Of Abundant Grace and Peace

May grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  2 Peter 1:2

Why do you know you have grace when you need it?

Is it because you possess the skills to accomplish a service? Is it because you are doing a ministry which you are considered an expert? Is it because you have the ample resources for the mission at hand? Is it because you have been there, done that? Is it because the mountain is not too much to climb?

Why do you know you have peace in your very heart?

Is it because you know you still have work tomorrow? Is it because you are healthy and you are still kicking and running? Is it because everything nowadays went well and going well? Is it because your bank account is fat as it seems? Is it because the economy is recovering as it should be?

End of questions.

Peter points to one thing why you have grace and peace -- knowledge of God and of Jesus.

When you know him, you know you can and you will do it by his grace. Though your skills maybe short or resources are scarce, you know you have grace because you know your God supplies your strength and wisdom to do so. Though the opposition of the service is great, his grace will be  immensely available for you, for you know your God will enable you. Though the days may follow the same route and may give you complacency, you know his grace will come to you by knowing him.

When you know him, you know you can close your eyes at night and sleep in peace like a babe and wake up revived like a young colt. In the midst of economic crisis, unemployment, family chaos or health issues, you have peace for he gives it to you by knowing him who calms the storm. Knowing your God, allows you to be still (Psalm 46:10). He brings you a table of feast in front of your enemies, that's why you know you will have peace by knowing him.

Other translation provides knowledge of God as experience with God. The more we experience him, the more we acknowledge his grace and his offering of peace. The more you spend your life with him, the more you tap into his grace and allow his presence to give you peace.

May you have the passion to know him. May your days be filled with experiencing our Almighty God. May you have grace and peace in abundance.

Sending Humans

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Matthew 28:17

They saw the risen Jesus. They worshiped him. And then, they doubted.

That's what we read from Matthew.

And yet, also according to Matthew, Jesus approached these worshipers--doubters and sends them to go out to the whole world to make disciples out of men. Jesus further gives them the authority to baptize people in the name of the Holy Trinity plus the position to teach people regarding how to follow and love him. Most importantly, Jesus promised them of his presence until the end of time.

That's right.

Jesus sent doubters to the world to bring his life giving and life saving message. He is sending imperfect disciples to preach to imperfect people. He does not commission people who have no flaws, he sends men who are just like us, humans. He sends men, who even in their prayers, have doubts into their hearts yet they continue to lift their hearts to him. He sends men, who even in their time of worship, have worries in their minds and yet they rest in their ever dependable God.

God sends humans to humans. Imperfect to imperfect. Sinners to sinners. Doubters to doubters. So maybe they can empathize with them. So maybe they can accept them and love them. So maybe they can understand their situation for they are in their situation.

When you feel you are unfaithful to him to serve him in your church, read that verse again. When you feel your weakness pulls you before you are able to offer your time and skills for him, reflect on that verse again. When your imperfection or spiritual inadequacy prevents you in volunteering for a ministry, come back to that verse again. When a doubt or a sin blocks you to make disciples out of men, be encouraged by that verse.

God is not sending superheroes. He is sending humans.

What Would You Do?

He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, the chosen leader, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger. Psalm 106:23

There’s a catch in helping someone.

In ABC’s “What Would You Do?”, they had this featured experiment episode where a waiter drops, on the floor, the food he is about to serve to a certain nice couple. The people sitting near the couple, who saw what happened, informed the couple even before the waiter has gone back to the kitchen or to whatever he is about to do. These people are really helpful.

One twist is, how about when the partners are not nice but are mean customers to the waiter? The couple would belittle the waiter as he is getting  their orders. They would shout at him, even mock his job. They would call him unacceptable names. The people around the couple had mixed reactions when they saw the waiter dropped the food and served the food on the couple’s table. One woman informed the couple about it. But with an angry tone. She pointed out their abusive conduct towards the poor waiter and defended the food server. They repeated the experiment and no nearby person helped out in informing the mean couple about the dropped food.

So, its good to help good people but its not good to help bad people.

Moses did not see it this way.

As the Israelites turned their worship from God to a fashioned molten calf, God was about to destroy the former slaves. Psalm 106:20-22 exposes their actions, “They exchanged their glorious God for the image of a grass-eating bull. They forgot the God who saved them, who did great deeds in Egypt, Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea.” Before this, they were complaining about their situation in the desert and even compared it when they were Pharaoh’s slaves. Surely, these are bad people. Moses would have told God, “Lord, you are right, anyway these are bad people. They turned away from you. These are spoiled brats. Go ahead with your plan.”

However, Moses helped them. Moses prayed for them. He pleaded for God’s mercy on their behalf. And God listened to his intercession, “So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. “ Exodus 32:14.

