Regent’s Royal Regalia

This was my first time witnessing a coronation and oddly enough, I was paying attention to the words being said as the priest presented each piece of royal regalia to the new regent or king. For me at first were all the sights and sounds. Behind the pageantry and music, I also had a bit of a revelation. The Monarch’s royal regalia are actually soaked with rich spiritual meaning! Prior to this, I had no idea that royal regalia had such rich spiritual meaning (copy here).

Following the anointing, a holy act, he then took his seat on the Coronation Chair, and one by one, each crown jewel were presented to him. Each item had a symbolic and noble significance. They signify the King’s or the Regent’s ministry to God. For my sake, I list them below (1-14), and not in any particular order.

THE CROWN JEWELS

1. The Spurs: symbols of honour and courage for the creation of knights for the defense of king and crown. It’s a reminder to be a brave advocate for those in need.

2. The Sword of Offering or Jewelled Sword symbolizes the word of God or sword of the Spirit. The power of the sword is used for the protection of good. It is a symbolic reminder to defend through advocacy, justice and mercy.

3. Bracelets (Armills) of sincerity and wisdom symbolizes God’s protection.

4. The Royal Robe and Stole symbolizes the robe of righteousness and the garment of salvation.

5. The Orb set under the cross symbolizes the kingdoms of this world has become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ.

7. The Ring is a sign of the covenant between God and king, and king and people. It is a symbol of promise and commitment. It signifies an everlasting unbreakable bond. The King has a duty to God, and to the people. It also serves to remind the king of God’s unfailing love for him and the people.

8. The Glove is a demonstration of the Sovereign as advocate and challenger for the protection and honour of the people. A gloved hand reminds the chosen sovereign to hold power and authority with gentleness, grace and wisdom, while trusting not in one’s own power but in the mercy of God.

9. The Royal Sceptre with cross represents the ensign of kingly power and justice. It reminds the Sovereign that one’s temporal power and authority are to be wisely exercised for good governance.

10. The Rod of Equity and Mercy (Sceptre with Dove) symbolizes the Sovereign’s spiritual role. The dove with outspread wings represents the Holy Spirit and the Monarch’s pastoral care for the people; it is symbolic of covenant and peace.

11. The Crown surmounted with a cross, signifies kingly dignity and reminds us of God’s loving and costly sacrifice of God’s Son for us. It visibly symbolizes the anointed one, before God, is to serve the nation. It represents the King’s vocation before God, and is a reminder of the promises and vows he has made to the people.

12. The ampulla (the bird-like item) holds the oil that was used to anoint the king.

13. During the coronation ceremony, Charles III was clothed with the Colbium Sindonis, a sleeveless linen tunic symbolizing purity and simplicity.

14. Adorned over this was the Supersonica – an embroidered gold coat worn over the linen tunic to symbolize that the King has been consecrated for the service of God.

REGENCY OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

Extra rambling from me here. Theological linkage between God, royalty and coronation.

The Monarch as the “Regent” or earthly representative of the Sovereign King of heaven.

The noble title to address the Regent is His/Her Royal Highness. Royal Highness subsumes saintly motives and being under the spiritual direction of the priest and prophet.

From the Old Testament we have the munus triplex (triple office) of Priest, Prophet, and King. This explains why the king is also called to be the earthly “Defender of the Christian Faith.”

The heavenly Sovereign is from where our source of rights and freedoms flows (blogged here).

Live simply – nothing to give

I remember when I was younger, jobless, and no education. Without anything, I didn’t have much to give. All I had was a new found faith in Jesus. As a new Christian, I was learning to read the bible, and learned to thank God for whatever I had. I attended church on a regular basis. God was my everything. Life was simple. School and higher education was bonus. A job was bonus. All I had was Jesus, family and my old ‘put-put’ car I putted around town with.

Imagine… having absolutely no money in your pockets…nothing to give. All there was to give were sympathy, empathy and whatever love God gives you to share.  This was the place Peter and John was coming from. They had already seen what amazing things Jesus was doing. They witnessed Jesus’ healings, miracles, and heard his simple, down-to-earth, but yet profound teachings. They learned first-hand about faith in God. The apostles were now called to do the same. They performed healings and had faith in God for this lame man’s miraculous healing.

