Category: Random

PROPITIATION is the act of giving a gift to appease the anger of someone we offended. It’s a term the ancient Greeks used when they want to make peace with their gods.

But of course, that’s an old, old story. Today, nobody really cares about Greek deities, well, unless you’re Percy Jackson, but that’s an entirely different story. Nowadays, nobody does propitiation with any of the characters of Mt. Olympus. What we do is we give “peace offerings” with our wives and girlfriends and mothers whenever we do something stupid. That partly explains why the chocolate and flower industry is still very much alive until today.

Interestingly, when Paul described what Jesus did for us on the cross, he said that God sent Him to be a propitiation for us through faith in His blood (Romans 3:25). I know it’s quite a mouthful but in simple terms, it means that Jesus is the offering that appeased the anger of God towards all the sinners of the world. Consequently, we need not spend lots of money to appease God because Jesus already did it. What we need to do is simply hitch a ride with his propitiation offering.

Two major points to clarify: One, God is not angry with us. Jesus took away (appeased) that anger when He volunteered to die in our place. Two, put your trust in Jesus. Get into Jesus’ good books because you owe it to him. That’s the least you can do to show Him you are grateful.

Obeying God is not always a walk in the park. Sometimes, it’s a flight for your life.

After baby Jesus was born, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him grab his family and flee to Egypt so they can escape the infanticide that Herod was going to order. If you think that story is simple and easy, imagine moving to a foreign country in a hurry. Chances are that you can’t do all the packing in one night, especially if your wife just gave birth to a child and your makeshift house is a mess after you got invaded by a herd of shepherds and philosophers you didn’t even know.

Joseph and Mary’s flight to Egypt was never easy. Was it even safe for a mother with a newborn child to ride on camels and cross the vast desert? Don’t babies need proper air conditioned rooms and soft baby clothes? Didn’t they need to sort out their bank accounts first, consult with the ob/gyn, and manage email forwarding?

Yet they did it all in the name of faith and obedience to the God who knew better than they did. No matter how uncomfortable it might have been. No matter how difficult it was.

Maybe we’re defining faith the wrong way today. I know a number of people who think that faith is getting what you want whenever you need it. To them, faith is like manipulating God to give in to your whims. If you’re not getting things your way, then you lack faith.

I don’t agree with them, of course. If Joseph and Mary’s story is any indication, I don’t think your comfort and discomfort about a certain situation is the true measure of being in faith.

…He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. [Hebrews 8: 6]

If there’s one word that sums up the book of Hebrews, it’s the word BETTER. Everything here is better. Better priesthood, better sacrifice, better living, better intercession, better promises. What once was good, now it’s better.

In Old Testament, we saw some snapshots of God at work in the course of human history. In the New Testament, we find Jesus in physical form, walking the streets of Jerusalem.

In the Old Testament, we saw the symbols of God, shadows of His nature like a poor replica of the real thing. In the New Testament, we see the real thing in the person of Jesus Christ.

Often we forget the significance of this simple fact: God came down, walked among us and rubbed shoulders with us. He came to touch our base existence and turn it into something heaven-worthy. He turned the mundane into glorious, the filthy into something holy, the hopeless to a life full of hope and promise, the sinner to a life that is free and forgiven.

He came to make our lives better.

That doesn’t happen, actually.

There is no such thing as non-talking, non-hearing Jesus. Heaven will never, for all eternity, have a sign at its door saying it’s Out of Order or that its communication lines are jammed. The times when you feel like God is silent, it’s because you are seeking His voice only from the usual places- your feelings.

For some reason, many people often forget that there’s a place where God’s guidance is always available any time of the day- the pages of the Scriptures. The Bible is a guide. It contains precepts and principles on Christian living.

Precepts are clearly stated imperatives, like abstaining from sexual impurity or not committing murder. As Charles Swindoll says, it’s like a speed limit of 100 kph. Anything beyond 100 kilometers is wrong.

Principles are general guidelines that need discernment and maturity. Issues like confronting a superior or ratting out an office mate who is stealing company resources aren’t found in the Bible. But principles on relationships are plenty.

When God doesn’t seem to answer your prayer for guidance, it doesn’t mean that He is not answering. You don’t need a burning bush experience whenever you ask God to show you the way. A simple verse will do.

Go, read your Bible.

The older brother in the story of the prodigal son is the epitome of a hardworking, model citizen. He took care of his father’s business, we could categorically say he was honest, and he was never irresponsible. He was the guy who was self motivated. If we are to look at him, he is the type who would probably win the number one outstanding young man award.

But Jesus sees things we don’t. Underneath this veil of “perfection,” He saw a man who was just as lost as the wayward prodigal son, a man who needed the same dose of grace and the same love from the father.

Don’t think for a second that those who look okay on the outside are really okay on the inside. When Samuel lined up Jesse’s sons to anoint the one who will succeed king Saul, even he was impressed with the physical stature of David’s older brothers. God had to rebuke him and remind him that He is more interested in what goes on in the heart of the person.

Not judging the book by its cover is more than just a cliché, it is a spiritual reality that we have to learn and relearn everyday.

I have one problem with prosperity gospel- some people equate it with getting rich. The worst I heard from the lips of a prosperity believer is that if you are a Christian and still not rich, then there is something wrong with your faith. You might as well be an unbeliever. They quote verses from around the Bible to prove their point and the damage they inflict on other believers simply appall me.

Try to reason with them and they’ll say you lack the vision and the drive to succeed, that you’re far too accepting of your present condition, that you are not fully realizing your God-given potential and that you don’t have what it takes to be on top. You’ve probably heard all that before and believed it to some extent. Don’t. It’s time to wake up to the truth.

The Bible says that God will meet our needs (Phil. 4:19), that He will make us rich in every way so that we can be generous (2 Cor. 9:11) and bless others as a result (Gen. 12:2). But nowhere does it say that our bank accounts should be the yardstick of our spiritual lives. The prophets Elijah and Elisha both went through periods of famine, Jacob’s family had nothing to eat that they went down to Egypt and became servants after Joseph died. If the modern prosperity preachers are to be believed, these mighty men of God would be spiritually deficient.

A balanced understanding of God’s blessings and sovereignty is necessary to understand financial issues in the lives of Christians. God does bless us, but He also allows us to be tested spiritually, relationally, financially. Your financial condition today is not the thermometer of your relationship with God.