“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” - Colossians 2:6,7
The bonsai tree craze
I am a proud owner of a bonsai tree. My fascination with these dwarf trees started when I watched a movie called kill bill, there was a fight scene in which a background shot of an ancient bonsai tree captured my attention. Amidst all the clatter and chaos of the fight, all I could think of was that miniature version of a tree. Is it a shrub? It doesn’t look like it. How do you keep a tree that small?
How old is that? It looks ancient and worn out. A miniature acacia tree would be so cool!
How about an apple tree? Delicious miniature gala apples hanging down, mmmmm i could pluck and eat them whenever I watch a movie. What if I cultivate a field of bonsai apple trees? Then sell them in the mass? That was a peek into my thought process and how bonsai trees ran through my mind.
Fast forward to a few years later and now I own one. I am not a self-proclaimed professional bonsai taker but I know a few things about the art of making bonsais.
It turns out that you can make any tree a bonsai tree as long as you stunt it’s growth thoroughly and consistently.
The secret of the art to keeping a bonsai small is to trim its roots in order to starve it and deprive it from the nourishment it needs for growth. A trimming of the leaves is also done to ensure that the tree does not eat too much sunlight. It is also advised that you keep the tree enclosed in a small pot to keep the roots from growing deep.
If done successfully, a bonsai will appear to be a tree seen through panoramic view while boasting of it’s old age.
A bonsai Christian
You can be a bonsai Christian. A Christian who remains in a small pot, not rooted deep in Christ. You are deprived of nourishment and sustenance, the necessities of fruit-bearing and growth. Yet you are content in getting by with little to no food.
A Sunday service, a quick prayer before meals, read the Word of God if you have time out of your busy schedule. It’s enough to “tend” to your Christian walk. You look like a seasoned Christian, yet your appearance is small.
The role of the word of God in fruit-bearing and growth
We are called to be “rooted” in Christ where our spiritual nourishment and sustenance solely come from. We are to bear good fruit, but the question then is how do we bear good fruit? Learn from the example of the bonsai tree, we must strive not to starve ourselves but rather we must EAT in order to catalyze growth.
What is the food for fruit-bearing-faith? Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God” – Matthew 4:4. It is the Word itself that gives us life abundantly. This is the food we need for fruit-bearing and growing faith.
Let us press on a little further.
Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you” – John 15:7.
The best way to see what it means for the words of Jesus to abide in us is to look at what Jesus says about abiding a few verses earlier. In verse 5 He says, “Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit.”
Notice the parallel.
In verse 7 He says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,”
and in verse 5 He says, “Whoever abides in me and I in Him...”
I think the point of this switch is to reveal to us how Jesus abides in us, specifically, by His word abiding in us. Meaning to say, when we let the words of Jesus abide in us means letting Jesus Himself abide in us.
The point I want you to see and understand is that: if we are to be “rooted” in Christ and drawing spiritual nourishment and sustenance from Him in order for growth and the bearing of fruit , then we must abide in Him and Him in us.
And just as I have shown that letting the Word of God abide in us means letting Jesus abide in us.
“Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit.”
To deny yourself the reading of the Word of God is to deny yourself of food and a healthy, fruitful Christian walk. And in a deeper, serious level, it means you are not abiding in Christ.
That is how we stop ourselves from becoming bonsai Christians; we must be reading the Word of God everyday with fervour and tenacity as if it was water, sunlight, and fertile soil.
For in reading the word of God, we are in reality, tapping into an unlimited resource of nourishment and sustenance for fruit bearing and growth.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
The insatiable hunger of the human heart
The heart has an insatiable hunger and greed, it cannot ever have enough. It must have more, it must have all. People try to feed this hunger and alleviate the symptoms by countless methods, but only work temporarily. They resort to materialism and completely rely on it for fulfillment, yet as always the hunger pains resurface to the bottomless stomach of the heart. The emptiness, loneliness, depravity of the heart screams at the souls of men, only to be drowned out with i-pods, television, facebook, movies, books, magazines.
The most terrifying thing to people is silence because it has a way to make people realize that they are alone, empty, unfulfilled, and unhappy. It’s as if the average person, understands deep down inside that they are severed from the source of life, fulfillment, companionship, and happiness. People try to keep away from this very realization. The heavier the hunger pounds, the more they drink and smoke. When the heart says I’m unfulfilled they buy more clothes, accessories, cars, latest gadgets and toys, hoping that it will go away.
