It is back to the book of Revelations for me this morning. Today, Timothy, our facilitator is back. I like him to lead the bible study more than the other lady teacher because he doesn't feed us. He wants us to think and is more discussive about the study we have on our hands.
Rev 2: 12 onwards is a letter written to the church at Pergamum. This church was in a city that used to be a capital city for 300 years. Forgot which civilization (history is never my forte and I only remember my birthday). So it did know of glorious days. After those hey days it became a religious centre with many temples for Zeus, Athena, Emperors that ruled. Amongst these temples were churches and one such church is the church John, the brother of Jesus, inspired by GOD, wrote to. Imagine you were a believer of this church, what would be your temptations and trials? Possibly you would have to face trying to live a life for Jesus without having to compromise your faith with other gods in the city. Not only that, you would have to try and stay above many persecutions of not joining the rest to denounce Jesus or lead a different life when you were not in church. To survive, and always in the name of survival, we would be of world, think like that world and be IN. Is this what God wants us to do with our lives?
In REV 2: 12, Jesus said He knows what the church was up to. Jesus did not start by praising them. Instead it was a strong advice about using His word. God's word is like a two edged sword. I didn't really understand what that means because what good is a 2 edged sword? Yesterday I understood. It is such a powerful sword. One in which you need not pull out and then use it again to slice the other side. You just need to swish and swish and then the whole limb can come off. So it is sharp! But God's word doesn't cut like that. It has two sides. One side of the word of God is about salvation. The other side is judgement. The word of the Lord saves and judges at the same time. So very razored!
Why was this warning necessary? The church knew the name of Jesus, the person that He is and knew how they should order their lives in Jesus because He showed all his disciples how they should live in Him. But this church did not do it! Aha!
Many of us, including myself go to church. We wear our Sunday best (mine is a simple T with my flip flops) and we just pick the furthest seat from the pews and seat ourselves off centre from the pulpit. When the music comes on, we stand on our feet, clap a few times and open our mouths to raise the loudest noise and then sit down again. Most of the time, we use our rather unfriendly hand to shake another unfriendly hand with a famous grin pasted often on our tired faces. Wow! This is so negative. Well, I need to paint a picture. Of course there are many who go to church waiting to be bless by God, waiting to meet another friendly face, waiting to allow GOD to speak. So don't take me too seriously about the negative image. On a more serious note, this is what church going has become for me at least. I try this one, try that one and finally no one. Hahaha.
Yesterday at my Precept class, my chairman of the class, or monitor, Kim Yong officially invited me to join the church service. Because I make it very public that I am looking for a church to go so I can be buried one fine day. But the stress of looking for a church to bury me has so lifted since I made the decision because I realized my final resting place may not be in Singapore. What if it is some very remote untold area! That would be great...because I will then be able to lay undisturbed for many years. Again, I am not suicidal. I am being practical and being single and aging, I need to think about such things. I know people will come looking for me if they don't hear from me.
At precept class we discussed about whether it is wrong to know the name of God, know who He is and not follow His teachings and go our own way. I asked rather if the person genuinely loves GOD but went to a wrong church that taught false teachings and went the wrong way, will GOD be angry with this person. But all in all I know this, that if we set our heart to seek God, He will surely find us. It takes time, but He will come. But the christian in the church cannot and must not take everything from the pulpit wholesale. Christians must check the bible and ask what does God say about what you heard at the pulpit.
The Hi-Tech world has made us tired easily because everything is on demand. NOW! RIGHT NOW! MUST DO! MUST HAVE! Very demanding! And so we walk into church tired every Sunday, waiting for the pastor to recharge us. Yes, Pastor and not GOD. Because some pastors are really humourous and great speakers. Then we go home, we have lunch, we chat with friends and then we watch some TV, eat some more and then watch some more and finally our heads are too heavy so we fall right to sleep. Then Monday, Tuesday and everyday until Sunday again and the cycle begins. Too tired to think, no time to check, no time to do this, no time to do that...TADAH! You know what I will be saying..EXCUSES! EXCUSES! EXCUSES!
