Hey everyone,
Welcome back to another session of “Some Thoughts.”
I decided to be smarter with this post and just post things as they come along instead of jumbling it all at once and forcing myself to think of ideas so the ideas may be a bit more scattered than usual :O.
Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy and here is my agenda for the day:
- Jesus being the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3)
- Parable of the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44)
- Over-spiritualizing a wheel
- It “seemed good to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15:28)
- Prayer
Something absolutely absurd that we often skim over is when the Bible says that Jesus is the “glory of God” (Hebrews 1:3).
We are kind of like “yeah, that’s true. Know that” but we overlook the absolute absurdity of the statement.
Like first let’s look at Jesus: some carpenter dude from Nazareth who was apparently nice to tax collectors and prostitutes and ended up being humiliated through suffering and dying on a cross.
On the other end, we are told that God is this all-powerful dude: creator of all things, king of the universe, etc.
And you’re telling me that of all the things God could use to advertise himself and show off his “glory and representation” is this guy? Same dude who got bullied by some Roman soldiers?
I thought he was supposed to be all-powerful and all that jazz.
Once we recognize the absolute absurdity in the statement, we also understand the absolutely beauty in which it entails.
That the God whom we serve is not some all-powerful, far-away deity in the sky but someone who is very near to us, who understands our struggle, who loves the outcasts and cares for those who are overlooked.
Maybe it’s that upside down kingdom thing?
I’ve recently started reading “don’t waste your life” by John Piper and this parable shows up in the first couple chapters.
This doesn’t have much to do with the book but I just wanted to share that this is probably my favorite parable! It’s so simple yet there is so much behind it.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44
It’s only one verse (and is one of the shortest parables) but it really shows the depth and “worth” of living a life for God.
It’s worth so much that the guy sold everything he had to get it. If we believe that Jesus is worth it then we should be like that guy. I wish I could literally be that guy because it would make it easier to give everything up for the Kingdom of God without the all the extra decision making.
But back to the topic:
I wonder if we have that same zeal as we search for God?
Do we believe that Jesus is worth everything?
(As I finish off this section, I’m almost sure I have posted this exact thing before. hehe. Guess I just love this topic and parable too much).
A couple weeks ago, I was eager to bring up this amazing idea I had. I wanted to ask one of the campus ministry staff if we could get a prize wheel because I saw a lot booths had them during frosh, etc. and I thought it would be a great way to get people to notice our booths and talk to us!
And so I brought up the idea and he’s like sure, let’s get it right now and we found it online.
I proceeded to ask if we should ‘pray about it or something’ since the decision seemed kind of impulsive 😱😱😱. He laughed and said said he felt there doesn’t feel like a need to always over-spiritualize things.
I actually have no idea how this relates to the original topic because this was supposed to be the Acts 15:28 section but I’ve already written it and am not exactly sure how to relate it to anything so I’m just gonna leave it as a funny story here.
Now onto the real Acts 15:28 section…
As I was listening to BEMA one day, the host pointed out something kind of funny in Acts 15:28 where it says this:
For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements
Acts 15:28
Can you imagine that? You ask the Holy Spirit whether something is a good idea and he’s just like:
“seems good to me”
It’s almost comical in a way. We ask him for his advice and his response is:
“doesn’t look too bad, why not? go for it”
And maybe this is what I was trying to draw in on that last section, that maybe sometimes we look too hard for concrete answers when sometimes God is just telling you to ‘go for it, why not? Seems good to me’ (I know I have).
Hm…I want to post this today since I haven’t posted anything in a while but I feel it’s too short so I guess I will just talk about one more random thing before closing this post off.
One thing I think God has been reminding me a lot about lately is prayer. I haven’t been doing a very good job yet God still reminds me through the few prayers that I do and even through stories about other people’s prayers how powerful our requests to God are.
We’re told that:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16b
So I guess as we are stuck in this pandemic and amidst all this social distancing, I pray that we none of us forget how powerful our prayers are.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth
James 5:17
If one man’s prayers can stop the rain, I wonder what 2 billion prayers could do?
That’s all for today,
Thanks folks and see you next time.
As always, stay cool 😎😎😎
Jason
Jason Reads the Bible 