Fixing Eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-3)!!

 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)

 

Although Jesus Christ has cleansed the sins of the whole world, especially those who accepted Him as their Lord & Saviour, through His sacrifice, what is the point of Christianity if it is so easy to live our lives according to our own ways and forget about the belief of Christianity entirely?  Is Christianity really worth it?  As the Sovereign Creator God, our heavenly Father, has loved us so much from the beginning, can we just live our lives according to our own ways and surrender our lives to Him before physical death to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Yes, the belief of Christianity is worth of our whole lives.  Hence, we cannot just live our own lives according to our own ways until the end of our physical lives and surrender our lives to God wholeheartedly to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Surrendering our whole lives to God wholeheartedly and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour offers us a citizenship of heaven.  Nonetheless, Christianity is far beyond getting a ticket to heaven.  As a Christian is Jesus’ devoted follower, they have an intimate relationship with Him.  It becomes their true identity that Jesus’ followers are to imitate Him in everything they do.  In fact, all people have been created to be in God’s image, and Jesus Christ is His perfect image as He is actually God in the human form (c.f Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 8:29-30).

To follow and imitate Jesus properly, God has given believers the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-27; 16:7-15).  The Holy Spirit is the gateway of our spirit to God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2).  Although listening to the Holy Spirit and obeying Him is challenging that we want to give up sometimes, we have to persevere our life in Christ until the end.  Eternal life in Him is far better than worldly life in long term run.  People can experience their earthly life for a limited time, whereas they can experience their eternal life in Christ for eternity.  They even can experience it in part on earth by focusing on Him and God’s Kingdom Glory and making these as our first priorities.  Therefore, when we want to give up our eternal life in Christ, let us all remember that it is worth it in the long run (1 Corinthians 9:24-25; Philippians 3:7-14; Hebrews 12:1-2).  It is good to do good deeds for God’s Kingdom Glory, but God firstly cares about our faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10; cf. Hebrews 11:6). Through faith in Him, we can know and believe God, because Jesus is God in the flesh (John 1:1-18; 14:1-14).

Meditate on 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, and ask yourself this question: “What and how can I run the life of faith with, even in the midst of unknown and unexpected obstacles?”

Heartset & Mindset on Heaven (Colossians 3:1-4)

 Heartset & Mindset on Heaven

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

What is the point of being a follower of Jesus if we are to disregard all earthly things and sacrifice our lives all day long, regardless of having eternal life in Him, until Jesus comes?  What if circumstances get too challenging and complicated that we just want to give up of being a follower of Jesus and live normal ways of our lives?  After being Jesus’ follower for some time, can we commit suicide and then, go to heaven?

First of all, we mustn’t commit suicide after being Jesus’ follower for some time and we are ready to go to heaven, even when our life situations get too challenging and complicated.  Yes, life gets tougher and tougher, especially when we become followers of Jesus (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 14:26-33).  Nonetheless, when we become His followers we get enormous benefits.  Firstly, we are able to have an everlasting relationship with the Triune God—God as our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and the Holy Spirit as our ultimate helper (John 1:9-13; 14:15-28; 16:7-15).  With this relationship, we also get eternal life citizenship (John 3:16-18; Romans 6:23; Titus 3:3-8).  Secondly, we join God’s family.  The easiest way to join it is belonging to a church.  The church is gathering and worshipping place of all believers, who represent the body of Christ, as each of them is a member of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).

Furthermore, since earthly things are temporary, earthly satisfaction is temporary too.  This means our searches to try and get our satisfaction filled will never end.  For example, my current earthly satisfaction is getting LED lights to make my room beautiful. My father allowed me to use his card details to purchase the one I really have wanted as my birthday present, and I purchased other four LED lights, with my card details, to go along with it. They look awesome when I turn them on at night.  Nonetheless, I want more to put LED lights somewhere else, even though I don’t have anywhere to put them because my room is small.

Although earthly things are temporary, heavenly things are eternal (Matthew 6:19-20).  Heavenly things are centred on the presence of Jesus Christ and eternal home He has prepared for His followers.  This does not mean that we should disregard all earthly things and solely focused on heavenly things.  As we live in the earth physically, but our citizenship has changed to heaven from the earth, we are to consider heavenly things exceedingly more valuable than earthly things.  Hence, we have to let the Holy Spirit to transform us to set our hearts and minds to align our priorities from earthly ones to heavenly ones, such as believing in Jesus and doing everything for God’s kingdom glory instead of ourselves (Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 6:7-10; Colossians 3:23-24).  The guarantee of these is that we will be transformed from earthly bodies to spiritual and glorious bodies when Jesus comes, and we will be taken up to the Kingdom of Heaven with him (Philippians 3:7-14, 18-21; Colossians 3:3-4).

Meditate on the sanctification, holiness process, of our lives as we follow Jesus (1 Peter 1:13-21), and ask yourself this question: “As I have been raised to new life with Christ through accepting Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour, and through baptism, how can I set apart from the world, even though I live in the world, and be holy in everything I do with my mindset on the presence of Christ and eternal heavenly home?"