Seventh Week of 2010

Very thankful. God has showered me with some heart-warming moments this past week.

So I am reading RC Sproul's The Holiness of God. I am glad that there are many moments when I am nodding my head vehemently in agreement with Mr. Sproul, but one passage had me startled and shaking my head, not in disagreement but in shock that I misunderstood a famous parable all along. It is about the rich young man who tells Jesus that he kept all the commandments since he was little and then is told by Jesus to sell his possessions. I have always understood that passage to emphasize the importance of not worshiping material possessions over God, that being one of most common and hard-to-fight sins that we face. But Mr. Sproul's message that this young man was an arrogant airhead who had temerity to tell Jesus that he kept all the commandments for over 10 years (because the truth is, as the author denotes, we can't go on 5 minutes without breaking God's commandments in our hearts), that Jesus taught this man in a cheeky way that he cannot even obey the first commandment of worshiping no idols before God (i.e. material possessions) when put on the spot, that this parable is intended to reveal the arrogance of mankind in believing that we can somehow escape God's judgment by trying to obey His commandments is much more spot on than my understanding.

I do not believe that my previous understanding comes from any particular sermon or message that I heard in the past, but it tells me how important of a role our church/pastor plays for folks whose understanding of the Bible comes primarily from the sermons. Which is another way of saying that in addition to having a sound church/pastor, one must study the Scripture on his/her own and rely on the Holy Spirit for difficult questions or passages. After all, He is the ultimate source of knowledge, according to the Scripture.

All in all, I have a long way to go. My entire lifetime, actually. I do hope that God will be merciful enough for me to grant me a long life.