In this bible story, there was a man, lame since birth, who sat regularly at the temple gate begging for money. Upon seeing Peter and John, Peter empathetically declared to him, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

“Now Peter and John were going up together to the temple complex at the hour of prayer at three in the afternoon. And a man who was lame from birth was carried there and placed every day at the temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg from those entering the temple complex. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple complex, he asked for help. Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us.” So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them. But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. So he jumped up, stood, and started to walk, and he entered the temple complex with them — walking, leaping, and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the temple complex. So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.”

Acts 3:1-10 (Christian Standard Bible)

I can imagine what it was like for this lame beggar who was healed at the temple gate. All he knew and had was his healing, his new found faith, and the ability give God thanks and praise in the temple courts. Living life now was brand new for him. He was declaring praises to God from his heart. With pure innocence he declared praises to God without holding back anything from God.

Immediately his legs were healed and strengthened; he rose up and walked. I can imagine the excitement, shock and surprise in the healing he received . Peter and John didn’t take any credit. They gave God the glory, praise and thanks.

This is the kind of innocence and excitement for God is what complicated people need today. The more we have and achieve, the less we tend to acknowledge God’s providence. Has this been your experience too?

Jesus’ sense of humor on road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-35

In times of uncertainties, anxieties and sorrows, we desire an escape. Two of Jesus’ disciples left Jerusalem, perhaps to escape the sadness and deep sorrow they had experienced in seeing Jesus die. They had given up all hope of ever seeing him again. Jesus was deceased, kaput, no longer alive in the world. (see bible text below)

During their journey, they were recalling, reflecting and discussing the tremendously depressing death of their teacher-master. At the 7 mile mark of their journey to Emmaus, they unknowingly met Jesus but had no idea it was him.

Funny. As they continued talking with their lord, Jesus did not reveal himself to them–not yet anyway. I can almost see a smirk on Jesus’ face. I think Jesus must have had a real sense of humor.

“These two dim wit friends of mine have absolutely no idea! Let me just continue ‘playing this trick on them’ and see how long it takes before they figure out who I am.” Jesus did this for nearly the entire afternoon and evening. “I’m just going to have some fun with these two characters and then spring a huge surprise on them. The look on their face is going to be priceless!”

As darkness was quickly approaching, one of the disciples invited Jesus to share a meal together and rest for evening. As Jesus broke the loaf of bread, suddenly, they recognized their lord. Upon realizing it was him at the table, Jesus decided right then and there to pull a fast one. Jesus suddenly vanished and disappeared from their sight. Imagine the surprise and shock it must have been for these two disciples.

Why did Jesus reveal himself to them at the moment of breaking bread?

Might this have implied anything about the act of breaking bread?

Was this to signify this was to become a holy and significant act in the future?

His disciples would have seen him break bread every day. Did they recognize Jesus simply by the personal and unique manner in which he broke bread? Did he normally break bread in the same fashion?

In their excitement after this revelation, they recalled their entire conversation they had earlier on the road to Emmaus. They distinctly recalled feeling a strange and warm sensation in their hearts.

It’s funny that while Jesus was walking with them, they were not able to recognize him. Were they spiritually blinded by their own sorrow? They must have asked themselves how they could have failed to recognize Jesus?

Our own spiritual blindness. Perhaps the disciples were so blinded by the shocking reality of Jesus’ death, that they could not consciously recognize Jesus. Likewise, we can be blinded by what we want to see, or by whatever is directly in front of us at the moment. Death, sorrow, and sadness can cause spiritual blindness, so much so that we will fail to see God’s presence even when God is staring at us directly in the face.

Our need for one another. When did the two disciples recognize Jesus? It was in their fellowship and meal together. At times, we will also need others to help us see Jesus in our lives. When we wallow in our own sorrows and anxieties, we might make it impossible to recognize God in our own lives. Often times, we fail to see God because we are looking for something else. We are looking only for the possible–not the impossible. We become preoccupied within ourselves.

