Do you seek to worship Jesus?
Are you like King Herod who feared Jesus’ birth as a threat to his own kingship and authority?
Herod the Great was a notoriously cruel and paranoid ruler who murdered his mother-in-law, his wife and even his three sons. Most of us would not go so far as to attain that sense of control of life.
But many of us do feel “threatened” when Jesus asks us to enthrone him in the center of our lives. We may not voice it so blatantly, but we live so as to convey a life of half-hearted devotion, saying we will go so far and no farther with Christ.
The Magi spent all their lives in pursuit of knowledge and truth. They were skilled men of the East (Persia) who were renowned for their observation of the celestial events.
These men do bring their costly gifts to the King Jesus, but they start out in the wrong place – in Jerusalem.
We often seek God in all the wrong places. We are apt to presume God would work in certain ways, methods that make sense to us. It made sense for these Magi that King of kings would reside in the city of kings, Jerusalem.
A small passage tells us in Matthew 2:4-6, that Herod sought information regarding the birth of the Messiah from the chief priests and teachers of the law. How odd that there is no mention of these learned men of the Scriptures made no effort to determine where the child King would be born.
In pursuit of knowledge, they forgot the Source of all knowledge.
Finally, the shepherds - who were essentially the social outcasts of the day were in the fields watching over their flocks art night - were visited by a host of angels who announced the birth of Jesus. (Luke 2:8-20)
Nothing in the passage tells us of a moment’s doubt in the mind of these simple shepherds. They were not going to see the baby in the manger to verify the angels’ announcement: they were going there to worship.
Especially for one who brought up in a church background, familiarity with the lingo and exposure to various testimonies regarding encounters with God, it is easy to take on the attitude of “been-there-done-that.”
King Jesus was ushered into this world by a welcoming committee comprised of the lowliest and the most rejected group of people of His day.
But He was worshiped.
Do you seek to worship Jesus?
All that is required is the simplicity of the shepherds.
Not power and authority of Herod.
Not pursuit of intelligence like the magi.
Not learned scholarship like the teachers of the law.
But simplicity wrapped up in humility.
Because that is how the King of kings and Lord of lords came to earth.
--Nakwon EM December 24th Sunday Worship Service
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
kings & prophets VII: Elijah, the Depressed Prophet
A young lawyer in the 1800's suffered such a deep depression that his friends did everything they could to keep all razors and knives away from him. He wrote these words: "I am now the most miserable man living. Whether I shall be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not." This lawyer became the 16th president of the United States. His name was Abraham Lincoln.
Depression knows no age, race or gender.
It can strike anyone and everyone.
It did for one of the greatest prophet par excellence, Elijah. No prophet surpassed the turbulence and significance Prophet Elijah's ministry held in the light of the coming Messiah.
This man single-handedly demonstrated the power of God before 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashtoreth, both of whom were predominant pagan gods of his day.
First Kings 18 records the glorious and triumphant show-down of God as the true living God who answered by fire.
Not a moment too soon - mere one chapter later - Queen Jezebel, the wife of Israel's king Ahab, threatens Elijah's life, and this sends the recently-victorious prophet into one of the deepest depression recorded in the Scriptures.
Dark times often follow times of great success.
Prophet Elijah traveled 125 miles due south (to Beersheba) running from Jezebel. He is so depressed he asks God to take his life away. As one pastor once said, he was struck with the "Tigger Complex": 'I'm the only one.' (1 Ki 19:10)
Despite the great victory not many days ago, Elijah felt his life an utter failure, and frustrated, fatigued and frightened, he waited for death.
But God not only does not answer his reckless request for death; He in fact never lets him die! As recorde in 2 Kings 2:11-12, Elijah is one of two people in the Bible who never tasted death.
God restores Elijah by three things:
Physical provision - as unspiritual as it sounds - is what revived Elijah enough so he may move on to the next lesson - encounter with God on the very same mountain upon which Moses had met God and received the Ten Commandments.
