is working hard at it. To be come an army general you have to work hard at soldiering skills. To be come a teacher you need to go through NIE. To be come a Prof you need to take PHD and get professorship. To be come God's servants we need to take obey him and gain his trust. 

The question is do we have Godly authority vested upon us?

Presence of God

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die. ²⁵ If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,’ ²⁶ then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.’”

I find this verse very interesting, in fact the king ordered the prophet to lie. Which makes me wonder.

Through out Jeremiah, i really felt sadness in my heart as God turned away from the people of Israel, Really, Israel was destroyed as i read more and more of the Book of Jeremiah. I am thankful of God's grace that we are able to enjoy worldly peace. I know it would not be long, but I thank God that we are all living in this decade enjoying such privilege. In hindsight, it is very dangerous to sin and not repent, truly repent. We see the consequences of sin that Israel brought upon themselves. Their everything was destroyed. EVERYTHING. Nebuchnezzar II destroyed everything but spared the prophet Jeremiah, just as his prophesy declared. It is always better in the presence of God than in sin.

God the Rod

^8-11 God explained, “This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—a wicked bunch of people who won’t obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They’re going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care”—God’s Decree—“so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.

God really loves Israel, first and foremost, the most basic reason is that God promised Israel's people in  Deut7:7-8:

⁷ The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
⁸ But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

This promise that kept Israel from withering out! God talked here about Israel being the fewest of all people that is why God chose them. 

In spite of that, in Jeremiah, God really turned away from His people. He was really angry with His people.

“Watch closely now. I’m going to teach these wrongheaded people.
    Starting right now, I’m going to teach them
Who I am and what I do,
    teach them the meaning of my name, God—‘I Am.’”

 

Wow, if somone said that i am going to stay far far away from him, but when its God who said it, i would really tremble in fear. 

Bunch of idiots

^8-11 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’” God’s Decree!

This really spoke to me that today in our society, we are doing excatly the same thing, taking God's grace for granted! Its about lust and sex and we can do whatever we want and roam around sinning then we just walk into church and say "we are safe". What hypocrites!  By coming to church does not give us a licence to sin, by having God's grace too, does not gives us a licence to sin. And some of us just do not see it. God's grace is not to be used in this manner! We are to treat God's grace up high!

Parents!

“Open up, heavens, and rain.
    Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
    sprout right living.
    I, God, generate all this.
But doom to you who fight your Maker—
    you’re a pot at odds with the potter!
Does clay talk back to the potter:
    ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
    ‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
    ‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”

 When i read this verse, holy spirit reminded me of the times i talked back to my mother. Then i had the deep conviction immediately that my mother was used by God to bring forth me into this world and i should be grateful, not blaming or to the point of talking back to her. Instead, i should be really thankful of a mother who can and will take care of me. Because no creation would and should talk back to fight against our Maker. Though my mother is not my maker, but God is, she was a tool for God, so if i go against her and be at odds with her, it would be almost equivalent to going against God! Be thankful to your parents! :D

Curruption

^16-17 God says, “Zion women are stuck-up,
    prancing around in their high heels,
Making eyes at all the men in the street,
    swinging their hips,
Tossing their hair,
    gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.”
The Master will fix it so those Zion women
    will all turn bald—
Scabby, bald-headed women.
    The Master will do it.

This is during Israel's darkest hour. This book was written in approximately at 730 BC. about 200 -300 years after Solomon, at the time of this prophet called Isaiah. Israel is corrupted, in God's words, read the book! "Zion women are stuck-up, prancing around in their high heels"

The corruption, does it sound like our time? Hmm?

Proverbs 8

^12-21 “I am Lady Wisdom, and I live next to Sanity;
    Knowledge and Discretion live just down the street.
The Fear-of-God means hating Evil,
    whose ways I hate with a passion—
    pride and arrogance and crooked talk.
Good counsel and common sense are my characteristics;
    I am both Insight and the Virtue to live it out.
With my help, leaders rule,
    and lawmakers legislate fairly;
With my help, governors govern,
    along with all in legitimate authority.
I love those who love me;
    those who look for me find me.
Wealth and Glory accompany me—
    also substantial Honor and a Good Name.
My benefits are worth more than a big salary, even a very big salary;
    the returns on me exceed any imaginable bonus.
You can find me on Righteous Road—that’s where I walk—
    at the intersection of Justice Avenue,
Handing out life to those who love me,
    filling their arms with life—armloads of life!

what is Fear-of-God? means hating evil. So powerful. Indirectly, this Proverbs is actually saying that fear-of-God ward off evil, and evil ways, gain you wealth, so much wealth, upholds justice and give life. Do we have it? Nope, unfortunately people in our generation wants worldly knowledge but wisdom is totally different. It gives you totally different things on a different level than things of the world can give. 

