ĐẦU XUÂN TÌM PHƯỚC TRONG CHÚA 2

Kinh thánh: Thi thiên 5: 1-12

Câu gốc: Thi thiên 5: 12 – Vì hỡi Đức Giê-hô-va, chính Ngài sẽ ban phước cho người công bình, lấy ơn vây phủ người khác nào bằng cái khiên.

*******

SEEKING GOD’S BLESSINGS AT THE START OF NEW YEAR 2

Bible: Psalm 5: 1-12

Main verse: Psalm 5: 12 – For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

*******

– Traditionally, at the start of a new year almost everyone wants that year to be a lucky one. That’s why we have many ways to express that kind of wish: the way we decorate our homes, the way we buy food and fruits, the way we talk, behave, with some restrictions.

– Even as we are Christians, we still keep some of our traditional way of life in the first day of a new year. Some are not against God’s truth, but some are completely the same like unbelievers, quite opposing to the Bible’ standards. So avoiding unbeliever’s way of life is the first step we should think about as we are seeking God’s blessings for the coming New Year.

– We all know that God is The One Who Blesses mankind and He is also The One Who punishes those broke His laws and went against His standards set forth in the Bible for Christians and the whole world.

ISAIAH 45: 22 – Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

Ê-SAI 45: 22 – Hỡi các ngươi hết thảy ở các nơi đầu cùng đất, hãy nhìn xem ta và được cứu! Vì ta là Đức Chúa Trời, chẳng có Chúa nào khác.

ISAIAH 43: 10 – You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.

Ê-SAI 43: 10 – Đức Giê-hô-va phán: Các ngươi là kẻ làm chứng ta, và là đầy tớ ta đã chọn, hầu cho các ngươi được biết và tin ta, và hiểu rằng ta là Chúa! Chẳng có Đức Chúa Trời nào tạo thành trước ta, và cũng chẳng có sau ta nữa.

– Therefore as we are seeking blessings in this life, we should look up to God and live and do things according to His commands so that we can experience great blessings from Him for our lives and for our families.

– All of religious people know that blessings are not come from men but from a Higher Being and God is The One and Only.

– So, at the start of a new year, we should look into the Bible to find out how us Christians can received blessings from God. There are many instructons that were recorded in Scripture but this time we can only consider some of them. The rest will be for another time.

– In general, there are two main ways to have God’s blessings. First, we should not live like unbelievers. Or in other words, we should not seek God’s blessings like the way unbelievers seek those blessings from their idols. And secondly, we must live our lives the way God wants us to be.

ROMANS 12: 2 – And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

RÔ-MA 12: 2 – Đừng làm theo đời nầy, nhưng hãy biến hóa bởi sự đổi mới của tâm thần mình, để thử cho biết ý muốn tốt lành, đẹp lòng và trọn vẹn của Đức Chúa Trời là thể nào.

– At the start of a new year, unbelievers are afraid to do some particular tasks because they think that would bring them misfortunes in the new year and after many generations not doing those tasks become tradition and unbelievers will follow it unconsciously. In modern time even many among them think that is so ridiculous.

– We as Christians should not keep that kind of tradition in our lives, especially at the start of a new new year.

– As the Romans 12: 2 indicated, God wants us to be blessed greatly from Him because He is The God of Love. Because of His love for us, His blessings are always perfect that mankind cannot imagine and He wants all of us to have those.

– But as a requirement to be blessed from Him, Christians must change the way we live and our way of thinking must be changed, too. To be specific, this is how we change: Before believing in God, we were like those unbelievers. We lived, behaved and thought like them. But now we are God’ sons and daughters, we must be transformed to new lives in Him.

– Before believing in God, our motive (động cơ và mục tiêu) to live this life came from flesh and blood, and from human desires. But now, as we are God’ sons and daughters, our motives are God’s will, not ours anymore. In other words, we lived by human’ standards of greed and desire, but now we live according to the standards of love, purity and understanding of the Scripture.

– Therefore, at the start of this new year we should check our lives to see if there is any strait of the old life that still exists in us, like observe days, hours, ages and birth years. Those things cannot make us to be lucky or fortunate, but instead they make us at odds with God.

