In imitating us, you imitated the Master

 

1 Thessalonians 1:5‭-‬6 MSG 

You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.

 

 

Deeply challenged by this paraphrase...'In imitating us, you imitated the Master'

How many of us when we mentor, preach, teach or minister to others exhort others to imitate us as we imitate Christ? Commonly, we try to remove ourselves from the equation and ask others to follow Christ. We encourage others not to look at us because we are not perfect or we are weak. We preach to others not to look at us, bypass us, look to Jesus instead. Maybe this is our way of giving excuses not to work towards Christlikeness and to exempt ourselves from setting the example and yet at the same time fulfil the duties or enjoy the status of a preacher/teacher/minister. 
But we need to realize that people need a physical model/example to imitate or follow. They need someone to look to in order to know that it is possible to be like Jesus. They need to follow that physical example in order to become. They need a good physical example of Christ's imitator to imitate.

Therefore my personal prayer is that we, who are growing to be more like Jesus, will grow and live in a way whereby we can say or preach to others 'You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master'.
It is a tall order but by the grace of God, we can grow towards Christlikeness so that we can be the physical representative of Christ to others in the coming 2021. 

Dis-engaging and engaging our usual routine

A few years ago, I started a doctorate program (and it is still ongoing). There was an unusual practice/exercise that took place during Sunday (the day that we have a break from class): we were encouraged to not attend a church service. Go and engage in other spiritual activities other than attending church services.

When I first knew of that, I was wondering what kind of (weird) school did I enrolled myself in? Sunday should be the day to go church and worship God. And what more when I am in foreign land and that I can have an experience to worship with my brothers and sisters from another country.

Let me explain that rationale of this exercise or at least my interpretation of this exercise: it is about breaking the rhythm or routine of life so that we can examine and re-discover meanings of why are we doing certain things and going through certain routine.


Many of my classmates are practicians of faith for years, leading their churches or organizations for years. They are seasoned leaders and pastors in their fields. Many of us would be disciples and disciplers of Christ for years. But there are also routines and activities and people that we have been engaging in for years and especially on Sundays.
For example, the time slot before service starts, the time slot during service, the time slot after service. These are reserved routinely for a certain group of people for certain purposes.

Outside of this routine, we have no control or awareness of what is going on. We may even be so good and professional in engaging in those routines that we forgot why are we engaging them in the first place.

Breaking the routine with the aim to examine and re-discover meanings of why are we doing certain things and going through certain routine is good spiritual exercise to practice.

In our dis-engaging of the usual activities or routine, we take time to reflect why have we been engaging in them. Allow God to speak to us, aligning us back to His purpose. And in our engagement of new or fresh activities (even like sleep), we allow God to use them to align and strengthen our faith. Allow new perspective to form in this new engagement. One question we asked is: what is God trying to say to me in this dis-engagement and engagement?

I remembered that Sunday when this strange practice took place, a group of us went for a movie and it was during our usual service timing. I felt 'uneasy' in that arrangement (We should be worshipping God and ministering to people during that time slot). But at the end of that day when we gathered to process our activities, there were great sharings and learnings for all of us.

This is the first weekend that my family is without a local church. What did we do in the morning?
Which church did we go to (onsite or off-site)?
Just a peek for you: We did worship God together as a family and we worship using the platform of a children church program.

Have a good weekend.

Discipleship - Come Follow Me (Part 2)

Matthew 4:18-20 (NIV) ¹⁸  As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹  "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him.

When Jesus chose His disciples, it was rather out of the norm. Instead of the disciples requesting the Rabbi/Master to allow them into the disciple-rabbi relationship, Jesus went to the disciples. He invited them to be His disciples.

Picture this: Simon and Andrew were probably teenagers when Jesus approached them. They were in the trade of their father: Fishing. I want to suggest that they were not the best according to the world at that time. They were the average joes (maybe some of them were rejected by certain rabbis). If not, they would have advanced further in becoming someone with a higher status.

Then came Jesus and invited them “Come, follow me”. While the world did not believe them, Jesus did and chose them to be His disciples.  

There is also another thing about Jesus and His discipleship ‘program’. Instead of making our lives more difficult, His yoke (teaching) is easy and light. We can be His disciple and become like Him without striving.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB) ²⁸ "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. ³⁰ "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

“Yoke” is a common metaphor for the law, both in Judaism and in the NT (Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1). When Jesus invites the people with the words, “take my yoke upon you,” he invites them to follow his own teaching. His teaching, His interpretation of the law, is easy and light. It is in contrast to the requirements of the tradition of the Pharisees which are described as ‘heavy’.

One’s wanting to follow the commandments and the laws may led oneself to be weary and heavy-laden. It could be unnecessary requirements imposed by the teachers of the law. The way of the Pharisees at those time definitely cause the followers great burden and toil. Jesus, in contrast to them, has an easy and light load. It is not because the demands of Jesus is lesser (Mt 5:20). The reason is because He bears most of the load when we are walking and working together. He is the stronger ox.

This is great news for us. We can be Jesus’ disciples and become like Him. There is rest that we can find, even when we are in this disciple-rabbi/master relationship with Him.

What are we waiting for?

Follow Him and be like Him for He said “Come, follow Me”

Discipleship - Come Follow Me (Part 1)

Sea of Galilee

When we think of the word “discipleship”, not many of us are excited about it because we know that it is hard work and lots of discipline involved. Some may even shunned away from such topic. But discipleship is very important to our walk with Jesus as our eyes are fixed on Him this year. The word disciple occurs about 269 times in the New Testament.

During the days of Jesus, there were already the master-disciple relationships going on. Discipleship was not a new idea to them. After the child at the age of 6-10, finished his "Bet Sefer" or our primary school equivalent, he would proceed on to "Bet Talmud" (Secondary school) from 10-14. By the time, he finished these 2 levels, he would have memorized the entire Hebrew text (Genesis to Malachi).

What made them want to do so or to follow certain person? (They were inspired. They have the drive. They were going for the best to be the best) 

After the age of 13-14, the formal education stops. After this age, he would take on a trade. If the boy wanted to further his training in preparation for being a judge, teacher, scribe, head of synagogue or rabbi, he can further his study of the Torah in a small group or come under a certain scholar as his disciple. He would go and look for his master of choice and asked to be his disciple. But you must be one of the best, the cream of the crops and not the average joes because the master will only choose the best for himself. You must show to your master your knowledge, your diligence, your passion, your hunger and your commitment for him to accept you as a disciple. You must also have the mind and heart to take on the yoke of his teaching. Yes, the yoke of the teaching. It means his interpretation of the Scripture.

If you proved worthy to become his disciple, "Come, follow me.” And you would leave your family. You would leave your family compound. You would leave your village. You would leave the local synagogue where you had been studying. You would leave everything and you would follow that rabbi. You would become a disciple, a student. You would give your life to being exactly like that rabbi. And you would follow him everywhere.

As the disciples of Jesus Christ, I am wondering whether we have the same passion, hunger, commitment, understanding of Scripture and diligence as the Jewish teenagers pursuing to become like their rabbi/master. 

May we display the fervency and passion towards becoming like Christ.