The truth is people are severed from the source of life, fulfillment, perfect companionship, and happiness, and that is none other than God. Every heart has been severed from God because the heart is sinful and every person has sinned. Every human heart deep down inside truly longs for God, but are blinded from the realization that it is God that it truly needs.
But hope has come. That hope is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:32-33
Call your attention to the very last sentence, it implies that this bread is outside our reality and is foreign to this world.
There is also a thesis in the remark of Jesus in which He reveals that this bread would give life to the world, this could only be said, if everyone in the world is in need of life, which would suggest that all are dead.
The insatiable hunger within each human being is the hunger for life, and all humans have invented generic and cheap imitations of life, it comes in the form of materialism, hedonism, in fact any methods that try to fulfill the person.
The gnawing feeling of emptiness, unfulfillment, and unhappiness is the symptom of a heart deprived of life.
But hope has come; there is a bread that can satisfy the hunger of the heart permanently, ultimately, and decisively.
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” -John 6
Jesus then reveals that He is the bread of life, that anyone who would come to Him would never go hungry and whoever would believe in Him will never be thirsty ever again.
In Jesus there is complete fulfillment, happiness, companionship, and most of all: life.
What comforts, luxuries, material possessions, and hedonistic lifestyle fail to do, He can do. He is the only one who can give life, He is the only one who can satisfy the hungry and thirsty. Come to Him.
The most terrifying thing to people is silence because it has a way to make people realize that they are alone, empty, unfulfilled, and unhappy. It’s as if the average person, understands deep down inside that they are severed from the source of life, fulfillment, companionship, and happiness. People try to keep away from this very realization. The heavier the hunger pounds, the more they drink and smoke. When the heart says I’m unfulfilled they buy more clothes, accessories, cars, latest gadgets and toys, hoping that it will go away.
The truth is people are severed from the source of life, fulfillment, perfect companionship, and happiness, and that is none other than God. Every heart has been severed from God because the heart is sinful and every person has sinned. Every human heart deep down inside truly longs for God, but are blinded from the realization that it is God that it truly needs.
But hope has come. That hope is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:32-33
Call your attention to the very last sentence, it implies that this bread is outside our reality and is foreign to this world.
There is also a thesis in the remark of Jesus in which He reveals that this bread would give life to the world, this could only be said, if everyone in the world is in need of life, which would suggest that all are dead.
The insatiable hunger within each human being is the hunger for life, and all humans have invented generic and cheap imitations of life, it comes in the form of materialism, hedonism, in fact any methods that try to fulfill the person.
The gnawing feeling of emptiness, unfulfillment, and unhappiness is the symptom of a heart deprived of life.
But hope has come; there is a bread that can satisfy the hunger of the heart permanently, ultimately, and decisively.
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” -John 6
Jesus then reveals that He is the bread of life, that anyone who would come to Him would never go hungry and whoever would believe in Him will never be thirsty ever again.
In Jesus there is complete fulfillment, happiness, companionship, and most of all: life.
What comforts, luxuries, material possessions, and hedonistic lifestyle fail to do, He can do. He is the only one who can give life, He is the only one who can satisfy the hungry and thirsty. Come to Him.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Scandalous Servant-King
The Scandalous Servant-King
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross. – Philippians 2:6-8
The gods of this world demand service
In a pluralistic world in which there is a wide array of deities, we find a common trend among all the gods of different cultures and societies. They are all similar in the fact that they desire and demand much of man: his affections, his worship, his devotion, his attention, his service, his everything.
Often these gods are so transcendent that there is a remarkable and evident gap between them and their followers; the deity is highly esteemed, on the throne, while the follower is of no importance and
is to be committed to his god at all cost. Their only relation is on the terms of boss and servant, the relationship between the two stops at this point and nothing beyond.
Jesus the scandalous King
Then Jesus came and He shook the status quo of society and changed everything.
Jesus who is God, gave up all his divine privileges and took the humble position of a slave.
Wow. Let me just give you a second to pause and think about of the enormity of verse 7.
He became a human being. He willingly humbled Himself to the position of a slave.
Jesus who had everything gave up his divine privileges. That is an enormous statement in which one
would have difficulty and trouble trying to fathom and understand – from the view-point of both saved and unsaved.
