Hello people! How have you been? Coping well with all the deadlines and exams jumping around?
Today's devotion is simple. You just have to ponder on the question that I'm going to ask you in the following line. "How are you going to spend your time if you're left with ONE day to live?" or What are the last few things you'll do when you have ONE day to live?"
Do take sometime and ponder on this question ok? Haha! Write it down if you have to... it can be anything, there's no right or wrong answer over here. It's your life, you've got all the rights but you're limitation is ONE day and you're going to die. (:
Seeyou guys soon!
kev
Monday, February 25, 2008
Parable of the 10 Virgins
Hey guys, how was your weekend? I hope it was good :)
Anyway, I was preparing for my own bible study on this topic - Parable of the Ten Virgins. And its been on my mind since the day I read it. So just thought I'd share with all of you :)
For those of you who may not know, this parable is from the book of Matthew
Matthew 25:1-13
1"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were sensible. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they didnt take oil with them. 4But the sensible ones took oil in their flasks with their lamps. 5Since the groom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6In the middle of the night there was a shout: 'Here's the groom! Come out to meet him.'
7Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 8But the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, 'Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.'
9The sensible ones answered, 'No, there wont be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell, and buy oil for yourselves.'
10When they had gone to buy some, the groom arrived. Then those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.
11Later, the rest of the virgins also came and said, 'Master, master, open up for us!'
12But he replied, 'I assure you: I do not know you!'
13Therefore be alert, because you dont know either the day or the hour."
Basically, the groom symbolise God, oil symbolises our daily walk with God, and the bridesmaids refer to us christian converters.
I was shocked, when I read of how the groom replied the 5 foolish bridesmaids that "I do not know you!" though they were bridesmaids of the groom. That because of their lack of preparation for the groom's coming, that they missed out completely on the wedding banquet! Our God is a loving and merciful God, and such strong statements surely left me feeling worried. Am I prepared for the day when He comes to take us back?
Jesus' focus was on their unpreparedness and on engaging in secular pursuits at the moment of spiritual need. When Jesus returns to take his people to heaven, we must be ready. Spiritual preparation cannot be bought or borrowed at the last minute. No one can rely on anyone else. Our relationship with God must be our own.
Let this parable spur us on and encourage us all to become more devoted christians, not just by name, but by our acts too. Lest the day comes, when the doors are shut and Jesus say "I assure you: I do not know you!"
LLing :)
Hey guys, how was your weekend? I hope it was good :)
Anyway, I was preparing for my own bible study on this topic - Parable of the Ten Virgins. And its been on my mind since the day I read it. So just thought I'd share with all of you :)
For those of you who may not know, this parable is from the book of Matthew
Matthew 25:1-13
1"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were sensible. 3When the foolish took their lamps, they didnt take oil with them. 4But the sensible ones took oil in their flasks with their lamps. 5Since the groom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6In the middle of the night there was a shout: 'Here's the groom! Come out to meet him.'
7Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 8But the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, 'Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.'
9The sensible ones answered, 'No, there wont be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell, and buy oil for yourselves.'
10When they had gone to buy some, the groom arrived. Then those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.
11Later, the rest of the virgins also came and said, 'Master, master, open up for us!'
12But he replied, 'I assure you: I do not know you!'
13Therefore be alert, because you dont know either the day or the hour."
Basically, the groom symbolise God, oil symbolises our daily walk with God, and the bridesmaids refer to us christian converters.
I was shocked, when I read of how the groom replied the 5 foolish bridesmaids that "I do not know you!" though they were bridesmaids of the groom. That because of their lack of preparation for the groom's coming, that they missed out completely on the wedding banquet! Our God is a loving and merciful God, and such strong statements surely left me feeling worried. Am I prepared for the day when He comes to take us back?
Jesus' focus was on their unpreparedness and on engaging in secular pursuits at the moment of spiritual need. When Jesus returns to take his people to heaven, we must be ready. Spiritual preparation cannot be bought or borrowed at the last minute. No one can rely on anyone else. Our relationship with God must be our own.
Let this parable spur us on and encourage us all to become more devoted christians, not just by name, but by our acts too. Lest the day comes, when the doors are shut and Jesus say "I assure you: I do not know you!"
LLing :)
devotionTEN - Simple, but not easy!
Sometimes I get hung up in my Christian walk, either because I complicate matters, or else I’m tempted to look for easy answers. Neither of those really have any place in the gospel or in my life as a disciple of Jesus. You see, the gospel is profound in its simplicity, and yet resists every effort to make it easy. This isn’t a contradiction in terms, even though it definitely seems that way at first glance.
But at second glance, it makes sense. It reminds me of a time in my life when the simple and the easy abruptly became polar opposites. I was about four years old, and my two-year-old brother had done something to annoy me, so I expressed my displeasure by chomping rather forcefully on his arm. He naturally started screaming his poor little head off, and my dad came in to see what was wrong.
Thinking quickly, I tried for the easy way out of certain punishment: “He bit himself.” My dad, wanting to believe me (I think this was my first lie!), tried to see if the teeth marks on my brother’s arm would match up to his mouth.
Unfortunately, I had grabbed the part of his arm that was easiest for me to reach—the outside of his upper arm—and there was physically no way that he could have bit himself. As young as I was, I remember thinking with a sinking feeling that I should have bit the other side (I was so wonderfully remorseful!).
The lie was the easiest thing to do, and in fact, if I had bitten him in a more plausible place, my dad might have believed me. But it wasn’t the simple thing to do. The lie could easily have become complicated had I bitten him somewhere that he could possibly have bitten himself. Then I would have had to come up with a whole believable narrative that would end in my younger brother choosing to inflict pain on himself.
The requirements of the gospel are remarkable simple, but not easy to do. We find this illustrated in an exchange between Jesus and a Jewish leader:
One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”(Matthew 22:35-40).
But at second glance, it makes sense. It reminds me of a time in my life when the simple and the easy abruptly became polar opposites. I was about four years old, and my two-year-old brother had done something to annoy me, so I expressed my displeasure by chomping rather forcefully on his arm. He naturally started screaming his poor little head off, and my dad came in to see what was wrong.
Thinking quickly, I tried for the easy way out of certain punishment: “He bit himself.” My dad, wanting to believe me (I think this was my first lie!), tried to see if the teeth marks on my brother’s arm would match up to his mouth.
Unfortunately, I had grabbed the part of his arm that was easiest for me to reach—the outside of his upper arm—and there was physically no way that he could have bit himself. As young as I was, I remember thinking with a sinking feeling that I should have bit the other side (I was so wonderfully remorseful!).
The lie was the easiest thing to do, and in fact, if I had bitten him in a more plausible place, my dad might have believed me. But it wasn’t the simple thing to do. The lie could easily have become complicated had I bitten him somewhere that he could possibly have bitten himself. Then I would have had to come up with a whole believable narrative that would end in my younger brother choosing to inflict pain on himself.
The requirements of the gospel are remarkable simple, but not easy to do. We find this illustrated in an exchange between Jesus and a Jewish leader:
One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”(Matthew 22:35-40).
How many of us love our neighbor anywhere near as much as ourselves? The leader was looking for something complex, perhaps an exposition on the finer points of the law of Moses, but Jesus cut straight to the heart of it. Later, he turned to an entire crowd of people who had been following him and laid out exactly what it means to follow him, saying:
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
How often do we set down our cross and pick up our life simply because this is the easiest thing to do? Trying to follow Jesus and take up our cross sometimes seems hard. In fact, it is hard, it’s just not complicated.
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