Sometimes the most spiritual thing a spiritually drained believer can do is to satisfy a very basic necessity of food and rest.
Once that is accomplished, God manifests His presence to Elijah not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in a gentle whisper.
Perhaps the great wind reminded Elijah of the wondrous miracle of God having parted the Red Sea so that his freed children of Israel can cross on dry land in safety.
Perhaps the earthquake reminded him of the walls of formidable city of Jericho crumbling down.
The fire - he did not to reflect upon history of his people - he'd just seen it; he'd called down upon God to answer by fire.
But the Lord, it says, was not in any of those awesome demonstration of power.
Elijah instead heard God's still small voice - the barest whisper.
And that whisper never really explained why things were happening the way they were. God never really provides emotional comfort for Elijah. Instead, he give him instruction to anoint three people - Hazael, Jehu and Elisha - who would bring about the downfall of root of pagan idolatry by annihilating the house of Ahab and Jezebel.
He was providing Elijah with a promise - which by the way, Elijah never sees fulfilled in his life time.
But it is enough for the once-depressed prophet, who in the same chapter goes to anoint his successor, Elisha, as God instructed.
It is almost a natural inclination for us to withdraw in times of depression. But that is a fatal mistake.
God does not allow Elijah to sit there in that dark cave drowned in self-pity.
He is pushed out into the world with a job and a promise - that there are 7,000 (representing God's perfect number as well as literal number) who were faithful to God.
We are never alone - despite what we may feel at any moment.
We may feel as if we are fighting a losing battle all on our own from time to time, but never allow yourself to swallow such self-pitying deception.
Find rest in God; Listen to His voice; and Receive His promises with a heart of faith and full assurance that God is always in control.
--from Nakwon EM December 17th Sunday Worship Service
Depression knows no age, race or gender.
It can strike anyone and everyone.
It did for one of the greatest prophet par excellence, Elijah. No prophet surpassed the turbulence and significance Prophet Elijah's ministry held in the light of the coming Messiah.
This man single-handedly demonstrated the power of God before 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashtoreth, both of whom were predominant pagan gods of his day.
First Kings 18 records the glorious and triumphant show-down of God as the true living God who answered by fire.
Not a moment too soon - mere one chapter later - Queen Jezebel, the wife of Israel's king Ahab, threatens Elijah's life, and this sends the recently-victorious prophet into one of the deepest depression recorded in the Scriptures.
Dark times often follow times of great success.
Prophet Elijah traveled 125 miles due south (to Beersheba) running from Jezebel. He is so depressed he asks God to take his life away. As one pastor once said, he was struck with the "Tigger Complex": 'I'm the only one.' (1 Ki 19:10)
Despite the great victory not many days ago, Elijah felt his life an utter failure, and frustrated, fatigued and frightened, he waited for death.
But God not only does not answer his reckless request for death; He in fact never lets him die! As recorde in 2 Kings 2:11-12, Elijah is one of two people in the Bible who never tasted death.
God restores Elijah by three things:
By His Provision (Rest)
By His Voice (Listen)
BY His Promise (receive)
Physical provision - as unspiritual as it sounds - is what revived Elijah enough so he may move on to the next lesson - encounter with God on the very same mountain upon which Moses had met God and received the Ten Commandments.
Sometimes the most spiritual thing a spiritually drained believer can do is to satisfy a very basic necessity of food and rest.
Once that is accomplished, God manifests His presence to Elijah not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in a gentle whisper.
Perhaps the great wind reminded Elijah of the wondrous miracle of God having parted the Red Sea so that his freed children of Israel can cross on dry land in safety.
Perhaps the earthquake reminded him of the walls of formidable city of Jericho crumbling down.
The fire - he did not to reflect upon history of his people - he'd just seen it; he'd called down upon God to answer by fire.
But the Lord, it says, was not in any of those awesome demonstration of power.
Elijah instead heard God's still small voice - the barest whisper.
