Matt. 5- Sermon on the mount

Here in Matthew chapter 5, beside the famous beatitude passages, there are many teachings, promises, proclamations as well. As I was reading this chapter, it reminds me of this election season. What if Jesus is one of the candidates for the upcoming election? When He presented His teaching, promises and proclamation, how would I react to His message? How much would I take His Words into heart to digest, to ponder, to reject or to accept? In my life time, I have gone through many elections, not only US, but HK, Taiwan, China and many around the world. Did any of their promises and pledges came to fruition? Did they carry out their promises? Or any of their promises made the world any better or a country stronger? May be some, but definitely not all, or some of them even made our world more unsafe and morality plummets.

On the contrary, this chapter described

• The beatitudes
• Salt and Light
• Fulfillment of law
• Murder
• Adultery
• Divorce
• Oaths
• An eye for an eye
• Love for our enemies

I encourage you to read slowly these various passages and see the truth for each of these topics. Jesus's teaching has remain vibrant, relevant and true to this day. 

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." (Psalms 119:105) 

Matt.4--The Chosen

Here the Bible described Jesus chose the first disciples, they were two sets of brothers…Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. Another set was James and John, sons of Zebedee. How interesting that Jesus chose these two sets of brothers. They were not society’s elite, just ordinary fishermen. Verses 20 and 22, uses “at once” and “immediately” to described their response to the calling. Not sure if they had already heard about Jesus or not, but I was very impressed about this immediate action.

Recently I was recruited to teach a parenting class during church’s annual VBS week. I met some very eager parents and grandparents in the class. Besides sharing the parenting topics, we shared the gospel with them as well. To our surprise, out of 10-12 people in the class, three of them were quick to respond to our invitation to accept Jesus. One was a young mother, she had been searching and felt that the “spirit” has led her to our church and always have the desire to accept “something” that she did not know what. When the gospel was presented to her, she was so ready to accept. She said, “I wanted so badly to believe this, but just didn’t know how.” The second one was a scholar, a research scientist at the University. She said she heard little bit about Christianity while she was in China. When the gospel was presented through our parenting classes, she thought it really makes sense and wanted Jesus to be her Lord. The third lady was a grandmother. She was so frustrated with her rebellious 7 years old granddaughter whom she cared for. She said she is at wit’s end. Wahoo… at this young age? She admitted that she needs Jesus to teach her how, she was eager to look for a church upon her return to China and bring her little one to church and learn how to live a godly life. We are so thankful for this opportunities. I can also see how quickly some responded to our gospel presentation, just like these two sets of brothers, they must heard or witnessed Jesus’s words and action, so when called, they at once or immediately left their nets and boats and followed Jesus.

In a similar thought, when God called us to do something, how fast do we respond? This is a question for you and I to ponder.

Matt. 3 True Humility

This chapter described Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist. Here John said about Jesus, “But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.” (v. 11) I see Jesus’s humility for asking John to baptize Him. Pride is the hardest lesson that all of us need to learn, even in the circle of Christianity. I often ask the Lord to grant me a teachable spirit, live intentionally to learn something new. Be with technical stuff or spiritual lesson. Jesus really did not have to ask John to baptize Him, He set this great example for us to follow. The best was after he rose from the water, the heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love: with Him I am well pleased”. (v. 16-17)

Take the first step of humility, then came the public praise from our Heavenly father. If we don’t take the first step, we won’t see what is to come.

Oh, Heavenly Father, teach us the lesson of humility, it is the hardest lesson in our life, never ending, but only one step at a time to the higher ground. Amen

Matt. 2--The Magi

We all read the story of magi from the East, but we are not sure exactly where they were from, only know them from the east.
Bible commentary stated that Magi symbolize the non-Jewish world and all who search for ultimate truth. By including this study, Matthew shows us that God’s salvation is intended for Jews and Gentile alike, just like Chapter 1 the genealogy of Jesus.

These magi were curious about the star, they were schooled in philosophy, medicine and science. They knew a king of the Jews has been born and wanted to come and worship him. They came and seek, not like the others:

·         Their knowledge made them intellectually lazy

·         Their religion made them spiritually indifference

·         Their background made them culturally arrogant

Instead, they made the journey to find the King. In Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you: seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asked receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the doors will be opened.” Indeed God blessed their searching hearts and spirit.

I particularly liked verse 9, it says “the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them”. It really was God’s guidance, He led them to the place where the child was.

God honors our quest for the truth and may the knowledge we accumulated will not make us intellectually lazy. 

Matt. 1--Genealogy of Jesus

In the past, whenever I came across the Genealogy in the Bible, I tended to skip them. Not till I attended BSF and learned about the various characters mentioned in this genealogy. This one is tracing Joseph’s family tree. I am especially impressed the 4 women mentioned in these verses (11-16), Tamar, (incest), Rehab ( Prostitute), Ruth ( Gentile woman) and Mary ( the unwed mother). In human eyes, all these women were looked down upon by the society, yet, the Lord has chosen them to be His ancestors. In Chinese culture, where we came from, our family background and reputation is utmost important. In God’s kingdom and economy, He defiled all expectation, full of grace and all kinds of surprises. Family of origin may be important, but more significantly is when God chose us, we responded to His invitation to be included in His family.

Other significant names besides the most common ones, can you imagine Uriah’s name is in there, not Bathsheba, only mention Solomon’s mother who had been Uriah’s wife. If you dig it more deeply, you found Uriah was a man of extreme loyalty to his king (David) and his country. (II Samuel 11) God indeed honored him in this passage.  

As we live out our live, it is not important how people will remember us, rather how God remembers us is more important.

App. Is your name being recorded in the Book of Life? Is your life story worthy of telling?

 

Why a new blog

Recently I was inspired by Dr. Chuck Swindoll's announcement of his new book, a devotional he wrote, using one verse per chapter of the entire New Testament.  I was quite inspired by this idea, I am trying very hard to dig more diligently into Gods' Words and make them meaningful to myself by writing the thoughts down in this blog.

Therefore, I launch this new "project". Take a story from each chapter (hopefully) from the New Testament

and jot down a short devotional related to that story or passage. One day I may publish this, but for the time being, it is rather private, may just share it with my family, esp. our two precious girls.