The wedding dinner continues.....

Image via WikipediaThis is a continuation from my previous post. This is my personal reflection of this week's readings.

This week, we learned that God is inviting everyone to his Kingdom and yet many turn him down because of other priorities – in general, too busy. Sounds familiar?

Jesus as we know from the Bible often shocked the self-righteous of his day because "he welcomed sinners and ate with them". Yet, these are the ones who refused the invitations as they do not want to be part of Jesus who welcomed tax collectors and sinners.

They even seized the servants send to invite them, maltreated them and killed them and proved themselves to be unworthy.

So these servants were ordered to go out onto the roads and invite “everyone they could find, bad and good alike and the wedding hall was filled with guests”.

But one guest who was without a wedding garment the King asked him why but he kept silent. The King ordered : "Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth."

As Fr Gerard Weerakoon (from The Church Of The Holy Spirit) explained, the wedding garment was the garment of love.

”For many are invited but not all are chosen” (MT22:14) - Are you the chosen one?

I cannot help but think of testingblog (for those who do not know, you can refer to the post about anti-Christ and some comments he made here) and his version of Christianity through his words and actions.

One may become a Christians and yet, if one does not live a Christian life as Jesus taught us (to love God and to love our neighbour), one can still be thrown out of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is good to refer also to MT 25:31-46 about the last judgement where Jesus clearly tell us that love and charity is the key to Heaven.

We become Christians because we have accepted God's invitation and our search for love and happiness is the search for God!

True Disciple Of Christ

Image via Wikipedia If you believe in Christ, you would want to be His true disciple. So, what make one a true disciple of Christ?

Certainly not with vulgarities, curses and swearing.....That's the teaching of DEVIL!

I am sure all will agree that to be a true disciple of Christ, we need to listen and follow his words and teachings.

So what does Jesus teaches and tells us to do?

In MT 22:34-40, Jesus clearly sum up the commandments for us into 2. That is to love God and to love our neighbour. And St Paul further reinforce that teaching telling us that every commandment is about love RM 12:9

And love is about giving - not receiving. Like Jesus said, He is here to serve and not to be served. He also called on His disciples to do the same – to serve. Are you willing to that?

In MT 7:21-27 , Jesus also warned us that not all who call “Lord…Lord…” will enter into Heaven. It is not lips service that He wants. He said a true disciple are those who hear the words and act on it. Not those who hear but do nothing.

Our words amount to nothing if we do not live by them or if we do not follow God’s will in our daily living. It is easy to profess what we believe in, yet our actions are not always in line with our profession. It is not the professing that God wants but we are called to remain devoted and faithful to God’s Word in our lives.

The Last Judgment account in MT 25 reminds us that it is our actual deeds of love that matter, not mere words. Through our deeds, then we are a light to the world and messengers of Christ. We may not know that the people we know may be looking at us for some guidance or direction as they know that we are Christians.

Again, in The Last Judgement, Jesus clearly tells us that the entire human race will be grouped into Sheep and Goats. So who qualify for Sheep? Sorry it is NOT ALL Christians (who profess their faith) BUT anyone who has done actual deeds of love and all His TRUE disciple will qualify. Roman 2:13 says “For the ones that God will justify are not those who have heard the Law but those who have kept the Law.”

So not ALL Christians will be saved but only those with faith and deeds (true disciples of Christ).

So, are you a true disciple of Christ?