And that whisper never really explained why things were happening the way they were. God never really provides emotional comfort for Elijah. Instead, he give him instruction to anoint three people - Hazael, Jehu and Elisha - who would bring about the downfall of root of pagan idolatry by annihilating the house of Ahab and Jezebel.
He was providing Elijah with a promise - which by the way, Elijah never sees fulfilled in his life time.
But it is enough for the once-depressed prophet, who in the same chapter goes to anoint his successor, Elisha, as God instructed.
It is almost a natural inclination for us to withdraw in times of depression. But that is a fatal mistake.
God does not allow Elijah to sit there in that dark cave drowned in self-pity.
He is pushed out into the world with a job and a promise - that there are 7,000 (representing God's perfect number as well as literal number) who were faithful to God.
We are never alone - despite what we may feel at any moment.
We may feel as if we are fighting a losing battle all on our own from time to time, but never allow yourself to swallow such self-pitying deception.
Find rest in God; Listen to His voice; and Receive His promises with a heart of faith and full assurance that God is always in control.
--from Nakwon EM December 17th Sunday Worship Service
Sunday, December 10, 2006
kings & prophets VI: the Nameless Prophet
At a time of spiritual and political decline, the nation of Israel divides into Northern and Southern Kingdoms, named Israel and Judah, respectively.
King Jeroboam becomes the first king over the divided kingdom of Israel and quickly commits a grave sin by creating two major "worship centers" at Bethel and Dan causing a great spiritual apostasy among the people of the Northern Kingdom.
A Prophet, whose name is never revealed, comes to Jeroboam and prophecies against the idol altar upon which Jeroboam was instituting idol worship; in effect foretelling of the downfall of idol worship.
Through three consecutive miracles (demonstration of God's effective power in the nameless prophets words), Jeroboam finally acknowledges the prophet's legitimacy and message, and when he invites the prophets to his dine with him, the Prophet tells him:
The nameless prophet goes on his way in obedience to God's specific command.
Enter an Old Prophet living in Bethel, one of the major centers of idol worship in Israel. His sons, having apparently had participated and witnessed the events at Jeroboam's altar, tells their father of the Nameless Prophet from Judah.
The Old Prophet urges the presumably younger Nameless Prophet to join him as Jeroboam has asked.
The Nameless Prophet gives him the same response he gave to King Jeroboam earlier (1 Kings 13:16-17)
But this young prophet's destiny changes completely because of the next few verses:
The Bible tells us plainly that the Old Prophet was lying. He deceived the Nameless Prophet.
The Nameless Prophet heeds the Old Prophet's lies and eats, forsaking God's direct command, and he pays for his disobedience with his life.
Here is a man of God who could have become famous and respected like Prophet Elijah who in fact did not even taste death but was taken up to heaven directly.
Where did he fail?
Was he not in fact deceived? Isn't the Old Prophet at fault?
The Great Wall of China stretching over 4,000 miles was built 2,000 years ago in order to protect themselves from Hun invasion. It appeared impregnable. But the enemy still breached it. Not by breaking through the walls or climbing it or going around it: They did it by bribing the gatekeepers.
Many times, we find that we fall into temptation not because we did not "fortify" ourselves correctly, but because of the most unexpected shortcoming we had carelessly overlooked.
This Nameless Prophet had just experienced great power of God working in and through him before an idol-worshiping King of Israel. But his "prior success" was not enough to keep him faithful to God's direct command.
Understandably, he must have been tired after the long trip, not having had eaten or drunk anything, to deliver a message to Jeroboam. It says in verse 14 that the Nameless Prophet was resting under an oak tree. He was on his way home, but he was too weary and needed rest.
He was emotionally and physically drained.
He was weak.
And the Enemy seized that opportunity.
A prophet in the Old Testament times lived under very specific and defined lifestyle as they served as God's mouthpiece and medium through which God would present His message to His people.
It was a lifestyle that gave no leeway for disobedience or mistakes, their lives often an allegory fo what God wanted to reveal to the kings or the people.