How do we get unstuck? We need one another to help us recognize Jesus in our lives. We need the body of believers, the Church, to bring the light of Christ into our lives. We simply cannot survive as an island. We need one another to help us along our own journey toward Emmaus. We need the Holy Spirit, the light of Christ, and his written word to brighten our dark paths.

That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”
“What things?” Jesus asked.
“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.
“Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”
Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.” Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread.

Luke 24:13-35, Bible: New Living Translation, The Walk to Emmaus

500 eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus

If I were to be transported back in time and had seen Jesus in the flesh, I would have been shocked and become a believer. But frankly-speaking, I must also ask myself if I would’ve believed if I had not seen the resurrected Jesus in the flesh? I can’t say for sure; but I think I would have been very curious and would have tried to do some investigation myself.

The five hundred eyewitnesses (1 Corinthians 15:6) would have been following Jesus around like glue. There would not have been any doubt in their eyes that the lord was alive and well in the flesh. Thomas had even stuck his finger into his side where the Roman soldier had pierced him. Any lies, disinformation and misinformation about Jesus from the religious and political leaders would’ve been instantly dispelled by his very bodily presence.

Immediately after Jesus’ resurrection, his new found followers would’ve been looking for the resurrected Lord. As stories from the eyewitnesses quickly circulated around the surrounding area, massive numbers of people would’ve become convinced. He was the big news of the day.

The post-resurrected presence of Jesus was a living proclamation of God’s supernatural power. Any doubtful religious pharisees would not have been able to continue doubting for much longer after seeing and hearing about Jesus in their midst.

Secular figures also wrote about Christians and Jesus including Tacitus, Pliny the younger, Josephus, the Babylonian Talmud, and Lucian.

Other than Jesus, has anyone else in history ever been resurrected after having been dead for three days? I don’t think so. The historical Jesus was an undeniable figure in history. He rose from the dead and walked and talked with many people.

The historical Jesus is real. His resurrection continues to influence thousands everyday. Eventually billions of people have come to place their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The Christian Community

THE CALL TO A HIGHER LIFE:

Brother Thomas Merton describes the Christian community life:

“The community is an organism whose common life is pitched on a somewhat higher tone than the life of the individual member… In entering a community, the individual sets himself the task of living above his own ordinary level, and thus perfecting his own being, living more fully, by his efforts to live for the benefit of others besides himself.”

This “higher tone” and “living above” the ordinary level come from the expectation that the Christian has agreed with the community and has made a vow to God to live a holy life and pursue a higher calling to love Christ. It’s something our generation is lacking today. It is what young men and women are yearning deep inside. This choice for a holy lifestyle exists.

It’s a choice one makes into a way of life and leads to an extra ordinary life. It allows one to rise above the norm. It is not the easy path. It is a move away from collective society of the “crowd” into another society—a private and quiet one.

Although I am a Protestant evangelical, I can appreciate this silent life. There are many people who would appreciate such a life. Throughout the earliest centuries of the Christian Church, besides Monasteries and Convents, many other groups also lived as Christian communities—Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, etc. Who knows what more will firm in the future? There will undoubtedly be more.

These various types of separate communities are Christian and can benefit one’s spiritual growth, if even for a season. It’s not for everyone but it certainly is attractive for some. It will become a greater attraction for many in the future because Generation Z is seeking and longing for mutual support in this dark and lonely world. The Christian Church will experience a re-awakening, revival of some sort. Prepare for it.

LOST IN THE COLLECTIVE:

“A crowd is a mere aggregation in which the collective life is as low as the standards of the lowest units in the aggregation. Descending into the crowd, the individual loses his personality and his character and perhaps loses his moral dignity as a human being. The crowd is below man. The crowd devours the human that is in us to make us the members of a many-headed beast.” (Thomas Merton, The Silent Life, FS&G (1957) Part I, ch. 4 , p.43)

If you’ve watched re-runs of Star Trek, remember the ‘collective’? In the collective, a person can lose one’s own personality and one’s moral bearings.

Who wants to lose oneself in a collective? I certainly do not. It creates sadness, despair and depression. Our society, youth and young adults is drowning in it. It feels like a deep pit of despair and hopelessness. Only Christ can pull us out of this despair.

