https://pca.st/episode/44a01d0d-d67d-43fe-b00e-1959bdcbb236
It’s okay to complain. But the first One you should complain to is the Lord.
R.A.
Prayer
Hello 2021! New Year, New Consecration
2020 has really been a bumpy ride. Not just for me but for all of us. Our plans all have been wrecked and we were all forced to a pause.
Honestly, I think that when 2020 started, everything has been going too fast. I personally was in a hurry. I was in a hurry to graduate. I was in a hurry to decide whether to take the board exam or not. I was in a hurry to be in the training. Basically, I was in a rush. It was because I felt that everything has been delaying a lot.
So when the year started, I was like, Lord, finally, last semester! I’m graduating! After 8 years, I’ll finally get to finish college! I’ve been studying for 21 years already. Finally, I finish! Then the Lord was like, Hmm… You’re too excited huh?
The Lord is sovereign. He has the absolute right to do whatever He wants and whenever He wants to do it. But He is also wise. He doesn’t miscalculate and He is not without a purpose. In every arrangement, there is always something behind the scene. He wants to accomplish something.
At first, I was quite disappointed that I wouldn’t get to stand on a stage to get my diploma. I wasn’t even able to get a grad pic. Then the training went online. I was like, “Lord, this is not what I expected. Why?”
Then I started enjoying the world again. I got into kdrama and kpop a lot. But thank the Lord for not letting me stay in that condition.
In the graduation fellowship, a verse hit me. It was Joel 2:25.
And I will restore to you the years / That the swarming locust has eaten, / The licking locust and the consuming locust and the cutting locust, / My great army / That I sent among you.
Joel 2:25
We always think that when time passes by, we can never recover it. Well, part of it is true. A time not spent with the Lord is a wasted time. But praise the Lord for Joel 2:25! He can restore the days!! We can’t but He can!
How do we cooperate though? First, of course, is repentance. We need to repent. Once the Lord enlightens and touches us, we need to humble ourselves and repent immediately. Then we need to come to the Word for supply and enjoyment.
This year is a year of repentance, confession and enjoyment! New year, new start, new consecration!
Lord, I consecrate myself to You again! Lord, I surrender my family to You. Lord, my training, my church life, my growth in life are all for Your economy. Lord, keep reminding me that I am for You and I am Yours! Lord, gain me! Gain Your heart’s desire in our lifetime!
Notes: Metro Manila Year-end Conference 2020
Here are some of my notes from the Metro Manila Year-end Conference. I hope you could all find time to read them. 😊
*Conference duration: December 29-30, 2020; January 1-2, 2021
Preaching the Gospel: The Person
For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for necessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship.
1 Corinthians 9:16-17
As a Christian, we all know what our Lord Jesus commissioned us to do, that is, to preach the gospel. In the above-mentioned verses, the apostle Paul uttered a strong clause, “For woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”
Have we ever had this feeling? That it would be woe to us if we would not preach the gospel?
I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but to tell you honestly, if you grew up in the church, it would be a possiblity that you wouldn’t be burdened for the gospel.
Personally, I wasn’t that burdened for it simply because I couldn’t sympathize with the unbelievers. I do not know the feeling of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when the times that I wasn’t enjoying Him, I still believed in Him.
And through all that, I never felt what the apostle Paul felt. I never felt that it was my loss not preaching the gospel to my childhood friends or elementrlary classmates. It was the same until I got to college.
It was only in university years that I was exposed by the Lord. I got no choice. I was not a normal Christian all this time.
Paul said that if he would willingly preach the gospel, he would have a reward. But if he wasn’t willing, he still needed to preach the gospel because it is a stewardship given to him.
All of us Christians are given the same stewardship. When you start believing in the Lord, you also receive your stewardship.
Then what is stewardship? In the most basic sense, a steward is someone who serve something, commonly food, to someone else. In other words, a stewardship is a ministry. You serve, you minister, what you receive to others.
In this post, I am not to emphasize or share about the stewardship but about the person of the steward.
