The funny side of JC

One would think that the whole Bible is a sombre book to read but as I have found, Jesus could be quite funny. I was no short of laughing when I re-read a passage of scripture in the New Testament (Matthew 14:15-21).

The passage defies basic logic and almost absurd. It was right of the disciples to tell Jesus to send the crowd of approximately five thousand men not including women and children to go home and find something to eat themselves. What was Jesus thinking really? There they were, in that middle of nowhere with His twelve disciples and the multitude. I don’t think anyone thought they were going out for a picnic! Then you read Jesus saying to his disciples, “All the people can stay, go and feed them“. No wonder ‘they’ have to talk him thinking that in numbers they may be able to persuade the Master. Majority usually wins, and really, who in their right mind would feed such numbers with 5 loaves and 2 fishes?!  I thought to myself, 'Well, to feed the disciples, I supposed each fish can be cut out into 6 parts not including Jesus, as He may opt to fast.  Too bad for whoever gets the tail and half of the head of the fish, the bread should at least make up for it'. 

As I kept reading the passage, there is not even a small hint of Jesus trying to be funny. Then I imagine the disciples saying perhaps not explicitly, "Um, Master Jesus, we only have 5 loaves and 2 fish! Seriously?!“ Jesus with a straight face then says, “Bring them here to me”.  Wow! What powerful words! I feel my skin tingle as I imagine Jesus saying it.

I sense that Jesus wants us to use what we already have, no matter how petty and insignificant it may appear or illogical at most times. He takes whatever we have into His hands, blesses it and makes it abundant, overflowing, and outpouring to others in need, both blessing the giver and the receiver.

And so at the end of the passage we find the disciples taking twelve baskets, one for each of them to pick up the left-over of that meal that wasn’t even enough to feed thirteen of them to begin with.  Miraculously, at the end they, after Jesus had blessed the only thing they had, ‘all ate and was filled’.

Time to rethink

When you start to become something out of the ordinary, people starts to notice. If you were like me, you would have been living in this world without a conviction of your own.  Up until recently, I realized that everything I knew and believed in was borrowed from someone somewhere at sometime. I don’t think I had my own identity for I lived in fear of what others would think and say about me. I lived by society’s norm, not really sticking out and causing wave but not making a real difference either. I was fearful of challenging the traditions and beliefs that I grew up with in case someone gets offended.

We were endowed with a free will because God wants us to decide what really matters.  We need to set our hearts on God’s word so it doesn’t just go where it wants.  Religion can bind you like a prisoner.  You live out of fear and not out of love.  Religion says this is what a Christian should look and act like, fail that and judgement comes from those that are without divine insight that God may not be finished with you yet.  Who is more perfect among us when we still very much wrestle with our flesh?  Today we are good, tomorrow who knows?  I for one struggle so much so that I needed to seek God's presence to straighten me out. 

I know what it’s like to have fallen hard and have known the greatness of God’s grace and love. It can swim the abyss that you are drowning in, and raise you from the flesh that pulls you down.  His love comes when you are at your worst and rescues you from yourself.  It frees you from fears that you on your own have no power to overcome. When His grace falls, you will know who you truly are and your journey to liberation begins.

"So, If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall"!  1 Corinthians 10:12 (NIV)

DADIRRI - it has found me

Today I came across an article titled Dadirri by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann. There written down were my thoughts as if the author had looked down within the very depths of my soul and placed it on  paper. It captured the very substance of my understandings and experiences of God - His all consuming presence, the transcending presence of His Spirit and the living truth of God’s word in Jesus dwelling deep within. I feel God in the air I breathe, the land I walk on, the grass I touch, the wind in my hair, His presence going around me and through me. I feel Him on my skin, under my skin, and on the tips of my fingers. I hear His gentle voice deep within and without. I feel Him all around me, aware of this all consuming presence when I’m quiet and still and in the midst of His creation. How can you contain something so encompassing in a building made by human hands?

Then I saw what seemed to be the creation happening - God and His Spirit coming out from Him carrying His Word as He calls out things to existence. When we speak, we hear a sound. That sound is produced as the air carries it out of our mouth and the words we hear are formed. The word that comes out has a meaning, purpose and power. Words as we know describes, gives meaning to the invisible (our feelings and emotions), and is powerfully influential - it can hurt and it can bring people up just as good news makes us happy (Proverbs 25:25). The Holy Spirit is the air that carries the Word that is Jesus.

We are called the body of Christ. What connects us to each other is His Holy Spirit that is within.  God's Spirit calls to us but some ignores it, analyse it, and fights it. Others surrender to that gentle calling. The sound heard is the sound of Jesus knocking at the door of every heart. He wants us to connect with Him and with one another. His Spirit will eventually unite us in Him.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  If I ascend into heavens, You are there;If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me". Psalm 139:7-10 KJV

http://www.liturgyplanning.com.au/documents/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=4832

GenerationOne - One Voice "Kids Address to the Nation": Shania and Summer

Forever Reign - Hillsong Live - A Beautiful Exchange

My Jesus....
You are good, when there's nothing good in me
You are love, on display for all to see
You are light, when the darkness closes in
You are hope, you have covered all my sin
You are peace, when my fear is crippling
You are true, even in my wandering
You are joy, you're the reason that I sing
You are life, in You death has lost it's sting

You are more, than my words will ever say
You are Lord, all creation will proclaim
You are here, in Your presence I'm made whole
You are God, of all else I'm letting go

I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your love will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world, forever reign
My heart will sing no other name

The Consequence of Grace

“Is it our duty or our responsibility as Christians to look after the prisoners and their families?”, someone had asked me. The term duty or responsibility didn’t quite sit comfortably in my head as I processed that question. To say yes would be to refute God’s grant of free-will to humanity. Something of this act of charity towards the imprisoned requires not a decision of the mind but of a changed heart. It cannot be an imposition, because frankly, who could love the most unlovable and possibly the hardened and the most hideous of criminals?

We are able to love those who are repugnant it’s because Jesus first loved us. The grace we received undeserved is the same grace that we are able to extend to those who thinks that they are beyond forgiveness. All of us are in need of that saving grace manifested through the death of Jesus. For we were once slaves to sin (Romans 6). So it’s really not about whether it’s a Christian responsibility or duty, it’s because we love Christ…..for only love can ‘cover a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8). The perfect love that is of Christ in us.

“let him know that he [she] who turns a sinner from the error of his [her] way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:20 (NKJV)


“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him [Jesus Christ] might be saved.” John 3:16a,17 (NKJV)

Working for Jesus

"What motivates you to come to work?"  I was asked one day.  I knew it wasn’t money.  I believe it was something more valuable but perhaps not yet tangible for my mind to capture.  Something just kept me going... but what was it? 

Finally, a revelation.  There it was on the first page of my nearly tattered Daily Bread it read, “meaningful work - not for the accumulation of wealth (although it was rather convenient) but to have something to share with others”. 

My work now made even more sense.  I asked and so He gave.  And that I don’t take lightly.  It’s all about Him.  What I do at work, I do it for Him, because it was Him who brought me there.  What my work brings out in me blesses Him and in turn, He will make it so that it will bless others also.  He works out His purpose in me through the work that He has endorsed me.  There I harnessed the skills, talents and gifts that He endowed me.  He does this to fulfil His will and makes stronger the passions He has placed in my spirit.  It pleases Him to see me happy.