Brother Merton continues describing the monastic community:

“That is why the monastery builds itself in the wilderness: cuts off communications with the world and with the press and the radio which too often are simply the voice of the vast aggregation that is something less than human. As a community must take care to form itself carefully in the atmosphere of solitude and detachment in which the seeds of faith and charity have a chance to sink deep roots and grow without being choked out by thorns, or crushed under the wheels of trucks and cars.”

ISLANDS OF DESPAIR:

As the contemporary church, each Christian needs to be part of a greater community—one that is bigger and better than him or her self. No one can survive as an island; and as the saying goes: “No man is an island.” This is so true. Many individuals live as ‘islands’ today, although one may attend church services or mass every single week. How many of us walk in and then out of the church feeling alone? You know the answer. We live like we are on our own—like individuals in a crowd.

Moreover, we easily lose our Christian identity and become submerged within ‘the Crowd’. We feel lost within the Crowd. This is why it has become so difficult for our generation of young people to live for Christ.

The voice of secular society is becoming ever louder. It can become a great distraction to the Christian life. The world will inevitably try to shape an individual into something ‘less than human.’ One’s faith then becomes choked out by thorns and crushed by the weight of society’s pressures. It then becomes impossible to live a satisfying life as a human being.

THE HOPE:

God still gives each Christian a choice to live for Christ, to identify as God’s son or daughter, and serve Jesus first. There is a holy desire that resides within each Christian person to live in some sort of spiritual-religious community or society. To achieve something greater than the individual self. It would be beneficial for you to pay attention to this inner desire you have calling from within.

On spiritual retreat

I am taking the opportunity to have a six-day personal spiritual retreat at a retreat centre, a convent actually.

I spent time sitting down with a spiritual director, a wonderful lady in her senior years. I am truly blessed to have spent six-days in this setting (while remaining separate from the community).

It’s been a wonderful experience to get away during this Lenten season and reflect spiritually and be challenged through my spiritual director as to where my life is and where it can go.

I found a book in the library called The Silent Life, by Thomas Merton. I came across a paragraph that speaks on the Christian community. It would apply equally to any monastery, convent, or religious community.

Brother Merton writes:

“…the monastic life is a school of affection, fidelity and mercy. By sharing the prayers, labor and trials of our brothers, and knowing them as they are, we learn to respect them and to love them with a sober compassion that is too deep for sentimentality. We learn to be faithful to them, depending on them, we know that they have a right to depend on us. We try to learn how not to fail them. Finally we forgive others their faults and sins against us, as we ourselves would be forgiven by them and by God. In this school of charity and of peace a man learns not only to respect and to love others, but also, in the purest sense, to love and respect his own person for the sake of God. Without this supernatural self-respect, which comes from realizing himself to find it in himself to have true affection for his brothers. This deep mutual respect is nourished in the monastery. It is the exact opposite to worldly flattery because it is based on a true and intimate knowledge of others and of ourselves. Its fruit is a solid and lasting peace which does not end with the mere satisfaction of our need for companionship and for friends, but purifies our hearts of dependence on visible things and strengthens our faith in God.” (Part I, ch. 4, p.44)

The religious life is a sort of ‘school’ where one learns how to live in Christian community, shut away from the world and its worldliness. It is where one works together, prays together, live in community together where we face our individual challenges together. One learns to share in God’s graces and offer grace to others. One learns to love and respect one another.

The Christian community is a spiritual-religious bond of brotherhood and sisterhood. It is almost like a nuclear DNA family but without the bond of blood relations. As a general statement and in a way, it can be an even tighter-knit community than a nuclear family as it does not have the trappings of familiarity of a nuclear family. These friends, made in community, are the only close companions these members have.

When one offends another, one must have the humility to apologize for one’s own ill behavior; otherwise, that friendship can be lost. In reality, friendships can be lost in any community–religious or nuclear families.

This is just one aspect of religious community life.

