Sipping from God's Cup

What are the privileges of those who serve God? Psalm 16, most scholars agree is about a person who has become a priest of Yahweh. The psalm describes his resolve not to serve any other gods and declares his exclusive loyalty to the God of Israel (Psalm 16:1-2).
One of the privileges of the priests in Israel was to eat part of what was offered to God. It could be portions of the sacrificial meat, or could be the Show Bread presented before Yahweh everyday (Lev. 22:7). The psalmist refers to this in verse 5: “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot” (KJV).
Sometimes husbands and wives or lovers express their love by sipping the drink from the other partner’s cup. That’s one way of saying “I love you”. In some religious communities, during their feasts, they eat from the same plate to show their solidarity.
In verse 5, Psalmist considers God as his partner, from whose cup he has the right to drink. That is the privilege of serving God. God is not aloof; He is not just close to us. But for someone who serves God, God is a buddy who allows us to sip from his cup. One of the forces that drive a servant of God is this awareness that his partner is God and they share such close intimacy.
Christian believers express this at the Lord’s Table when we drink from the cup in remembrance of our Lord. So also we share from the same cup to express our solidarity with each other.

Christian Humility

Humility is to live our lives in such a way that our self-image does not stand in our way of serving others and God. Our motto should be “strong and quality inside, humble outside”. Christians need to be people with a soft-crust: approachable, loving and lovable.
In Ephesians 4:2, the Bible exhorts those who believe in Christ to live a life worthy their calling. Those who believe in Christ are not just mere believers, but they are children of God and thus belong to the household of God. The call is thus to live lives in a manner fitting the values and ethos of the family of God.
One of the shared values in the family of God where every believer in Christ is a member is “humility”. In Ephesians 4:2, Apostle Paul wrote: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
The word translated as “being humble” means, “having a humble opinion of one's self”. It is not having self-pity or having a low self-estimate. Rather it is having a proper self-estimate but not using it to impress or manipulate others. In other words, it is the ability not to use our strengths for our own advantage, and not to stand in the way of others. Not to appear too great before others in order to intimidate him.
William Temple puts it this way: "Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all."
There is this story of a college student who got down at a small railway station and was looking for a railway porter to carry his small briefcase to the hostel where he lived. He could not find anyone. However, an elderly fellow passenger offers to carry his luggage for him. This modestly dressed older man carried his luggage to the college hostel. The same evening the student discovered to his surprise that the man who carried his luggage to the college hostel is the famous scholar invited for the special lecture.
Humility is to live our lives in such a way that our self-image does not stand in our way of serving others and God. Our motto should be “strong and quality inside, humble outside”. Christians need to be people with a soft-crust: approachable, loving and lovable.

On the Health and Wealth Gospel

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more that all that we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...." (Eph 3:26)
The new “health and wealth” gospel that is being preached to us actually making us put a cap on what God can do for us. We should leave it to God, to his will. The ultimate purpose of Christian life is to glorify God and not to limit God.

The new gospel of prosperity that is being preached is one of “name it, claim it”. The argument is that human words have power to make things to happen. It follows from this reasoning that God will grant anything that we ask specifically. Promoters of this “gospel” say that we need to clear in our imagination and be specific about our prayer requests. For example, if you are praying for a car, don’t just pray for a car, they say. Pray for the specific model, specific color, etc.
However, I find this teaching and all its reasoning contrary to the Word of God!
The Bible teaches that we don’t know how to pray and the Holy Spirit comes to our help in our weakness to pray. The Bible also teaches us that God is a good God. He will not give us what harms us, though sometimes we may even ask for harmful things, being limited in our knowledge (James 4:3). God’s wisdom certainly overrules human’s faulty wisdom. Our imagination is limited. God’s blessings cannot be limited by my faulty imagination!
God’s gifts are the best, though I may not be able to appreciate the greatness of them. My inability to appreciate God’s gifts is due to my fallen nature (James 1:17). Ephesians 3:20 make it very clear that God’s blessings for us are not limited by what I ask for. He always grants more than that I ask. Then why should I limit God by the specifics that I can think of? God grants not only more than we ask for, but more than what we can imagine! That means we should not limit God by our imagination.
The new “health and wealth” gospel that is being preached to us actually making us put a cap on what God can do for us. We should leave it to God, to his will. The ultimate purpose of Christian life is to glorify God and not to limit God.
 