The eternal King of the universe and everything that exists, Creator of all, Majestic Lord, the one who is infinitely precious and beautiful. Wrap your mind around Him in all His glory and splendour, and then imagine Jesus taking the position of a slave. Mind-boggling. A King-servant? Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Rowland Croucher captures the imagery well: “In first century Palestine, slavery was very evident. The slave was a pitiable person. He had no name, no possessions, no rights. He was sold into slavery in the marketplace to the highest bidder. He was a nobody. And Jesus came into this world as a slave.”
Everything changed.
The King became the servant out of pure will. Everything was turned upside down.
Man gives his health for his god, while Jesus healed the sick.
Man feeds his god by offering food, while Jesus fed the hungry.
Man makes sure the statue of his god is spot-free, Jesus washed the dirty feet of his disciples.
Man decorates his god with the finest linen and clothing, Jesus clothed us with his righteousness.
I am not claiming that man became the king/god of Jesus, no, that would be blasphemous. What I am pointing out is the outward demonstration of Jesus servant-hood.
Jesus served.
Nothing makes this clearer than Mark 10:51-52 in which a blind man encounters Jesus, and the following ensues:
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.
In the encounter with the blind man, Jesus does something shocking and scandalous. Jesus asks the blind man how He can serve him. This is not what we expect – How could the Lord of the universe ask such a thing? Because He took the position of a servant.
God-Centered service
But let us remember - lest we become man-centered - that Jesus serving men is only a secondary matter. Let us not forget the primary and ultimate reason why Jesus took the form of a servant and that was to glorify the Father by being obedient to unto death. Jesus ultimate and main aim was to pour out His life as an offering in complete obedience, and this was His perfect service to His Father.
Jesus first and most importantly gives His life in service to the Father, and then secondly and in turn served us as He gave us His eternal life.
This is the Servant-King. He is infinitely different from the deities of the world.
And our ultimate service and honour to Him is to give the entirety of our lives for His glory.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross. – Philippians 2:6-8
The gods of this world demand service
In a pluralistic world in which there is a wide array of deities, we find a common trend among all the gods of different cultures and societies. They are all similar in the fact that they desire and demand much of man: his affections, his worship, his devotion, his attention, his service, his everything.
Often these gods are so transcendent that there is a remarkable and evident gap between them and their followers; the deity is highly esteemed, on the throne, while the follower is of no importance and
is to be committed to his god at all cost. Their only relation is on the terms of boss and servant, the relationship between the two stops at this point and nothing beyond.
Jesus the scandalous King
Then Jesus came and He shook the status quo of society and changed everything.
Jesus who is God, gave up all his divine privileges and took the humble position of a slave.
Wow. Let me just give you a second to pause and think about of the enormity of verse 7.
He became a human being. He willingly humbled Himself to the position of a slave.
Jesus who had everything gave up his divine privileges. That is an enormous statement in which one
would have difficulty and trouble trying to fathom and understand – from the view-point of both saved and unsaved.
The eternal King of the universe and everything that exists, Creator of all, Majestic Lord, the one who is infinitely precious and beautiful. Wrap your mind around Him in all His glory and splendour, and then imagine Jesus taking the position of a slave. Mind-boggling. A King-servant? Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Rowland Croucher captures the imagery well: “In first century Palestine, slavery was very evident. The slave was a pitiable person. He had no name, no possessions, no rights. He was sold into slavery in the marketplace to the highest bidder. He was a nobody. And Jesus came into this world as a slave.”
Everything changed.
The King became the servant out of pure will. Everything was turned upside down.
Man gives his health for his god, while Jesus healed the sick.
Man feeds his god by offering food, while Jesus fed the hungry.
Man makes sure the statue of his god is spot-free, Jesus washed the dirty feet of his disciples.
Man decorates his god with the finest linen and clothing, Jesus clothed us with his righteousness.
I am not claiming that man became the king/god of Jesus, no, that would be blasphemous. What I am pointing out is the outward demonstration of Jesus servant-hood.
Jesus served.
Nothing makes this clearer than Mark 10:51-52 in which a blind man encounters Jesus, and the following ensues:
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.
In the encounter with the blind man, Jesus does something shocking and scandalous. Jesus asks the blind man how He can serve him. This is not what we expect – How could the Lord of the universe ask such a thing? Because He took the position of a servant.
