Monthly Archives: September 2021

IF ONLY…

Christian life, ,

IF ONLY…

I have an avid interest in a series on Open TV called “Masterchef Australia” . Beginning with twenty-four of Australia’s best home cooks, the search for the best of the best to become Australia’s “Masterchef” starts its course. The winner gets a huge monetary prize, a spot in Australia’s most prodigious culinary magazine for a year, his/her name engraved on a floating trophy, and the title of “Masterchef” for that year.

Over the three months of the contest, with the involvement of world-renowned chefs from across the globe and through a process of elimination, the number of hopefuls is whittled down to two grand finalists. These two experts must fight it out in the toughest of cooking tests to determine who is the ultimate best.

2016 produced two brilliant finalists, Matt and Elena. Their growing skills and consistently high standard of cooking brought them into the final battle. Where Matt’s strength lay in his cooking of savoury dishes, Elena was excellent in both savoury and dessert.

This finale was not only a test of cooking skills but also of determination, perseverance and calm and clear thinking. Since every test took place within a strict time limit, any mistake put the contestants in danger of not completing their task.

The grand finale consisted of three rounds in which both contestants had to produce an entree, a main course and a dessert. Three judges, skilled chefs who had coached and tested the home cooks throughout the process, each scored the efforts out of ten. After 2 rounds, Matt was ahead of Elena by three points.

The final round was a “pressure test” of unbelievable difficulty. The contestants had to produce an exact replica of a dessert prepared by one of the most skilled chefs in his field. Each was given a step-by-step recipe for the dish and all the ingredients needed for each element.

Unfortunately for Matt, in his haste to complete, he misread a step and had to redo his work, putting him behind in his time constraints. Elena also made a mistake but worked consistently and steadily, finally reproducing the chef’s quality dish flawlessly.

As Matt watched in horror, his family in the gantry sharing in his pain from above, his beautiful dessert began to fall apart, and with it his dream of becoming “Masterchef 2016” and the prize which would kick-start his new career.

I watched his face and the reality of his dream melting away before his eyes. I could almost read the thoughts that slowly gathered in his head; frustration, anger, remorse, regret, hopelessness… “If only! If only! If only I had been more careful to follow the recipe. If only I had thought about what I was doing! If only I had stayed focused!” But it was too late!

Elena won the prize, and the title, and the trophy, and the glory of the moment, and the means to fulfil her dream. Matt had to settle for “runner-up” in the grand finale and a lesser prize to help him start his dream.

What lessons can I draw from this magnificent series?

I have learned much about human interaction from the judges and contestants alike; the contestants’ camaraderie, their bonds of friendship, their support of one another despite being contestants, their handling of stress and pressure, their shared joy of success, their desire to learn from failure, their hopes and dreams, the judges love of fun, lightening the load at times and always giving encouragement and positive input, all made a deep impression on me.

However, most of all, it was Matt’s emotional reaction to his mistakes that set me thinking. Despite his loss, Matt could go home and set up his new career, a food truck to supply the most delicious of dishes cooked by a Masterchef finalist.

Elena would also, no doubt, return home with a substantial amount of money in her pocket, the title of Masterchef 2016, and her name engraved on the floating trophy, all under her belt. What then? She would also get on with her life by doing whatever was needed to establish her culinary career.

Another chapter in the lives of these two contestants would be closed. The pain of costly mistakes would be forgotten as they built their lives on their experiences in the Masterchef kitchen. They used their opportunity to participate in a gruelling contest that prepared them to fulfil their dreams.

There is a far more significant contest being fought in the arena of life that is preparing every human being for a future that will never end. Everyone on earth has a death to die and after that the judgment.

What words will you hear when you finally face the Judge? “Well, done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord…?“ or, “Depart from me…? ” I cannot imagine the horror of hearing Jesus say to one and another who never took the time to prepare for this moment, “Get away from me. I never knew you.”