 
 

Living as the Chosen People of God

Thus, those who follow Christ have two awesome responsibilities as the Chosen People of God: to live their lives as acceptable to God and also to bring glory to God. God does not take delight in mediocrity and those who are watching our lives also does not appreciate mediocre lives.
I live among believers. In my city of five million people (Pune, India) every one considers himself or herself to belong to one or other religion. Majority of them belong to one of the Hindu denominations, there are Muslims, a couple of thousand are Jews and we have Christians and Zoroastrians too. All have their own ways of explaining their relationship with their deities or spiritual leaders. Most of them may describe themselves as believers of their respective faiths; some may call themselves devotees or followers.
This makes me take a look at what the Bible says about the believers in Jesus Christ. There are a number of images the Book of Ephesians use to describe those who are believers in Christ Jesus. The first one is the image of adoption. Ephesians Chapter 4:1-5 uses two such images: one is of chosen people, and the other being adopted.
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will..."
In the Bible, the word "chosen" means selecting something after carefully considering the alternatives. When David went for a combat against the giant Goliath, he "chose" five stones. Certainly there were many stones he could have picked up randomly. But the stones he picked up were "chosen" ones. It indicates the special privilege that the chosen ones have. In the New Testament, the Greek word used for "choosing" is always used with God as subject and believers in Christ as objects. Moreover, it also is used in a particular grammatical form that indicates doing something for the benefit of the doer. Translated, it means, God chose who believe in Christ Jesus from the human race for himself. Thus for me to be a Christian it is more than being a believer or a devotee of Christ, though belief and devotion plays a major part in my spiritual life. The fact that I am carefully chosen by God adds to my own self-image: it is a privilege, it means God considers me precious and valuable.
However, as all special privileges comes with responsibilities, so this one also. The chief purpose is that we will be blameless before God. The word, "blameless" in the Bible means something that is without defect and thus acceptable to God.
The verse quoted above concludes with a reminder of the responsibility or purpose of this election. The purpose of election is that everyone who is thus chosen may be " ...to the praise of his glorious grace." Living lives that glorify God is the main purpose why God has chosen those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Thus, those who follow Christ have two awesome responsibilities as the Chosen People of God: to live their lives as acceptable to God and also to bring glory to God. God does not take delight in mediocrity and those who are watching our lives also does not appreciate mediocre lives.

Helpless Righteousness

The corruption in our churches and in our communities deserves punishment severe than that of the ancient Israelites of Eli's time received. However, let us pray that God will be compassionate to us and hear our intercessions for our people.

We may be people who fear God and honor God. However, there may be stages in our lives when we may be so helpless but just watch the judgment that falls on his people, unable to do something in the matter. Noah was a righteous man. God allowed him to do something in the situation of gross sinfulness. He could at least save his family and few animals. Abraham could save his nephew Lot and his daughters. However, Eli did not have that favor from God.
Eli was not bad. He was a priest who served more than 40 years in the sanctuary of God in Shiloh. Though he did not have any revelations from God (at least in the near past) he knew how to respond when God speaks to his people. Young priest Samuel did not know how God speaks and did not know the formal words of responding to God (1 Sam 3:7). Eli advised him, "... if he calls you, say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening'" (1 Sam 3:9).
It is wrong to assume that Eli did not do anything about the sins of his sons. He did counsel them and even warned them (1 Sam 2:22-25). He tried to stop them but he could not. They went ahead on the road to destruction and he had to watch helplessly they drive past him.
Worship of God was central to Eli's life. The Bible makes it very clear that the cause of his sudden death was neither the news of the defeat nor the death of his sons. It was the news that the Philistines captured the ark that broke his heart and lead him to his death. "When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy" (1 Sam 4:18).
He was thus a man who had a passion for God and his people (see how he deals with Hannah). He did not approve sinful ways even of his sons. However, he lived in a particular juncture in the history of Israel that God dealt with them severely and he could not do anything about it.
There is only one wish that we can make. That is to ask God that he will hear the prayers of his people and do not judge our nations, and our communities according to our sins. The corruption in our churches and in our communities deserves punishment severe than that of the ancient Israelites of Eli's time received. However, let us pray that God will be compassionate to us and hear our intercessions for our people.

