Why Study Doctrine?

Why bother studying about doctrine?

The CEII Doctrine Class that we are currently having may seem to some, challenging at best, and intimidating at worst. Instead of trying to grapple with teachings that appear to fly by the top of our heads, wouldn’t it just be easier to not have to learn about difficult, “cheem” issues, and just be content with living life with simple faith? Don’t get me wrong, not that simple faith is not something desirable, but the question here is that is developing our theology, or the study of our beliefs about God, a total necessity for us as Christians? Or is it an option, perhaps for those at a “higher level”, or those who are “more intellectual” or “more spiritual”?

I believe we all agree that we are living in the last days; in perilous times where men are “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (II Timothy 3:2-4). The picture that Paul paints in his letter to Timothy is a pretty accurate depiction of the times we are living in. However, contrast this with what God has made to stand firm even to the end of time in verse 15 of that same chapter. It is His Word – “the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

In a post-modern world where everything is deemed to be relative and everyone is entitled to their own opinions about issues such as religion and moral standards, it is the Word of God that will give us as Christians, the surety of our values and beliefs. We need more than ever, to go back to the Word of God, to study it, to understand and draw our beliefs and convictions from it. Whether we like it or not, this is the universal standard that all man are bound by – the standard which we appeal to when we deal with our own lives, our fellow human beings, and just about everything else! We need to honestly examine and find out for ourselves if the world, the media, our environment, or the Word of God, has a greater influence on our notion of right and wrong...

This brings us back to the question raised in the first paragraph: is it necessary for us to study and understand our beliefs about our God – the Creator of all things in whose image we were made in? Given the privilege of opportunity and the privilege of resource, I believe the study of doctrine is not reserved solely for scholars and pastors, but it is also our responsibility as true believers. Just as Paul exhorts Timothy to “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (II Timothy 3:14), we too are to do likewise.

However, that being said, we must not fall to the other extreme of being preoccupied with gaining mere head knowledge about God. Paul says of “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (II Timothy 3:5) and similarly James exhorts us in James 1:22 to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.”

Our study of the Word must ultimately lead to reverential worship – worship of the most High, with our bodies, our service, our lives, our all; to the glory of God in whom we breathe and move, and have our being.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God,

and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,

for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be

perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

II Timothy 3:16-17

Spending and Being Spent

Christmas Sales, GST Hike Sales, New Year Sales, Warehouse Sales… Especially during these couple of months, we have been bombarded left right centre by lures to splurge our money on ourselves and our loved ones. Spending is very much a part of our materialistic culture here in Singapore and we hardly think twice about how many of our ‘wants’ have become more like ‘needs’ to us. But aside from the spending of material resources that we are all too familiar with, let us ponder for a moment the real true meaning of being spent; of being emptied, and Christ Jesus as that biblical model.

Christ was spent
What exactly does it mean for the Son of God to empty Himself and become poor for our sakes? J.I Packer in “Knowing God” summed it up as “a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, loneliness, isolation, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony – spiritual, even more than physical – that His mind nearly broke under the prospect of it.”

Matthew 27:46 - “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.

Out of obedience to the Father, Jesus Christ “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). He was born in a manger to common folk and later hung on a cross bearing the scorn of men so that we now can have a hope of reconciliation and eternal fellowship with our Creator God. All that Christ took upon Himself to endure is just something that we cannot spend too much time meditating upon.

Being spent like Christ
Fulfilling our side of the bargain simply ought to mean the replicating of the character of Christ in our lives, in word and deed. The priests and the Levites in the parables of Jesus still can be found in our communities today – people who see the needs of others around them, but perhaps after a little guilt trip and a short prayer, walk on by and carry on with life. Out of sight; out of mind. Living in our affluent, middle-class homes, it is definitely a challenge to truly identify with the widow who gave everything down to her last penny to the Lord or the Samaritan who went out of his way to help a stranger. Given our privileged circumstances in life, few among us really know what it means to give till it hurts just as Christ did for us.

