Psalm 90: 12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

This is a reminder that our days on earth are short. God had designated that man should live up to 70 years and if we are healthy and blessed by God then we can live for another ten to twenty years.

In sum the years that we spend on earth are very short as compared to eternity when we leave this earth. Eternity is a very long time, in fact it is immeasurable and it means forever and ever.

I belong to a FaceBook group of our old alma mater and we are trying to reconnect with some of our child hood friends. Some of my friends have been able to keep their school class photos for over 60 years and I connected with a former classmate from secondary three class. We are both over seventy now but unfortunately some of our former classmate have left this earth.

Looking back 60 odd years seem like a short moment, we can still remember some of our old days where we were, what we did, who we were with. Now we are into our twilight years and soon we will also go on the way of our ancestors.

What is today’s passage telling us? Our days on this earth are short and therefore we have only a short window to live right with God. We have to align ourselves in His word, walk according to His teaching and be in His grace and mercies all the time. When the time comes for us to leave this temporary home, then we are ready to move over to spend eternity in the presence of our heavenly Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Heb 13: 15

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

The plan of God when he created the angels was for them to praise and worship Him. The scriptures tell us that Lucifer was the chief worship leader. He was in fact created as such a beautiful and glorious angel because he had an important role which was the leader of all the angels who would gather and worship God.

That was what the angels were created for and when Lucifer saw the glory and the pageantry of worship that happens in heaven, he because jealous and wanted all that for himself. That was when he said in his heart that he wants to take over the throne of God and receive all that worship and praise for himself.

This was the first sin and it was the sin of rebellion. We can say that both pride and rebellion that came together was the mother of all sin and every other sin came as a result after that. The rest we know already that God caste Lucifer down from heaven and he took one third of the heavenly angels with him.

Lucifer became Satan and the fallen angels became the principalities and demons that are in the world today.

Likewise God created man to worship Him and to have interaction with God. At the beginning when God created man, both were interacting and fellowshipping freely. In fact God used to come down to earth to fellowship with man. Then all these beautiful relationship were broken because of sin and God did not come down on a personal level to interact and fellowship with man anymore.

However, he commanded that man must worship Him and that is the true plan and purpose of God. He desires and delights in our praises and our worship. This is the thing that pleases God. There is nothing else that pleases Him for He created all things and He owns all things. They belong to Him in the first place and we cannot give Him anything.

The only thing that we can give Him is our praises and our worship. The writer of Hebrew also tells us in today’s scripture that we must continually offer the fruit of our lips which are the praises of our heart and lips. When our lives are holy and righteous, then our praises will be like sweet aroma to God. The offerings that we offer up would be holy offering which would please and delight God.

Therefore when God has already redeemed and saved us, the only thing that we should do and can do is to praise and worship Him sincerely and faithfully.

Therefore the writer of Hebrews tells us; let us be faithfully in discharging this responsibility so that we can draw near to our God daily. 

Col 3:13

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

When Paul ask that we forgive others just as God has forgiven us, this does not mean that sins are condone and wrong doings against us are being excused. There have been many wrongs and sinful acts that may have been committed against us. While the person who did all those things may not even have repented or they may have determined not to apologise or repent, nevertheless Paul is saying that it is upon us to release them and still forgive them.

When we are interacting with people and especially when we are working with co-workers, irrespective of culture, nationality and society sooner or later there will be differences, jealousy, enmity in the relationship among the workers. There will arise gossip, slander, back biting among even the most senior people. Until and unless everyone has grown into maturity, petty jealousy and differences will arise.

The enemy will sow seeds of discourse among the flock and also among the workers. Soon without our awareness there would be groups and cliques that would rise up taking sides and championing their leader or hero. They would want to stand up for the ones they support.

These have happened even in mega Churches where different groups have emerged and they began to tear each other down. This is the work of the flesh and instigated by the devil who wants to split the body of believers. Sometimes the situation becomes so strain that brothers would take each other to court.

If not then the whole Church would be split and the whole congregation destroyed. I have seen many mega Churches and also some other bigger Churches going in this direction. This is because the sin of pride and self-righteousness would come into the hearts of the believers and each will justify their own words and deeds putting themselves above others.

