CELEBRATE THE CUP

What a frenzy Indians get into when the Indian team wins a cricket cup–especially if the win is over the Pakistani team! I’ve always thought that Pakistanis turn every game into a jihad. But now I think that Indians also forget that cricket is only a game. We may not think of it as a jihad, nevertheless it is no less than war when it comes to playing against Pakistan. I myself have no interest in cricket. I share the opinion of George Bernard Shaw that it is a game where eleven men make fools of themselves on the field, while eleven thousand other fools watch them do so. That was then. If Shaw were around he would be shocked that the number of fools has multiplied to millions.

Long before all these cups for games, one psalmist said he would celebrate God’s cup of salvation as his way of giving back to God for all the benefits he had received from God:

What shall I render to the LORD                                                   
For all His benefits toward me?                                                        
I shall pay my vows to the LORD,                                                                  Oh may it be in the presence of all His people (Ps.116: 12-13)

The only thing we can give God is public acknowledgment that God alone is the Giver of everything always. The way to give to God is accepting what He gives so abundantly.

The psalmist then went on to say that he would

• Keep his commitments (v.14a)
• in the gathering of God’s people (v.14b).

When in desperate situations many people make promises to God. But often, while they settle the resultant bills, the vows made to God are set aside. Sometimes they tell themselves that they will do it later on when things are a little easier, but often they never come to the point of thinking that things have become easier.

According to Psalm 118 there are two aspects to keeping commitments to God:

1. Service (v.16)
2. Thank offering (v.17)

Service requires time. Offerings cost money. Time and money are the “currencies” of life, the two things needed to run our lives. Since they are currencies, the question that arises is how much do we commit to God as the symbols of our gratitude and devotion.

When we study the Bible, time and money are the only things about which God has given formulae for calculating the amount that we are to commit. They call for a sense of proportion.

Environmentalists tell us that the problems such as extinction of species, depletion of resources, and similar troubles of our planet, can all be traced to humankind not living proportionately. Animals manifest a sense of proportion, but do so instinctively. But for humans to show this sense it involves making a moral choice. 

God ordained that humankind would rule creation (Gen.1: 28-29), but He commanded that we are to use only a proportion of the currencies of life.

Not Your Time   

Some preachers have suggested tithing our time. But they got that wrong. God didn’t say that one-tenth of our time is to be given to Him. He categorically said that it had to be one-seventh. That much of your time belongs to God exclusively. It’s earmarked. Six days for you, and all you want to do. But one out of seven is entirely God’s.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God…the LORD blessed the Sabbath day…” (Ex.20: 8-11, NASU).

This notion of giving God one entire day every week is unacceptable to modern Christians. Some would like to spread the one-seventh amount over a period of time–a little bit now and then.

 

If someone owes you a lump sum of money, and they give it back to you a little bit at a time, you won’t be able to do what you can with the entire amount. Fragmented portions end up being frittered away. That rule applies to time too. Giving a few moments every now and then also gives us a false sense of having met the requirement because we’re not keeping track of the time spent.

Apart from the practical aspect of loss in fragmentation, there is a deeper issue involved. When we refuse to give God all that belongs to Him, we are holding back on our commitment. We say, “It’s mine. In no way am I giving all of it. I’d decide what I’ll do and how I’ll do it.”

Holiness                                                                                     

The word “holy” makes it clear that it is to be separated. It must be clearly defined, by cutting it out and setting it apart. It should be marked “reserved.” We should have no doubt: “It’s not mine.”

This kind of holiness is not practical. It’s not convenient. The reasons, rather, the excuses, are many:

• After working hard all week, I need Sunday mornings to catch up on my sleep
• There’s no time all week, and I need Sundays for all the housework I need to do
• It’s the only day I’m home to meet the maid/the dhobi/my friends
• Sunday is when my brother, who lives abroad, is able to call me, etc. etc.

Some folks hide behind an apparent spirituality:

• I think everyday belongs to God, not just Sunday.

And, they think that they have biblical support for this idea (Rom.14: 5-6).

The Lord’s Day       

In the Early Church, at first people met for worship daily in the Temple and had communion in homes (Acts 2: 46). It’s quite possible they thought that Jesus was going to return immediately. Then the Lord used persecution to move them out of Jerusalem to begin the task of taking His gospel to other parts of the world (8:1). As the number of believers from Gentile backgrounds increased, the practice of meeting on the seventh day (meant to be observed only by Jews–Ex.31: 13-17) was given up, and Sunday replaced Saturday as the day for Christians to gather for worship and fellowship (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor.16: 2), and it was designated “the Lord’s day” (Rev.1: 10).

In my boyhood, the rule in my home was that on Saturday evenings my siblings and I used to put away our schoolbooks, reckoning it to be the start of the Lord’s Day. On Sundays our family went to both morning and evening services. Most people didn’t attend in the evenings, but it didn’t matter, because we weren’t going to connect with important or influential people. We simply went to church to attend the services.

Once, we kids persuaded father to take us on Sunday evening to see the movie Ben Hur. He agreed because it was a movie related to the death and resurrection of our Lord. Bur mother wasn’t happy that we had chosen to do this on Sunday evening when we should have gone to church. When we got to the cinema hall, we found it houseful and couldn’t see the movie. Mother was smug about our not being able to see the movie and told us that she hoped that we had learnt our lesson about not doing something like this on a Sundays because it’s the Lord’s Day.

It’s time we got back to the custom of keeping Sunday as the Lord’s Day. It’s not our day. It belongs in its entirety to God. No part of the day can be claimed as ours. We must not even touch it, because our hands have a touch of selfishness and spoil everything.

Restful                                                                                    

Jesus said that the “Sabbath was made for Man” (Mk.2: 27), not the other way around. It was for human benefit that God ordained a day of rest. Often people focus on the word “rest” to argue that the Sabbath law commands sleep. Yes, we are to rest from our labour, but the context shows that we rest by drawing near to God. It is in holiness that we find our rest. It is not a day for sleeping or doing all the things we couldn’t because of work.

Just as there is a day of decision (cf.2Cor.6: 2), there have to be days of renewal in our lives. We need to refuel/refill in order to keep running. Resting for restoration involves returning to the Source. That’s the way to regain lost energy. We need to affirm what Augustine said to God, “Our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in You.”

Full-time Christian       

Giving money has been easier than giving time. That is why missions have sometimes tried to generate support with this slogan: “If you can’t go, send,” and “send” translates into money.

How is that different from saying that money can buy a pardon? In Martin Luther’s day he was appalled by the suggestion that people could buy “indulgences” on behalf of loved ones trapped in purgatory. Can money offset failure to obey God’s call? When put that way, we see that the slogan about sending instead of going is unacceptable.

Of course, all Christians are not called or gifted to serve as missionaries, evangelists or preachers. They must serve God in their “calling” whatever that may be (1 Cor.7: 17,20,24). Paul remained a tentmaker even after he became a disciple of Christ. He chose to support himself by his occupation (Acts 18: 1-3; 1 Cor.4: 12). He even supported others who went around with him (Acts 20: 34). Should we call him a part-time worker or a full-time Christian?