If Matt’s regret was painful as he watched his dream slip away, what of those who will spend an eternity of regret as they watch all light, love and goodness fade into eternal darkness, separation from God and everything good and sink down into an eternity of hopeless regret…”If only…”

The world is full of atheists, both those who live as though God does not exist, and those who vehemently deny that God is real. However, the truth is that God does exist and He is real. The wonders of the natural world are enough to testify that there is a God, so that all people are without excuse. These evidences alone point to the one who made eternal live possible for those who believe that what He has written is true.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed —a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

‘But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

Romans 1:16-20 NLT

Like a circular tape that plays the same words over and over, those who forget God will remember again and again their wasted opportunities. They could have had an encounter with Jesus and received the gift of eternal life but they did not. They could have confessed Him as their Lord and believed in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, but they did not. They could have secured a future in the presence of God, enjoying the glories of heaven by believing in His name, but they did not.

They were too busy playing in the world of transient pleasures to heed His call and His warnings. They considered the world’s trinkets of more value than eternal life.

Could an eternity of excruciating regret be the fires of hell of which Jesus spoke? Could everlasting, relentlessly driving, but unfulfilled lusts, ungodly desires and addictions be the burning passions of hell?

“If only…” is a regret that will never have closure in the life to come if you never answer the one most important question in this life, “Who do you say that I am?” If you do not bow to Him as your Lord (your Supreme Authority in this life), you will fall before Him as your Judge to be consigned to an eternal hell of regret, “If only…”

The greatest of all sin, leading inevitably to all lesser sins, is to ignore and reject the one who commands you to repent and believe the good news.

“… When the Lord Jesus appears from heaven, He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power.”

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 NLT

We have been warned. Satan told Adam, “You will not die!“, but, sadly, Adam believed his lie, and death came upon the whole human race. Do not allow his lies to keep you from believing and embracing the truth.

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6 NLT

Read the “recipe”…read the Book. All the instructions you need to believe and receive the gift of eternal life are in the Book.

GREATER WORKS

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GREATER WORKS

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask anything in my name and I will do it.” John 14:12-14 NIV.

At face value there was nothing unusual about Jesus’ statement that His disciples would do greater things than He was doing. This was what was expected of the disciples of rabbis who had authority. They would take their disciples beyond where they were.

However, there was something more than what was expected of the ordinary disciples of a rabbi with authority. This was Jesus speaking, not just any rabbi. “Going to the Father” had greater implications than just dying and was the key to the “greater things”.

1. Going to the Father meant that He was returning to the one who sent Him. Jesus was on a mission to the earth. He did not come into existence at His conception.

“He was with God in the beginning” John 1:2 NIV.

2. He had come from the Father to accomplish something and He was returning to the Father because He had completed what He had come to do.

“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burn offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, my God'” Hebrews 10:5-7 NIV.

3. The Father had sent Him to the earth to reveal Him to His people. The truth about the Father had become distorted in the minds of His people through centuries of rabbinic study and interpretation. The ancient rabbis had overlaid their ancient Scriptures with layers and layers of rules and additions until He was no longer recognizable as the God who revealed Himself to His people through the prophets.

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom also He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” Hebrews 1:1-3a NIV.

4. He came to restore what was broken at the Fall. Adam and Eve broke the unity between themselves and God through their disobedience, and brought the whole universe into disrepair. They incurred an unpayable debt which Jesus came to pay to restore them to unity and fellowship with the Father so that they could fulfil the Father’s will.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NIV.

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:20, 21 NIV.

5. He came to create a body (the church) of which He is the head, to reproduce Himself on the earth and to bring heaven to earth by the way they live. Through His death which provides forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to the Father, He is building a family of sons and daughters who are just like Him to represent Him to the world and to do the works He did and much more.

How can we do greater things than He did? Perhaps not greater in nature but greater in volume because, wherever His children are, He is by His Spirit in them and He is able to spread His message of God’s kingdom by multiplying Himself through them across the entire globe.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE TRUE TEST

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THE TRUE TEST

“Phillip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Phillip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work.

“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.'” John 14:8-11 NIV.

More of Jesus’ unforgettable words uttered in response to a question!