The Nameless Prophet was deceived. But deception is no excuse for disobedience of a direct command from God, and when all things are said and done, it is not someone else's responsibility that we obey God and follow His instructions.
He was a man who knew the voice of God and carried an important message for an apostate king and his people, a message backed up with incredible demonstration of the power of the living God.
And yet in his moment of weakness, he decided to yield to temptation.
How do you fall into temptation?
It is sad yet true that we often make provision for sin.
We know this thing to be something that does not please God, but we keep making it available to us.
Remember the story about the father and the son.
Paul exhorts us to "clothe" ourselves "with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Romans 13:14)
Do you make provision for sin; something you know you need to let go?
After you have crossed that bridge that led to that place you know draws you away from the presence of God, burn it, and don't look back.
We are all called to be living messages of the Living God. Your life is a message. You can choose to live a life like that of the Nameless Prophet who never really amounted to anything - just someone who met a tragic end.
Or you can count the cost and step up in faith and obedience to God's call on your life and make it count toward Eternity.
Don't make the mistake the Nameless Prophet made: don't look back and don't depend on others as an excuse for the easier way out.
--from Nakwon EM December 10th Sunday Worship Service
King Jeroboam becomes the first king over the divided kingdom of Israel and quickly commits a grave sin by creating two major "worship centers" at Bethel and Dan causing a great spiritual apostasy among the people of the Northern Kingdom.
A Prophet, whose name is never revealed, comes to Jeroboam and prophecies against the idol altar upon which Jeroboam was instituting idol worship; in effect foretelling of the downfall of idol worship.
Through three consecutive miracles (demonstration of God's effective power in the nameless prophets words), Jeroboam finally acknowledges the prophet's legitimacy and message, and when he invites the prophets to his dine with him, the Prophet tells him:
Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the word of the LORD : 'You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.'
The nameless prophet goes on his way in obedience to God's specific command.
Enter an Old Prophet living in Bethel, one of the major centers of idol worship in Israel. His sons, having apparently had participated and witnessed the events at Jeroboam's altar, tells their father of the Nameless Prophet from Judah.
The Old Prophet urges the presumably younger Nameless Prophet to join him as Jeroboam has asked.
The Nameless Prophet gives him the same response he gave to King Jeroboam earlier (1 Kings 13:16-17)
But this young prophet's destiny changes completely because of the next few verses:
The old prophet answered, "I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD : 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.' " (But he was lying to him.)
The Bible tells us plainly that the Old Prophet was lying. He deceived the Nameless Prophet.
The Nameless Prophet heeds the Old Prophet's lies and eats, forsaking God's direct command, and he pays for his disobedience with his life.
Here is a man of God who could have become famous and respected like Prophet Elijah who in fact did not even taste death but was taken up to heaven directly.
Where did he fail?
Was he not in fact deceived? Isn't the Old Prophet at fault?
The Great Wall of China stretching over 4,000 miles was built 2,000 years ago in order to protect themselves from Hun invasion. It appeared impregnable. But the enemy still breached it. Not by breaking through the walls or climbing it or going around it: They did it by bribing the gatekeepers.
Many times, we find that we fall into temptation not because we did not "fortify" ourselves correctly, but because of the most unexpected shortcoming we had carelessly overlooked.
This Nameless Prophet had just experienced great power of God working in and through him before an idol-worshiping King of Israel. But his "prior success" was not enough to keep him faithful to God's direct command.
Understandably, he must have been tired after the long trip, not having had eaten or drunk anything, to deliver a message to Jeroboam. It says in verse 14 that the Nameless Prophet was resting under an oak tree. He was on his way home, but he was too weary and needed rest.
He was emotionally and physically drained.
He was weak.
And the Enemy seized that opportunity.
A prophet in the Old Testament times lived under very specific and defined lifestyle as they served as God's mouthpiece and medium through which God would present His message to His people.
It was a lifestyle that gave no leeway for disobedience or mistakes, their lives often an allegory fo what God wanted to reveal to the kings or the people.
