Month: July 2018

^“30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. ³¹ Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

³² So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. ³³ But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. (Mark 6:30-34)

When I was younger, I was shocked to find out my older friends needed 8 hours of sleep each night. I was thinking: why waste so much time on sleeping! The younger me could survive with only a few hours of sleep, and I did enjoy the excitement of not sleeping the whole night to finish up my assignments.

  I thought that sleeping less = being productive.

And I was so wrong.

Doctors recommended that we get about 7-8 hours of sleep every night for our well beings.

More importantly, the Bible teaches us that sleep is important.

Firstly, God created us to need to sleep. After God created Adam, the first human being, God made Adam to fall asleep. And God did His work during Adam’s sleep. When Adam was sleeping, God took a rib bone of out him and made a woman—a life partner for Adam.

When we sleep, God is doing something in us. Our cells are rejuvenating. Our organs are resting. God refreshes us in our sleep.

Secondly, sleep is surrendering to God. Sleep means we admit our own frailty as human beings. We can’t work all the time. We don’t have everything in control all the time. We never will. But God is in complete control over the universe. We sleep at night knowing that our God is watching over us. We can trust in Him.

For the Israelites, the Sabbath started when the sun set. Their day and night started and ended at sunsets. They started their day not by working, but by going to sleep. It means, total surrender to God. We can’t do anything apart from God.

Thirdly, sleep is a gift from God.

Psalm 127 tells us, sleep is a gift from God. We need sleep and rest from our work, regardless how much we enjoy our work.

“1Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves”.

For God grants sleep to those He loves. It is a reminder that we should not be worry or anxious, but we should rest in Him like little babies, trusting in Him.

It is interesting how many times in Psalm 121 that we are reminded that God doesn’t sleep. It is His job to protect us. This Psalm tells us, God who watches over us does not slumber or sleep, therefore, nothing can harm us. He watches over from all harm. He watches over our life.

We can trust in Him and sleep in peace.

We read in Psalm 3:5–6, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” Then we read in Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

When we sleep and when we rest, we are surrendering everything to God. He gives us rest and peace, and sleep.

The Bible is not asking us to rest and sleep and rest and sleep. There should be a balance.

In Mark 6: 7-13, Jesus sent out His disciples 2 by 2 to tell others the Good News. Jesus also gave them authority to cast out evil spirits. The disciples went out to teach, drove out evil spirits and also to heal many sick people.

When they regroup with Jesus again, they were so excited to tell Jesus everything they had done and taught. About that time, a big group of people in need came to Jesus and His disciples for healing and to hear the teachings of Jesus. The crowd kept pressing in until Jesus and disciples did not have a chance to eat. So, Jesus said, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest”.

Jesus invited His disciples to come with Him to get some rest. Come with Jesus for a time of quietness and be recharged.

Soon, the crowd caught up with them. Jesus saw them and had compassion on them. Jesus demonstrated to us the balance between rest and work.

Jesus rested, and He worked hard too. In rest, Jesus glorified God, in His work, Jesus glorified God too.

We too, rest in Him to be energised to serve Him. We serve God and others to glorify Him.

The word “heart” is the most common anthropological term in the Bible. It was mentioned over a thousand times.

The Bible dictionary tells us the heart is a person’s centre for both physical and emotional-intellectual-moral activities. The heart encompasses everything that we think, say and do (Proverbs 4:23). It is the birthplace of our every motive.

Righteousness comes from the heart (Psalm 97:11), and yet, from our heart also comes evil thoughts, wickedness, lies, and all sins (Isaiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19)
As followers of Jesus, we do the will of God from our hearts (Ephesians 6:6). Our submission to God comes from our hearts. Christ lives in our hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17)

The heart is where God searches and looks at (1 Sam 16:7).

John and James had it in their hearts to be at glorious positions in the kingdom that Jesus would establish. They came to Jesus, and said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

They said, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory”. In teaching His disciples, Jesus did teach them to ask God for things. Jesus taught them. Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7). In John 14:13, Jesus said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name…” (John 14:13)

James and John did just that.