Would the disciples ever forget these last hours with Jesus in the Upper Room? The Passover meal had been eaten, the ceremonies observed that had reminded them of the first Passover meal their forefathers had eaten in Egypt. It was eaten in haste while they were poised for flight from the wrath of Pharaoh when his own firstborn son lay dead at the hands of the angel of death.

Egypt lay in ruins, systematically destroyed as God hit the land and its people with plague after destructive plague. Pharaoh had stubbornly resisted God’s command until this! It was the last straw and he ordered the Israelites out of the land before their God did anything worse to them.

Now Jesus had introduced a new ceremony infused with a new meaning for His followers to observe from then on – a ceremony deeply rooted in the events of the Passover but symbolizing a deliverance far greater than the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. In the simple symbols of bread and wine they, would never forget the death of God’s Passover Lamb who would lay down His life to set His people free from slavery to sin.

In the symbolism of the Passover lambs killed and eaten by each family, they were to recognize that they were protected from death by faith in the blood of a lamb. No animal blood could protect them, but there was a lamb, God’s Lamb who would be put to death in a few hours, the efficacy of whose shed blood would atone for the sins of all people for all time.

Jesus savoured the precious moments with His disciples before it was time to hand Himself over for the sacrifice. What would be the subject of His final words to them? There was nothing more meaningful for Him to talk about than the Father, and to prepare them for the greatest of all gifts they were to receive — the gift of the Holy Spirit who would come in His place as His representative to live within them.

First of all, though, He had to make sure that they knew that there was unity between Father, Son and Holy Spirit so intimate that the Holy Spirit who would come to indwell them would be to them exactly as He had been, and would say and do in them exactly the same as He had said and done. Just as Jesus had perfectly represented the Father, so the Holy Spirit would perfectly represent Him.

In response to Thomas and Phillip’s questions, Jesus assured them that it was His intention to show them the way and to take them to the Father. They would easily recognize the Father because Jesus was an exact replica of Him. In every way, He perfectly resembled the Father; all they had to do was to listen to His words and look at His works and they would know the Father just as they had known Him.

Jesus could not have explained it more clearly. In future days, when He was no longer with them in person, they had a standard by which to measure the words and works of those who were claiming to be representatives of God and, of course, of their own activities in His name. True sons resemble their fathers. One only has to watch and listen to the son to know what his father is like.

Not the claims but the works are the true test.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

TRUTH IS INTOLERANT

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TRUTH IS INTOLERANT

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.'” John 14:5-7 NIV.

Sensible question, Thomas!

Jesus had been talking about going away, and yet He had not clearly stated where He was going. Did He assume that they would know what He was talking about? His thoughts and words were on a different level from theirs. Unless He told them, they would surely get it wrong again.

By the way, one thing about Thomas, although for some erroneous reason he got the name “Doubting Thomas”, was that he was honest. This time it wasn’t Peter blurting out his thoughts, but Thomas asking an honest question. If Jesus did not tell them, how were they supposed to know where He was going and why they could not go with Him?

Although Jesus seemed to be speaking in riddles, if they had taken in what He kept telling them, they would have realized that He was once again referring to His death. It took Thomas’ question for Jesus to make the statement that gives all believers the security of knowing that their faith in Jesus alone ensures that they will get to the Father.

It also earns for Christianity the adjective ‘intolerant’ from all the other religions that claim that all roads lead to God. ‘It’s just a different name for God and a different way of looking at things.’ Of course, the devil would have people believe that their man-made way is okay because he is behind the false religions and heresies that deny that Jesus is the only way. He will do whatever it takes to deceive people into thinking they are worshipping the true God.

Why is Jesus the only way to the Father?

Sin broke the oneness between God and His human family and barred the way to Him from the first moment when Adam and Eve chose to believe that it was right to do things their way. God taught His people through the sacrificial system that sin demanded the shedding of blood to pay the debt we owe Him. Animal blood was shed as a picture of the death of God’s pure and sinless lamb, His own beloved Son, whom He would send to live a perfect human life and then be sacrificed as the atonement for the sin of the world.