Third Test – Corruption of Absolute Power

In Jesus’ third temptation in Matthew 4:1-11, the devil took him to the peak of a high mountain and showed him all the glorious kingdoms of the world. And the devil says: 9 “All these I will give you,” he said, “if you will fall down and worship me.” What was Jesus’ response? 10 “Away from me, Satan. For it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

POWER ITSELF:

This temptation is about power. Nothing wrong with power in and of itself. We want good people to have authority to effect good positive change in society and in the world. But when we make power the highest good in our lives, it can also be detrimental in our own lives, in other people and detrimental to people we love. Seeking power for the sake of having power can be the cause of our own downfall.

There is a famous phrase written by Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

RATIONALIZING POWER FOR OURSELF:

Have you watched the Star Wars trilogy? If you have, recall Anakin Skywalker (who eventually became Darth Vadar)? Eventually he moved over to the darkside as he was gaining power. He was thinking that with more power, he could overcome the evil that destroyed his own family on his planet. As he toyed with idea of power and battled with anger and revenge, he slowly turned himself over to the power of the darkside. He justified why he should be powerful. He rationalized and reasoned his way toward the darkside until he was unable to perceive how evil had grown within himself. As he became more evil, thought more evil and behaved more evil, he could not see this change within himself. What happened after that? As he became Darth Vadar (the diabolical man in black). He eventually destroyed countless more lives beyond his own world.

Adam and Eve also rationalized this by wanting to be like God. They reasoned their way to idolize the knowledge of God—and rationalized eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

CONSEQUENCE OF ABSOLUTE POWER:

When power becomes our driving force and we reason to make this our ultimate goal, we can inevitably hurt ourselves and others. Look at Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin. When we allow power to dominate our desires and make it our highest good, our sensuous desires and the devil can use it to harm us and other people. We no longer own it; it owns us. When it becomes our idol, it is driven and owned by evil. It draws us away from the goodness of God.

The danger in power is when we seek power for the sake of power, and in order to control others, it can corrupt us. With power comes much responsibility. We do well to remind ourselves of this. So, when temptation comes to us in similar fashion: “I will give it all to you if you will kneel down and worship me.” May we be reminded by what Jesus said, “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”

Second Test – Trust in God’s Love for Us

THE DEVIL’S BIG LIE:

In the Gospel of Matthew 4, Jesus was tempted three times. In Jesus’ second temptation, the devil tempted Jesus again. He took Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.” (Ref. Psalm 91:11-12).

This temptation was a test of Jesus’ emotions. It was a test of Jesus’ trust in his heavenly Father’s love for him. It was like saying to Jesus: “If you are truly the Son of God, then I dare you, do something crazy to prove God’s great love, God will surely come and rescue you. If God truly loves you, God won’t let you die. Jump off and prove that you trust in God’s faithfulness. After all, you are God’s Son aren’t you?”

It’s kind of like the devil’s request of God to test his servant Job. If you took away Job’s health and all he has, he will forsake you. What the devil wanted was to prematurely cause Jesus to lose his life even before he got his earthly ministry going.

GOD TRULY LOVES YOU:

Jesus and the devil both already knew the Father loved his Son. At Jesus’ baptism, the Father’s voice spoke from heaven and said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” The devil is good at trying to make a fool out of God’s children.

The devil doesn’t care about life and would prefer if humanity would all die. Death is where Satan his angels are already destined and he is trying, as hard as he can, to separate as many people away from God. He makes light of our faith in God and would love it if we forsook our faith and denied God.

The devil doesn’t know our future, but he does know what our future holds is good… eternal life in Christ Jesus and that we would live in heavenly paradise with God forever.

As Christians, many of us might doubt God’s love at some point or another. We might doubt God every month. Some doubt every week. Some even doubt every day. What was Jesus’ response to the devil? He quotes from Deut. 6:16, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’

As children of God, we can rely on God’s love, on his word that he has spoken into our lives. May God give every child of God faith to believe in his word that we are loved by God forever and that God’s love for us never wanes and will stand unwavering forever. If our faith remains in God’s love, mercy and grace, there is nothing to fear and everything to gain.

First Test: There’s more to life than bread

JESUS’ FIRST TEMPTATION:

This inner temptation was a distraction where we can learn about our own human weakness. In the first testing, the devil tempts Jesus to turn stone into bread. The devil says to him: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8:2). The temptation was to rationalize and justify this. What’s wrong with breaking a fast? In and of itself? Nothing. It’s good to get a break from this hard lonely path. But Jesus was in the desert for a reason; he had set out to fast and pray. During these 40 days, he was tempted to prematurely break this fast.