This is so sad and all through the Church history this had happened even during the times of the early Church between even the disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus. Similarly the early Church in the book of Acts also had to deal with some of these problems.

The apostles had also experienced personal attack from others. Therefore what Paul and the other apostles taught not surprising as the human sin nature never left man and they are unable to control this sin nature on their own efforts.

We need the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit to overcome all these challenges and temptation of the flesh. We need to cover our lives with prayers and the meditation of the scriptures to be able to grow into the stature of spiritual maturity.  

2 Cor 3:18
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

When Paul wrote..’we all,’ this means that every believer is included. It is not only referring to the full time workers in ministry but also to everyone in the body of Christ. In the eyes of God there are neither full time, part time nor just ordinary believers. All stand equal before the Lord as equal on the Day of Judgement.

Jesus gave this truth in the story of Lazarus the beggar and the rich man. When both of them had died, Lazarus was taken up to heaven and he inherited the kingdom of heaven. He was enjoying the company of Abraham and all the saints who have gone on before.

As for the rich man he went straight to hell, not because of his evil deeds alone but because he also did not know God. He had too much of attention from men and his concern was all about earthly assets and pleasures of life. This is the trap of the devil who also can give blessings to those who worship him. Such people would be like the rich man who’s live is bound in the snares of the devil.

They do not have any time for God or for the meditation of the scriptures. Their whole focus is on worldly and materialism.

Paul in this verse tells us the opposite, we must forget about running after all the worldly materialism but we need to spend time to do the work of the kingdom. We need to bring the message of salvation to the world especially when we see that world events are confirming that we are indeed in the last days.

Looking at all the political leaders in the world, they are drunk with power and are fully corrupted with the wealth of this earth. Their hearts are seared and they have the hearts of stone. They commit all sorts of evil in their pursuit of wealth and power. They commit the most heinous crimes that are imaginable.

They cause such pains and troubles to all those around them. But Paul is teaching us that we must never be like the world. Paul calls us to be the living testimonies of the glory of God, we need to manifest His love, His mercies and also His purpose for the lives of all men who are lost.

In the Middle East today, many anti-Christian persecutors are turning to Jesus Christ. These are those who have killed and persecuted many of our brethren in their countries but because of the love of God, Jesus Christ has been appearing to them in dreams and visions and thousands of anti-Christian persecutors are now giving their lives to Jesus.

This is a miracle that is inexplainable except that it is the work of God. Those of us who are in more blessed countries where we can still openly share the Gospel, we need to rise up to what Paul is calling us to do. Let us reflect the glory of God in our lives, our words and deeds. Let us also be the proof of what we believe in so that the non-believers will see Jesus Christ in our lives and in turn they will give their live to our Lord and Saviour.

This is what Jesus has commanded us to do. Let’s Do It.

Psalm 102: 17

He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.

Prayer is the doorway through which we come into God’s presence. T can be prayer of praise which leads us into God’s presence and then followed by prayers of intercession. This is the normal process that every worshipper comes before the Lord.

In this psalm David said in verse 1-2 I pray to you Lord! Please listen, Don’t hide from me in my time of trouble. Pay attention to my prayer and quickly give an answer. David starts with the declaration that he is coming before God in prayer and worship. Then he immediately followed it up with an intercession for his needs.

The way that David prayed indicates that he is habitually in direct communication with God on a daily basis. He did not have to go round in having to prepare himself in long confession of sins and drawing close to God. He was already in constant communion and he just needed to say ‘I pray to you Lord.’ There is an immediate connection made because David’s communion with God is on a constant basis.

It is like taking a 5 mins break and now he comes back to announce that he is continuing his previous conversation with God. Having established the reconnection, David immediately petitioned God for His answers to his prayers. This is possible only because as mentioned, there is an ongoing communion between David and God.

David had this privilege to open a direct line to God and he knew that on the other side God is waiting to hear from him.

If we too want to enjoy this privilege with God, then we need to do as David did. We must open our direct line with God and spend time communicating with God all the time. When we do that we would be able to take short breaks in between and we would be able to pick up our communication with God where we have left off earlier.

