Bits of Gospel in Malay

Lukas Fasal 5 Ayat 12-16

12. Pada suatu kali Isa berada di sebuah bandar. Terdapat seorang yang berpenyakit kusta. Apabila dia melihat Isa, dia meniarap lalu memohon kepada- Nya, "Tuan, jikalau Tuan mahu, Tuan berkuasa untuk menyembuhkan saya"

13. Lalu Isa pun menghulurkan tangan-Nya dan menyentuh dia sambil berkata, "Saya mahu. Sembuhlah engkau!" Seketika itu juga penyakit kustanya hilang.

14. Isa berpesan kepadanya, "Jangan beritahu hal ini kepada sesiapa pun melainkan pergi tunjukkan dirimu kepada imam dan persembahkan suatu korban untuk penyembuhanmu, seperti yang ditetapkan oleh Musa untuk membuktikan kepada semua orang bahawa engkau kini sudah sembuh"

15. Akan tetapi, perkhabaran tentang Isa tersebar lebih meluas dan banyak orang datang untuk mendengar ajaran-Nya dan memohon Nya menyembuhkan penyakit mereka.

16. Tetapi Isa kerapkali pergi ke tempat yang sunyi untuk berdoa.

 

Lukas Fasal 5 Ayat 27 -32
27 Kemudian Isa keluar dan nampak seorang pemungut cukai yang bernama Lewi sedang duduk di tempat orang membayar cukai. Isa berkata kepadanya, "Ikutlah Aku!"

28 Lewi bangun, meninggalkan semuanya dan mengikut Isa.

29. Lewi menyediakan suatu jamuan besar untuk Isa dirumahnya. Ada banyak pemungut cukai dan orang lain yang turut duduk bersama-sama dengan mereka.

30. Orang Farisi dan ahli - ahli Taurat yang semazhab bersungut-sungut kepada pengikut- pengikut Isa,
"Mengapakah kamu makan dan minum bersama-sama dengan pemungut-pemungut cukai dan orang yang dihina masyarakat?

31 Isa menjawab, "Orang sakitlah yang memerlukan tabib, bukan orang sihat.

32 Aku bukannya datang untuk memanggil orang yang benar melainkan orang berdosa supaya mereka bertaubat"

"semazhab" - same sect

"tabib"- physician


Lukas Fasal 6 Ayat 27, Ayat 32-33
27 "Tetapi kepada kamu yang mendengar, Aku berkata demikian, kasihilah seterumu, berbuat baik kepada orang yang membencikan kamu,

28 rahmatilah orang yang mengutuk kamu dan doakan orang yang menganiayai kamu"

32 Jikalau kamu mengasihi orang yang mengasihi kamu, apakah kelebihanmu? Malah orang jahat pun mengasihi orang yang mengasihi mereka.

33 Dan jikalau kamu membalas baik kepada orang yang berbuat baik kepadamu, apakah kelebihanmu? Orang jahat pun berbuat begitu".

"seterumu"- foe

"rahmatilah"- blessing

Summary from Thomas A Kempis Imitation of Christ

Blessed is he who appreciates what it is to love Jesus

Affection for creatures is deceitful and inconstant but the love of Jesus is true and enduring.

He who clings to a creature will fall with frailty (All creatures are frail – defective) but he who clings to Jesus will even be strengthened.

Sometimes  whether you will or not you will have to part with everything.

Cling to Jesus in life and also in death. 

Trust yourself to the glory of Him alone who can help you when all others fail.

He wants your heart for Himself alone to be enthroned therein as King in this own right. If you know how to free yourself entirely from all creatures (and things) Jesus would gladly dwell within you.

..all trust you place in men is a total loss...  you will often be disappointed if you seek comfort and gain in them.

If however you seek Jesus in all things, you will surely find Him.

If you seek yourself (or seek for yourself) all you have is you- to your own ruin. For the man who does not seek Jesus does himself much greater harm than the whole world and all his enemies could even do.

JOHN 3:16

SALT

Salt is a compound of sodium (metal that can suddenly burst into flames) and chloride (lethal gas). The combination produces a substance which is essential for human life. Why essential? It aids the absorption of nutrients and disposal of waste into the bloodstream. Our bodies cannot produce sodium which is necessary for muscle contraction and transmission of nervous impulses. Chloride is essential for digestion and respiration. We are constantly losing salt through our daily normal body functions when we “visit the toilet” and when we perspire. Salt also preserves and adds flavour to foods. It cleans and acts as an antiseptic.  It has medicinal values- aids healing of sore throats, ear aches etc.

Leviticus 2: 13 provides: You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering, with all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Yeshua called us to be the salt. Paul urges us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice acceptable to God. 

To be an acceptable sacrifice, we are to be salted. This means that we are  to provide healing, flavour and preservation of life  (telling others in darkness of Yeshua, assisting those in the light, living the life as a disciple of Yeshua). This makes us an acceptable sacrifice to God.

In the words of Yeshua “For everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good but if the salt loses its flavour how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another” Mark 9: 49-50

Fellow disciples, if we truly are disciples as we say, let us ensure fervently that we are salted.