Not Your Money      

Though parting with time is harder, when we get down to parting with money we do have difficulty in giving God what is His due. Our Lord said, “Give Caesar his things, and give God His” (Matt.22: 21).

Christians generally are scrupulous when it comes to calculating the taxes they have to pay. We calculate them to the very paisa. That may be because we don’t want to be caught. 

 

Is Christian morality a case of not being caught? When it comes to what we do with God alone as witness, we’re not so moral, because there are no immediate consequences to disobeying God. After all, God is more forgiving than humans. David knew that (2 Sam.24: 14), but he didn’t take the forgiveness of God lightly. He was still in awe of God and of His forgiveness.

For all the care we take to calculate our taxes, we look for bolt holes to escape giving all that is to be given to God. Here’s one question:

• Do I calculate the tithe before or after deducting tax?

Knowing Jesus, if He was asked this question, He would say,

• How about asking Caesar if he will allow you to deduct the tithe before calculating the tax?

Defining the Tithe  

The word “tithe” is not a theological word for money give to the church. It signifies one-tenth of what we have, and it is given to God.

Many Christians object to tithing as a rule. The most common objection is that it is Old Testament Law, and a Christian is free from the Law. Some mistakenly think that our Lord never commanded tithing. Even if He had not said anything specifically about tithing, His Word stands:

Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt.5: 17-20, HCSB).

Our Lord clearly

1. Was not against the Law of God
2. Did not annul it
3. Declared its validity for all time
4. Said that our status in heaven depends on our regard for the Law
5. Wanted His disciples to be better than the Pharisees at keeping God’s law.

Anyway, the Lord was not silent about tithing. He said that while

• justice (doing right),
• mercy (being forgiving), and
• faithfulness (maintaining love)

were the main issues of God’s Law, tithing itself was not to be neglected (Matt.23: 23).

Many of those who object to tithing say that Christians should not be bound to tithing, but do more. But in the end, once people cut lose from a standard, they tend to have an “anything is okay” attitude about things. So often their giving becomes “whatever I can, whenever I can.”

By the way, those who say that Christians ought to more than tithe, should note that devout Jews gave more than just a tenth of their annual yield. They gave:

1. 10% of annual yield
2. 10% of three years’ yield to support fellowship of the community
3. First fruits of all crops
4. Firstlings of all flocks and herds
5. Regular and periodic sacrifices

Someone has calculated that all that adds up to about 23% of the income. Ready to do more than Jews? They may have been bound to the Law, but Christians seem to be bound to our money.

The concept of tithing tells us that our giving should be proportionate to our income and/or resources. Often people think that they give a lot by looking at the number itself.

When I was a young boy, a peon used to take a register to the homes of church members. Every family was listed and the amount given by each family was recorded. Everyone saw what everyone else gave. The result was that members tended to see what the rich gave, and felt that it was okay for them to give less. And the rich gave just a bit more than others—to show that they were rich and also to be treated specially.

That changed for my parents when our pastor, Stan Skillicorn, introduced the congregation to the book Christian Giving written by V S Azariah, the first Indian bishop of the Anglican Church. From that time on my parents practised tithing, and in later years my mother felt that God had blessed her so much that she would give more than a tithe, while she lived in a rented house, moving around Madras in buses to sell insurance policies.

Sometimes people give a little bit and claim it is their “widow’s mite.” That annoys me. I sneer at them inwardly. Our Lord commended the widow for the largeness of her gift, not its smallness. She gave all, and kept back nothing for herself (Lk.21: 1-4). It is a sin to take that commendation of our Lord and claim it for the niggardliness of contemporary giving.

We need to start at the least that is expected before we can graduate to giving more. When Jesus told us to give Caesar his due in taxes, we do it in proportion to our income. But when it comes to giving to God, we don’t want to give in proportion to our income. Incomes go up. We murmur about taxes going up but we pay the higher taxes. Incomes go up. But our giving to God remains the same year after year after year for a long time.

The prophet Malachi says that people rob God when they hold back the tithe (3: 7-11). Most Christians are very law-abiding and we don’t rob people. We confine all our robbing to robbing God. Malachi pointed out that people think that they can save by keeping back the tithe. But when you keep back what is sacred, it only brings a curse. Malachi said that if you don’t save the tithe, then you will reap the abundance of God’s blessings.

Pastor Sam Kamaleson used to announce that the offering would be taken up by saying, “Present to God, His tithes and your offerings.” He explained that the tithe belongs to God, and you begin to offer only when you go beyond the tithe.

Tithing acknowledges God’s right to all we have. He owns it. He gave it. And all we can do is to give back a token—just a tithe.

When we decide to give God, it is God who enables our giving. We don’t have to rob God in order to meet our needs and He will give us enough and more that there is something to give God in thanksgiving.

Time and Money     

God has given us simple thumb rules for using His gifts of time and money. When the Giver is far above us, and has given us in a measure that we cannot match, all we can do is to give Him a token. For the life God has given you—give Him one-seventh of your time. For supplying all you have—give Him one-tenth of your resources. That would just be a small token of thanks.

GOD’S RICH

“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

That is a line from David (Psalm 16). To understand that, we need to study that line in its context:
• David started by placing himself under God’s protection (v.1)
• Acknowledged God as the only source of all the good things in his life (v.2)
• Godly company delighted him (v.3)
• God Himself was David’s portion (vv.5-6)
• God was His guide (v.7)
• God‘s presence brought steadiness, joy and security (vv.8-9)
• God was David’s sole and entire hope (vv.10-11).

Essentially, David was saying, “God is my God. And I’m God’s heir.”

Here’s the question for us today: “Would we think of ourselves as rich because we have God as our God?”

When in the fellowship of believers, we would probably answer affirmatively and assert that we are rich because we have God. But how do we feel when compared with Mukesh Ambani—India’s richest person? Forget Ambani. After all, we don’t have anything to do with him. How do you feel when you compare yourself with your neighbour who has a bigger house, and more vehicles and gadgets than you? How about when it is a brother or sister in the Lord who has far, far more than you? Would you still feel rich?

Whenever I’m confronted with the filthy rich and their latest acquisitions, I do wish that their wealth was spread around a bit more, so that I too could have a few more conveniences and comforts in my life. If you are like me, you must feel the same way when you focus on their wealth.

I find that the only way I can get my mind off the riches that other people have is to compare my situation with that of the Lord Jesus when He lived as a poor daily-wage earning carpenter in a dusty little village in primitive times. Compared to Jesus, I’m rich—filthy rich.

You see, “rich” and “poor” are relative terms. We need to have a correct perspective on life’s circumstances. See things in the light of

• The history of Jesus having lived life on earth, and
• The fact that in the end death strips us completely and sends us into an eternity where we cannot take any of our possessions.

Ultimately, it is a question of our attitude to life.

