Grace and a bunch of apples

CONSIDER 2 SCENARIOS :

Scenario #1 :

Someone has been caught stealing a pair of sandals from a shop in a market bazaar.The law of the land stipulates that the guilty party has to have one of their hands cut off in public,to serve as further deterrent to others not to commit the same crime.

Scenario #2 :

One cool autumn day,you are driving down a quiet country road where there are numerous apple orchards. suddenly you stop by one and see a table piled with the most luscious,juiciest apples you've ever seen.But there is no one manning the shall, just a cup with some coins in it. but there's a sign-and it says :

"Apples -50 cents each ;please leave your money in the cup and take your change from it, have a nice day!!!"

take a walk with me...

Those two are actual events that occur in real life.They serve to reflect two worldviews. One says that harsh laws are needed because man is depraved,cannot change his base nature and is thus always needed to be reminded of the consequences of their transgressions.The other takes a leap,goes on faith that man is capable of more noble intentions and practise.That he can be honest,and not selfish.

Which world would you like to live in? How would you make your world more like that? Take a looks at how you behave in your workplace, your home with your loved ones and your friends. That's the world you're shaping with your thoughts, words, deeds and intentions. Is that world what we would call the Kingdom of God ?

The Kingdom of God. One author asked this pertinent question :" Can you imagine what it would be like if people actually lived the Gospel and we lived the Kingdom of God". I can, It would be amazingly bizarre . "Oprah" would feature kids who actuallly like doing their homework and honouring their parents. Gossip magazines would be full of Hollywood celebrities who actually stay married to their spouses for life. And the orphans and old folks home would be empty bacause every family would want to adopt one. The unwanted will become the wanted.

You might say this is a pipe dream,a fantasy and not realistic.It can't possibly be real.True, all true.But....one day it will be. Christ will come again and then every tear, every pain and sorrow will be washed away. and the Kingdom he establishes will be like the one i wrote about, even better.A thousand times better. until then,what will you do with your life? How will you live it ?

Grace to be with you.

Verses for study and reflection :

* Romans 7: 7-25

⁷What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet ⁸But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. ⁹Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

¹¹For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. ¹³Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

*Galatians 2 :15-21

⁵"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' ¹⁶know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. ¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

*Revelations 21 :1-4

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Updated by Rachel

Vesper by Mr.Michael Gong (PJTMC)