Daily Encouragement

April 19, 2009 - Beautiful Feet

Meditation on Romans 10

Romans 10:15 says, "....How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring good tidings of good things!" (NKJV) Those who accept God's sending will be able to preach with the power of the Holy Spirit. They are the ones who do have beautiful feet in the eyes of God.

Feet imply walking and traveling. Jesus is looking for you and I to make visitation to bring the good news of salvation by faith to all people including your relatives and friends. Most people today think like the Jews that they have to do something good in order to be righteous before God. (v. 3) But the Bible simply insists that "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (v. 9-10)

As you and I share the word of God with those who are willing to hear, faith will come upon them. For the Bible also says, "so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (v. 17)

Thus it is so vital that more of God's people are willing to share His word. How beautiful are your feet?

April 20, 2000 - Will God Take Away Your Gift?

Meditation on Romans 11

In this chapter, the apostle Paul explains that the failure of Israel to accept the gospel does not mean that they have been cast away. God has reserved for Himself some remnant. But through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles. (v. 1-11)

Eventually God will still have mercy upon Israel and they will be saved because they already have the holy root in them. (v. 12-26) God has already elected Israel for the sake of their Patriarchs. And, "the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." (v. 29 NKJV) I believe this important statement applies to Christians also.

While I was a student in a post graduate class of a seminary, I had to do a presentation on spiritual gifts as a project. After my presentation, one classmate asked me a question whether God will permanently take away the calling and gifts from a minister? I knew why he asked that question because in a sharing time of the class, he admitted that he had committed some deep failure in his personal life as a minister. I was glad that the verse above, Romans 11:29 came to my mind. So I told him that base on this promise of God, God would not take away the gifts and calling of His people. But of course my answer was hinged upon the genuine repentance and obedience of His people. For God is merciful.

By the grace of God, we trust that we will never fail Him. But for those who have failed Him terribly, you can still repent and seek His mercy. Jesus our High Priest can restore you and use you for His kingdom. He also knows whether your repentance is authentic or not.

April 21, 2009 - On Fire For The Lord

Meditation on Romans 12

The book of Romans teaches Christians to be on fire for the Lord. After the theological discussion about salvation and faith from chapter one to eleven, Paul moves on in chapter twelve to instruct us how to live a Christian life. Our lives ought to be ministering to one another with spiritual gifts, loving, affectionate, fervent (boiling, in Greek) in the spirit, rejoicing, blessing but patient and overcoming evil. (v. 3-21) However we will be lagging to live this kind of successful life if we do not put into practice the first two verses of this chapter. They are the key to be living a life of boiling excitement.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (v. 1-2 NKJV)

In the light of the mercies of God who is praise worthy, which Paul has discussed earlier, he counsels all believers to yield their whole life and daily living to God as a sacrifice that is alive in Christ. An Old Testament sacrifice that is offered to God should be a burning sacrifice. It represents the dead animal that has no life of its own but is totally dedicated to God. The paradox for us is that though we are yielded to God and dead to self interest, yet we are living through the resurrected life of Christ. We are like the bush that Moses saw on Mt. Horeb. It was burning but not consumed. We are a living sacrifice.

As we yield our lives to God to be His instruments for righteousness, we will, through the Holy Spirit, not to be conformed to the system and practices of this world that is contrary to God's Word. But instead our mind will be renewed by the Holy Spirit. Our old character and life style will undergo change like a caterpillar to a butterfly through the power of the Holy Spirit. We will know how to examine what is the will of God.

Then we can be on fire for God!

April 22, 2009 - Practical Christian Responsibilities

Meditation Romans 13

After teaching us church life, the word of God through Paul commands us on civic responsibilities. All of us must submit to the governing authorities. The reason is that the existing authorities are appointed by God. To resist authorities is to resist God and will bring judgment to oneself. It is a divine injunction to pay tax, customs, honor to government and fear those who carry arms for our good. (v. 1-7) Remember Paul wrote this in the year about 57 A.D. when Nero was the cruel ruler of Rome.