God is the same, He communicated with Adam and Eve, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with David, with Solomon and also all the other saints of old. Now that they have gone, God wants to communicate with us the NT saints of today, God wants to speak with us, and do we want to speak with Him?

If we want to live the same kind of life as David did, then we must first learn to do what David did on a daily basis.

Gen 28:16

Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.

Jacob had a one on one encounter with God and He dreamt of a vision of a stairway going from the earth to the heavens and he saw angels going up and down this stairway. Then he realized that God had visited him and he proclaimed ‘surely God is in this place…’

It is true that God’s presence have been felt by many people at different times and at different places. Sometimes it may be when we are experiencing very difficult situations and we suddenly sense the assuring presence of God and then we receive a word or inspiration that will lift us from the spiritually low that we may be in.

As for David, he has written in so many of his psalms of how God has always been with him and how God had delivered him through many dangers. God had also communicated with David about His plans and promises for him. In turn Davis had always obeyed God throughout his life except for one occasion when he fell into sin when he committed adultery with Uriah’s wife.

On a personal level I could remember that at one period I used to go each morning to the fringe of the jungle where there was no one around. It was all quiet and the air was cold and fresh in the morning. I would spend about an hour meditating on the scriptures and communicating with God. This went on for months or around a year when on one morning, I felt the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit and a still voice confirming with me ‘I am the One who has called you and I will bless and use you.’

It was such an awesome experience and there was an overwhelming sense of peace in that place. It was a period when I could spend quality time with God away from the hassle and buzzle of activities and be really quiet with the Lord.

God is looking out to His children and waiting for us to reach out to Him in our communion with Him. He wants to love us, embrace us and bless us with His grace. He wants to overflow us with His love. We always sign the chorus, ‘Come O Lord and overflow us with your love..’  Each time we sign this chorus, God hears us in heaven and He truly wants to come and overflow us with His love.

The problem is we rush through our quiet time with Him and never gave Him an opportunity to show us His love. We rust with our activities, our plans for the day or our plans for the family.

In fact we push God out of our daily life with all the business of the daily activities. Our God is patiently waiting for us to give Him some time just as we would want to spend some time with our little children or grandchildren. God wants to show us His love but we are robbing ourselves from it.

Let us give more time to God daily so that we can reach out and receive that touch from Him.

Matt 8: 3Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.

This is the account where a leper came to Jesus and asked Jesus to heal him. In response Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. Why was this act so significant and highlighted in the gospel?

In the 1^st century there was no healing available for lepers and  unless God heals them, they would just have to live with the body destroying disease until they die. Their face will be eaten away by the disease, their fingers and toes will also be eaten away and the lepers will be very repulsive to even see let alone being touched.

As for the lepers, they live a life of being rejected and excluded from society. They would have such emotional hurt of being rejected by everyone and being excluding away from the community. Their hearts and emotion would be very broken.

Similarly there are also others in some nations where a certain community is being rejected because they are the people who are set apart to do the dirtiest jobs in the community. In India, these are called the untouchable and they belong to the lowest caste in the community. They too would suffer rejection and exclusion all their lives. The whole community would grow up feeling insecure and unwanted.

When Jesus came, His mission was to draw all men back to God. In God’s eyes all men are His children and God sees the heart and not the outward appearance. The person may be lepers with very deformed, decayed bodies or they may be the very lowest caste in the community.

God does not see all these, God sees the souls of the people and in heaven there is no more sickness and disease. Everyone would enjoy perfect health and perfect bodies. Everyone will be a child of God in heaven.

This tells us that as Jesus did not reject the sick, the lame and the blind and He treated everyone the same, we to in the Church must treat everyone as equal. There must be no colour prejudice, no cultural prejudice, and no caste prejudice. All must be treated as equal and as brothers and sisters in Christ.

All forms of rejection and prejudice in Church must be removed and never to be brought in at all. As leaders, we must lead by example and be like Jesus, reaching out to the hurting and sick. We need to love and care for them and ensure that they would also share the kingdom of God with us.