God-Centered service
But let us remember - lest we become man-centered - that Jesus serving men is only a secondary matter. Let us not forget the primary and ultimate reason why Jesus took the form of a servant and that was to glorify the Father by being obedient to unto death. Jesus ultimate and main aim was to pour out His life as an offering in complete obedience, and this was His perfect service to His Father.
Jesus first and most importantly gives His life in service to the Father, and then secondly and in turn served us as He gave us His eternal life.
This is the Servant-King. He is infinitely different from the deities of the world.
And our ultimate service and honour to Him is to give the entirety of our lives for His glory.
Monday, January 18, 2010
JERSEY SHORE: The Snookie Story
So on my day off, I decided to watch a marathon of Jersey Shore..sure enough the teaser in the beginning promised alot of drama, something this generation thrives on. What they did was find a bunch of guidos and guidettes and put them all in one house in Seaside Jersey. Just to summarize what guidos are, basically they look like Italian oompa loompas (referring to their tan) who somehow found a way to escape willy wonka's factory, found heavy duty hair gel, steroid needles, and jacked up some kid wearing Ed Hardy.
Its a pretty cool show with unique individuals, all equally bringing their own quirks to the table. They have Mike the cook who creeps alot, Pauly a Supersaiyan, Vinny a momma's boy, Jwow chic who could probably manhandle alot of guys, Sam packing a fred-flinstone toe, and so on, and so on.
Out of all these people there is one specific person in the show who caught my attention more than the rest and that's the pickle loving girl: Snookie. She's probably the embodiment of a large percentile of the girls in our generation today, the party-hardy charsimatic girl who is hopelessly looking for the right man for her.
Throughout the show, I couldn't help but notice that though she loved hooking up with guys, there was a longing inside her to find the man that she could settle and grow old with, someone who would treat her right. She is among many who are looking for the "one", and though snookie's efforts were made, she would fail in her quest for love. When I studied snookie more closely, automatically a picture came in mind of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met.
Jesus, thirsty and worn out by the long trip, sat down at the well in a Samaritan Village. It was noon.
Right around that same time, a Samaritan woman, who was an outcast in her village, came to draw water at noon cause she had a reputation of sleeping around with alot of men, or what the Jersey Shore casts refer to as "sloppy girls". To avoid confrontation and humiliation from the other villagers who came early, she would get her water at the hot smoldering day when no-one was out.
She sees Jesus, Jesus sees her and
their encounter goes somethin somethin like thiiss (and for the sake of relevance I'll refer to the Samaritan woman as Snookie) :
Jesus: Hey could you hook me up with some of the water? (since His crew went to buy food)
Snookie: Hold up!! what's up with you, a Jew, asking me, a samaritan woman, for a drink? (Jews in those times were forbidden to talk with samaritans)
Jesus: If only you knew the gift God gives, and who is asking you for a drink, if you asked me to hook you up, I would give you LIVING WATER.
You see this well? Whoever drinks the water from it will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again.
Snookie: Hey, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty no more and have to keep coming here to draw water.
Jesus: Aight, but first call your husband
Snookie: I don't have a husband
Jesus: You're right when you're saying you don't have a husband, The fact is, you had five husbands, and the man you're now creepin with is not your husband.
You're probably asking: "how the hell does this relate to snookie?"
The text I just quoted speaks on the issue of fulfillment. This Samaritan woman, like snookie, have been with many men and both are on a search for the right man. But the deeper and real issue that Jesus points out is that there is a gap inside her heart that is longing to be filled, that is why He used the analogy of living water that would fill.
All humans have a gap in their heart that is longing to be filled, and the way we as humans respond to this is grab the nearest thing we see and throw it in the gap of our hearts just so it will be filled. But sort of like what Jesus says about the water in the well, you can keep drinking all you want but its only going to make you thirsty again or in other words you could keep throwing things in the gap of your heart but its never going to fulfill you.
The Samaritan woman and Snookie are very similar in the way that they think that getting more men, or finding that right person for them would keep them fulfilled. But time passes by and the Samaritan woman has had five husbands and Snookie having met many men still feels unfullfilled.
They were both looking for the wrong thing, they had the wrong puzzle piece to the gap of their hearts, they "drank" but later were thirsty again.
So what's THE SITUATION? All of us have that gap in our hearts and we try to fill it with things that give us TEMPORARY contentment such as alcohol, partying, drugs, sex, shopping, videogames, men (for snookie).