The Nameless Prophet was deceived. But deception is no excuse for disobedience of a direct command from God, and when all things are said and done, it is not someone else's responsibility that we obey God and follow His instructions.
He was a man who knew the voice of God and carried an important message for an apostate king and his people, a message backed up with incredible demonstration of the power of the living God.
And yet in his moment of weakness, he decided to yield to temptation.
How do you fall into temptation?
It is sad yet true that we often make provision for sin.
We know this thing to be something that does not please God, but we keep making it available to us.
Remember the story about the father and the son.
"Didn't I tell you not to swim in that river?" the father asked.
"Yes, sir" the son answered.
"Why did you?"
"Well, Dad, I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn't resist the temptation."
"Why did you take your bathing suit with you?"
"So I'd be prepared to swim in case I was tempted."
Paul exhorts us to "clothe" ourselves "with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Romans 13:14)
Do you make provision for sin; something you know you need to let go?
After you have crossed that bridge that led to that place you know draws you away from the presence of God, burn it, and don't look back.
We are all called to be living messages of the Living God. Your life is a message. You can choose to live a life like that of the Nameless Prophet who never really amounted to anything - just someone who met a tragic end.
Or you can count the cost and step up in faith and obedience to God's call on your life and make it count toward Eternity.
Don't make the mistake the Nameless Prophet made: don't look back and don't depend on others as an excuse for the easier way out.
--from Nakwon EM December 10th Sunday Worship Service
Sunday, December 03, 2006
kings & prophets V: Solomon, the Wisest Fool
How does a man who had received such incomparable wisdom - from God no les! - fall away so completely in the end?
Solomon, the third king of Israel, penned three books in the Bible: Song of Songs as a young man in love; Proverbs at the height of his wisdom and prosperity; and Ecclesiastes as an old man despairing of life.
As is true for all failures, Solomon's final apostasy resulted from progressive and accumulated sins, not overnight and not due to one shortcoming factor in his life.
As the second son of David and Bathsheba (the first having been taken away by God as punishment for their adulterous affair), Solomon was the embodiment of the perfect demonstration of God's mercy and redemptive love when God gave him the name Jedidiah, which meant "loved by the Lord."
And as much as David as king and father suffered a number of failings, for Solomon to have sought wisdom to govern God's people when he was asked for his greatest desire shows that David had made an impression on the young man.
But Solomon's seemingly sincere beginnings and even admirable request for wisdom lack the passion of David who sought God's presence above all else.
God grants him his request and Solomon indeed does become the wisest man who had ever lived.
But as we had seen in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel, a good beginning does not guarantee a good ending. And as awe-inspiring as Solomon's wisdom was, wisdom apart from a working relationship with God is mere worldly philosophy which in the end will produce death and despair as demonstrated so poignantly in the book of Ecclesiastes.
And relationship with God was - to put it mildly - not Solomon's forte. In fact, it suffered even in earlier years as king when he married Pharaoh's daughter in order to ratify a peace treaty; taking foreign wives was something God had specifically forbidden a king to do.
In fact, Solomon does not take one wife, but 700, plus 300 concubines!
Self-indulgence was a way of life for this man who had begun so well.
He accumulated, we are told, thousands of horses, imported from Egypt - yet forbidden deed for a king. Egypt symbolized the world, and horses strength. Hence, God was ultimately commanding any kings He established to lead His people to never rely on strength of men or the world.
Solomon's accumulationg of vast quantities of gold sealed his final direct disobedience and in essence sealed his fate.
It is odd that Solomon who already had everything wanted those few things God had specifically forbade him to possess.
But that is the oldest trick in the book - a trick that ushered sin into the lives of first man and woman and into every mankind thereafter,
The devil has a way of magnifying the few things God commands us to stay away from. Instead of enjoying the "Garden" God has offered us, we are temmpted to look beyond the bountiful blessing and seek out that which will ultimately destroy us.