What is Life About?
One man wanted Jesus to use His influence to get his brother to give him a fair share of the inheritance from his father (Luke 12:13). Jesus replied that He had not been given the job of being an arbitrator between people feuding over property and money. But He didn’t stop there. Jesus turned the occasion into an opportunity to warn people against being greedy (vv.14-15). That seems unfair. The man was not asking for all the family wealth. All he wanted was just a fair share⎯his share. That’s not wrong, is it?

Jesus then went on to tell the story about a man who made hoarding his wealth the only goal of his life. The point that Jesus was making was that life is not about what you possess. All the things you own do not add up to who you are:

Life is not measured by how much one owns (v.15, New Century Version).

Hey, but I want my share of things. I like the thought of having conveniences, comforts and luxuries. I would like to not have to be envious of other people. Of course, I ignore the aspect of other people being envious of me. I don’t want to think about that.

I never buy any Onida products. Nor do I even consider them when surveying the market for the best buy. That’s because the company uses the Devil as their icon. Ah, but the company slogan, “Owner’s pride, neighbour’s envy” strips away all of my pretense, and I see that my desire to have a good life, is in reality a yearning for an enviable life. That desire has the Devil himself as its source; nay, it’s the “devilishness” inside me that wants to have things that cause envy in others. Thank you, Onida, for holding a mirror up for me to see what’s inside me that needs to be exorcised.

In the story that Jesus told on that occasion, a farmer was doing so well that he had to build bigger barns to contain all of the harvest of his labours. Nothing wrong with that. But the man had no thought except that of leading a life of consumption:

He thought to himself, 'What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and other goods. Then I can say to myself, "I have enough good things stored to last for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!" (vv.17-19, NCV).

According to Christ’s story, God told the man that he had a life that would go beyond his time on earth, and the question he needed to consider was that he could not take his material goods with him (v.20). Who doesn’t know that? Yes, but the way people live their lives it doesn’t seem that we, the people, think that at all. The way we amass what we own, it would appear that we think that this is the only life we have to be concerned with.

Jesus ended by saying that the rich man’s fate would be ours too:

This is how it will be for those who store up things for themselves and are not rich toward God (v.21).

From the very beginning, that is, from the time of the Early Church, most Christians have been impressed with wealth (Jas. 2:1-7). In the end, what impresses us is what draws us on. It sets the agenda for our lives. We need to remember that when the Scriptures talked about “the love of money” it was a reference to a condition within the fellowship of believers:

They think that serving God is a way to get rich. Serving God does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. We brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out. But, if we have food and clothes, we will be satisfied with that. Those who want to become rich bring temptation to themselves and are caught in a trap. They want many foolish and harmful things that ruin and destroy people. The love of money causes all kinds of evil. Some people have left the faith, because they wanted to get more money, but they have caused themselves much sorrow…Command those who are rich with things of this world not to be proud. Tell them to hope in God, not in their uncertain riches. God richly gives us everything to enjoy. Tell the rich people to do good, to be rich in doing good deeds, to be generous and ready to share. By doing that, they will be saving a treasure for themselves as a strong foundation for the future. Then they will be able to have the life that is true life (1 Tim.6:5-10, 17-19, NCV).

What Good are Your Possessions?
The Jewish priestly class looked down on Jesus for being just a poor, itinerant teacher. They thought that He was a bit of a fool for not taking advantage of His popularity and making a lot of money:

[Jesus said] “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, naturally scoffed at all this. Then he said to them, "You like to look good in public, but God knows your evil hearts. What this world honors is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16: 13-15, New Living Translation)

On that occasion, Jesus told a story about a rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. Though the beggar lay at the gate of the rich man’s mansion, he didn’t even get the scraps from the rich man’s table. Both the men died. The rich man went into an after-life of torment, while Lazarus was transported to the place where Father Abraham was (Luke 16:19-31).

Jesus did not say that the rich man was a wicked man. The point of the story is that the rich man had more than enough for himself and Lazarus, but he just didn’t care. The context implied that the man didn’t serve God with the riches he had been given. He lived to serve his own purpose in life. No, he was not wicked. But he was guilty of indifference toward God and the neighbour at his gate, the beggar who was in dire need. His riches were no good—neither to God nor his fellow-humans.

The Bible teaches that everything we have is from God. It is given to us as a trust. We are not owners of anything, but only stewards of everything that has been put in our charge. Being rich is not an issue. What matters is how we behave when having the custody of riches.

A devout life does bring wealth, but it's the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that's enough. But if it's only money these leaders are after, they'll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after. But you, …of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life (1 Tim. 6:6-11, 17-19, The Message).

How Hard!
Apart from these stories that Jesus told about the rich, Luke also recorded two real-life encounters of rich men who met with Jesus. Both were seekers. Jesus didn’t seek them out, they came looking for Jesus. One rich man was good (18:18-24), while the other, Zacchaeus, was a wicked man (19:1-10).

What is surprising is that it is the wicked tax collector who was ready and willing to give up his riches, while the good man turned his back on Jesus because he would not give up his wealth.

The good man had come to Jesus with a sense of deep dissatisfaction about his life. When Jesus asked him to follow God’s laws, the man said that he had done that all his life, but confessed to Jesus that he sensed that there was something lacking. Prescribing the cure for his soul, Jesus told him to give away his riches to the poor and needy, and follow Jesus. Even though the young man was so terribly dissatisfied, he was not willing to give away his possessions. The man had cultivated goodness in his life and that had filled him with a deep longing for the complete goodness he sensed still wasn’t there in his life. But he still clung to his riches and walked away from Jesus. Seeing the good man’s reaction to the invitation to join Jesus in His work for God’s rule, Jesus said,

Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who have it all to enter God's kingdom? I'd say it's easier to thread a camel through a needle's eye than get a rich person into God's kingdom. (18:24-25, NLT)

The tax collector, on the other hand, had no longing for what is good, having never cultivated it or developed a hunger for it. All he was trying to do was satisfy his curiosity about Jesus. That was when Jesus had confronted him. Bad man that he was, the Lord never told Zacchaeus to change his life. The Lord wasn’t even critical of him. Amazing!

The Lord isn’t like us at all, when He confronts sinners, is He? All that Jesus did was to merely gave Zacchaeus respect that he never had from others. That just stunned Zacchaeus. And, Zacchaeus, the man who had made it the aim of his life to make money anyhow, by hook or by crook, immediately decided that he had been lifted to such a higher plane that he didn’t want to come down from there, and was willing to pay any cost to stay on that level that Jesus had invited him to. To hold on to Jesus, he gave up what had filled his life till then. He did it for Jesus’ sake. Jesus was worth giving up his riches for (19: 1-10).

Another man met Jesus without seeing Him during the Incarnation, and he said,

I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ (Philippians 3: 7-8, NLT)

Which one of these men are you like? Hard question, huh?