Another duty Christian must practice is to love our neighbors. For love is the fulfillment of the law. (v. 8-10)

Last but not least, Christians are to live a life that is alert to the coming of our Lord Jesus. Then we will be saved from the evil of the present world. Therefore we must cast off the work of the flesh and put on the character and behavior of Jesus Christ. (v. 11-14)

April 23, 2009 - Faith Needs To Be Exercised With Love

Meditation on Romans 14

Now Paul moved on to deal with issues of life which believers had different opinions such as eating, diet, and observing of certain days, rituals and festivals. The Christians who had stronger faith were those who exercised liberty in all those things without subjecting themselves to any rule. But the one who is weak in faith still observed some old rules under the law and not under grace. God's Word through Paul admonished both groups not to criticize one another and pass judgment on each other. He said, "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we love of die, we are the Lord's." (v. 7-8 NKJV)

Since God is the judge and boss of all us all, let Him evaluate everyone. He will also make those whom we think are weak to stand too. So we should not judge other Christians. (v. 4, 10-12)

The most important thing for all of us is to refrain from causing others to stumble or fall into sin. We are commanded to walk in love. The Christians who are stronger in faith should follow Paul's advice, "It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God." (v. 21-22) For example, when a weaker brother has doubt about eating certain food from his conscience yet he eat it after seeing the stronger Christians ate it, he is condemned because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin. (v. 23)

One thing which the Bible does not have clear instruction, we do have liberty by faith. But we must exercise our faith in love for the sake of our brothers and sisters always.

April 24, 2009 - Working Relationship Among Christians And Churches

Meditation on Romans 15

We can learn a lot from this chapter about Christian relationship and how they can work with each other. The most important thing is that we should accept each other and the strong Christians should help the weak ones. The goal is to edify each others and bring glory to the Lord with one mind and one voice, Jews and Gentiles all together. This has been predicted in the Old Testament. (v. 1-13) When strong churches support the weaker churches, God would be glorified by all.

Christians were to admonish one another and be a blessing to each other. That's why Paul was planning to visit the Christians in Rome. Paul also appealed to Christians to make contribution to help the poor in other churches at other locations. He wanted Christians from various churches to struggle with him in praying for the sake of the gospel.

Paul had made known his desire to spread the message of Christ to places where Jesus was never heard. (v. 20) Most likely that was the reason why he was planning to go to Spain via Rome. I believe he needed the support of the Roman Christians also. It showed us that Christians should support those who are planning churches in the world.

May we learn how to work with each other in our own church and with other churches and missionaries.

April 25, 2009 - The Vital Care Of Relationship

Meditation on Romans 16

Someone has said that Christian growth is the growth of one's relationship with God and with each other. We can observe whether we are growing as a Christian by measuring whether we love God and His people more or not.

How do we measure love? One of the ways is to see the way we greet one another. We can see that Paul really loved the Christians in Rome. Not only he mentioned that they were his beloved, he prayed for them constantly, and longed to meet them and share with them. (Romans 1:7-12) He greeted many of them by names with compliment and intimate terms at the end of his letter. (v. 3-16) Since he wrote this letter before he was even in Rome, how did he know all these people? How did he remember so many details about them? We can only conclude that Paul cared about those Christians and their church very much.

But there are some relationships we should take step to avoid. Paul warned the Roman Christians that they should have nothing to do with the so called Christians who caused division and offenses and taught false doctrine. (v. 17-20)

Then, besides greeting the people himself, he also brings them the greetings from other co-workers so they will all have good relationship with one another. (v. 21-24)

Finally, Paul gave glory to God for bringing everyone to be established in Him. We can have such wonderful relationship because of the revelation of the Gospel through Jesus Christ.

Let us learn from Paul to grow in our relationship with God and man by greeting one another with loving care.