For though I am free from all, I have enslaved myself to all that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew in order that I might gain Jews; to those under law, as under law (though I myself am not under law), that I might gain those under law. To those without law, as without law (though I am not without law to God but within law to Christ), that I might gain those without law. To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak. To all men I have become all things that I might by all means save some.
1 Corinthians 9:19-22
Here, Paul set up an example. Even the Lord Jesus is an example. How do we carry out this commission, this stewardship?
In verse 19, Paul said that although he was free from all yet he enlaved himself to all. It wasn’t that they enslaved Paul. It was that Paul enslaved himself to them. Have we done this? Have we enslaved ourselves to our unbelieving family, to our unbelieving friends?
Because they do not believe in the Lord, of course, they would not obligate you to preach the gospel to them. But have we considered ourselves as slaves to them? Have we felt our responsibility to serve Christ to them?
In verses 20 and 21, Paul expounded what he became to all kinds of men so that he might gain some. You know, I like how Paul encourages us, charges us, but at the same time, he doesn’t leave false expectations. He didn’t say that if you became all things to all men, you would gain all of them.
No, what he said in verse 22 is he became all things to all men so that he might gain some. This shows that even if you could sympathize with every kind of human being on earth, there is no guarantee that all of them would believe and get saved.
So where do we get the guts to do less than what Paul did in preaching the gospel? We need to labor more for this stewardship. If we want to gain at least some, we need to be at least like the apostle Paul.
Does this mean that we have to copy him? Even if we try hard to, we simply cannot. Then how can we become such a steward? This may sound too spiritual but it is to pray and come to the Lord Jesus. We need to pray to the Lord that He would infuse His very humanity into our being. It is only His humanity that can reach every kind of person in every kind of situation. It is in this humanity that we can sympathize with others. It is in this humanity that we would be able to be anything to anyone.
Our humanity is too fallen, corrupted and damaged. We need the humanity of Jesus. We need to learn to spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer. If we would learn to spend much time with Him, then we will become proper stewards of the gospel.
In My Name
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
John 14:13-14
Here, the Lord Jesus is telling us to ask the Father inHis name. What is it to pray in His name? In 1 Kings 8:48, it shows us to pray toward three things: the land, the city and the house. This is to pray in the Lord’s name.
Christ today is the good land! Christ today is the holy city! and Christ today is the house of God! To pray in His name is to have our prayers aimed at Him! Today, God’s interest is Christ and the church! Our prayers must be towards this great mystery! But does it mean that we can no longer pray for our needs or for the saints’ needs? To pray prayers aimed at Christ and the church means that we may pray for the saints but in the interest of Christ and the church! We must be clear with the source and aim of our prayer.
On day 4, it says that source of our prayer is God’s need. And the aim of our prayer is God’s interest. We may pray for the sick ones or for the needy ones. We may pray for our family. But our prayers must be coming for God’s need and directed towards God’s interest. Why do we pray for them? It must be because God has a needs and to fulfill God’s interest.
In my experience, in the training, I started to have a prayer notebook, for it is required by our TA. So I listed down names of my family, relatives, some of my acquaintances and some of the saints. I started praying for them regularly but it seemed like the Lord wasn’t doing anything. I even told the Lord that it is His desire that all men be saved, that all men serve Him.
But as I went along the training, I was exposed of the source and aim of my prayers. I was exposed that I was just praying for them out of my own concern. Especially with my family, I was exposed that I was praying for them for my own convenience, thinking that if they would be touched by the Lord, it would be easier for me to enjoy the Lord when I get home.
I was enlightened that my prayer must be from God’s need revealed to me and directed toward Christ and the church. Eventually, I started praying for God’s goal. I didn’t have time to mention my family, especially my father. But to my surprise, during FAC, that was the time the Lord answered by prayer concerning him. Truly, if we would learn to pray toward God’s goal, everything will just follow. This is to pray in the Lord’s name.
In His Perfecting Hands 