Value Your Freedom

We went to a pizza place today and was delighted to be able to avail of a good deal on a meal. I got a super sized slice and a large drink for 99 pesos.  Compared to many pizza prices, this was inexpensive and the pizza was excellent!

I am reminded of how Christ saved us.  In order to set us free from sin, he bailed us out with His very own life!  Unlike the pizza, our freedom is expensive! We are indeed "dear" to God.  God thought we were worth the heartache of seeing His only begotten Son suffer and die to buy us from death.  Everytime we see the cross, we should be reminded of the price God paid for our liberation.

Knowing this, how are we valuing our freedom in Christ? Since we have been bought by His blood, we are no longer bound by sin.  But there times we act as if we have not been liberated.  We keep on going back to that cell, imprisoning ourselves even with the knowledge that Christ can set us free. Let us be remided of the following:

Christ on the Cross by Francisco de Zurbarán

1. Let us not take the cross for granted, our freedom did not come cheap.
2. Let us value the freedom of our new life in Christ, which is the best life anyone can ever live.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. John 3:16

 

A Paradigm Shift on Holiness and Hopefulness

I came upon this heater resembling an electric fan. I just found it awkward to see an electric fan doing the opposite function of what I'm used to in the Philippines. To me, the heater fan impressed me as strange, but surely this appliance must be common to the people in China who experience winter.

When Jesus came to earth to save mankind, it must have been strange for the Jews that their expected Savior turned out to be a carpenter's son.  For generations, their paradigm has been a savior king with all his might and glory. Instead, someone from Nazareth claims to be the Son of God, their Savior.  Although Jesus showed all the signs and wonders as being the One, many still could not accept it. John confirms Jesus as the Messiah for what is written in the Old testament is being fulfilled.


The disciples of John told him about all these things. John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” When the men came to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’” At that time he cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind.And he said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. (Luke 7:18-22)

We now come to reflect on our own paradigms.  What paradigms do we have that need to shift? Just because we feel strange about something, it doesn't mean it is not the truth. I now propose two paradigms due for shifting.

1. The paradigm that we can never be holy.  This is different from being "holier than thou." I also do not claim that I have reached holiness. I am proposing that holiness should be something we should never dismiss. Otherwise we will be using this always as an excuse to sin.  We are to strive in growing in holiness in everyday of our lives. "but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.""(1 Peter 1: 15-16). It may be strange or even impossible for us to think of achieving holiness, but we look upon the saints who like us are humans, also vulnerable to sin, but lived out a life pleasing to the Lord.

2. The paradigm that there is no hope for change.  When we look at our society, like in the Philippines, the poverty we see in the streets and structural sins of corruption can easily lead us to resign from hoping for change.  Even when we look at many 1st world countries who have fully integrated the culture of death through legalizing contraceptives, abortion, and even prostitution, it will be convenient for us to give up hope and just go with the flow of immoral societal behavior. But Paul encourages us, "Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9)." Whether reaping the harvest will happen in our lifetime or beyond it, what is important is that we contribute to the process of change towards a Christ-centered society.  After all, what is required of us is faithfulness. Success is the Lord's.

The journey towards holiness is the path to hope. For how can we change the world, if we ourselves do not?  The day to day struggle to be holy and overcoming our personal sins, in effect is our way to bring about change in society.

Let us not shrug the possibility of being a holy person. For if we do, we also have given up on change.  The paradigm shift, the strange feeling, of accepting God's will for us to grow in holiness is the mindset we now have to embrace.

Our Hearts as Mangers

Inside the Church of the Nativity. The star represents the spot where Christ was born

We were able to visit the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem.  I was in awe of being able to touch the place where Christ's manger was standing.  One has to kneel and reach in to be able to kiss the area. There are latin inscriptions on the star saying, ”Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est” (Here the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ”).  I felt like one of the shepherds who witnessed the new born Christ.

