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I have indeed been truly blessed by the sermon messages on Book of Jeremiah the past few weeks in church. Last sunday, the sermon was about true usefulness and what it really is.
I have been reflecting on what the speaker said about people always wanting to be useful. I thought of my own grandmother, who is an old lady, seventy plus years of age. Even up till today, she is incredibly mobile, being able to perform tasks as well as any middle age woman. The amount of chores she does each day really amazes me. Not only does she upkeeps her own house, doing all the laundry, mopping the floor, tidying up the tables, but she does almost the same for my place.
Almost on every day, she would independently take a train to my house and begin tidying up the place for our family as well as cooking dinner for our family. Recently, I have noticed a few potted plants along my corridor that weren’t there before. Initially, I thought it was the neighbours, however, later on one afternoon, I saw her trimming the leaves of those plants and tidying the area around there. I later realised that she had even brought those plants to my house to beautify the place.
For an old lady, seriously, she really does a lot of work. In other words, she is a rather capable person even at her old age. There is always this willingness in old people to try to be useful to others. Somehow, they feel that as they grow old, their abilities fade and they will lose their usefulness.
The old lady in ‘Money No Enough 2′ exemplifies how the world sees usefulness and worthiness. As she grew older and more dependent on her sons, she loses her worthiness in their eyes and becomes a burden instead.
A lot of people, including me, I realised, always want to be useful or worthy in the eyes of others. We want to prove that we are capable of at least something, for others to recognise our efforts. Hence, we strive to better ourselves and our skills in doing things. Even if we do not have a skill, at the least, we want to show others that we could help in certain ways.
In this world, usefulness is determined by abilities, the abilities to do things well in the eyes of others. But one thing that the speaker said which made a great impact on me was that having an ability to do something good does not necessarily makes us useful, but usefulness really depends on our position. (I’m rephrasing this in my own words)
Where we are, not how good we are or what we could do, determines usefulness.
The speaker quoted the example of a brilliant intelluctual who uses his abilities to commit clever crimes. That person, then, who be powerful, yes, but useful, definitely not. Hence, the purpose is important in determining usefulness. One is useful when the abilities are used for the right purposes.
However, the waistband in Jeremiah 13 was useful only when it was worn by Jeremiah, but when it was detached from its wearer, it became ruined and worthless.
Similarly, in our lives, we are useful only when we are used by God. When we detach ourselves from God, we lose our usefulness and worthiness. Our reference point and not our abilities are important.
Many times, we think that we can help God by trying to serve him with the talents or abilities that we have. Although our motives may be good, we often forget the most important thing. In God’s eyes, it is not about how well we can do something that matters i.e how well one can manage a church because he, how well one can teach in sunday school, how well one sing for the church’s worship team or play any musical instrument or how well one can make a newcomer feel welcome.
If service is measured by abilities, no one will be able to serve God, simply because the abilities we have of ourselves alone are never able to please him. We need to realise that how well we can do something (our abilities) doesn’t matter at all in serving God. We spend much time trying to improve our skills, thinking that we could serve God better, but little do we realise that all of the efforts could be useless and we could still be a useless person. God can’t be helped by us. We are useless in trying to help him.
How then can we be useful? It is by having the waistband put around the waist. The waistband, by its own, is just like us, with all of our seemingly superb abilities. Without the owner putting it around the waist, it is useless. But when the owner puts it around his waist, it becomes useful and worthy. We are not worthy because of our abilities, we are worthy because God puts us on him like a waistband to the owner’s waist.
It doesn’t take our abilities to serve God. It takes God to serve God.
Our abilities can only be useful if God uses it, if God is the reference point or if God says it useful. Even if we do not have any abilities, we can be useful in the eyes of God, as long as it is God who uses us. Hence, it really depends on our reference point, where we are. Any man is useful and worthy as long as God chooses to use him, regardless of who he is and what he can do. That is the true measure of usefulness and worthiness.
What are great thing it is to know that we are useful not on the account of our own abilities, but because we belong God and God desires to use us!
Yesterday, I received a sms on my handphone saying:
‘Urgent. Please pray for the churches in India. Buddhist extremists burnt 20 churches yesterday night and are planning to destroy 200 churches in Orissa and kill 200 pastors in 24 hours. Christians are hiding in bushes. Please pray and forward to all you know so we can cry to God on their behalf. Pastor Steve, Dubai.’
This message and the world events around me truly opened my eyes to the grim reality of the happenings going around in the world.