How Much for the Lord?
When Zacchaeus met Jesus, he felt like a king, willing to give away half of what he had, and also repay four times what he had cheated others of. (And we make such a fuss about giving 10%).

But the gift that grabbed the Lord’s attention was one given by a poor widow.

[Jesus said] The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford—she gave her all! (21:3-4, The Message).

In terms of actual value it was very little—just two mites. Today, there are rich people who give a little bit, and then claim that what they’re giving is their “widow’s mite.” When they do that they contradict the Lord. The Lord was commending her lavishness in giving, but their remark equates her giving to their stinginess. Disciples shouldn’t contradict the Lord’s teaching, but have a desire to do what the Lord taught.

The widow gave all the money she had, leaving herself absolutely nothing to fall back on. The Lord saw her generosity, but didn’t perform a miracle that instantaneously gave her ten times what she had given to God. Think about it. She went to bed hungry that night, and the Lord allowed her to experience hunger and need. She wasn’t giving to get something back, and the Lord didn’t take away from her that sense of being rich toward God.

How much would you give to God? That depends on whether you think of yourself to be blessed by God. That depends on whether you compare your material status with that of the poor daily wage-earning poor Carpenter of Nazareth and know that you have so much more than He had. That depends on whether you think Jesus means more than all you have or want to have. That depends on whether you listen when the Lord commends the poor widow’s giving.

HAVE YOU PUT GOD ON HOLD?

A few days ago I had to conduct a funeral. One man asked me to announce that cell phones are to be switched off. He said that it was annoying to have cell phones go off during solemn moments. I announced, "To honour God and as a mark of respect for our departed brother....please switch off all cell phones." All around the grave, for once people pulled out their cell phones and switched them off.

But think about it. Why don't people switch off their cell phones before coming to such events as church services?

If you had an appointment with the president of the country, would you go in with your cell phone on? If it rings, while you're with the president, would you take the call? Even if you forgot to observe the protocol of meeting the president without your cell phone switched off, you would not dare to take the call and put the president "on hold". But we dare to put God on hold while we take calls.

Cell phones are the most invasive of all our human inventions. There is nothing else that has invaded our lives like them. This is the worst virus of all, and we don't even know that we have a viral fever that is incurable. This fever keeps us so distracted. Have you noticed that some people will pull out their cell phones while talking to you and quickly look at messages that have come in? Mind you, they know that most messages are of absolutely no consequence. Most cell phone messages are of the "hey there" variety.

If you are trying to have a deep conversation with another, after you see him/her look at the cell phone messages, you know that you've lost their attention and give up trying to carry on a conversation with someone who isn't in spirit with you.

People ask to be excused for their inability to be present for an event and end their plea with the assurance that they will be "in spirit" with us. Maybe it is just a nice phrase that many people use. On the other hand, it could be a way of saying that they are in essential agreement about the forthcoming event. But did you notice that in the last paragraph, in my last sentence, I referred to people who are bodily present before your eyes but distracted by their cell phones that they are "not in spirit with you"?

That is the problem with the cell phone. It has captured the spirit. No technology has been able to capture the spirit in this way. The compulsion to take the phone call or check the message is so enslaving that we are shackled to our cell phones and because the chains are invisible we are not even aware that we have lost our liberty.

Cecil Northcote Parkinson (famous for his book Parkinson's Law--that elaborates on his adage that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion") in his book In-Laws and Outlaws and Parkinson's Third Law , if my memory is correct, has a chapter entitled "Phones, Paper People..." or at least deals with those subjects. Parkinson describes a businessman's visit with another in the latter's office. When the visitor arrived, he was shown into the office, but the other chap didn't even acknowledge his arrival. The man kept on studying some papers that he held in his hands. Suddenly the phone on his desk rang and he reached for the phone and answered it. After the call which lasted about ten minutes the guy went back to his papers. The phone rang again, and again the man took the call and went back to his papers when the call ended. This happened a third time. The visitor didn't know whether he was being put down, but he got up and left the office without saying a word. The businessman he had been visiting didn't look up from his papers. The visitor went to a phone booth and placed a call to the man he had been visiting. He was answered and he got his work done.

When Parkinson wrote that (1962), there were no cell phones. Wonder what he would say now? Parkinson insisted that he was really a satirist rather than a humorist. "A humorist," Parkinson explained, "… writes about wildly improbable things; but the whole point about me is that whatever I write is true. Nothing is dreamt up. It's how the world is actually organized." Ouch!

Phones, paper, people... "We are like that only," to borrow our standard excuse for misbehaviour.

In 1997, when I left my previous position, for almost a year, I had no phone. An out of town friend, told me that I should get a pager (do you remember those contraptions) and then I would be able to phone people who were trying to get in touch with me. I told him then, that I didn't want to be so much "on call". If someone really needed me, they would come after me and track me down.

Till the end of last year, I resisted owning a cell phone. But I've given in to pressure from Roshini that she gets worried about my whereabouts when I'm late getting home and so I need to have one. I did get one (and have just her number on it) but my mental block is so strong that most of the time I don't even think of carrying it. But, I suppose one of these days, Roshini's pressure will blast that mental block too to smithereens.

Whatever did we do before cell phones came along? Life did get along, didn't it? Our lives weren't unsatisfactory then, because calls and messages were not pouring in all the time.

I'll grant you a cell phone is a convenience (though why the troublesome contraption has such minuscule keys with multiple functions that have to be done with such delicate touches is beyond me and my fat fingers). But let it remain a convenience. Don't let it take over your life by claiming your attention any time all the time. Show your cell phone who's the boss: switch it off for periods of time. Put it in silent mode and check on calls and messages after you have attended to what's important--like being in touch with God, reflecting on life's meaning. Discover the life beyond the small screen on the cell phone. Set your spirit free.

GOD’S KIDS

Message preached on Sunday, October 4, 2009

In our world today there is a lot of discussion about children at risk. Actually, they’ve always been at risk. For instance, in Old Testament times some people worshipped Molech, described as a “detestable god” (1 Ki.11:5, 7: 2 Ki. 23:13). The sacrifices offered to this god were a person’s own son or daughter. Down through the ages children have been sacrificed with a view to gaining the favour of gods or for the appeasement of demons. In modern times, Tantric rituals have claimed children as sacrifices, and perverts have abused children sacrificing them to lust, and have got away with little or no punishment.

The Bible reveals God to be One Who proclaims the worth of children. They have an ordained place in God’s plan for the created world. God did ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, but that was only to test him, to see whether he would God before his son, and whether he would trust God to keep His promise that Isaac would indeed be his heir. Having seen Abraham’s heart, God didn’t let him go through with the test. He stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son to gain God’s favour, and in a way when God stopped him from sacrificing his son it was in the end an object lesson for all God’s people that God didn’t approve of human sacrifices to gain His blessing.

The Bible reveals God to be the God who proclaimed the worth of children. For God children are not consumables or expendables. Children don’t have to wait until they grow up to be adults before they are included in God’s plans and programmes. Children are included by God because God is Who He is.

