Pilgrims in Christ – Part 23

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་པོ། 5:6-9

6 དེའི་ཕྱིར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དབང་ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱག་འོག་ཏུ་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་དམའ་ས་བཟུང་ཞིང༌། དུས་ལ་བབས་པའི་ཚེ་ཁོང་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་མཐོ་བར་མཛད།

7 ཁོང་གིས་ཁྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་གཟིགས་སྐྱོང་མཛད་པས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཁྲལ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁོང་ལ་གཏོད།

8 རང་ཚོད་ཟིན་ནས་དོགས་ཟོན་བྱེད་ཅིག བདུད་རྒྱལ་ཏེ་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་དགྲ་བོ་ནི་ངར་སྐད་འདོན་པའི་སེང་གེ་ལྟར་གང་སར་མྱུལ་ནས་ཟ་རྒྱུའི་མི་ཞིག་འཚོལ།

9 ཁོ་བཀག་སྟེ་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་དད་པ་ལ་བརྟན་པོར་གནས། གང་ལགས་ཤེ་ན། འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་དེ་ལྟར་གྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱོང་བར་ཤེས་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།

 

1 Peter 5:6-9

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

 

Peter speaks of two contradicting attitude within a same situation but yet as according to the will of God. But for people of this world who do not serve God this is mind blowing.

Peter was addressing us disciples when faced with a certain situation to be humble to submit to the will of God and at the same time put up firm resistant against the devil.

How do we do that? Does this call for split-personality behavior? No!

Peter’s instruction is not new, such situation have been a pattern for God’s chosen people

 

ནེ་ཧེམ་ཡཱ 4:16-18

16དེ་ནས་བཟུང་སྟེ་ངའི་མི་མང་ཕྱེད་ཀས་ཨར་ལས་བྱས་ཤིང་། ཕྱེད་ཀས་གོ་ཁྲབ་གྱོན་ཏེ་མདུང་དང་ཕུབ་དང་མདའ་གཞུ་བཅས་འཁྱེར་ནས་སྲུང་ཆར་བསྡད་ཅིང་། དེ་བཞིན་ང་ཚོའི་འགོ་བྱེད་ཚོས་ཀྱང་། 17ལྕགས་རི་ཉམས་གསོ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་གང་སྤྱིའི་རོགས་དང་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཆ་ཚང་བྱས་པ་ཡིན། ལྕགས་རི་ཉམས་གསོར་མཁོ་བའི་ལག་ཆ་འཁྱེར་མཁན་ཨར་ལས་པ་ཚོས་ལག་པ་ཡ་གཅིག་གིས་ཨར་ལས་བྱས་ཤིང་། ལག་པ་ཡ་གཅིག་ཏུ་གོ་མཚོན་འཁྱེར་ནས་བསྡད་ཀྱི་ཡོད་དོ། 18དེ་བཞིན་ཨར་ལས་བྱེད་མཁན་ཚང་མས་རང་གི་སྐེད་པར་གྲི་བཏགས་ཤིང་། དམག་དུང་འབུད་དེ་ཟོན་བརྡ་བསྐུལ་མཁན་མི་དེ་ང་དང་མཉམ་དུ་གནས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན

 

Nehemiah 4:16-18

16 From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17 who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. 18 And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.

 

When Nehemiah was called to rebuild the Temple they were faced with persistent enemy sabotage and being ready for any sudden warfare. But the people who were together with Nehemiah to rebuild the Temple continued the work in humility and obedience to the will of God.

For us disciple of Christ we are faced with the same situation but we are dealing with spiritual entities of darkness that seek to sabotage our relationship with God.

What empower disciples to walk with God in humility and obedience and yet at the same time be able to put up firm resistance against the devil is in our understanding of the will of God and our ability to see into our future inheritance in Christ.

Means to say in whatever circumstance we are in we are to set priority to know and understand the will of God not only for today and now but also for tomorrow and the future and into eternity in the kingdom of God.

With our knowledge of scripture and help of the Holy Spirit we can understand our current times of sufferings should not be misunderstood as “misfortune” as the world sees it and we start blaming and attacking others as people of the world do. We also need to be careful not to be pressured to “conform” and “compromise” with the ways of this world.

People of this world, from government leaders to common folks, seek to be in control of their life and destiny. And therefore it is in in their practice to do as according to what is in their human desires. Even among their most noble attempts it’s about “self-service” and “survival of the fittest”.

However for us as disciple of Christ we should know we have a heavenly Father who cares for us. We are no more lost sheep. We are no more independent and self-serve.

Our heavenly Father care for us and will also check our steps when we are heading the wrong directions, sometimes.

 

ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ། 12:6 – དེ་ནི་གཙོ་བོས་བྱམས་པར་གཅུན་པ་དང༌།། བུ་རུ་རྩི་བ་རྣམས་ལ་གཅུན་པས་སོ།།

 

Hebrews 12:6 – For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

 

Remember those who suffer as according to the will of God but persevere and received God’s grace and mercy. Faith, trust, and obedience, all because we know we have a better position with God.

In times of pain and sufferings the world thinks of “bad luck”, “misfortune”, and “whose fault”, but we as disciple of Christ first need to know and understand the will of God.

We don’t have to be bullied by tyrants but we need to know the will of God.

How do we know if we are doing the will of God?

 

གསུང་མགུར 119:105

ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ནི་ང་ལ་སྣེ་འཁྲིད་བྱེད་མཁན་བཞུ་མར་དང།

ང་ལ་འགྲོ་ལམ་སྟོན་མཁན་འོད་ནི་དེ་རང་ཡིན།

 

Psalm 119:105 -Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 

When we live according to the words of God’s truth we know we are in the will of God.

We must not forget we are living in this world of darkness and unless we are guided by the words of God we do not know the truth and reality of what’s happening around us.

When Christ returns everything will be in the light!

When Christ returns we know our perseverance is not in vain.

 

David Z