(Further reflections “Trusting, Troubling, Capturing”—Sunday 26-May-2024)
It is said, “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.” Although this might be anecdotally practical advice, it might not be biblically true. As we know, Jesus was accused of being friends to the outcast or low-status or common people in the society at that time. He showed Himself to all, from the elite class, i.e. religious leaders and governors to the outcast, i.e. prostitutes, the hated ones, i.e. tax collectors, and common folks, i.e. fishermen.
I would rephrase it, “Tell me whom you trust, I will tell you where you are heading.” God’s wisdom (cf. Proverbs 11:28-31) is straightforward and clear. Trust in your abilities/wealth, you will fall sooner or later. But when you trust in the Lord, your life is like a green leaf that keeps flourishing through all seasons.
Trust destines. Trusting in the Lord will keep you away from troubling paths. It separates the wise and the fool. Trust brings us closer to God. It enables us to hear His voice clearer. It opens up our insights and understanding of God’s wisdom. Trust submits to the One who rules and reigns over your life. If this does not happen, you will be ruled over by natural human inclination—being wise in your own eyes, which is foolishness.
Trusting in the Lord leads you to live out His mission. And living out His mission is evidently the wisest way to use our life for His Kingdom of which only the righteous can enter. So who are the righteous? There is none. But Jesus had made the impossible possible. There are those whose righteousness is counted not by self-but-by-Jesus. They are those who will bear fruit and their fruit is a tree of life—that is life-giving to those who are in touch with them. It is not because of their ability to have a self-generated-life but by their trusting in Jesus, who is the Tree of Life of which every spiritually lost/dead soul can access by faith. But the question is, “How do the lost/dead know where to find it?” The simple answer is, “They don’t.” But in view of God’s mercy, grace, love, and the great commission, there is hope that the works of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and the call on our life (yes, it’s you and me) to do “soul-capturing/winning.”
We are told, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news’! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:13-17).”
So what are we going to do about it? Yes, “we.” If you have been tired doing it solo before and got tired, it’s time to be trained as a group of Jesus' disciples, who are willing to surrender their life and vocation or profession or business for the Lord’s use. And this is going to the best decision one will ever make in the remaining time of one's life on this planet earth. Be used by the Lord or be abused by sins or by something else. But trust is required. It destines.
The choice has always been yours. Get out of the victim mentality. Wake up, run towards the Victor--Jesus, trust Him absolutely and our destiny is secured.
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Pastor Lap
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