The God Family

The biblical revelation of God was in three stages. First, God revealed His transcendence─ that He is God above all, that God is Creator, Sustainer, and Protector. In the second stage of the divine revelation, God’s presence was experienced by people among whom God was incarnate in the person of Jesus. God was God with us, taking part in all our experiences and feeling for us. God cares enough to be our Saviour. In the final stage, God revealed His immanence. He came into human lives as the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, who indwells those who received Jesus as Lord. The Creator, the Saviour and the Sanctifier are three distinct persons, but are completely one, each living in the others (see Jn.10: 31, 38).

The Bible reveals that God is one being in three persons. God is triune. The notion of Trinity is one that is totally incomprehensible to the human mind. Humans are able to comprehend the concepts of singularity or multiplicity and therefore human speculation can come up with doctrines of God being just one person or of the multiplicity of gods. That God is triune is pure revelation. If God hadn’t revealed this truth, we would have just remained with our speculations.

But God has shown us these things through the Spirit.

The Spirit searches out all things, even the deep secrets of God. Who knows the thoughts that another person has? Only a person’s spirit that lives within him knows his thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor.2:10-11, New Century Version).

The best known definition of God is that “God is love” (1 Jn.4:8). Most people don’t know that it is from the Bible. Many reverse the order of the words and think that when they say “love is God” it has the same meaning as the original statement. It doesn’t. Love can be false or true, selfish or unselfish and selfless, possessive or committed but liberating, manipulative or redemptive. The love of God is so true and so redemptive that God is definable as being love in essence. The definition that God is love fits in with the revelation that God is triune.

Love is a word about relationships. If God Who is one, was singular in His oneness, and all alone before He created anything, how could He be love? Such a majestically lonely God could not be love—no more than a hermit living in total isolation and refusing any human interaction could declare that he was in love. For God to be love there has to be someone to love and have a relationship with. That is why it is possible to believe that God is a trinity even though we cannot understand how three persons can be one God or how one God could be three persons. The notion is incomprehensible to the human mind. But it is believable because God is love.

God is the surname of the family, and there are three persons in the God family: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Because God is a family, God calls families into His fellowship. When the world was being destroyed in the Flood, Noah’s family was saved. When humankind continued to alienate itself from God, He chose Abraham and his family. In the Exodus from the slavery in Egypt God liberated all the families of the people of Israel. (The Passover was not inaugurated as a national observance, but it was observed in homes according to their families). Prior to their settlement in the Promised Land, God gave Israel laws that recognized and safeguarded people by their families.

In a family, children are important. In a sense, families are about children. Procreation, nurture of children, and aiming for the settling of children is the agenda of any/every family. When a baby is born, the whole family is centred on that baby.

God recognized the importance of little children and ordained that when Israel observed its most important festival, in every family the littlest one would have a significant role to play in the continuing education of people (Ex.13:26).

God is Father

Before Jesus people knew only about the Creator. They knew Him to be all powerful. Though there were songsters and prophets who talked of God’s loving kindness, people regarded God only as the Almighty Lord. Certainly no one had ever taught that God is Father.

Jesus was the first to tell people that God is Abba (Father). The word “father” is too formal. The word abba is more like “papa”. The idea was totally revolutionary. It still is. Today Muslims in India use the word abba when addressing their fathers, but they would never think of referring to God as Abba.

Paul was so wonder struck and impressed with this usage of the word, that he felt the need to preserve the original Aramaic word Abba within the Greek text of what he wrote (Rom.8:15; Gal.4:6) to stress the significance of Jesus Christ’s teaching that God is Father.

The Jews were expecting that when the Messiah would come, he would restore Davidic kingship and establish an earthly kingdom. But Jesus talked of God’s kingdom as a kingdom not of this world. He said that one did not fight for God’s kingdom in the way that people fought for an earthly one (Jn.18:36). To gain entry into God’s kingdom one must be born again/born from above (3:3, 5). Jesus said that we have to become children to enter God’s kingdom (Matt.18:3). When God is Father, it makes sense that we have to become children in His kingdom.

Churches today don’t regard children as full members. Kids are treated as those in preparation for membership, just like they say that children are the future citizens of a nation. But in God’s kingdom they are the owners of the kingdom. Adults have to become children to enter the kingdom. As children they’re already in. The kingdom belongs to them. They belong to the kingdom. According to Jesus, they have their angels looking at God face to face (18:10). That’s a mysterious statement. But Jesus said it.

Obviously Jesus wanted children to be encouraged and affirmed.

• Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me (v.5, NCV).
• Whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward (10:42, NASU)

They are not to be treated as outsiders. That’s what the disciples did to children who were brought to Jesus for His blessing (19:13). The disciples thought that children were not important enough for the Master to bother with. They never tried to stop any adult from meeting Jesus—even if they were social outcasts like leprosy sufferers or known prostitutes. But Jesus went against that typical attitude and said that God’s kingdom belongs to children (19:14). Imagine that! But we don’t and that is why we still try to keep kids out saying that they are not ready to be regarded as followers of Jesus.

Children may not be rational about why they accept Jesus when brought up in the circle of faith. They’re just simple followers. They imitate. That is how they learn. If you lead, they will follow. Lead them to Jesus.

God is Faithful

The Bible reveals God to be one who initiates covenants with people. He makes covenants and keeps them.

Covenants are the formalisation of relationships. A relationship is given official or public recognition. One goes on record that the relationship exists. For instance, a wedding proclaims that a man and a woman have entered into a covenant to be faithful to each other, and that no one is permitted to come between them or do anything to undermine their relationship.

Tokens or symbols accompany covenant-making. Tokens give a covenant a real world presence. They are proof that it happened and is not something that we imagined in a dream state.

When God instituted His covenant with Abraham, God made circumcision the sign that all Abraham‘s descendants were to bear. Circumcision was done when a baby was just eight days old (Gen.17:12; 21:4; Phil. 3:5). The ritual clearly declared that God’s plan included children from their very infancy.

Whole households were baptized in the Early Church (Acts 16:15, 33; 1 Cor.1:16). In that ancient world, a household was not a nuclear family, nor just an extended (joint) family of brothers and their families. A household included even the slaves and their families. There were bound to be some kids in such large groups.

Paul wrote that even if only one partner in a marriage is a believer, the children of that marriage are “holy” (1 Cor. 7:14). Scripture says some strange things, doesn’t it? Who would have thought that kids born in a home where one is from another faith are holy?

The end of the matter is, God loves children. Jesus loved kids and drew them into His circle and proclaimed them owners of God’s kingdom. Adult believers, if they are indeed believers, must believe what Jesus said and not try to dispossess the children of the King.

CONDITIONS APPLY

Message preached on Sunday, September 13, 2009

Old guarantee cards for electrical appliances always had small print. People didn’t usually bother to read the stuff in small print because the print was so tiny. They would read the portion that said that the item was guaranteed for one year and were quite satisfied. When the gadget stopped working, armed with the guarantee card, they would return to the shopkeeper and expect an immediate replacement of the defective piece, only to discover that according to something or the other in the small print they could not expect anything.

