How to lose Faith

At that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. 2 Chronicles 16:7

During the 36th year of King Asa’s reign in Judah, he courted an ally against Israel – Ben-hadad, king of Aram. Previous to this, in his long reign, Judah was more peaceful and there were only a few wars. In fact, he won over two noted wars – against the Cushites and the Libyans because, as Hiram said, he ‘relied on the Lord.’

During Asa’s reign, where there was peace, there was also prosperity. The walls of Jerusalem were fortified, and Asa ‘did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” But at the end of his reign as king, during the war against King Baasha of Israel, he secured the support of Ben-hadad.  “Asa then took the silver and gold in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad King of Aram, who was ruling Damascus. ‘Let there be a treaty between me and you,’ he said, ‘as there was between my father and your Father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.’”

At the outset, this action was mercenary. King Asa bribed Ben-Hadad to drive away the Israelites from the borders. Of course Asa gained an edge in this war because King Baasha of Israel eventually abandoned his task of setting up walls that would prevent Asa’s constituents from leaving Judah. King Asa then used the materials Baasha’s men left to fortify the borders of Judah.

What Asa did seemed logical, after all, Judah had the money to pay an ally and people were prosperous enough to not want to engage in any war. Better hire warriors to do the fighting for them.

But God was not pleased. Why?

Sometimes, it is easier to rely on a logical solution to a problem. If we have the means, why not exhaust everything in our means to make sure we get what we want? We hold on to what we can see, and are not predisposed to seeking God’s help all the time. We may say after passing a difficulty that God has blessed us. We may even say that we prayed. But did we really? How much is the percentage of our relying on God as compared to the percentage of our relying on our own solutions?

As in the case of the Kings of both Judah and Israel, Christians must commit themselves to God and seek him in times of need and plenty. But our faith is often fragile and vulnerable to attacks from within and without. In Asa’s case, even a history of God’s faithfulness which he witnessed in his time didn’t make him more faithful in his old age. At the end of the day, he was full of himself, and angry at God.

But maybe it is easier to rely on God when one is up against the wall or is completely needy. It maybe more difficult to rely on God when one has the means to use in times of hardships. Asa used the treasures of the temple of God to pay an ally for his country’s protection. When he got ill, he did not seek God but relied solely on physicians. This is not to say that relying on physicians is wrong but if that was the only thing he relied on, then there was something wrong with his faith. Asa’s pattern of unbelief is due to a refusal, a passivity, a rejection of what is possible beyond one’s reality. Because these were his hard realities: He was face to face with a  stronger enemy, so where could he turn? He was afflicted with disease, so what would he do?

God told Asa after refreshing his memory of what He did and is still able to do, “When you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your had. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” God reminded Asa that Asa was witness and participant in those events. But Instead of acknowledging God’s merciful acts in the past, Asa got angry with God’s messenger.

Many Filipinos will often say “Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa.” But for true Christians, it is not just God’s mercy God gives us, but God’s judgment, God’s grace, God’s provision, God’s protection, God’s love.  He holds our lives in his hands. He knows the number of the strands of our hair.

Asa got angry because he was being judged by God himself. He was being judged because he ‘relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord.’ That was what was wrong with his faith. His heart was not fully committed, and God is a jealous God.

In this chapter of the book of 2 Chronicles, God’s promise is ’strength’ and the condition is commitment. When we begin to see how our faith begins to falter, let us go back and remember God’s goodness throughout our personal history. Then let us check our hearts. Is it fully committed? Or do we persist on our ‘pagkatao’, on our stubborn belief that we are in charge?

May God help us.

“Prayer (I)”

“Prayer (I)”
by George Herbert (1593-1633)

Prayer, the church’s banquet; angels’ age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth;
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage;
The Christian plummet sounding heaven and earth;

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six days’ world transposing in an hour;
A kind of tune which all things hear and fear:

Softness and peace and joy and love and bliss;
Exalted manna, gladness of the best;
Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed,
The milky way, the bird of paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land of spices; something understood.

Critical Situations

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied, ‘My time has not yet come.’ … This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” (John 2:1-11)

Was it time for Jesus to reveal his glory? He made the answer very clear to Mary. 4“Dear woman, why do you involve me …My time has not yet come.” But Mary knowing that this is the Son of God attempted to involve him in a critical situation. “They have run out of wine.”

Jesus said that it wasn’t yet His time, and yet, he responded to what was the actual need of that moment. He responded out of recognition of a critical need which could embarrass the bridegroom. In His changing of the water into wine, only the bridegroom was given the credit. The master of the banquet who tasted the wine didn’t even know that the host had run out of wine.

Jesus alone can override his own time line. He has his own time but time is also in his hands. In this passage, Jesus could have simply stuck with his time line – and reveal himself when he should. But it seems to me that in solving a critical situation, He risked his own time line. This is one more a demonstration of how much he cares.

Rain of Grace

“A field is useful to farmers if there is enough rain to make good crops grow. In fact, God will bless that field. But land that produces only thorns is worthless. It is likely to fall under God’s curse, and in the end, it will be set on fire.” Hebrews 6:4-7 CEV

To drink the rain that falls on the ground, to yield good fruit, to be fertile and always ready for each day’s blessings – why is this not always happening?