As human beings, we also rationalize like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. The devil questioned Eve saying, “Did God really say you could not eat from any tree in the garden?…and if you eat it you will certainly not die.” “It’s all just semantics, right?” As human beings, we modify God’s commands to justify taking the easier path. We began learning how to rationalize from the time we were kids; and by the time we reach adulthood, we’ve become very good at it.

IDOLATRY – ELEVATING EARTHLY THINGS:

So this first temptation is to make our basic sensual desires the highest good in life. Some of these things include food, drink, clothes, shelter, sex. Is there anything wrong with these things? No. These are some of the basic things we as human beings need to survive. God wants to provide us with all these things. But when we elevate these things to the highest level and make them our primary need above the primacy of God, they become our idols.

When we look at photos, television, films, we see the glorification of these things…lots of money, fancy cars, huge mansions, exorbitant vacations and just “living it up.” Isn’t it tempting to want some of these things? It definitely is. All of us have fallen into this trap at some level. It’s common to all of us. It’s easy to want more than just a basic vehicle, or a small dwelling. Once you have a little, it’s very tempting to want more than just the basic needs. Anything wrong with having these basic needs? No not at all. God wants each person to have their basic needs met so that we can live and survive in this world.

Where we can go sideways is when we elevate these things as our primary goal where these become greater than the Lord our God in our lives. We make these things our idols and worship them. It’s a violation of the First Commandment. It can lead us into big troubles–reaping consequences in life. We can end up hurting not only ourselves but other people—even those we love who are close to us.

FALSE BELIEF:

There’s nothing wrong with meeting our most basic primary needs. We work hard to provide them to our kids. But when we give them too much without setting boundaries, there could be repercussions. As parents, we’d actually be setting up our children to believe that everything is a ‘must have’. We fail to teach them that denying oneself of some things can also be a good thing. In turn, as they become adults, they will want everything and believe that physical and sensual things can satisfy them.

We become so preoccupied with wanting all these things that we don’t think about other things that bring us closer to the spiritual good and even of God. Our preoccupation with the most basic human needs can become a distraction to what is truly good and better. This is why Jesus responded to the devil by saying: ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Jesus knows that we need bread to survive.

Jesus was also human, he got hungry and thirsty. But he also knew he needed to deny himself of some things in order to be spiritually connected to the higher calling of his heavenly Father. Same goes for us. There is more than just ‘the things’ of this earthly life. We are called to a higher spiritual calling.

Trials and Spiritual Growth

LENT: GROW THROUGH OUR TRIALS

The season of Lent can be a time when we as Christians can strengthen our personal faith. During Lent, some Christians practice fasting and prayer for 40 days. Denying yourself of food or other things you likewell, is not easy.

Fasting and prayer has been used by Christians to move closer to God. In the Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus had set out to fast and pray in the desert. He wanted to seek out the voice of his heavenly Father. But he faced three distractions and temptations from the devil.

Trials and testings of worldly power and desires can distract us from the highest good and from making God the main object of our affections.

When we face testings, we might see them as bad, but God can use them for our good in order to build up our faith in God.

FREE FROM SIN IN CHRIST

When we fail in our testings, it might feel like we’ve made a deal with the devil. Some people have made many deals. Some are luckier and don’t have as many deals as others (depending on what you consider lucky).

With God, however, there is always a way out of the shame and guilt of our sin. Jesus showed that the word of God is more powerful than any sleight of hand the devil might deal out to us.

We can remind ourselves that we are baptized Children of God and that as God’s children, God has provided us a way out in Christ Jesus.

The Apostle Paul said in Romans 5: “You who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

We as the church on earth have been given an opportunity to live in the joy and delight in God’s will and to walk in His ways. By confessing daily, “[God] is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Let us move forward because Christ has already died for us and has already justified us and are saved through Christ from the wrath of God. There is always a way out and that is good news.

May this season of Lent remind us of whose we are, and of our calling.

My next several posts will deal with the three temptations of Christ from Matthew 4:1-11.