These days guarantee cards don’t have small print, but say that “conditions apply.” Yes, the product is guaranteed, but the buyer has to abide by certain conditions. Even today customers discover that the guarantees are not as good as they thought.

Companies announce free offers or the chance to win something or the other in a lucky draw. But “conditions apply.” It isn’t quite so free as the announcement made it appear. When such announcements started to appear, I was in college, and I would say to myself, “I’ll walk into the shop and say, ‘I don’t want to buy anything, but I’ll take the free item’.” Of course, I never did that because I didn’t want to be regarded as someone crazy. The point is there is nothing free. There is always a price to be paid, a condition to meet.

Christian preachers talk about the unconditional love of God. Of course it is:

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life (Jn.3:16, NCV).

But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Rom.5:8, NCV).

It is true that God’s love is unconditional, but we do have to place ourselves in the path of the love flowing from God. Like a river that floods only the villages and habitations in its way, God’s love floods only into the lives that stand in the path of the flow. That is a condition.

Allow Jesus to Fit Us

When humankind fell, it distanced itself from God. Adam and Eve who fellowshipped with God, no longer felt close to God and avoided His fellowship (Gen.3:8). And that is the way it has been ever since. Our hearts are not inclined toward seeking God. Humans were out of sync or out of tune with God. Someone had to come and do the syncing. Someone had to retune us.

That is what Jesus came to do.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God (Jn.1:12-13, NLT).

Being fit for God’s company and kingdom doesn’t come with self-efforts. We need to be reborn. Starting a new page won’t do. Only changing the book and starting afresh would bring us back into fellowship with God (Jn.3:3,5).

Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit (Jn.3:6, NCV).

For this complete changeover to happen all that we need to do is believe that Jesus can and will do it for us (see Jn.1:12-13 again).

For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants (3:16-21, NLT)

It is only when we believe that Jesus is able to save us that we will turn to Him. It is only when we believe that Jesus is the only one who can save us that we will turn to Him. Until then, we will try to fit ourselves for the kingdom, but all our own efforts will be unacceptable to God, because like Adam and Eve we declare our independence from God. We declare that we can fit ourselves and become like gods. That’s revolt. That is why it won’t work at making us fit for heaven.

Allow Jesus to Do His Work

The Bible tells us that on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus went around washing His disciples feet. All of the disciples were in shock. They sat there like dumb machines that can be grabbed and manipulated by a living person. The disciples didn’t know how to respond to this act of Christ’s and mechanically extended their feet as Jesus came to each of them. That’s what happened until Jesus came to Peter. The big, blustering fisherman roused himself from his stupor and protested that he wasn’t going to allow His Master to wash his feet. To this Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me” (13:8, NLT).

Many people don’t allow Jesus to do His work in their lives. They think that by being a decent sort, they can make the grade. But Jesus is very clear. Unless He is the one washing us clean, it won’t suffice. We just won’t belong to Him. We won’t be fit company for His Father and the Holy Spirit. If we don’t allow Jesus to wash us clean, we declare to Him, “We can become gods without any help from you.” If we don’t allow Jesus to do His work, then we’re still in revolt against God’s rule in our lives.

Some people after coming to Christ, take over handling the rest of their transformation. Peter thought that he would be different from all the others. He was not going to be like others in allowing the Master to touch his feet. He didn’t realize that he was claiming that he could be different from all the others without the Master’s help. Jesus says that it can’t be done. He is the one who can transform us. Without Him, it won’t happen.

Allow Jesus’ Power to Flow

Hard stone in the middle of a river, though awash with water, will still not be able to grow anything. Only soil that is soft enough to allow the water to flow into it is any good for growing any plants. So, it is not enough to stand in the flow of God’s love. There is a need to open our lives to let the love of God enter our lives. Jesus said,

Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples (15:4-8, TM).

Oh yes, the love of God is unconditional. But only the person who will let that love flow into his or her life will experience the unconditional love of God. Nothing can stop the love of God reaching us and entering our lives.

Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death?…But in all these things we are completely victorious through God who showed his love for us. Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom.8:31-19, NCV)

No one else can prevent us from experiencing the love of God. It is absolutely unconditional. The only one who can stop me from experiencing God’s love is my self. The only condition that applies to experiencing God’s love is that I must let it flow into my life.

CONDITIONS TO FULFILL

Message preached on Sunday, September 20, 2009

In any agreement there are two sides. An agreement is a two-way street. It is a relationship. There is a contractual element to an agreement. There are conditions that apply to both parties.

The condition applicable to being a Christian is that we need to let Jesus do His work in our lives (Jn.13:8). What then are the conditions that we need to fulfill on our part? What does Jesus want me to do?

After Jesus had washed the feet of all His disciples He said,

Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them (vv.14-17, NLT)

“Do what I did,” is all that Jesus says to us who wish to follow Him. He said that the reason to do this is because we are disciples. That is implied in calling Him “Master”.

Be a Disciple

Many folks think that the word “disciple” is a term that is exclusive to the religious world. That word just means “student” or “learner.” There is nothing religious about the word.

What does a student have to do? Today parents tell their children, and student counselors tell youth, “Concentrate on your studies.” What they mean is that their wards should get book-knowledge or head-knowledge. They should learn the theory. They are being advised to learn with their heads.

Learning was very different earlier on. First of all there was a relationship between teacher and student. That is no longer the case. That is why they have parent-teacher associations in schools today. But it isn’t such a good idea. Parents today don’t want their kids to learn wisdom. Parents want them to learn for a career. They want them to learn, not for learning’s sake, but for something ulterior. With that agenda, parents are the ones to derail any attempts to reform education.

Nehem’s parents admitted him to a school that advertised they would only teach toddlers to learn by playing with toys and with one another. To their dismay, after the first PTA meeting, Nehem started to come home with homework. He had to do reading and writing. His father said, “There should be no PTA meetings.”

In the school of Christ, the teacher-student relationship is important. It is only because of that relationship that anything is required of the student.

Learn by Following

The second thing about education in the ancient past was that the teaching method was what we describe as “show and tell.” There was greater emphasis on learning with hands. Students learnt to do. They gained hands-on-knowledge. Jesus the Teacher told His students, “Just do what I did” (v.15).

When the disciples asked about rank in the kingdom of God, the Lord drew their attention to a child. He told them to be like a child in humility (Matt. 18:1-4). A child may pretend to be a king or a soldier and strut around, but has no airs. He is only playing. Little children do all their learning by imitation. They are humble enough to imitate those that they admire. That is all Jesus is asking us to do. Imitate Him whom we admire. Only then would it be true admiration.

Of course, learning does involve getting head-knowledge. Jesus said that His disciples were to do what He did (v.15), but He also talked of them knowing or learning things and following up the learning with doing it (v.17). Do, learn, and do: that’s what Jesus said.