You can be like Moses. May you look the way Moses looked. May you help the people who may not deserve to be helped. May you pray to God in behalf of the people who may be mean to you or to others. May you concretely practice concern for people who in one way or another have hurt you or are hurting someone.

Helping people is being blind. You don’t see who they are or they are not, you just help them.

Amnesia

Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. Isaiah 49:15

It was a deliberate short-term amnesia.

I left my mother as I marched down to my high school graduation. I was one of the students getting honors and my mother came to march with me. I did not call her out that the entrance ceremony was about to begin. She made her dress by herself for this day. She prepared for my big day. She was proud of me but I guess I’m not of her. I marched down alone as my classmates held hands with their fathers or mothers.

I got the hardest scolding of my life after that. She was trembling with anger that I deliberately forgot about her. She was asking for explanation why I did what I did but I had no reason for my fault against her. And she has every reason to forget that I am her son.

But she did not. She continued to be my mother. She blessed me every day after that. She gave me life’s insights through her words and actions. She cared for me up until her last breath on her bed. She did not forget.

Just like God.

How many times you have deliberately have forgotten about him? When it is high time that you hold his hand, and declare he is with you, you turn your head to the other direction, clasp your own hand and forget to call his name. There were times, publicly, you have shunned association with this living God who loves you and cares for you.

Yet, this is the same God who stays with you and stays being your loving God. He is the same God who blesses your days and guides you to lead you to a prosperous life, a future and a hope. A God whose tender love gets you through the difficult times. A God who continues to remember his faithfulness in the midst of your unfaithfulness. A God who remembers to pull you out of the deep waters whenever you focus on the winds rather than on him. A God who will stand up for you and with you when people around you are about to stone you. He never forgets you. He will never forget you.

He got no amnesia.

You Come First

The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." John 5:7

He was never first.

Every time he made strides to be the first one, someone beats him by a mile. His sickness has dragged him to the bottom of the pole. For thirty eight years, he was there. It might have encompassed his teens years where he was to be strong bodied and strong willed. It might have slowed his twenty something years where he must have been enjoying life as a bull, being a young man. Notice no wife was with him during this time, and this might have pulled his chances of marrying the woman who caught his heart since some best man won her heart over him because of his health.

Suddenly he comes first.

He comes first for Jesus. No lines to stand up to. No calling of rosters. What he can’t do, Jesus did. He can’t hop into the pool, the Source of living waters came to him. Remember, Jesus ask him if he wanted to get well, and get well he did. He did not need to line up like at the DMV or at the bank. His resume, which was filed down over the years, was not even looked up by Jesus.

This is what Jesus gives you. You line up to all these distractions or less noble things, yet he puts you on the top of his priority list. If you think he is ignoring you as you are in a tight hole in your life, think again. He will enable you. He will heal you. Jesus will go up to you and tells you, you matter to him. Tired of being at the last of the order? Weary of taking chances with zero possibilities? For him, no one comes second or third or at the cellar.

For Jesus, you come first.

Ripple

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. Luke 5:29

It's unstoppable and contagious.

Levi heard Jesus' invitation and followed him. He left his post. He left everything.

At the next scene, Luke tells us that Jesus and Levi having dinner. But they were not alone. They are with a large crowd of tax collectors and others. Imagine a large table for a large crowd.

Jesus called one sinful man. One sinful man who left everything for him. Next minute, a large crowd is eating with him. What is this?

It's like a tiny water drop in the ocean creating a wave, not just an ordinary wave, but a huge wave enough to put a liner in one direction. Like a puff in the wind developing into a typhoon ready to swarm and blow a city. It cascades. It rippled.

These large crowd may have heard about Jesus. News may have reach them about his teachings, his healing touch and his invitation. Or they heard about their long time colleague Levi just resigned, left everything and offered his life on earth in following Jesus. They may be curious on how a man like Levi gets an invitation despite his life as a public knowledge.

I say the large crowd heard both. They heard about the Master and the follower. They got hold of the invitation and the response, how Jesus welcomes a sinner and how a sinner can become a saint. They may have realized no sin can separate Jesus' love and the sinner.

May you be like Levi, hear and heed Jesus' call to follow and leave everything for him. Let the people hear about Jesus and your changed life. That you, who is like a tiny drop of water or a puff in the air, may create that huge wave and that gusty wind.

Let it ripple.

The Opening

And (immediately) the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. Mark 7:35

He wanted his ears opened. His friends wanted his ears opened.

But they couldn’t do it.

What they couldn’t do, Jesus did.

We wonder why his friends have to bring in the guy. The guy can walk. He can wave his hands to Jesus to get his attention. Instead, his friends brought him to him. Maybe frustration has caught him. Not hearing people and being able to communicate is a hard thing to do, a hard life to live. His father wants to tell him he is there for him, yet he does not hear it. His mother tells him how much she loves him, all falling on closed ears. Try one day without talking and avoiding sound waves pass your ears.