We must really check the bible because false teachers abound. That includes checking your own teachers in school to make sure they are teaching the right stuff too.
After such an invigorating session, I went to Toa Payoh to get some groceries for my spaghetti dinner ( my nieces Tiffany and Theodora were coming over to spend some time with dad). I hopped into a cab and started what was a revision of the morning session with the cab driver.
He was from a church that is well known for the prosperity gospel. Just at lunch, a friend was sharing about this church and the prosperity gospel. I also met some who shared with my about the good life christians have. When my mum was ill, one of them asked me to give my mum holy communion everyday and she will get well. This same person also believed my mum will be fully cured because God will never give us such a bad life and suffering. I remember asking this person, then the editor of my books, also a former student from Cedar Girls, how in the world is she going to die. She told me she would die without pain or sorrow. Possible meh? hahaha. I told her then why did Jesus have to suffer on the cross? She said because He suffered so we need not suffer.
So out of curiosity, I asked this cab driver what is the prosperity gospel. He said that Jesus loves us (right) and saves us from our sin (right) and we live in the grace period (right) and He wants us to be rich (may be) and be prosperous (but he is driving a cab? So is he rich? Define rich?) So I was analysing him throughout the conversation. Good exercise. Then I asked the most pertinent question : Did you check the bible? What does the bible say? The cab driver said that "THE GOOD BOOK" says all these. So my next question is "What is the GOOD book?" And I think he got really frustrated with my questioning.
He was a bit agitated when I heard him say that his church is not full of ignorant people because they can think. It is people with dogma (Aka ME) that needs to get their perspective checked (Totally agree and that was why I asked.) And I said again, that he should always check the bible for what is preached at the pulpit. He later on told me that he does know his pastor say things to please the church (wow! cornered! ahahha and he opened up the Pandora box). He rationalized that the pastor has to do this to bring the world into the church (really? God need us to help Him bring people to church by bringing in worldly stuff and jokes? Like some talkshow? Jay Leno? Hmmm...)
The church at Pergamum did just that. It compromised the faith by allowing the people at the church to worship idols. They were also a church that were into lust of all kinds and yet they know the name of Jesus.
Recently there was a saga about a pastor and I shall not type his name just in case Google searches me and I be called up by some department. I watched that video this morning and it was indeed a very, very bad move. His intentions may not be that of ridiculing another faith but it was certainly unwise of him to do what he did. The whole video showed how insensitive we can be when we allow our personality to get the better of us. God doesn't need us to do all these to bring people to Himself. We are His instruments waiting to be used or volunteer for use, not designers of a plan He has already created. So don't help GOD. Wait on HIM. Ask Him to Send you. But Don't tell HIM how YOU can help HIM Jazz up the whole show. We are now living in a time where we have to work hard at distinguishing what is OF GOD and what is not OF GOD even if it is coming from a church. WHERE is GOD in all the decision we make? BUT one thing is for sure..NO one can say they don't know the LOVE of JESUS and the WORK on the CROSS anymore. NO excuses when HE comes and you cannot say you don't know this SAME Jesus.
In the meantime, we should be study the word and ask Him to guide. I am not against churches. We are commanded to attend one so we have the support like a family when we need. My family is a church already. For where 2 or 3 are gathered in the name of Jesus, this is already a church. If my family can sing together and we worship GOD together we are a church. Amen!
But we have to be with others so we can encourage one another. I know that. But so hard to find one. In my heart there is only one church I want to go to. It is in Calgary. But even then when I visited the last time, the church seems so different. So I will find my church. What is church for me is my precept class on Saturday. May be I will pop over to Calvary Baptist but for now I have to go meet GOD at IBC.
Check what I write against the word of GOD. Don't be lazy. Find the time!
