Sowing and Reaping – Part 14
Sowing towards Christ-likeness through sufferings for Christ’s sake
ཐི་མོ་ཐེ་གཉིས་པ། 2:1-3
1དེ་ལྟར་ཡིན་པས། བདག་གི༌བུ། ཁྱོད་ནི་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ནང་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སྤོབས་པ་དང་ལྡན་པར་གྱུར༌ཅིག 2ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་དཔང་པོ་བྱེད་མཁན་མང་པོའི་མདུན༌དུ། བདག་གི་ངག་ལས་ཐོས་པའི་བསླབ་བྱ༌དག་ནི། མི་གཞན་ལ་སློབ་སྟོན་བྱེད་ནུས་པ་དང་ཡིད་རྟོན་རུང་བའི་མི་རྣམས་ལའང་བཅོལ་བར༌གྱིས། 3ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དམག་མི་ཕུལ་བྱུང་ཅན་དང་མཚུངས་པར་བདག་དང་མཉམ་དུ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱང༌དགོས་སོ།།
2 Timothy 2:1-3
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
The sufferings we embrace for Christ is not the same as man-made religious teachings about doing good karma!
As disciples of Jesus we are in the process of growing into maturity in our inner man being conformed to the image of Christ. It is the will of God for us to grow into Christ-likeness. And how we can actually conform to the image of Christ is to follow Jesus through learning His ways and life.
It is a difficult path to walk therefore we need the grace of God to help us through.
We are to grow from faith to faith, increasing in our knowledge and understanding of the will of God. We know we should live for the purpose of serving God but very often we are lacking in knowing the will of God and how to do it and that due to two known factors
- Growing up under the influence of this current world system and education which does not follow scripture truth. We have be taught and conditioned to follow the system of this world that is operating without hope of eternal life in Christ.
- being ignorant of God’s will due to factor (1) as we are already used to the current world system we had been thinking we were just doing the usual normal thing like everyone else till the light of God’s truth shine into our lives and expose our sinful condition. Now that we know God’s truth we know where we did wrong. We want to pursue the path to eternal life with Jesus but we are in this constant conflict within ourselves and with people around us.
Training and equipping is fundamental to growing our relationship with God.
We need to grow in our inner man through devotions to the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ. We need to sow the seeds of God’s words in us every day. We need to be equipped with the grace of our Lord.
The kind of sufferings we encounter would involves our will to follow Jesus but clashes with our human desire. All that we ever learnt from this world since childhood that was not of God will be tested and measured against the truth of God’s words
ཐེ་སཱ་ལོ་ནེ་ཀེ་པ་དང་པོ། 5:20-22
20ཡང་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གསུང་གླེང་ལ་མཐོང་ཆུང་མི་བྱའོ།། 21འོན་ཀྱང༌། ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ལེགས་པར་བརྟགས་ནས་བཟང་པོ་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་རྒྱུན་འཁྱོངས༌དང༌། 22ལས་ངན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྩ་བ་ནས་སྤང་བར༌གྱིས།
1 Thessalonians 5:20-22
20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
མཛད་འཕྲིན། 17:10-12
10དེ་ནས་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཚན་མོའི་དུས་ལ་སླེབས་མ་ཐག་ཕོལ་ལོལ་དང་སི་ལཱ་གཉིས་པུ་རེ་ཡཱ་རུ་འགྲོ་བར་བཅུག་གོ། ཁོང་གཉིས་གནས་དེར་སླེབས་པ་དང་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ཆོས་ཁང་དུ་ཕྱིན༌ཅིང་། 11གནས་འདིའི་མི་རྣམས་ནི་ཐེ་སཱ་ལོ་ནེ་ཀེའི་མི་རྣམས་དང་བསྡུར༌ན་སེམས་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བ་དང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་དགའ༌ཞིང༌། ཉིན་རེ་བཞིན་ཕོལ་ལོལ་གྱིས་གསུངས་པ་དེ་ནི་གསུང་རབ་དང་མཐུན་མིན་ལ་བརྟག་ཅིང་དཔྱོད་པ་རེད། 12དེ་བས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལས་མི་མང་པོ་ཞིག༌དང༌། གྷི་རིག་གི་མི་རིགས་ལས་བཀུར་འོས་པའི་བུད་མེད་དང་སྐྱེས་པ་འགའ་ཤས་ཀྱང་དད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།།
Acts 17:10-12
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
In both reference to 1 Thessalonians 5 and Acts 17 there is the emphasis to use scripture truth to check for truth and error.
Interestingly Acts 17 could be a contextual explanation of what Paul was teaching about in 1 Thessalonians 5. The “prophecies” Paul speaks of can well be a general reference to teaching and preaching of the Gospel using words of the prophet like Isaiah and Jeremiah and especially those with reference to the Messiah.
Without understanding scripture truth we would have continued in our own human definition of moral and ethics, doing things as we ourselves seems right and going about in endless disagreement and disputes among ourselves what is actually right and what is wrong. Consider all these from a broader perspective people missed out God’s ultimate goal for us which is redemption of our souls that we may enter eternal life with Jesus Christ.
As believers and disciples we do struggles with our daily practices and how do we continue to live among non-believers? Apparently there is the possibility that our sufferings for Christ’s sake can turn out to be opportunity for being faithful witness for Jesus.
ཕི་ལིབ་པི་པ། 1:29
ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀར་དད་པ་བྱེད་པ་ལས༌གཞན། ཁོང་གི་ཆེད་དུ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱོང་བའི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡང་གནང་བ༌དང༌།
Philippians 1:29
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
It was Jesus’ suffering that brought hope to lost souls.
We once were lost but brought near to God through Jesus acts of kindness and sufferings for us.
As we suffer for Christ’s sake we are sharing hope of eternal life with people around us.
ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 53:2-3
2ས་སྐམ་ནང་ལ་རྩ་བ་འཛུགས་པའི་རྩི་ཤིང་ལྟར་ཁོང་གི་ཞབས་ཕྱི་ཡར་སྐྱེས་པ།
གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་ཡིན།
ཁོ་ལ་ང་ཚོས་དོ་སྣང་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར། གཟི་བརྗིད་ཡང་ན་མཛེས་ཚུལ་གང་ཡང་མེད།
ཁོ་ཡི་སྐོར་ལ་ཡིད་འཕྲོག་བྱ་རྒྱུ་གང་ཡང་མེད། ཁོང་གི་གང་ཞིག་གིས་ང་ཚོར་བཀུགས་མི་ཐུབ།
3ང་ཚོས་ཁོང་ལ་སྨད་ཅིང་སྤངས་བར་བྱ། ཁོ་ཡི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ན་ཚར་བཟོད་སྲན་བྱས།
སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོ་ལ་བལྟ་བར་མི་བྱེད་དོ། ཁོ་ལ་ང་ཚོས་རིང་ཐང་བརྩི་མེད་བྱས།
Isaiah 53:2-3
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53 is in the context of Jesus going to the cross to lay down His life for the will of God.
Jesus through His sufferings, death, and resurrection, establish peace between God and Man.
We are called to be witness for Christ’s sufferings, death, and resurrection.
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 