To Believe in Jesus – Part 21

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:24

དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཡིན་པས་ཁོང་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་དགོས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 4:24

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

In previous lessons we discussed how Jesus defines worship.

Jesus’ expectation when we worship God is about our sincere acts of obedience to God’s word and teachings. Jesus was indeed teaching and encouraging obedience to God’s words and to fulfill God’s will. Remember Jesus taught about serving and loving God with our hearts and minds completely.

In the context of the Gospel of John, the fundamental basis of believing in Jesus was contrasted against the systematic rejection of God’s truth and call for sincere repentance. The Sanhedrin comprising the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Rabbinic leaders of Judaism were persistently enforcing their man-made doctrines which goes against God’s call for true repentance. Man-made ideologies do not expose the wickedness of human’s acts of sins and teaches disloyalty against God who created all things. Therefore those who systematically rejected Jesus’s teachings and continue to harden their hearts in disbelieve in Jesus’ teachings fail to practice true worship that pleases God.

Let’s consider the following passage from Isaiah that speaks in the same context of true worship

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 48:1

ཀྱེ་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་ཞེས་འབོད་པའི་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ་རྒྱུད། ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན་ལས་བྱུང་བ་དང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མནའ་བསྐྱལ་ནའང་བདེན་པ་དང་དྲང་པོ་མ་ཡིན། ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གླེང་པ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་འདི་ལ་ཉོན་ཅིག

Isaiah 48:1

Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

 

If you read up the historical context of Isaiah, you might understand how the prophet Isaiah by conviction of the Holy Spirit and speaking in the fear of God Almighty, exposed the hypocrisies of the Jewish people in those days going about their regular temple services presenting their offerings and sacrifices but God was not pleases with what was going on in their hearts and minds against the will of God.

In previous lesson we differentiated how pagans worship their false gods – for personal gains and profits and showing no regards for God’s moral law and having no perspective for God’s will. And that is not how God want us to worship Him!

Our sincere acts of worship towards God must be with consistence acceptance of God’s moral laws and ways of righteousness. Means we worship God through our practice of God’s teachings revealed in scripture truth. That is why Christian uses the Bible as reference for teaching and not any other religious books and not any inspirational writings by some self-proclaimed gurus!

Let’s look at the example of Jesus for true proper worship to God –

 

ཕི་ལིབ་པི་པ། 2:8

ཕལ་བའི་རྣམ་འགྱུར་བཟུང་ཞིང་དམན་ཚུལ༌གྱིས།།

དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ལུང་ཇི་བཞིན༌དུ།།

རྒྱ་གྲམ་ཤིང་གི་རྩེ་ནས་གྲོངས་པར༌མཛད།།

Philippians 2:8

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

ལོ་ཀུ 22:41-43

41ལག་རྡོ་འཕེན་ཐེངས་ཤིག་གི་རིང་ཚད་ཀྱི་གནས་ལ་ཕེབས༌ཏེ། པུས་མོ་སར་བཙུགས༌ནས། 42ཀྱེ། བདག་གི་ཡབ་ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཐུགས་དགྱེས་ན་བདག་ལས་ཕོར་བ་འདི་ཕྱིར་ལེན་པར༌མཛོད། འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་བསམ་དོན་བཞིན་དུ་མི་འགྲུབ་པར་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་གྲུབ་གྱུར་ཅིག་ཅེས་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ། 43ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ལས་ཕོ་ཉ་ཞིག་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་དུ་སླེབས་ཏེ་ཁོང་ལ་མཐུ་སྟོབས་བསྩལ༌ཏོ།།

Luke 22:41-43

41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

 

That was how Jesus worships the Father in heaven, God Almighty creator of all things! And we are to follow the ways and example of Jesus.

The sacrifice of self for the will of God and this is something all Christians will struggle with.

Two difficulties that can hinder our worship towards God and if we could deal with it, that will help us a lot when we worship God –

 

1. 1. Our knowledge and understanding of the will of God.

We need to be taught and educated in the knowledge and will of God. This is why it is so important for Christians and believers to do consistent bible reading and studies, and we need good teachers who can help us see and understand the will of God.

Majority of Christians and denominations will continue to struggle with how to interpret what is written in the Bible and how to apply. This is where we need continuing expert learning and we need good bible teachers who are true disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

2. Our abilities to differentiate between what is the will of God and what is our own human intention.

It is only after we know the truth of God’s will then we can make clear differentiation between what is God’s will and what is our own human intention.

The words and teachings of God will cause division and separation – distinction between those who believe and those who do not, separation between those who acts in obedience to God’s will and those who do not.

Doing obedience to the will of God as a form of worship will cause us to be rejected by societies and communities that do not worship God –

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 5:29

པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན་པ་ལས་མིའི་ངག་ལ་མཉན་མི་འོས་སོ།།

Acts 5:29

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

 

To be continue

David Z