We think that we must first become a follower of Christ’s and then serve Him. But the Lord turns that notion on its head. He said, “If anyone serves me, let that person follow me” (Jn.12:26). When John Wesley didn’t understand about salvation through faith, the German Moravian Peter Böhler said to him, “Preach faith until you have it, then, because you have it, you will preach faith.” Böhler seems to have said, “Imitate faith and learn.”

What exactly was Jesus Christ’s act of washing the disciples’ feet about? The Apostle John recounted that episode with the following introduction:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love (13:1, NIV).

Mark of the Disciple

Jesus demonstrated to His disciples that He was not offended by their self-centredness, selfishness and disrespectfulness. In their quest to race to the top in the kingdom, thinking it was like all earthly power structures, they didn’t even wash the Lord’s feet. No one wanted to wash the Master’s feet lest he found all the other disciples queuing up to have their feet washed right after Christ’s, and he would be manoeuvred out of the race. Each one thought of himself, not of the Master. As the Teacher, He could have ordered anyone into subservience and servility. Instead out of love, He Himself picked up the basin and served them.

What is love? For a Christian it is keeping the Jesus rules—doing what Jesus would do.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (13:34, NIV)

If you love me, you will obey my commands… Those who know my commands and obey them are the ones who love me, and my Father will love those who love me. I will love them and will show myself to them …If people love me, they will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Those who do not love me do not obey my teaching (14: 15, 21, 23-24, NCV).

I loved you as the Father loved me. Now remain in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commands, and I remain in His love. In the same way, if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love…This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you (15:9-10, 12, NCV)

When we love others the way Jesus does, we become one with Jesus and His Father. We will be demonstrate by our imitation of Christ Jesus that we are children who belong to God’s family.

When aristocratic families grieve they manifest a quiet dignity unlike the uneducated. While the unschooled give complete expression to their grief with loud wails, and tearing at their hair, or rolling on the ground, the aristocratic will show a calm exterior, even though they feel sorrow just as much as others. But they are conscious of their identity and it makes them conduct themselves in public in a manner that befits their status. In a similar way, we, who are royalty (1 Pet.2:9; Rev.5:10), the children of the King of Heaven, show by our conduct that we are God’s children. Our conduct sets us apart. It distinguishes us.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (13:35, NIV).

For children imitating father or mother is not drudgery, but a joy. Jesus said that we would indeed find joy in obedience.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. I have told you these things so that you can have the same joy I have and so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy (15:10-11, NCV).

As we obey, we will find ourselves drawn into friendship. We don’t obey because we are slavish about the laws of God, but because of love being our motivation. We are not slaves. Jesus says we become His friends as we follow Him.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father (15:14-15, NCV).

As a disciples of Christ there are just two basic things we need to learn and do. We need to let Jesus do His work in our lives, and we need to just follow what Jesus did.

PLAYING THE FOOL

Message preached on Sunday, August 23, 2009

Have you ever played the fool? In a sense, playing the fool is biblical conduct. At least, the idea of playing the fool comes from the words of a biblical character. In the King James Version  of the Bible, King Saul described himself as having “played the fool” when he looked back on how he had behaved with his loyal subject David (1 Sam.26:21). Saul had to come to that conclusion because he had manifested a total lack of discernment about two matters:

• The sincerity of the godly, and
• The sovereignty of God

Saul’s History

Saul had not dreamt of being a king. He seemed to have an inferiority complex. When the prophet Samuel indicated that Saul had been chosen by God to be the king of Israel, Saul’s response was that he was a nobody (9:21). Seems a bit silly and futile to say that to God’s prophet who was announcing what God had planned.

As Saul travelled homeward, along the way, everything that Samuel had predicted had happened, even the fantastic experience of coming under the power of God’s Spirit and exercising the gift of prophecy (10:9-11). Still, when Samuel turned up at his home to go public on God having chosen Saul, the man went and hid himself in a storeroom (v.22). That was how reluctant he was to shoulder the responsibility of leading a nation. His bearing and behaviour made some troublemakers raise the question whether such a man could save the nation and they wouldn’t accept his kingship (v.27). Anyway, after the public investiture by anointing had taken place, incredibly Saul went back to farming (11:5).

Finally, Saul rose to the task when confronted by an enemy nation threatening destruction of an Israelite city (vv.6-11). Riding a triumphant wave, his supporters wanted to punish the troublemakers who had questioned his authority as king, but Saul was magnanimous in victory and said that no one would be punished because the Lord had given the nation its salvation (vv.12-13).

Exceeding the Limits

Up to that point in his life, Saul had shown proper humility. But it would appear that being king did go to his head thereafter. He lost his “sense of proportion” and began to exceed the limits of his kingship.

It so happened that Saul had to go into battle with an enemy nation. When Samuel didn’t come in time to bless them for their campaign, Saul took things into his own hands by not continuing to wait for God’s prophet and assumed the role of God’s prophet (13:7-10).

When Saul took over a task that was not his to perform, Saul forgot that he had been anointed king of the people, but in God’s court he was not king; he too was just one of the people.

Gentile nations believed that their kings were demigods to be worshipped. Not so with Israel. Their king had no authority in the tent of worship. (Israel had no temple until the time of Solomon, and instead the focal point of religious activity was a movable tent containing the ark of the covenant, and other equipment necessary to their style of non-idolatrous worship). In the tent of worship, only the man of God dedicated to worshipful activity had authority to function as the intermediary between God and His people. Saul exceeded his authority and brought his kingship into play in the presence of God.

Saul’s excuse was that his army was beginning to disband (vv.11-12). Gone was the Saul who had attributed the earlier victory to God. He now demonstrated that he believed that Israel’s salvation depended on him. Gone was the dependence on God and instead his behaviour seemed to shout, “Yes, I can.”

When Saul didn’t wait for Samuel, the prophet of God, he indicated that he wasn’t willing to wait for God to choose the moment to act. He would take things into his own hands and proceed. He was going ahead and God’s prophet could follow whenever he wanted to.

Defying the Lord’s Order

If exceeding the limits was a matter of attitude, Saul next flouted a clear order. God had ordered that nothing was to be saved from the next battle. Everything would be dedicated and untouchable and consigned to the flames like a great big sacrifice to God (1 Sam.15:3). Instead of doing what God wanted him to do, Saul led his soldiers in saving the best along with being partial to the enemy king. They burnt up only what no one wanted (v.9). When confronted with this blatant disobedience to God’s command, Saul pretended devotion as the reason for saving the best of the enemy’s possessions: he said that they had saved them to sacrifice to God (v.15). This claim was patently false, because the total destruction that God had commanded was itself to reflect total devotion to God.

The prophet Samuel said then,

What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams (v.22, NLT).

Samuel was not alone in challenging God’s people about pretended religiosity.

What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the Lord.

“I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of fattened cattle.

I get no pleasure from the blood

of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to worship me,

who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?

Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;

the incense of your offerings disgusts me!