Frustration. And he is not alone.

You have traveled that dead end. You got nowhere to go. It’s closed.

A health issue is lingering in your body for several years now. Doctors have the answers but your body does not respond.

Or unemployment is blocking all your plans for your family and children’s future. You have the resume’ but employment does not resume soon.

You got a ministry which hit a great road block. You look at your resources, you look at what you can do, and deep inside you know Jesus what will do.

Don’t fret in your corner. Come to the Opener. If you can’t, allow your friends to bring you to him. Open whatever is closed to him. Let Jesus touch you.

Experience Jesus. Experience the opening.

Enduring His Coming

But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. Malachi 3:2

So, who will endure his coming?

Simeon. A man of the Holy Spirit. Righteous. Devout. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him (Luke 2:25). He came to the temple being led by the Holy Spirit to gaze upon his coming. Simeon's canticle still reverberates in the present times. His words to Mary prophesied the plan of salvation. And when he saw his coming, he blessed God.

Anna. She is 84 and she stays in the temple 24/7. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer (Luke 2:37). She praises her God non-stop. She exalts his name each second. She sings songs of God's glory each minute. And when she saw his coming, she gave thanks to God.

Can we endure his coming?

Yes. By being Simeon and Anna.

Doctor Luke's prescription covers it all. Righteousness. Devoted. Allowing the Holy Spirit be upon you. Proclaim God's salvation. Worship night and day. Prayers. Fasting. Bless and thank God.

Resolute

He was amazed at their lack of faith. He went around to the villages in the vicinity teaching. Mark 6:6

Speaking about being resolute.

Jesus was amazed, not on how people believed in him, but in the way these people lacked faith.

People who knew where he was from questioned him. "Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Mark 6:2b.

People who may know him more believed less. People who know his roots did not believe in his fruits. "Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him." Mark 6:3b.

And yet, Jesus did not waiver in his call to spread the word of God. He went around to the villages in the vicinity teaching. Mark 6:6b. After having an audience who are very discouraging, his courage to go around to teach is inspiring. For Jesus, no matter what happened in the past will not surely affect the present. For Jesus, the results of the past does not necessarily define the present. For Jesus, his response to the call is more important than the response of the people.

May we be like Jesus in being resolute.

After giving a talk to a classroom where students where inattentive and did not listen to you, you move on to the next. Even when the members of your church do not respond to the call to serve the poor, you still come and give your time. You are still in the race even when the persons who were with you from the beginning have stopped and bowed out. You continue to write and blog about Jesus and his offer of salvation even when the blog's hits are all time low.

Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith. You can amaze Jesus with your action of faith.

Keep on keeping on.

Be resolute.

Withered

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. Mark 3:1

He did not see perfection.

He did not see strength.

He did not see freshness.

Jesus saw something withered. A withered hand. Dry. Shrunken. Wrinkled.

Yet, Jesus stayed. Jesus does not go because he saw what he needed to see -- imperfection. He knows people who goes to his church are not perfect. He stayed because he is there to revive the withered. He is there to stretch what is shortened. He is there to make new out of the wrinkled. He is there to refresh the dryness.

He still does today.

Enter your church. Go into your homes. Look at your offices. See your campus. Jesus enters and stays with those places. To stretch the faith of the challenged. To revive the life out of the lifeless. To bless freshness into the tired and battered. To smoothen the wrinkled and stressed hearts. To bring healing to the dry relationships.


Let him enter your heart today. If your soul is withered, ask Jesus to come in. Expose your withered life. Let him see what he suppose to see. Open your tired mind and invite him to stay.


He will enter and he will stay.

For the withered.

Filling

Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim. John 2:7
The jars are for wine, but they filled them with water.

These servers knew they are doing it the wrong way. If you are in a restaurant, it's like putting milk into those glass wine. However, Jesus tells them so. He told them to put the wrong substance inside the jars. And they did. And the wrong inside became the right inside.

Jesus made the wrong right.

When I was laid off from my job last year, everything was just wrong. As the only person working for our family, I can't classify this event being right. All seems to be going the wrong way. How will I feed my family? How can we meet our financial obligations? Being in this wrong situation took us to our knees.

And Jesus made the wrong right.

A day after that forgettable day, my current employer called me to arrange an interview in the coming week, and the rest is history or employment. Today, me and my wife look back and say to each other, "We are in a better place!"

Most of the time, Jesus tells you to fill the wine jars with water. It does not makes sense. It's just not right. It does not taste just like before. Volunteering for a college missions after graduation when you should get a job which pays you. Working everyday for a company where you commute a total of four hours back and forth which opened your career.  Speaking to college students in campus which trained you to speak for God in prayer meetings. You do it because he tells you. You go through it. And he goes through it with you. Thus the wrong becomes right.

Fill yourself with water when Jesus tells you. Surely, he will fill you with wine.