Questions For 2008

"Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5)

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings. For starters, here are 10 questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God:

1. What's one thing you could do in 2008 to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do in 2008 where His power is manifested in your powerlessness?
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life in 2008?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress in 2008, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it in 2008?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen the ministry God has given you?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently in 2008?
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make 2008 different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life in 2008?
10. What single thing that you plan to do in 2008 will matter most in 5 to 10 years time?
    

May I encourage you to enter in 2008 considering your ways before the Lord.

Have a God-filled year ahead!

Impootance of Small Decisions

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Romans 7:15

Paul was the ultimate Christ-follower. He dedicated his life to spreading the message of Jesus Christ and started churches throughout the known world. He even wrote most of the New Testament, yet Paul still struggled with lining up his actions with what he knew and understood to be right.

We are not alone in our struggle to match our priorities and commitments. It has been a problem for thousands of years And has cost many Christian men and women the freedom that God desires for them. But the sad thing is that many Christ-followers do not realize they are sacrificing their freedom.

We pay attention to the major decisions of life like who we should marry and what career path we should take, yet we neglect the seemingly mundane decisions. God does not want us to live that way. He wants us to pay attention to the little opportunities that shape our lives instead of living for the next "opportunity of a lifetime."

Daily decisions can add up to shape a lifetime, but wisdom is found in making the most of both the little opportunities and the big ones. All of our decisions matter to God and they impact our lives. But if we want to live in the freedom Christ came to offer, our priorities and commitments (even the little ones) must line up with God's principles.

A Prayer for Today

Lord, decision making can be stressful as I struggle to line my priorities up with your principles. Please give me the wisdom to make the right decisions—big or small—so that I can live in your freedom. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Scripture

"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
Philippians 2:6-7

Observation
One of the most beautiful descriptions of our Saviour to be found anywhere is that given by Isaiah in the 53rd chapter of his prophecy: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground” (verse 2).

When I was a little boy growing up in Alor Setar, one of the first things I would do on waking up is run out of the house to the little garden we had in front of the house to see if any young shoot had pushed through the ground for the seeds that my grandma had planted into the soil days earlier. Those young shoots were indeed tender. The delicate sprout would appear to be mostly water, held together one scarcely knows how, and so brittle that it will snap asunder at the slightest touch. Only after the passing of several days does it toughen up enough to endure external pressure without damage.

While a newborn baby is not as fragile as the tender plant just emerged from the soil, the likeness is too plain to miss, and the prophet spoke well when he compared the one to the other. This past week, my wife and I made a trip to KL to visit my niece who had just given birth to a baby boy. He was a comely little baby but as a helpless, crying human thing who was vulnerable from a thousand directions and he was wholly dependent for his very life upon his parents, familyand friends. No one can pick up a day-old baby and not sense the pathetic frailty of it--a barely conscious blob of sweet, perishable life only now arrived from the ancient void of nonexistence.

Application
So our Lord came to the manger in Bethlehem that first Christmas morning, not out of nonexistence, but from eternal pre-existence; not as a son of man only but as Son of Man and Son of God in the fullest sense of both terms; a tender plant and “a root out of a dry ground.”

What utter condescension on Christ's part! From eternal pre-existence as God, He empties Himself and enters human existence as a poor, helpless new-born baby. He does it all for you and me only because so great is His love for us!

Prayer
For me, Lord, You emptied yourself of the exercise of Your divine prerogatives. You showed me the meaning of complete humility.

Concentrating Solely on Christ at Christmas

Scripture

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'
—Luke 2:13-14

Observation
Oh how we need to go back to the basics when it comes to celebrating Christmas. What began in those early days as a time of remembering Christ has been carried now to inordinate excess. Christmas to day is grand opportunity for the malls to cash in on sales and for the crowd to ride in to the year-end mood of late-night parties.