Everyday, grace is sufficiently bestowed – rained upon us, as if we deserve it. And what do we do? We are like the roads which hold the rain for a while but then get rid of it in the sewers. We can, but we don’t drink in the rain, because our hearts refuse to be rained on. We think that we have what it takes to be truly human. We believe in our sufficient strength, our good acts, our benevolent intentions, our religious rituals, our commitment to our vows. But “life is difficult.” And in the face of trials we sometimes lose hope. When faced with temptations, we fall on the wayside, presented with options we go astray. In fact, we are often unwise that we have often detoured from our life’s main road.

If are without wisdom, what we will become in the end are immature people. We will cover ourselves with enough masks to camouflage our inadequacies.

God wants to bless us – but we need to drink in His rain of grace all the time. We need to live on, by, and of His love. We need to stop living in our own might. Our efforts should be towards a growing understanding of how God wants us to conduct our lives. For us Christians, It cannot be as how the world does it, or according to what the world approves of, or based on whether we have a good feeling afterwards. We need to live in God’s grace, completely dependent on his provisions for righteousness.

This is not easy. Sometimes this is even impossible for us human beings, but this is how it should be.

Streams in the Desert (Volume 2-Charles Cowman)

 

“Ang mga ito’y mga magpapalayok at mga taga-Netaim at Gedera. Doo’y naninirahan sila na kasama ng hari para sa kanyang gawain.” 1 Cronica 4:23 ABB

Maaari tayong manirahan kahit saan “kasama ng hari para sa kanyang gawain.” Maaaring hindi maganda ang lugar na kinaroroonan natin; sa isang malayong probinsya na halos parang walang ginagawa ang Hari sa paligid natin; maaaring sa isang lugar na napapalibutan ng lahat ng uri ng kasukalan at mga hadlang saan man tayo tumingin; at dagdag pa rito, maaaring ito’y sa isang lugar na kung saan ay gumagawa pa tayo ng kung anu-anong paghuhulma sa araw-araw nating pamumuhay.

Hindi na bale! Ang Hari na naglagay sa atin sa lugar na iyon ay dadating at mananahan doon kasama natin; tama lamang para sa atin ang mga kasukalan, o kung hindi man, ay tiyak na agad Niyang aalisin ang mga ito. At hindi naman ibig sabihin na hindi tayo maiingatan ng kasukalang ito; at tungkol naman sa mga araw-araw na mga “paghuhulma” natin, aba, ang mga ito ang tamang-tama lamang na gawaing ibinigay Niya sa atin, at kung gayon, sa kasalukuyan, “Ito ang kanyang gawain.” Frances Ridley Havergal.

“Mahal ko, bumalik ka sa hardin!/ Bumalik ka doon hanggang sa pagkagat ng dilim,/ At talian mo ang mga lirio at pasunurin ang mga baging,/ Hanggang sa ang Guro, ikaw ay tawagin.//

“Pagandahin mo ang hardin hanggang sa iyong makakaya,/ Hinding-hindi ka gumagawang nag-iisa;/ Marahil siya na katabi mo lamang na naglilinang / may ari din ng hardin at siyang magbabantay”//

Ang makukulay na mga paglubog ng araw at ang kalangitan na hitik sa mga bituin, ang magagandang kabundukan at maningning na karagatan, ang mababangong kagubatan at makukulay na bulaklak, ay hindi pa rin kasing-ganda ng isang kaluluwang naglilingkod kay Jesus dahil sa pagmamahal sa Kanya, sa kalagitnaan ng kahirapan at pagdurusa na kalakip ng pangkaraniwang buhay at buhay na hindi maisasa-tula. Faber

Ang mga pinaka-banal na kalooban ay naroroon sa mga hindi man lamang kinilala ang kanilang mga sarili bilang mga manlilikha, o doon sa mga hindi man lang nag-iwan ng monumento ng sarili upang mapag-usapan ng mundo; kundi naroroon sa mga namumuhay tulad ng mga anghel, namumulaklak nang walang nakakakita gaya ng babagong namumukadkad na lirio sa baradong lambak sa pampang ng batisang marumi ang tubig – Kenelm Digby

JCB November 2007

http://www.english-to-tagalog.com/EnglishtoTagalog.com

“These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.” (1 Chron 4:23)

Anywhere and everywhere, we may “dwell with the king for his work.” We may be in a very unlikely and unfavorable place for this; it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to be seen of the “goings” of the King around us; it may be among the hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task.

No matter! The King who placed us “there” will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are right, or He would soon do away with them. And it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, “his work.” – Frances Ridley Havergal.

“Go back to they garden plot, sweetheart!/ Go back till the evening falls,/ and bind thy lilies and train thy vines,/Till for thee the Master calls.

“Go make they garden fair as thou canst,/Thou workest never alone;/ Perhaps he wholse plot is next to thine/ Will see it and mend his own.”

The colored sunsets and starry heavens, the beautiful mountains and the shining seas, the fragrant woods and painted flowers, are not half so beautiful as a soul that is serving Jesus out of love, in the wear and tear of common, unpoetic life. – Faber

The most saintly spirits are often existing in those who have never distinguished themselves as authors, or left any memorial of themselves to be the theme of the world’s talk; but who have led and interior angelic life, having borne their sweet blossoms unseen like the young lily in a sequestered vale on the bank of a limpid stream – Kenelm Digby.