Festive Mission and Watchfulness
Chinese New Year is perhaps the most important holiday to the Chinese. Yet, while we celebrate, we also need to be watchful for the various forces of idols which work especially hard to capture people’s hearts and minds during this festive season. When things are happy, we tend to let our guard down, but we need to know that there is spiritual battle behind the beautiful new clothes, festive feasts and happy atmosphere. The happy mood must not distract us from God’s purpose, which is to seize the opportunity to show God’s love and share the gospel to our loved ones.
Ordeals are to Drive Us to God, Not to Sin
Often, during trials and ordeals, people tend to fall into a deep sense of self-pity, which may in turn lead them to justify that it is alright for them to indulge in certain sins to relieve themselves. They feel God should understand why they are being a bit loose to gratify their desires, as life is too hard for them. Now, this is a very dangerous mindset. Our ordeals should not be the basis to justify our sins, but they are opportunities for us to cling closer to God and trust Him more.
Grace In Holiness, Holiness In Grace
Do you feel divine grace is out of reach to you? The gospel tells us God extends His grace even to undeserving sinners, and where sin increased, grace increased all the more. But does such grace mean we can feel free to sin more? Certainly not! For God is also holy, and He judges and disciplines sinners.
Guilty Of Self Idolatry?
The Bible warns us that during the last days, people will be “lovers of themselves…rather than lovers of God”. It correctly points out our tendency to love ourselves above God. Even among churchgoers today, we notice a subtle trend of self-worship taking a form of “Christian consumerism”, where Christians think that church exists to serve them, rather than God. Instead of asking “Is God pleased with me?” or “How can I live for God?”, people are more concerned with “What can God give me?” While we should love ourselves, we need to note that our love of self can become destructive, if we consider the “self” as more important than God.
Directed By Physical Reality Or Faith?
While Christians cannot be impractical, we also cannot let physical reality alone direct our thinking, emotions, decisions and life. Instead of being influenced or made helpless by the seen reality, we can trump reality by faith in God. Are you more directed by physical reality or faith? How does a faith-directed life look like?
Train Ourselves To Give Thanks
Thankfulness is the lens to help us see God’s amazing glory, sense His presence and confirm His work more clearly in our lives. Our lives may look dull, common, or even seem like a mess, but when we focus on the right angle, like how a photographer did, we can see beauty in the ordinary or mess. However, gratitude is not something natural to us sinners, so we need to train our eyes to see reasons to give thanks and practice growing a heart of thanksgiving.
Resolve To Live A Holy Life
If to be consecrated means to be different, then we need to ask if we truly dare to be different from the world, even when it may come with persecutions? Would we rather be socially acceptable, or God-acceptable? God wants us to start the year right with a consecrated and holy heart. Consecration is not a one-time resolution but a lifetime lifestyle. Even if we are already believers who are serving God, we need to guard ourselves from a “typical” Christian living, which is not what consecration is about. So how can we restore a consecrated lifestyle and serving?
Be Holy And Consecrated
Most people are not so much interested in being holy. Rather, they are more concerned with being happy. Yet, there is a definite link between holiness and happiness, for only when we are right with God then we can taste true and lasting joy. Thus, blessed children of God will pursue holiness. So what does holiness mean? Are we consecrated? How do we know? How can we sustain a consecrated living?
What Next After Christmas?
Much cheer and busyness surround Christmas. Yet, before we know it, Christmas is over and decorations have to be taken down, celebrations cease, then, life back to a broken world resumes. In no time, the wonderful feeling of Christmas becomes but a faint memory. So what next after Christmas? How should we continue to treasure Christ after Christmas?
Not Just A Religion, But A Relationship
Christianity is not merely a religion, but also a relationship between God and man. God does not just call believers into a set of rules, but into a relationship with Him, where He will be our God and we will be His people. Religious laws alone do not save, in fact, they only expose sin, leading to judgment. But with relationship comes the empowerment of love, where God will help us with the power to obey Him. Thus, relationship brings assurance. Yet, we should not over-emphasize either religion or relationship. For there is the risk of legalism if only emphasize the religion part, and there is the risk of indulgence if over-emphasize the relationship part. We should seek to obey God’s commandments, while also building a sweet relationship with Him.
