Your Life a Wasted One or One with Abiding Glory? (8th Jan 2015)
Your
Life a Wasted One or One with Abiding Glory?
Psalms
90
The
beginning of each year is an appropriate season for reflection and
re-direction of our life. The yearly cycle provides a conclusion of
some kind that allows us to pause and reflect. God has endowed man,
His creature, though fallen, the ability to reflect on the brevity of
life and the need for self-examination. This is seen in the
utterance, “an
unexamined life is not worth living”,
which was attributed to the Greek philosopher, Socrates, as found in
the writings of his student, Plato. The Scriptures also contain many
calls to self-examinations. One of the most relevant passages of
reflection is Psalm 90, where Moses reminded us of the ephemeral
nature of men and women who are under the wrath of God – “thou
turnest man to destruction”
– “thou carriest
them away as with a flood”
– “for we are
consumed by thine anger” – “the days of our years are
threescore years and ten”
– “for
it is soon cut off and we fly away”.
There is also hope contained in that very chapter in which Moses
pleaded for mercy in the verses 13-17, where in contrast with the
perishable as set forth in the earlier verses, he asked God to
perform his mercy to his people – “Let
thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their
children...establish
thou the works of our hands”
so that the abiding Glory of God remains on his people. The
aforementioned verses as found in Psalm 90:13-17 epitomize the
desires of godly men and women with respect to their toils and cares
for the course of God's kingdom as underscored by Moses's call to God
to “establish thou
the works of our hand”
– so that our life and works are not in vain.
One
can perhaps connect the dots here in Psalm 90 to the teachings of
Apostle Paul, in that we are no longer children of wrath (Eph 2:3),
and no longer in darkness (Col 1:13), having been translated into the
Kingdom of his dear Son, and mindful of the necessity to exercise
care in building our Christian life upon Christ as the foundation (1
Cor 3:10 - 15). Paul used the “building” metaphor to describe the
Christian life. What we use to build our Christian life, albeit upon
Christ, is therefore very important because this “building” will
be subject to a test of fire during the final judgment at the end of
time. This fire will leave nothing untouched with respect to our
“building”! Depending on what we use as building materials, the
test of fire will show them up. If we build our Christian life using
materials that cost next to nothing, such as wood, hay and stubble (1
Cor 3:12), the searching fire will turn them to ashes. Though the
person may be saved, he shall receive no reward of Grace but perhaps
eternal regrets instead. So what does wood, hay and stubble signifiy?
Perhaps as they cost next to nothing to the person who is “building”,
Paul could very well imply that this person does not so much toil and
care for the kingdom of God which
ought to be our first priority. He took the easy path in Christian
life, just minding his own business, such as having only concern
about his office work and his family, and doing what he thinks
suffices without concern for the needs of God's people in the Local
Church and the injunction of the Great commission. He spends his
remaining time in pursuing his hobbies and whatsoever his heart
desires which Singapore, having one of the highest number of
millionaires in the world, affords him.
In a nutshell, his Christian life does not cost him much! Is this a
description of your Christian profession? I urge you to examine
yourself, especially so at this juncture of your life – the
beginning of a new year – when you can start afresh before God in
prostration. So that by God's Grace you are resolved to spend and be
spent for God's Kingdom, using precious and costly stones to build up
your Christian life, such that your life can be one with abiding
Glory on both sides of heaven.
The
Scriptures is clear in that the Christian life is a difficult one
because of Sin and therefore it requires sacrifice, discipline,
exertion and effort. The Scripture describes the Christian Life as a
Race. In Hebrew 12:2; the Author exhorts us who are already running
to continue to exert ourselves in the process with perseverance. In
fact, the Greek word that is translated as “Race” in English in
Heb 12:2 denotes “conflicts”. It has also been used several times
by Paul to describe suffering (Phil 1:3); it also denotes striving
against opposition in his gospel preaching (Col 2:1). But how are we
to run the race, you may ask, so that you can set it as your foremost
resolution for this year 2015? I have learned much from the book,
the Disciplines of a
Godly Man1
and I want to commend to you three key disciplines as found there, in
the chapter on the Discipline of Ministry, that as a Child of God you
should emulate, in this new year. They are, namely:
- We need to have a heart which is “disciplined to labor” - “The man who has this heart puts out for Christ and his Church. He is willingly inconvenienced. He allows his comfort zone to be invaded. Sometimes he will work to the point of exhaustion”
- We need to have a heart that is “disciplined to reach out” - “For the sake of the gospel it hurdles social barriers and even risks the opprobrium of others in doing so.”
- We need to have a heart that is “disciplined in perspective” - “seeing all its human relationships as sovereignly ordered encounters with eternal beings”
We
are nevertheless not alone in this Race, the author of the book of
Hebrews calls us to run the Race looking unto Jesus as a source of
encouragement because Jesus has secured our victory as he is both the
Author and Completer of our faith through his death and resurrection.
He not only provides us with faith, he will complete it in glory
where he will give unto us what faiths hopes for! Do
not meander, do not
be contended with a life of ease and comfort here in Singapore as no
abiding glory will await you but instead a sense of regret will
accompany you! It is still not too late though while we live as we
can seek to “let the
beauty of the Lord our God be upon us”
(Ps 90:17) if we look to Jesus and call upon him in the words of the
beloved poet2
as we each run the Race earnestly that is meant for each of us , come
what may:;
“Jesus,
Lord, I come to Thee,
Thou
has said I may;
Tell
me what my life should be,
Take
my sins away.
“Jesus,
Lord, I learn of Thee,
In
Thy word divine;
Every
promise there I see,
May
I call it mine!”
Amen.
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