The Christian spirit of being spent is the spirit of living out our entire lives based on the principle of making ourselves broken and spilled out to minister to our fellow humans out of love for Jesus. It is the sacrificial giving of service, time, effort, care and concern whenever the need arises. If the one thing we desire for ourselves in the new year of 2004 is spiritual renewal, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit in ourselves – to be emptied and spent so that He might fill us completely.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that,
though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor,
that ye through His poverty might be rich
2 Corinthians 8:9

Our Highest Good

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:19) I’m sure this is a verse that many of us are familiar with, as we can nod our heads in identification with Paul! We struggle and often wonder why it always seems so difficult for our actions to correspond with our ‘values’…

Our actions stem from what we fix as our ‘highest good’ in life – the apex of our beliefs, the ultimate value. Therefore in order to change our actions, we must go to the root of the problem, which is what we fix as our ‘highest good’.

For some, the ‘highest good’ in life is happiness, and for others, pleasure. Everything that they do and the decisions they make revolve around maximising their happiness or pleasure. Their purpose in life therefore would be to be as happy as possible, or to enjoy themselves to the max! Doesn’t that sound like what some of the friends around us echo? “Eat, drink, and be merry…for tomorrow we die”. What a waste if our value system is centred on something that ends prematurely on this earth and is not carried forward to our life eternal!

So what then should be our ‘highest good’? The answer is found clearly in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” We need to adopt the kingdom of God as our ‘highest good’, and the motivation behind each and every thing that we do should be a reflection of this.

Most, if not all parents, desire for their children to study hard and do well in school. However, the underlying motivation is usually so that they can look forward to enjoying a comfortable life, as opposed to excelling for the glory of God. From this we can see financial security being made the ‘highest good’. For most Singaporeans, this is not uncommon as financial security determines when we get married, how many children we have, what kind of jobs we go for, and how hard we work. Having been brought up with success and financial security as their main motivation, children naturally grow up with the same value systems, passing on the same mindsets to their children…and so the cycle continues!

Even the simplest things such as exercising can be a reflection of our ‘highest good’. Is our motivation behind regular exercise and a healthy diet to look beautiful in the eyes of the world? Or do we want to keep our bodies fit should the Lord call us one day to bring the Gospel over mountains and through the jungles to people who have yet to hear the Good News? Well, personally I find it easier to find my motivation in the former as much as I would like to admit otherwise…

Some others, who do not establish their ‘highest good’, live ‘compartmentalised’ lives – orienting specific aspects of their lives around various values, as opposed to a single one. In church, we may display certain behaviour, manner of speech, or type of dressing. During the other six days of the week we may have an entirely different wardrobe or engage in activities we hope others may never come to know. This is simply a reflection of a lack of consistency and coherence in our values. Without first establishing our ‘highest good’, the order of our values will change together with our moods and influences.

Nothing will change in our lives till we change our ‘highest good’, and in order to become Christ-like, we have to replace our personal values with Biblical values. Stop for a moment and re-evaluate if the kingdom of God is your ‘highest good’. Does your ‘highest good’ need tweaking today?

What If?

The might-have-beens
How often do we catch ourselves whiling our time away mulling over the what-ifs and might-have-beens in our lives? Career ventures that did not materialise, relationships that were not meant to be, opportunities past…choices made at a point in time that result in life-altering decisions. Box-office movies such as “Sliding Doors” and “Run, Lola, Run”, go a step further in encouraging us to ponder the impact of seemingly inconsequential actions upon our lives. In “Sliding Doors”, the flight of fantasy sees the protagonist experience two completely different versions of life by sheer dint of whether or not she catches a train. Likewise at times, we may subconsciously toy with ideas of how differently we might be living if certain decisions or events in our lives had taken on another course…

The will of God
However, as Christians, we must guard against these thoughts, as they are what the concept of fate and chance is built upon. Believing on the Lord Jesus means trusting God’s sovereign control in every single aspect of our lives. Our perfect, omniscient Creator does not leave anything in the hands of the capricious nature of fate and chance but on the contrary, makes sure that “all things work for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”

Bearing in mind this reassurance we have, as missionary to Ecuador Jim Elliot puts it succinctly in one of his life maxims: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” With this focus in place, and an unquenchable passion for the life given us, we will find it easier to be joyful and confident in whatever circumstances God places us in. And by not doubting that it is nothing less than His perfect plan and purpose – not for our personal gain, but for His and His alone, we make ourselves more mouldable in His hands and more adept for His use.