Here were all these christians being persecuted and I am living in my own comfort zone, complaining about how stressful my studies are and how I’m not able to relax recently. Day by day, I live my life as a student, going to school almost daily and on weekends, I’ll go to church on Sunday and perhaps take some time off on Saturday. I have been in this mindless routine without realising how I was actually living my life.
I realised that all these while, I have been living in my own little confined space and being satisfied that way. To my horror, I realised that I was living in my own world – A ‘Dream World’ or what Pastor John Piper calls it: ‘Disneyland’.
This is the Dream World: Studies or our work is the main thing in our lives. Occasionally, we take some time off for legitimate leisure or relaxation. We may spend time with God daily and yes, we are satisfied. The cycle continues on week after week, months after months, years after years, and we think that there’s all that is, in this little world in which we live in. The worst thing is, we think that that’s all for a life of a christian.
In my world, the world I see, touch, feel and taste, the world seems good, able to sustain me and is reasonably nice to live in. But the world in reality isn’t what I think it is. It is messed up, corrupted and rotten. Even as christians, we chase after the things in this world, and we don’t often realise it. They may be small things like security or a simple carefree life that we seek to have or keep. Of course, we know that we should forsake all these things and follow the Lord, but how many of us truly have put it into practice? How many of us are willing to sacrifice even these things like a normal life, a secured life for God’s sake?
Many of us prefer to live in our own ‘Dream World’ instead of facing the grim reality of this world: this cruel, hopeless world that we live in. We prefer to cast all these questions aside and brainwash ourselves to worry about our schoolwork, our company’s problems or our family issues. We try to focus on these things that revolve around us, to participate in the pleasant things around us and we think that that is all to life. We choose to believe that this world is beautiful and pleasant. We choose to believe that there is a hope for humanity, failing to realise that the hope doesn’t exist at all.
Humanity is rotten. It is a joke to even think that we can rely on these fallible men, whom we call leaders, to lead us to a better tomorrow. Just look at all the wars in the world from time past. Look at the industrial revolution. What did it cause us? Wars, shortages, environmental damages. Look at all our developments, all the tall skyscrapers in which we glory, all the sophistication of technology we have. All it takes is an earthquake or something to bring them all down to nothing. Yet, we choose to deceive ourselves that humans can have control of this world. Where is the better tomorrow in which we are chasing, collectively as humans and individually, on our own? There is no better tomorrow in this hopeless world. This world is doomed to failure.
This is what we need to realise today, right now, at this very moment: This world is hopeless and we ourselves are hopeless. We want to live happily ever after, we want to live the dream lives that we envision, we want to be secured, we want all to be nice and well. We are dreaming. We are chasing after the wind.
All these things are happening because we humans think that we are the centre of this world. Everything we do revolves around ourselves. When each try to live his own dreams or his own will, there will be conflicts inevitably. The world needs a centre. Only when there is a centre, there is unity. It is only when we live for this centre, there is meaning and purpose to live for. If we are going to live for ourselves, as though the world revolves around us, we are chasing after the wind, because the world doesn’t revolve around us.
This centre is Christ.
Colossians 1:16 – ‘For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created by Him and for Him.’
All things in this world is created by Christ and for Christ. Who then is the centre of this world? Who then should all things revolve around? Us? No. Christ, the one who will claim this world back for Himself.
Hebrews 1:2b – (Christ) ‘whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.’
If we all could realise this and we live for Christ whom the world revolves around, all things can be brought back into unity. This is what we should seek. Not wealth, not peace, not security, not anything else that puts us in the centre of the world, but Christ, and Christ alone.
When things around us in the world happen that doesn’t affect us, we would just say “Thank You, God, that I’m not affected. Thank you for blessing me!” Those brothers and sisters in Christ out there are suffering, suffering, suffering and we are just merely thanking God for blessing us. That is the ‘I in the centre’ attitude. Shall we allow the rightful one to take the centre place once again? Shall we not just simply thank God because he has blessed us? If we do see that Christ is the centre of all things, can we see that our lives are not much more worthy than theirs that God should bless us more? Shall we, as one, feel the anguish of the holy spirit, the hardships and pain that these brethren go through? Shall we unite in Christ by praying and becoming sharers of hardship with these brethren? (Hebrews 10:33)
When we as Christians unite with Christ in the centre as the unifier, we fulfil our purpose for living in this world, for there is a better tomorrow when Christ shall come and claim what is his.
This morning as I awoken from my sleep, still lying on the bed, the tune of the song Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God played through in my mind. I felt that it was a very timely reminder for me to truly seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.