How far have we come in the corruption of our tastes from the reverence of the simple shepherds, the songs of the angels and the beauty of the heavenly host! The Star of Bethlehem could not lead a wise man to adore Christ today; it could not be distinguished amid the millions of artificial lights hung aloft on Orchard Road. No angels could sing loudly enough to make themselves heard above the raucous, earsplitting rendition of upbeat versions of "Silent Night" meant to draw customers to the shopping malls.

In our mad materialism we have turned beauty into ashes, prostituted every normal emotion and made merchandise of the holiest Gift the world ever knew. Christ came to bring peace and we celebrate His coming by becoming restlessly noisy and busy through the Christmas season. Not peace but tension, fatigue and irritation rule the Christmas season. He came to free us of debt and many respond by going deep into debt each year to buy enervating luxuries for people who do not appreciate them. He came to help the poor and we heap gifts upon those who do not need them. The simple token given out of love has been displaced by expensive presents given because we have been caught in a squeeze and don’t know how to back out of it. Not the beauty of the Lord our God is found in such a situation, but the ugliness of human nature!

Application
Let's return to the very heart of Christmas, which is Christ! It's time to oppose the rush and enjoy His rest as we quietly and sincerely adore Him who is Christ the King. Let's return to serving others this Christmas - others who need His rest and peace, instead of just serving ourselves with parties and props. Let's return to helping the poor - with living cost going up in Singapore, let's identify those in need and bless them with material gifts this Christmas and remind ourselves that Christ came for such.

Making Christ the centre of Christmas will relieve us of the tension of shopping and deliver us from the cesspool of commercialism into which we can become submerged. Let's take time to join the angel hosts in praising God and truly singing "Glory to God in the highest." Only then have we really celebrated Christmas!

Prayer

Father, thank You for the Christ of Christmas.

Resolve Conflicts To Receive Blessings!

Scripture

"Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?" (1 Corinthians 6:4-5)

Observation

Recently, I heard news from a fellow pastor about an irreconcilable dispute among leaders in a local church. He was called in to arbitrate between the two opposing groups but it was to no avail. The rift became greater and the wounds ran deeper.

Yesterday, as I began the introductory message to the book of Acts, I outlined five major themes that run through the book of Acts. One of them is the way the early church managed conflicts. Conflicts were common in the early church yet they managed to deal with conflicts without affecting the unity of the body.

God expects us to resolve the disputes among ourselves with great care and biblical expediency. If we cannot do this among ourselves, what hope has the world? If we amputate our relationships that go sideways or marginalize those who disagree with us, why should non-believers join our ranks? If we have schisms and splits, slanders and unresolved disputes, why then do we preach that others should become Christians?

If our marriages are fraught with anger and if we tolerate relational distances between believers as if it were normal, then how can God use us? Are we not fleshly and carnal? See what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 ...

"I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?"

Here we find that our ability to receive will be determined by our maturity in Christ. And our maturity in Christ will be determined by how fleshly we still are ... do we retain jealousy? Is there strife unresolved? These determinates will mark our ability or inability to receive: whether these are spiritual gifts, blessings, or resources. We will be unable to do so until we mature in our ability to make sound and biblical judgments.

Application

I must give myself no margin of error that allows me to hold grudges or unresolved differences. Of course this does not mean that I be foolish and gullible to those who aim to demean or destroy, neither does it mean that I be unwise and make myself vulnerable to unnecessary attacks. I will be wise as serpents but harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16) for God has indeed sent us out as sheep in the midst of wolves. However, I will not make myself a wolf in order to protect or defend myself. I will choose the high road.

Why? Because I have so much more I need to receive! As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, if we tolerate these character deficiencies, we will be unable to receive. I cannot afford that. I must remain biblical regardless of the circumstances. Even now, I will scour my heart to remove any residual remains of any unresolved contention. I cannot make room for these things that will reduce my capacity to receive from God.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, may I model my life after yours. You were attacked, but it didn't twist You into someone who would later resemble Your attackers. You kept a heart of redemption. Please make me more like you today!