That I may know Him
In the light of the knowledge of God, past disappointments and present heartbreaks don’t matter, although the plain fact is that to most of us, they do. Paul, in Philippians 3:8 wrote, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” As such, when we place such vain thinking beside the glories of knowing Christ – not simply intellectually, but experientially and personally – they become not just worthless, but detestable as they pale in comparison to the marvellous work He is doing in us, in whatever station He has placed us in life for His greatest glory.

“If I look back longingly upon what used to be,
and linger among the byways of memory,
so that my power to help is weakened,
then I know nothing of Calvary love.”
- Amy Carmichael, “If”

Let us be careful not to fall into the temptation of wallowing in regret or slipping into bitterness and gloom as we brood on the might-have-beens, but instead, see opportunities to draw strength from our Father and lean wholly on Him. Part of knowing God is not thinking of things we have missed, only of what we have gained.

All for Christ
Like Paul, do we have the desire to lay our all on the altar of sacrifice so “…that [we] may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death”? How are we ensuring that we are living out the purposes of our Lord in where He has placed us?

May we all in His mercy, be able make it our sincere prayer that our unwavering priority would be to know Him as beautifully expressed by the songwriter of this old hymn,

We have not known Thee as we ought,
Nor learned Thy wisdom, grace, and power;
The things of earth have filled our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light Thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing Thee.
- Thom­as B. Pol­lock -

Missions - the Bigger Picture

We have come to the end of a series of presentations on missions, and hopefully this will become a starting point of thinking and discovering of how our individual lives fit in God’s plan of world evangelisation! Oftentimes, we are tempted into believing that missions is the work for spiritual giants such as William Carey and Hudson Taylor, while the rest of us ‘ordinary people’, can take a backseat in this area which ‘God has not called us to?’ …No? But if that is not the case, then what exactly is missions? And who is it for?

1. What?
As mentioned by Pastor in the first session of Open Class, the entire Bible is the revelation of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Hence, the mission of God is precisely His redemptive plan for mankind, and missions is God’s people – us, carrying out God’s mission.

2. Who?
Every true believer, without exception, is called to missions. Contrary to what most think, missions is certainly not an option, and the church has a responsibility, which is to be shouldered by every single member. The Great Commission stated in Matthew 28:18-30 to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” is still binding to all disciples of Christ.

However, this does not mean that all of us are to drop everything we are doing and plunge straight into the mission field as missionaries. The difference to this call to missions is the role we play, i.e. either as senders or goers. But whatever the role, there should be no uncertainty about the purpose and plan of God, and there ought to be no hesitancy in obedience, commitment, and action on our part. While we may not all be called to be missionaries, we are all most certainly called to missions! As Jesus said in John 20:21, “…as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Every heart with Christ is a missionary. Every heart without Christ is a mission field.

3. How about now?
Even as our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and joy because of what Christ Jesus has done for the remission of our sins, and at the same time feeling the great burden to bring this good news of salvation to those who have yet to hear, how are we fulfilling our role as ambassadors for Christ in the world today? Are our lights shining forth clearly into the darkness of human depravity?

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
– Matthew 5:14-16

Are our lives a true reflection of the work God has done in us? Are we eager to talk about our Christian faith with our friends and family?

As senders, how are we investing our resources now towards the furtherance of God’s kingdom? Do we keep ourselves updated and spend time uplifting the mission work of our church in prayer? Does a portion of our money consistently go to the support of missions? Are we thirsting to find out more about missions and evangelism, and keen to equip ourselves through classes such as Evangelism Explosion (E.E.)?

Let us be found faithful in doing our part to ensure the preaching of the gospel to every nation, tribe, people, and tongue…and only then shall Christ return.