Morsel of a proveb

I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
    I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
    counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.

Morsel, whats a morsel? Morsel is a small chunk, just a mouthful of proverb. This teaches me a lot, just a mouthful. God gave us a mouthful to handle, one mouthful at a time. I have this habit of taking the whole chunk all at once, but that is not good, take a morsel at a time!


^1-2 On your feet now—applaud God!
    Bring a gift of laughter,
    sing yourselves into his presence.

³ Know this: God is God, and God, God.
    He made us; we didn’t make him.
    We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.

⁴ Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
    Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
    Thank him. Worship him.

⁵ For God is sheer beauty,
    all-generous in love,
    loyal always and ever.

Thanks giving, Praise Worship Him! All these are good! I am encouraged by this verse!

true freedom

¹⁶ Come and hear, all you who fear God;
    let me tell you what he has done for me.
¹⁷ I cried out to him with my mouth;
    his praise was on my tongue.
¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened;
¹⁹ but God has surely listened
    and has heard my prayer.
²⁰ Praise be to God,
    who has not rejected my prayer
    or withheld his love from me!

Praise be to God! Our prayers will be answered with love from God! Those who think prayers are not true, it is true. You just gotta try it. Pray with a sincere heart. God will answer with love. When i say answer with love means that He will only answer if He thinks it is good for you. God is not a genie, but a loving Father.

⁵ For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
    my confidence since my youth.
⁶ From birth I have relied on you;
    you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
    I will ever praise you.
⁷ I have become a sign to many;
    you are my strong refuge.
⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
    declaring your splendor all day long.

Do not forget the Lord and the things that He have done! From birth till now, God have been our provider and will always continue to be. Do not ever forget the Lord!

¹² This is what the wicked are like—
    always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

Is this not true? The wicked are always free. They are free from God's law and free, they think they are free therefore they act free. They can do anything their sinful heart desires, just anything without thinking of the consequences. They go on thinking life is all there is and justy try to make the best of it getting rich and all. Its true is'nt it...

Following God is not easy, we have freedom in Christ but not free of care. We cannot just ignore the consequences and do whatever we like, because we know we need to account to God! But through that we find freedom, fulfillment and joy because that was what life is supposed to be like! 

Psalms?

^{After i had read this, i really feel for the old testament people, especially for the non-Jews. Half the time the Jews are praising God for hunting down their enemies which are non-Jews. No one actually shared to these people man. They know of God probably but no one shared to them, they only know of their own gods.} 

^22-23 Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders—
    he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.
He’ll never let good people
    topple into ruin.
But you, God, will throw the others
    into a muddy bog,
Cut the lifespan of assassins
    and traitors in half.

And I trust in you.

 God will never let good people topple into ruin! As far as we trust in God! He will help the good people and punish the rest. So now, are we good people, in God's eyes?

Psalm 27

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When the wicked advance against me
    to devour^[a] me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
³ Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

These verses are about faith! The Lord is my light and my salvation. Light is something that makes things visible and salvation is deliverance from harm. God is a provider of light and salvation, illuminates our lives from darkness and rescues us from sin. He is the reason we live on, free from the enemy. 

When one is in tough circumstances, do you fear?  Where and who is your confidence and hope based on? Yourself? Or God? When an army besiege you, then you will find out. We put our faith and confidence in a lot of things(gods), technology is one, but what does it mean for us to trust in the Lord? It is not blind faith but because of what He had done in the past, we can be sure that He will do in the future. Whether it is in our own lives or in others or in the bible, it is shown that He had done it before. Based on His track record, that is also where faith comes in, faith that He will do it again. Faith that He exists. We cannot prove God in a scientific and logical manner that God exist, but we know that we can do that only by faith. In your hard times, your god will be revealed, whether it is the Lord, yourself or someone or something. It would be revealed!