As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath

and your special days for fasting—

they are all sinful and false.

I want no more of your pious meetings.

I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.

They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!

When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.

Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,

for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

Wash yourselves and be clean!

Get your sins out of my sight.

Give up your evil ways (Isa.1:11-16,NLT; cf. Jer.6:20; 7:21).

Losing It

His disobedience left Saul disturbed internally. The Lord’s Spirit left him, and he was tormented by a demonic spirit (1 Sam.16: 14-15).

When people give up their faith in God, they become tormented souls. In early science lessons, I learnt that nature doesn’t allow a vacuum to exist. Similarly, in the spiritual realm, there cannot be a vacuum. The space emptied by God, gets taken over by demons. When people leave God, they become open to occupancy by evil spirits. That is what happened to Saul.

Our Lord told a story about an evil spirit being cast out and rendered homeless. It kept searching for a place to stay, until its wanderings brought it back to the space it had been thrown out of. The evil spirit discovered that the space was still vacant. The soul that had been liberated from being possessed by the evil spirit had not bothered to fill up the emptiness. The evil spirit quickly repossessed the space along with a bunch of its friends. The Lord said that the last state of that soul was worse than its first state of being possessed by one spirit (Matt.12:43-45).

In Saul’s disturbed state, he was not able to recognize his own friend. Even though, David had joined Saul’s service earlier to be a personal attendant who would soothe and heal his disturbed state with gentle music (1 Sam.16:21-23), he is unable to recognize David when David showed that he was a very brave soul (17:55-57). Blinded by his envy of David (18:6-9), Saul tried to kill David at the very time when David was doing him good with his music (vv.10-11). Saul then plotted David’s murder by assigning David a task that required bravery knowing that David would rise to the task (vv.17-29) and kept on trying again and again to murder David. Even after David had spared his life (24:1-22), Saul was unable to discern loyalty when he saw it in David. In the end, he lost the services of his most loyal servant (27:1-2).

Another Loses Sanity

One aspect of Saul’s lack of discernment was that of his not discerning the sovereignty of God. From time to time, he did manifest an awareness of it (18:28-29; 24:20-21), but he didn’t go beyond the awareness to submit to the Lord’s sovereignty. Instead he kept bucking God’s authority again and again. Having had a taste of power, he was not ready to give it up even at the Lord’s command.

Beware power. It not only corrupts the soul in its relationships and dealings, but it stands defiant before the Lord God Himself, because power sees itself as power. Within its own circle power is absolute and defies the sovereignty of God. That is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of the future of generations to come. He sensed that this dream of his was different from all the meaningless ones he had shared with his wise men allowing their silly interpretations to amuse him. So unlike other times, he refused to tell the wise men his dream. He figured that if they really could discover the meaning of a dream, then they ought to be able to discover the dream itself. His wise men assured him that they could come up with an interpretation for his dream, if they were told the dream. But Nebuchadnezzar was determined to safeguard against fraud.

When the order to kill wise men unable to tell him the dream and its interpretation went out, Daniel and his friends prayed for God’s revelation. The dream was revealed to Daniel and he told the king that the dream was about four empires, starting with himself (Daniel chapter 2). Even though Daniel’s interpretation made it clear that ultimately Nebuchadnezzar and all other earthly powers would be displaced by the last King, Nebuchadnezzar decided to honour himself by erecting a huge statue of himself to be worshipped. He forgot that the displacement order was already given from heaven.

When Daniel’s friends refused to give in to the command to worship the king’s image, Nebuchadnezzar should have remembered that he was not the main point of the dream, that he was not the aim of it all. He should have backed off from demanding to be worshipped. After seeing God’s intervention rescue Daniel’s friends from the fiery death that he had planned, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the Lord God’s greatness and power (chapter 3), but otherwise continued to ignore all that God’s servant had taught him.

God tried to reach Nebuchadnezzar a second time with a dream. It was a disturbing dream with weird images: a tree trunk, that has the mind of a man, and that mind becoming like an animal’s. This time the wise men don’t try to interpret the dream, knowing that the king would know when they were winging it. Daniel gave warning that doom was coming, but the king, while honouring Daniel as the man who could interpret dreams, continued to enjoy his power as though God didn’t matter. The dream happened. Nebuchadnezzar became insane for seven years as predicted. Healing and the return to sanity came only with Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging God to be God (chapter 4).

Coming to Oneself

In the story of the prodigal son, we see the younger son insanely asking for his share while the father was alive. No one inherits while the original owner is still around. He mistook the father’s kindness and generosity for his own craftiness.

The man went as far away as he could to get away from all the influences of his home. As long as he had the means to ply people with food and drinks and have a good time, he was surrounded by fair-weather friends. When the means were gone, the friends were gone. No one would give him a helping hand when he needed it, and he ended up looking after pigs. He was so desperate that he tried to live on pig’s food. That is when he “came to himself” (Lk.15:17, KJV).

The young man had thought that he could find happiness far from his father, his home, and all the godly influences in his life. He let himself go. He thought he was enjoying himself. In the end, it was the memory of his father and his home that helped him retrace the steps in his life till he found himself once again in his father’s home. Thank God for the godly influences in your life. Their memory may one day save you when you wander off and they will serve in bringing you back to your spiritual home.

The prodigal youth did not have the discernment to see that bad friends cannot be good friends. They don’t know how to be friends. They’re not in it for your good. Sometimes we too fool ourselves with such “friends”, imagining that they are our friends. They are not friends, who only want a good time all the time

The rule of thumb that the prodigal discovered is that any friendships that require us to do a one-sided spending of all of our worldly goods are not friendships. Any relationship based on possessions is not a relationship.

The prodigal son came to himself: that is when he came to his senses. He knew he had to go back to his father whom he had hurt with his demand of his share as though he wished the father was already dead. He knew he had hurt his father by going away and he knew it was time to end the exile and return home even with a sense of unworthiness. It was foolish to have gone away. It would be foolish to stay away after coming to one’s senses. It would be foolish to not recognize that it is time to go home.

Two Fools

While the prodigal came to himself, our Lord taught about two who were fools to the end. One thought it foolish to waste time on foundations. He believed in quick results and proud displays of how quick he was in achieving his aims, while another was plodding along with slowly and painstakingly laying a foundation in rock. The foolish build on shifting sands. The wise build on rock. Both superstructures look the same, until the storms come. Then it is that the structure built on rock shows its solidity (Matt.7:24-27).

The second fool thought that planning his life was all important. His plans were great, and he had bigger and better plans. He thought that all he planned was all that mattered. Sounds like one of us, doesn’t it? The man made all the plans for this life, and none for the next. God looked down from heaven, shook His head and whispered, “You fool. Tonight when your soul is required to appear before me, who will all that belong to?” (Lk.12:16-21).

We do not have all the time in the world. We have so very little time. If we had all eternity to make up our minds and take decisions, then we could delay the moment when we must stop playing the fool. But we don’t have all eternity for that. The time to stop playing the fool is now.