GALATIANS 4: 8-11 – But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

GA-LA-TI 4: 8-11 – Xưa kia, anh em chẳng biết Đức Chúa Trời chi hết, thì làm tôi các thần vốn không phải là thần. Nhưng hiện nay anh em biết Đức Chúa Trời lại được Đức Chúa Trời biết đến nữa, sao còn trở hướng về lề thói hèn yếu nghèo nàn đó mà suy phục nữa ư? Anh em hãy còn giữ ngày tháng, mùa, năm ư! Tôi lo cho anh em, e tôi đã làm việc luống công giữa anh em.

– Sadly, in reality, there are still many Christians, even some pastors, who continue to keep the practices and behaviors of idol worshippers at the start of a new year. We, as sons and daughters of The Light, must get rid of those behaviors and lifestyles from us one and for all.

– We will not be able to do that by ourselves, for we are weak and cannot win over Satan’s temptation and the effect of human habit and society. We have to ask God for strength and determination to be victorious over them.

– But we must also be aware of those who often criticize other Christians for living a normal, balance life in Christ. While still living on this earth, those critical people seems being cut off from reality completely. They do not know how to distinguish between the Bible’ standards and human’s illusions. Therefore, their criticism usually are their own ideas of how to live a Christian’s life, not based on God’s instructions in the Scripture. We should ignore them and leave them alone in their own fantasy world.

– To be sucessfull to live a normal Christian life, we always need guidance from the Holy Spirit. He will give us wisdom to know how to be transformed into a new life in Christ wihout become weird or ridiculous individuals.

– After we understand that we must transform our lives into new ones in Christin order to receive His blessings, the next step is live according to God’s standards and instructions in the Bible.

– According to our main verse in Psalm 5: 12, God will surely blesses the ones who are righteous in His eyes.

– Righteousness is a virtue that must be present in Christian’s life. Also according to the Bible, righteousness means know what is wrong and what is right to do in this life.

ROMANS 8: 4 – That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

RÔ-MA 8: 4 – Hầu cho sự công bình mà luật pháp buộc phải làm, được trọn trong chúng ta, là kẻ chẳng noi theo xác thịt, nhưng noi theo Thánh Linh.

– Therefore, we are deemed to be righteous in God’s eyes when we live and do thins according to His instructions in the Bible, not by our own ideas and perception.

EXODUS 18: 20 – And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do.

XUẤT Ê-DÍP-TÔ KÝ 18: 20 – Hãy lấy mạng lịnh và luật pháp Ngài mà dạy họ, chỉ cho biết con đường nào phải đi, và điều chi phải làm.

– As we live according to the standards in the Bible in order to be deemed righteous, we must be carefull to use the whole Scripture to understand the truth and be our guidance. Do not use just one or a few verses then proclaiming that we are already sufficient in understanding God’s will.

– We have known some examples concerning that kind of attitude when a theological professor used only a few verses in the Bible to declare that people who committed suicide were still able to enter God’s kingdom, or another professor who used only Exodus 20: 3 to declare that in the spiritual world there were many gods and Jahweh is One of them, or a man who committed adultery comparing himself to David.

– These people had abused the Bible for their own ideas and desire. It’s not the right way to study the Word of God. We should be careful and distance ourselves from them.

– But as we live according to God’ instructions we will surely blessed by Him and His blessings will be like a shield to cover us from any misfortune and danger in this life:

Psalm 5: 12 – For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Thi thiên 5: 12 – Vì hỡi Đức Giê-hô-va, chính Ngài sẽ ban phước cho người công bình, lấy ơn vây phủ người khác nào bằng cái khiên.

– It does not mean that we would never be in a difficult situation or a dangerous one, or never face trial or temptation, or never encounter problems or melancholy, but it means in all circumstances of human’s life, we will be shielded from their harmful effects, like a soldier has to be in battle but his life is protected from enemy’s attacks by a shield.

– And please remember, this kind of shield is God’s, not a normal shield of human. Therefore, His protections will be perfectly safe for those who are deemed righteours in His eyes.

– May this new year bring us many blessings from God when we try our best to be righteous according to the Bible’ standards. May all of us enjoy greatly this coming new year and being shielded from any harm from human world by God’s shield of love. Amen.