(I like to us a bit of my imagination and carry out my daily affairs picturing myself as a candle or as salt. Side issue: Yeshua studied and practised the Torah. The Torah was His bible. His quotes from the OT is clearly the evidence of that. Why do we not then look deeply into what He reads?)

Acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour

Acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour

We have His disposition

Now He demands that we live as His disciples

How?

By hearing and doing his Word.

[We may hear His many words but our wills are not conforming not surrendering] Don’t be ashamed of doing and living His words that others may see.

“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the POWER of God for salvation for everyone who believes Jews first then the Greek” - Romans 1:16

Obey at the risk of being looked at and thought of as being fanatical. Matters not what others think as long we hear Him say “Well done good and faithful servants” -Matthew25:21

Thinking clearly

1. Thinking clearly means filing our minds with the TRUTH.

2. The TRUTH is all that is NOT apart from God. (Anything that is claimed to be truth but is apart from God leads to death). The TRUTH is connected to our memory. We are to always bring in memory God's redemptive act conducted on our behalf through our personal history and God's history (as contained in the Bible - detailed study of the 1st five books of the Old Testament is encouraged). The TRUTH is the word of our Lord Jesus - the Gospel's studying, retaining, putting to practise and bringing his words to our minds. 

3. Doing all of the above will enable us to think clearly, move thoughts away from the state of weakness, fearful thoughts and will lead to calm rationale reasoning. Turn or transform your mind to His mind. May you pray for Godly wisdom (James 1:5) and may we have the mind of the Messiah (1 Cor 2:160.)

How do we avoid double mindedness? or How do we be single minded?

1. Draw near to God (James 4:8)

By prayer earnestly call out to Him. Be honest. He knows everything.

2. Take every thought that takes us away from TRUTH. This means constantly focusing on the TRUTH to be convinced of what IS the TRUTH (Study of scriptures). The Scriptures are the TRUTH, the reality.

3. Keep practising our faith. Live it out in order to give it strength and reality. We do not just embed seed into soil and watch the tree grow. We nurture it and overtime comes from fruit - the single mindedness.

Tell them the Truth

1. Calling people to our faith encompasses the USUAL explanation, as follows(or something along these lines):-

• God is creator of all.
• God and creation had a perfect relationship. God reigns.
• Men sinned. Men chose self rule.
• Because of sin, God and men are separated. God is holy. God cannot accept sin and “close” His eyes to sin. God’s goodness and holiness demand judgement and punishment.  God’s wrath is upon the sinner and the punishment for sin is death. (Sin is the sting of death).
• But God is love. Not just God loves, He IS love. He designed a plan to save us. He sent His Son Jesus to die for us, taking the punishment in our place. Our Lord was crucified on the cross for us. Our Lord Jesus was then resurrected.
• If we believe in Jesus, we are born again, are saved and have new life. We get to go to heaven.

2.  Certainly all of the above is true but there is more to that and we should tell “the more” We should be more accurate to reveal the demands of the Christian faith. John Macarthur’s, brief exposition on how we are to call people to faith (The Gospel According to the Apostles, Pages 178-185) is recommended for reading and thereafter teaching.  In summary:

(a) We are to show and to expound God’s holiness. He is not Santa Clause. He is a holy, pure and almighty God. Let these not just be words that we hear and acknowledge without feeling, without letting them sink in. He IS HOLY. To be with Him in a relationship NOW and after, He demands that we be holy as well. He demands our respect and our reverential fear. We are not to hide these facts and simply speak solely or primarily of His blessings and grace.

He requires repentance i.e., turning away from our transgressions and following His son Jesus in every moment of our life.

He requires faith in Jesus evidenced by our thoughts, words and deeds.

(b)     Salvation is a remedy for sin. It is not just an escape from punishment and not merely a ticket to heaven when we die. If we truly receive Christ as our savior and our Lord, His spirit lives in us and empowers us in our sanctification. We are by His grace delivered from the power of sin.

(c)      Show and expound that good works cannot save. Our sins, even the “respectable” “accepted” (by the world) sins are severe and warrant God’s wrath (He is Holy). We do not deserve salvation.  We may do a good work at 5 pm but at 5.15 pm have a lustful thought. Will that good work take away that sin? Does a great God need our good works? Even in our good works, there is sin for many do to earn salvation or to remove guilt or praise, basically for self.  Only the grace of God can save. Only He out of His goodwill saves.

(d)       Tell them who Christ is.

·                     He is God (John 1: 1-3);

·                     He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11);

·                     He became man (Phillipians2:6-7);

·                     He is pure and sinless;

·                     He became a sacrifice for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). He redeemed us and we received forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7)

·                     He was resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

(e)       A follower of Christ is a disciple of Christ and there is cost to this discipleship. The disciple is to love God above all else and there is no turning back. There is to be no luke warmness no double mindedness. There is to be daily crucifixion of  self (Romans 6:6). The “would be” follower is to consider the cost (Luke14-26-33) (We will not be unaided of course. The Holy Spirit will assist the disciple).

(f)       There is to be trust in Jesus Christ our Lord. He will complete the work He began in us to transform us into His likeness.

(g)       Though we are to ask questions , research and meditate on God’s words,  we are to tell that God is a mystery. His ways are mysterious. He is God! He is the potter, we are the clay. His ways are beyond and above us. Not everything can be understood.