As far as they knew, Jesus would be setting up His Kingdom in Jerusalem. He would then overthrow the Roman empire. James and John predicted there would be a fight with the Roman authorities but they would surely be loyal to Jesus until the end. So, to them, it was only right to ask for the second and third most important positions in Jesus’ Kingdom.

Jesus replied James and John, “You do not know what you are asking”.

Jesus then used 2 metaphors in His question to them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

The cup Jesus was about to drink is a cup of suffering and pain which Jesus would drink (Mark 14:35-36). It referred to His suffering and death. Moments before His death, Jesus prayed, “Lord, take this cup away from me”. It was such a huge, unbearable weight upon Jesus which caused Jesus to pray until He dripped blood instead of sweat. The medical world tells us this is a rare but very real medical condition that when a person sweats blood, he is under enormous stress, anguish and pain.

Jesus drank the cup to rescue humanity from the anger of God (Romans 2:4-11, 5:9; Revelation 14:10, 16:19). God is holy and He has to punish sins.
The baptism that Jesus was baptised with referred to full immersion in humiliation, pain and suffering through His betrayal, trial and death (Mark 14:43-15:37).

Jesus had to go through an immersion in suffering and then He had victory over sin and death, to save us into God’s Kingdom. Therefore, as His followers, we need to get baptised. We also immersed in water for forgiveness of our sins so that in His name, we will experience a spiritual death and resurrection out of sin into righteousness and the light (Romans 6:1-3, 8:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57).

After being baptised, we need to partake in the Holy Communion to be reminded of what He had done for us on the Cross. The cup represents the blood of Jesus, shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins (Mark 14:23-25).

Without the Cup and Baptism, there would be no salvation for us. We will perish in eternal death. There will be no Kingdom, if Jesus did not drink from the Cup of Suffering, and be immersed in pain and suffering for us.

Jesus was telling James and John that they too, had to drink the cup He drank and be baptised with His baptism. This goes for everyone who follows Jesus (Acts 14:22, 2 Tim 3:12). There is a cup and a baptism of suffering and pain we have to endure to gain the victory through Jesus (Romans 8:17-18)

What was James and John’s response? They replied, “We are able”.

They said they were able. They were not afraid of the suffering and pain that they had to go through. They were willing to go through them with Jesus. Hearing their response, Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with…”

And that was what they did.

The book of Acts tells us the ending of James. He was the first to be martyred (killed for their religious beliefs). “King Herod had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword” (Acts 12:2). James was put to death by Herod Agrippa 1 just before the day of Passover about 11 years after the death of Jesus.

The Bible and church history also tells us a little about John. Most probably he died a natural death from old age. But still, he had gone through persecutions and exile. John was sent into exile onto the Island of Patmos after having been tortured by the Caesar at the time. At the island of Patmos, he wrote the last book of the New Testament: the Revelation.

Instead of receiving what they asked for, from Jesus, to sit on the left and right in His glory, they received suffering and persecution too, as Jesus did.
This is an important reminder for us about the condition of our hearts. Do not think of having such a “big heart” for ourselves that we feel entitled to certain privileges for serving the Lord.

Many of us craved for recognition and for praises when we do something for the Lord, forgetting what a beautiful privilege it is to serve the Lord—the King of kings and Lord of lords.

I can’t think of anyone, in the past or present, who did not have to give up something for following Jesus.

Jesus also said, “but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared”. It was not for Jesus to grant where they should sit in His Kingdom. Discipleship is a journey. We do not do it just for the rewards, but it is the best relationship we can have.

We should serve Jesus with all our hearts because we know He is worthy. He is worthy of all of our time, all of our energy, all of our talents, all of our hearts.

Out of our hearts flow our thoughts, words and desire. May our hearts truly flow with joy and gratitude as we serve our Lord.

Bear the likeness of Jesus in every facet of your life.

• Beliefs (read the Bible to know more about God, Who He is, His character                and power, and to improve your relationship with Him)
• Environment (wherever you are)
• Actions (how you live out your daily life? Are you the same inside out?)
• Relationships (how are your relationships with your family, friends,                                                        colleagues, boss, teachers, etc)

1 John 2:6, “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”