Many times when work is busy, when I have many things to accomplish, either some project to complete or simply some studies to do, it is easy for my focus to shift. I know that studies are important and it is right and pleasing in God’s eyes to work hard for even Proverbs 6:9-11 says:
How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest”- And your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man.
Hence, it is delightful in the Lord’s eyes to be hardworking and diligent rather than slothful and lazy. There is value in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. Yes, but many times, I do use this illegitimate excuse to draw away from God.
The key word is ‘First’. Having sang the song so many times, it is easy to repetitively sing without truly understanding the meaning of this verse. While it is true that we should seek the Kingdom of God, it is even more true that we should seek First the kingdom of God.
Oftentimes when busyness creeps in, it is not that I totally do not spend time with God at all. Yes, I would try to read probably a verse or two and say a short prayer before I scramble to get down to business, for perhaps, I do have an important exam later in the day in which I really need to study for. In my mind, I would be commending myself that I had not compromise my time with God despite my heavy schedule.
However, this verse in Matthew 6:32 on seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness first puts me down.
It is no doubt true that I have spent time with God, but the question I did not ask myself is whether I have put God’s kingdom and righteousness first, or second.
My honest reply to this question is, definitely, God wasn’t first. My mind was preoccupied with accomplishing the tasks with the best of my abilities and I merely went through the ritual of spending time with God, thinking that my faith isn’t compromised. God was not at first place, but second. And my excuse for this: my exams, my schoolwork.
Does God deserve to be placed even slightly below schoolwork or even exams in my life? I realised that I have allowed the second or third most important thing to overtake the MOST important one. Schoolwork was important, nevertheless, but it should never take precedence over the MOST important which is God. God has to be First.
Then I thought, if God has to be first, wouldn’t I not have the time to complete my school work? I really need time to do the work. But I realise that it wasn’t about the time that to be given to God, but it was about the condition of the heart. I could some more time on my schoolwork and yet put God first.
I thank God that the verse doesn’t end:
Matthew 6:33b – And all these things shall be added unto you.
God will provide and I can have the assurance that he definitely will. If God, his kingdom and his righteousness is first place, everything else will fall in place. The anxiety of not being to complete the work, the fear of not doing well enough, the thought of lack of time – all these will vanish, because God is first and he takes care of them.
Praise the Lord!
Last sunday, I was baptised in my local church. I am thankful to God that I have finally made this decision. I remembered praying to God not so long ago to show me the meaning and significance of baptism in order for me to be baptised as soon as possible. I thank God that the time had come for me to be meaningfully baptised that I may proclaim him as my Lord and Saviour forevermore.
Since young, having observed fellow church members getting baptised at Changi Beach, I often questioned my parents about what Baptism was. I knew that Baptism was one of the things that a christian needs to go through, but despite having a vague idea of what it was, I never fully understood its meaning and significance.
At that time, my mum told me simply that after Baptism, one would be a child of God. But with my finite mind, I could not understand why one needs to be baptised in order to be a child of God. As I also thought that Baptism was something adults do, it though it should be laid aside until I grew older. The image of Baptism of someone going under water and rising out from it always stayed vivid in my mind. Along with it came fears of getting totally wet or even drowning during the Baptism, so I was pretty worried about getting baptised due to these fears.
As the years went by, I had the opportunity to watch many people getting baptised: my brother, my cousins, my grandparents. Among the first were my maternal grandparents. They were baptised by water sprinkling. When witnessing their baptism, I asked my mum once again why the baptism was in such a way. I was given the reply that my grandparents were old and so they cannot be baptised by immersion and so, I accepted the answer.
Later on as God revealed more and more about the significance of baptism to me, I realised that my childhood imagery of baptism via immersion into water helped me a lot in remembering what baptism truly meant.
It meant to me an old man being submerged, leaving his oldness behind and coming out of the water as a new man.
It is likened to the verse in 2 Corinthians 5:17 – ‘Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.’
The newness was important to me. It meant a new beginning, a new path, a new life. It meant to me renounciating my old ways, leaving them behind and living in newness of life for Jesus Christ, being borned again.
What an inexplicable joy and comfort it is to know that I’m new!
Despite the fact that I wasn’t baptism via immersion but sprinkling, this image of immersion stayed vivid in my mind during my baptism and it conveyed to me this important truth, reafirming to me that my past have been dealt with and a new hope is awaiting me as I embark on this new life.
Thank you God for giving a new life and a new start!