Here are some of my reflections regarding this experience:

1. You cannot save someone without being there for them. Jesus, Son of God, out of His love for us came down to earth, became flesh, to save us from our sins.  We long to help others, but they need us to be present in their lives.  We want to help and save the poor, but we are only content with our donations.  We want to help our own family, but we do not give time to talk and heal.  The only way for Christ to save us was to be there for us by becoming human, so we can be brought to heaven with him through the saving power of His death and resurrection.

2. If we are to be like Christ, we are to be born out of humility.  My 4 year old son, Sev, can already narrate the nativity story in his own words.  He would stress that the place where Christ was born did not smell nice because there were animals around.  Following Christ is a nativity experience.  We will always be humbled and put in a "manger" instead of a comfortable or pleasant position. Truly the Lord blesses us in abundance. But without the experience of being humbled, we will never be genuinely grateful for what we have.

3. We kneel before the King to also be reminded of who we are.  We often kneel in prayer for reverence to God, but kneeling is also to remind us about ourselves and that we cannot be above our King.  When pride comes into our hearts, it is often difficult to kneel.  Although Jesus was just a baby, both shepherds and earthly kings knelt before Him.  They understood who they were in the presence of the One. Therefore the best way to know ourselves is not to psycho-analyze but to be in God's presence.  If we were to realize our purpose, we can only discover it from the reference point of God.

Experiencing Bethlehem made this year's Christmas extra meaningful for me.  I believe that what is important is that we are able to transform our hearts into humble mangers so that Christ will be born in us.  Have a meaningful Christmas season!

One with Christ in a "Multi" World

The new generation has the orientation of being multi-functional, multi-optional, and multi-informational.

We now live in a digitized world with a multi-functional mindset.  With the arrival of the "apps" technology, almost anything is imaginable with our gadgets. We have not yet seen the full potential of these devices. 20 years ago, the only gadget that people carried is the watch, which tells two things (dual function), the time and date.  Now with our cellphones and tablets, you will be overwhelmed with what it can offer.  You can even strum a guitar chord with it or find your way through a GPS mapping system.  We are not anymore content, and we want more things to discover, to download, to play with, to use at work and more.  We become function addicts.

On being multi-optional, we see that the world now offers so many things. We are overwhelmed with the choices that we have to make in a day.  Even just buying coffee seems complicated. Just go to a grocery store and see the variety of soap or shampoo that you have to choose from.  Even buying medicine, we have to take time in choosing.  With cable TV, we endlessly surf channels and sometimes we don't really get to finish one program. There are just so many options.  This can be good in a sense that we can pick the best quality from among a bunch or it can be bad since it delays us in decision making or even worse, leads us not to decide at all because of being confused which is the better one.

With Google and all the other search engines online, we are now in a multi-informational world.  Just type your question in the search box and Viola! You now have the answer.  Do you need to know something about your classmates in high school? Just go to facebook and see how many kids they have and their last vacation pics and etc. Try opening your email and you'll receive lots of "info emails" about products and other junk.  The challenge is to manage information and not anymore to seek it.

So, how do we become evangelistic in a "Multi" world?  How can we introduce Christ, with all the other options and information that are being bombarded upon us daily?  Three truths come to mind:

1. Christ saves. There is only one Savior in the entire universe.  With our multi-functional orientation, only Christ has the function to save our souls.  This is what stands out and puts the other life "apps" to shame.

2. Christ is the best choice.  We have to disabuse our minds from the worldly things that distract us from choosing Christ.  Yes, career, family, friends are important, but Christ is the first choice we should make.  In a multi-optional environment, we have to be single-minded for the Lord.

2. Chirst is the Answer. In a multi-informational era, with all the questions in man's mind, only Christ brings the truth, the answer to everything.  "I am the way the truth and the life... (John 14:6)"

These truths puts our "multi" world into order and in priority. We need just to show others that Christ stands out and He is not to here to sell us something but to offer us eternal life with Him in heaven.  The song, "One Way" by Hillsong strikes a great relevance to our confusing environment. "One way, Jesus, You're the only one that I could live for."