To find out what is filling your heart, just ask yourself, when I feel down what do I resort to? when I feel that emptiness gnawing inside what do I do, what do I get, or what do I buy to make me happy? where do I find my comfort?
but the truth is by the end of the day, we come out still deprived and thirsty.
But Jesus is the missing piece to the emptiness of each and every human's heart, He offers water that will forever fulfill you. He is the one Snookie has been looking for deep down inside. Since the beginning of time, mankind has been looking for Him. You and I have been looking for Him.
To those who are thirsty, Jesus is just saying
Come at me bro, Come at me!
Its a pretty cool show with unique individuals, all equally bringing their own quirks to the table. They have Mike the cook who creeps alot, Pauly a Supersaiyan, Vinny a momma's boy, Jwow chic who could probably manhandle alot of guys, Sam packing a fred-flinstone toe, and so on, and so on.
Out of all these people there is one specific person in the show who caught my attention more than the rest and that's the pickle loving girl: Snookie. She's probably the embodiment of a large percentile of the girls in our generation today, the party-hardy charsimatic girl who is hopelessly looking for the right man for her.
Throughout the show, I couldn't help but notice that though she loved hooking up with guys, there was a longing inside her to find the man that she could settle and grow old with, someone who would treat her right. She is among many who are looking for the "one", and though snookie's efforts were made, she would fail in her quest for love. When I studied snookie more closely, automatically a picture came in mind of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met.
Jesus, thirsty and worn out by the long trip, sat down at the well in a Samaritan Village. It was noon.
Right around that same time, a Samaritan woman, who was an outcast in her village, came to draw water at noon cause she had a reputation of sleeping around with alot of men, or what the Jersey Shore casts refer to as "sloppy girls". To avoid confrontation and humiliation from the other villagers who came early, she would get her water at the hot smoldering day when no-one was out.
She sees Jesus, Jesus sees her and
their encounter goes somethin somethin like thiiss (and for the sake of relevance I'll refer to the Samaritan woman as Snookie) :
Jesus: Hey could you hook me up with some of the water? (since His crew went to buy food)
Snookie: Hold up!! what's up with you, a Jew, asking me, a samaritan woman, for a drink? (Jews in those times were forbidden to talk with samaritans)
Jesus: If only you knew the gift God gives, and who is asking you for a drink, if you asked me to hook you up, I would give you LIVING WATER.
You see this well? Whoever drinks the water from it will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again.
Snookie: Hey, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty no more and have to keep coming here to draw water.
Jesus: Aight, but first call your husband
Snookie: I don't have a husband
Jesus: You're right when you're saying you don't have a husband, The fact is, you had five husbands, and the man you're now creepin with is not your husband.
You're probably asking: "how the hell does this relate to snookie?"
The text I just quoted speaks on the issue of fulfillment. This Samaritan woman, like snookie, have been with many men and both are on a search for the right man. But the deeper and real issue that Jesus points out is that there is a gap inside her heart that is longing to be filled, that is why He used the analogy of living water that would fill.
All humans have a gap in their heart that is longing to be filled, and the way we as humans respond to this is grab the nearest thing we see and throw it in the gap of our hearts just so it will be filled. But sort of like what Jesus says about the water in the well, you can keep drinking all you want but its only going to make you thirsty again or in other words you could keep throwing things in the gap of your heart but its never going to fulfill you.
The Samaritan woman and Snookie are very similar in the way that they think that getting more men, or finding that right person for them would keep them fulfilled. But time passes by and the Samaritan woman has had five husbands and Snookie having met many men still feels unfullfilled.
They were both looking for the wrong thing, they had the wrong puzzle piece to the gap of their hearts, they "drank" but later were thirsty again.
So what's THE SITUATION? All of us have that gap in our hearts and we try to fill it with things that give us TEMPORARY contentment such as alcohol, partying, drugs, sex, shopping, videogames, men (for snookie).
To find out what is filling your heart, just ask yourself, when I feel down what do I resort to? when I feel that emptiness gnawing inside what do I do, what do I get, or what do I buy to make me happy? where do I find my comfort?
but the truth is by the end of the day, we come out still deprived and thirsty.
But Jesus is the missing piece to the emptiness of each and every human's heart, He offers water that will forever fulfill you. He is the one Snookie has been looking for deep down inside. Since the beginning of time, mankind has been looking for Him. You and I have been looking for Him.
To those who are thirsty, Jesus is just saying
Come at me bro, Come at me!
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