What triggered the Reformation and does it trigger you?

Even Jupiter cannot contain it!

The folks at NASA were jubilant this week because for once they could be near to Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System, so as to be able to observe what was on the surface of that great planet with the arrival of the Juno satellite which left Earth five years ago. I was listening to the BBC program reporting on this event and the interviewee, an English Planetary Scientist, was in jubilant mood. Upon being asked the significance of this event, he said that as this planet was the first in our solar system to be formed, it had a large bearing on how our tiny planet came about because of the massive gravitational pull that Jupiter exerts. If it has not been what it is today, earth would not be inhabitable! That statement immediately made me recall what I read on how the earth is wonderfully sustained by the Lord God, in that if the earth is tilted a few more degrees much of the crops that sustain life on earth would be gone! Everything including Jupiter seems to “revolve” around the earth and her inhabitants. Prophet Isaiah could certainly resonate with us when the inspired Prophet said in Isaiah 40:21-23;

Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

It certainly then behoves us to reconsider on this Lord’s Day what we should be really doing with the short span of life we have here. The Psalmist was certainly amazed when he looked at the skies and considered how insignificant man was and yet God has visited him (Ps 8:4). In fact, I was much encouraged when I read in my devotion that “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” (Ps 145:18). With this thought that God is near, let’s not be weighed down by the sin and pain of this life but be further encouraged and be emboldened  to make all things subservient, including work, family and recreation, to the seeking FIRST of God’s kingdom in the cause of Christ and the Gospel! I spoke during the last Lord’s Day on the subject of Personal Evangelism, that seeking of God’s Kingdom and the Great Commission are two sides of the Same Coin and that both apply to each of us as a Vine Worker, in the Ministry of the Word in different intensity. This therefore necessitates the abandonment of self (i.e., seeking first God’s Kingdom) for the said purpose. 

I was nevertheless reminded how I failed to communicate the thoughts when one of those who heard my talk remarked that they already knew all this. But deep in my heart I asked where is the abandonment for the Gospel in his life? Many of us like to quote the words of the Apostle Paul, especially one that is suitable as an Epithet for us. I for one like what Apostle Paul said  as he really echoed the words of our Saviour Jesus, especially the verses in 1 Cor 7:29-31 when compared to Matt 16:24 on self-repudiation, if indeed everyone is to abandon himself or herself for Christ, namely;

But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

Perhaps you haven’t got it, if your Christian Life just means coming to Church on Sunday and nothing else or that the cause of Christ does not occupy you above all. It therefore behoves you to review, reconsider and repent and seek to more and more approximate to the aforesaid injunctions of our Saviour and the example of Apostle Paul in this life. This life is all we have to Glorify God, even Jupiter cannot contain but be subservient to it, so don’t blow it! 

Memento Mori.  

Amen.