How can there be any other way to remove the barrier between man and God? The debt of sin is unpayable. Even if we were to obey God perfectly from now on, which is impossible, what of the debt of our past? Because He had no sin of His own, Jesus took the debt of all people for all time on Himself and died in our place. He cried out, ‘Finished!’ Paid in full! Cancelled! The debit column of all our sin has been erased, deleted; there is nothing to pay. We are free to approach the Father with confidence because He looks upon us as He looks upon Jesus, pure, spotless and perfect.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who has promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:19-23 NIV.

If Jesus did that for us at such cost to Himself, how can we risk even thinking that we can add any other way to His way? No! Jesus is the only way to the Father, and the only God who is the true God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the WAY to the Father, He is the TRUTH of everything He said and did, and He is the LIFE that He gives when we embrace Him and His Words and follow His way which takes us to the Father.

Call that intolerant? I call it LOVE.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

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WILL YOU MARRY ME?

“‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.'” John 14:1-4 NIV.

Such familiar words! Like the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, we learned them at our mother’s knee and heard them at every funeral we attended.

But this is not funeral talk; this is wedding talk! Wedding talk? Yes, this is part of the prospective bridegroom’s proposal and the conclusion of his courtship.

When a young Jewish couple has drawn up their ketubah, their pre-nuptial marriage contract, and signed it in the presence of their fathers, the groom would formally propose to his bride. If she agreed to marry him and, by this time of course, she has indicated her intention to say yes, he would tell her, “I am going to my father’s house to prepare the bridal chamber.” She would reply, “When will you return?” and he would respond, “When my father is satisfied with the bridal chamber, he will send me back to take you to his house that where I am you may be also.”

This exchange would mark the beginning of the betrothal period which was as legally binding as the marriage itself. To break the engagement was regarded as divorce — hence Joseph’s dilemma when he found out that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant out of wedlock. He decided to divorce her privately rather than publicly disgrace her and risk her being stoned for infidelity.

In all the confusion of the escalating events and the disciples’ misunderstanding of Jesus’ intentions, did they catch the magnitude of what He was telling them? God (Jesus) had betrothed Israel to Himself at Mount Sinai, but they were persistently unfaithful to Him by their idolatry until He finally “divorced” the unlike their forefathers m by allowing them to be sent into exile in Babylon. Now He was offering them a second opportunity to accept His marriage proposal and to be a chaste bride, faithful to Him, their bridegroom,  unlike their forefathers.

The Bible is full of the imagery of a marriage to God. The Apostle Paul expressed his concern over the church at Corinth because, it seems, they did not understand the seriousness of the condition they were in. Some of them were dabbling in their old sinful ways, and he pleaded with them, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him.” 2 Corinthians 11:2 NIV.

Would the disciples have understood that Jesus was inviting them into a relationship with Him as intimate as a marriage relationship? In the last tender moments with them before He left them for good, He wanted them to know that this was not the end of a lovely friendship. Unlike earthly friends or marriage partners who are separated when death comes, His departure was to be the beginning of an association far closer and more intimate than His presence on earth with them had been.

Even if they did not understand at that moment, He was sowing the seeds of His word into their minds which the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance at a later time. Sorrow, uncertainty, apprehension, misunderstanding and confusion blocked them from making sense of what He was saying. As always, He tried to calm their fears with His reassurance, “Don’t be scared. Just trust me.”

That’s all He asks of us when stuff happens and life makes no sense. Hindsight will help us to understand but, in the meantime, Jesus encourages us as He did His disciples, “Don’t be afraid. Just trust me.” It is not easy when our whole world rocks or falls apart. Trusting Him means being still and letting Him guide us through whatever is happening. When our minds are in turmoil, we make foolish decisions out of our emotions. “I am your husband,” Jesus says, “I will always be with you.”

Isaiah gives us a solid rock on which to stand while our world is “rocking”. “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord Himself is the Rock eternal.” Isaiah 26:3, 4. NIV.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.