Window shopping

Have you ever seen a hand bag that you love so much, but you cannot afford to buy it. Everyday when you walk pass that store, you take a long time to look at it. You bring the hand bag in front of the mirror and imagine how wonderful it would be if you could bring it home. Some time later, you think that you have already fallen in love with the bag, and you believe the hand bag has fallen in love with you too...

But what happen is, if you take the hand bag without paying, no matter how much you and the hand bag love each other, the salesperson is going to call the police.

Here is the problem. We need to clarify who has the ownership. You may rent a house and live that for 10 years, but it does not mean you gain the ownership of the house. You are merely a tenant.

Many people want freedom. They think they can do whatever they like because they are the owner of their life. In fact, we are not just responsible to ourselves. We must acknowledge that God is the true and only owner of our lives. God loves us so much that He gives us the freedom to make decision on what we would like to do in this life. However, we are only a tenant. God is the owner.

Lamp Stand

Last night I watched a DVD with my husband. A Hong Kong Artist, Zac Kao, who is also a Christian, shared a very good parable, which I would like to share it here.

Imagine in a very dark room. There is no light. You happen to be the only one who has a torch. What would you do? I believe no sensible person would think that because everyone is in the dark, I should also turn my light off. What this person should do is to bring the light into the room, and try to find out where the power button is so that this person can switch on the light.

As Christian, we are the one who has a torch.

Jesus said that we are the light of the world. In Luke 8:16, Jesus said,

No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

For instance, your workplace may be full of darkness. Power and politics are inappropriately exercised and you feel that you are manipulated by your boss. You are afraid of telling your colleagues that you are a Christian because helplessness and loneliness make you think that you are unable to show good testimony that glorifies the name of God. You eventually give up showing Christian's qualities - love, care, hope ...

As Christian, we should never cover up our true identity. Because there is no love, no hope and no one cares about others, we should be the one who bring light into the room. We should not just keep our light on, but also find out the switch of the light so that the whole room is bright and warm. Let Jesus comes into their lives so that they will also become the light of the world.

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Jews and Greeks seek for signs and wisdom. These are their own way to prove God's existence and they believe signs and world's wisdom are important. However what Christians preach is the thing that the Gentiles consider as folly - Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead.

• What we learn from this passage -
• God does things in ways that we may not understand, or even does things that are considered as folly by the world. Yet the power of God is much stronger than man and His wisdom cannot be understood by man.
• There may be things happen in our life which seem to be unreasonable. We cannot understand why God lets terrible things happen in our life. However God has His own plan. We need to humble and trust in God anytime anywhere.
• God is faithful and He loves us. What we need to learn is to put faith in Him.

1 Corinthians 1:18-21

In these verses, God reminds us that we cannot have a relationship with God through our wisdom or our knowledge but through only the gospel, that is through His way, through His wisdom. However, God's wisdom is often misunderstood.

For nonbelievers, His wisdom is seen as a folly. For believers, we often drift away and forget to humble ourselves and fail to acknowledge the gospel is His powers. When believers read the bible, we may often lack the correct attitude in sincerely seeking God to transform us, but merely seeking knowledge or read out of responsibility.

Verse 21 reminds us that: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For non-believers, you will not receive God's gift of salvation by your own wisdom, you will need to embark on a faith to believe in the gospel. For believers, you will not know Him through wisdom and your relationship with him will not grow. Have a humble heart to allow transformation to take place.

1 Corinthians 1:14-17

In these verses, we can learn how humble Paul is. In his journey to share the gospel, he must have done a lot if things. Although it sounds like he thanks God for not having done certain things such as baptizing, if read carefully, it means he was thankful that he has really done it in a way that did not misled people in thinking he did things for himself:

• Verse 14 - he said he didn't baptise but in verse 15 he lists out the handful of people that he baptized.
• He clarifies he is called to share the gospel but quickly acknowledges that he did not do it out of his own wisdom (made in eloquent speech), and diminished the importance of Christ in the big picture (the power of the cross).

This tells us a number of things:

1. You may be talented and called to do certain things in the name of God, but this is not an excuse to shy away from other roles that you may not be so good at from time to time.
2. When good deeds are done, has God been honored or do people get the impression that you are doing it for yourself? Have you glorified God's name or diminished the true power of the cross?

1 Corinthians 1:10-13

• Paul pleads that there be no division amongst the brothers, that is the church. Notice that he pleads in the name Jesus Christ, meaning he is confident and certain that God does not want division.
• How is he certain? How has the Holy Spirit spoke to him so he knows? To reflect, when was the last time we said and did things that we were so certain that it will be endorsed by God?
• Same mind: the mind of Christ. How are we to follow the mind of Christ? The best way is through a direct relationship with God through prayer and reading of bible, not guidance of a man; and
• Same judgment: whether you are perfect in God's eyes, not whether you look good by any other standards.
• So Paul is calling unity not to gather the different faiths, but united in what their core beliefs.
• In verse 11-12, he sets up what the situation was back then. People looked to follow earthly leaders: Paul, Apollo, Cephas. Some got it right and stuck with Christ.
• He then turns to a series of rhetoric questions to turn our focus back to Christ in verse 13

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

• Paul identifies himself as an apostle not because he wants that title, but a title that God wants him to bear. The authority comes from God. (Verse 1)
• Reminds God's church is centred around our sanctification in Christ. We are saints (cf Romans 1:7)
• Greets his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
• The first thing he does is to give thanks, not for what was given to him, but the grace of salvation given to the people of Corinth and because they are freed, they are enriched in speech and knowledge (verses 4-5).
• We are reminded that we are equipped with these gifts so that we may sustain to Jesus' second coming. (verses 7-8).
• Paul reminds us that we were chosen by God to be in fellowship of Christ. (verse 9).

Points to take away

• Authority is from God. We should do things in the name of God.
• We are saints that are Christ centred. We are in church that the focus should never deviate from Jesus. Focus on what Jesus would do.
• Give thanks not only to what Good had given you, but what Gods has done around you as well.
• We are equipped with gifts not for our own purposes, but for Jesus' second coming, meaning we are equipped to serve and transform ourselves to become more Christ like.
• How should we serve the Lord with the skills he has equipped us with?