The oldest Enemy of God will glorify the things we don't need to the point we think we need them.
The man who exhorted "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it costs all you have, get understanding" (Prov 4:7), the wisest man that had ever walked this earth second only to Jesus Christ, became the greatest fool who in the end, turned away from God in his old age, writing such depressing words as "Meaningless! Meaningless! ...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (Eccl 1:2)
J.I. Packer, in his phenomenal book entitled Knowing God, wrote:
Wisdom is far more than mere accumulation of knowledge of vastness of all facets of life. It is the ability to choose what is right.
The Bible exhorts us to seek wisdom. But take caution as to the sort of foundation upon which you intend on building that wisdom, because if not built on a working relationship with Christ, it will crumble and in the end bring about more agony and despair than joy and fulfillment.
--from Nakwon EM Dec. 3rd Sunday Worship Service
Solomon, the third king of Israel, penned three books in the Bible: Song of Songs as a young man in love; Proverbs at the height of his wisdom and prosperity; and Ecclesiastes as an old man despairing of life.
As is true for all failures, Solomon's final apostasy resulted from progressive and accumulated sins, not overnight and not due to one shortcoming factor in his life.
As the second son of David and Bathsheba (the first having been taken away by God as punishment for their adulterous affair), Solomon was the embodiment of the perfect demonstration of God's mercy and redemptive love when God gave him the name Jedidiah, which meant "loved by the Lord."
And as much as David as king and father suffered a number of failings, for Solomon to have sought wisdom to govern God's people when he was asked for his greatest desire shows that David had made an impression on the young man.
But Solomon's seemingly sincere beginnings and even admirable request for wisdom lack the passion of David who sought God's presence above all else.
God grants him his request and Solomon indeed does become the wisest man who had ever lived.
But as we had seen in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel, a good beginning does not guarantee a good ending. And as awe-inspiring as Solomon's wisdom was, wisdom apart from a working relationship with God is mere worldly philosophy which in the end will produce death and despair as demonstrated so poignantly in the book of Ecclesiastes.
And relationship with God was - to put it mildly - not Solomon's forte. In fact, it suffered even in earlier years as king when he married Pharaoh's daughter in order to ratify a peace treaty; taking foreign wives was something God had specifically forbidden a king to do.
In fact, Solomon does not take one wife, but 700, plus 300 concubines!
Self-indulgence was a way of life for this man who had begun so well.
He accumulated, we are told, thousands of horses, imported from Egypt - yet forbidden deed for a king. Egypt symbolized the world, and horses strength. Hence, God was ultimately commanding any kings He established to lead His people to never rely on strength of men or the world.
Solomon's accumulationg of vast quantities of gold sealed his final direct disobedience and in essence sealed his fate.
It is odd that Solomon who already had everything wanted those few things God had specifically forbade him to possess.
But that is the oldest trick in the book - a trick that ushered sin into the lives of first man and woman and into every mankind thereafter,
The devil has a way of magnifying the few things God commands us to stay away from. Instead of enjoying the "Garden" God has offered us, we are temmpted to look beyond the bountiful blessing and seek out that which will ultimately destroy us.
The oldest Enemy of God will glorify the things we don't need to the point we think we need them.
The man who exhorted "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it costs all you have, get understanding" (Prov 4:7), the wisest man that had ever walked this earth second only to Jesus Christ, became the greatest fool who in the end, turned away from God in his old age, writing such depressing words as "Meaningless! Meaningless! ...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (Eccl 1:2)
J.I. Packer, in his phenomenal book entitled Knowing God, wrote:
"Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal..."
Wisdom is far more than mere accumulation of knowledge of vastness of all facets of life. It is the ability to choose what is right.
The Bible exhorts us to seek wisdom. But take caution as to the sort of foundation upon which you intend on building that wisdom, because if not built on a working relationship with Christ, it will crumble and in the end bring about more agony and despair than joy and fulfillment.
--from Nakwon EM Dec. 3rd Sunday Worship Service
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