Don't Let Hatred Overtake Love

To have a mind of Jesus is to see the needs of the people and meet them, but not to ponder on their weaknesses and looking for ways to correct them.
Last week in Pune a six-year-old girl over run by a car bled to death on the busy street of the city. She lay there for two hours bleeding while the mob gathered at the accident site was engaged in assaulting the driver. Nobody cared about taking the girl to the hospital because they were busy punishing the "sinner" driver. By the time the girls parents arrived at the scene, she was lying there dead in a pool of blood.
The mob typifies the behavior of the contemporary world. Love and compassion are over taken by hatred and a false sense of justice. The crowd is more interested meting out justice by punishing the offender while the great need for that helpless girl was not justice but compassion. She needed a Good Samaritan who will rush her to the hospital and save her life. The crowd was keen on taking one more life than saving another. The careless driver has to be arrested and handed over to the police; probably he should not be allowed to drive again if he cannot drive safely. However, that should not be at the cost of a young life.
We raise our voice against unjust economic and social systems and are doing all that we can to change them. However, while we wait for the systems to improve there are thousands of lives that will continue to live in those conditions. What they need is practical involvement, something to be done to change their life before they die their untimely death.
Jesus' focus was on the need of the people and not on eliminating the sinner. He came to eliminate sin and not the sinners. When the woman caught in adultery was brought before him, he let her go. The Jews wanted to kill her. They eliminate sin by eliminating the sinner. Jesus eliminates the sinner by eliminating sin. That's the difference! The Jews and the disciples ignored the needs of the people. However, Jesus would feed them when they were hungry, heal them when they were sick, calm the storm for them.... He was never overtaken by hatred but he was steeped in love.
To have a mind of Jesus is to see the needs of the people and meet them, but not to ponder on their weaknesses and looking for ways to correct them.

Do not Fret, but Focus on God

Trusting in God, and delighting in God's work we overcome the possible fretting over the enemy. We need to commit our ways to god and just be still; leave it to God to do the rest. In sum, turn our attention from the enemy to God! Do not fret but focus on God!
There are hundreds of reasons that make us fret. People whom we are dependent for our own performance and effectiveness fail us causing frustration and discouragement. There are people who are keen on frustrating us every turn of the road. These are people who are carriers of disappointments, anxiety, worries, discouragement, etc. They themselves may not be anxious, worried or discouraged. They carry it to others or cause others to be tormented. They are like mosquitoes that carry parasites that cause Malaria, but the mosquitoes themselves do not catch Malaria! A child of God may waste a lot of time unnecessarily fretting over things that these people do.
The advise of the psalmist is not to fret! "Do not fret because of the evil men or be envious of those who do wrong" (Psa 37:1). The simple reason is that they are not there for ever. "For like grass they will soon wither. Like green plants they will soon die away" (Ps 37:2). No one can cause a child of God worry permanently. All that they can cause are temporary distractions. So we should not get distracted!
So what are the children of God do instead of fretting? They are advised not to even glance at the enemy but to turn their attention to God. Put in another way, instead of fretting over what the enemy does or can do, focus on God. There are certain verbs that occur in this advice: "trust" (37:3); "delight" (37:4); "commit" (37:5); "Be still" (37:7), all in relation with God. Trusting in God, and delighting in God's work we overcome the possible fretting over the enemy. We need to commit our ways to god and just be still; leave it to God to do the rest. In sum, turn our attention from the enemy to God! Do not fret but focus on God!