Christian Reflections

Christ, Discipleship, Church, Devotionals, Life

Bloodline

May 8th, 2010

Jojo Agot

The Bible doesn’t tell much about Daniel’s family line. All we know about his lineage is that he was a member of Israel’s royal family and nobility. When their government fell on the hands of the invading Babylonian empire, he and his other friends were taken captive.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made a good show of his conquest. By subjugating the Israelite nobles into servant-hood, he proclaimed and sealed their abasement in the eyes of the whole wide world. Daniel was one of the elite few who were groomed to become a servant to the emperor. Not exactly an exciting prospect for someone who came from a noble stock.

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So What if I’m Angry?

May 6th, 2010

Jojo Agot

Many people have this unrealistic notion that Christians are not supposed to get angry. I don’t know where they got that but it’s quite funny when everyone expects us to be oh so nice while everyone can blow up in outrage anytime they want to.

What most people refuse to recognize is the plethora of verses in the Bible where God didn’t mind His people being angry. The Book of Psalms is filled with a wide range of human emotions and one of the recurring themes that I noticed aside from the usual praise, despair and hope is the inclusion of angry prayers. One of those I’m going to quote below. This is from Psalms 83: 13- 15:

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Lessons from a Blind Beggar

May 3rd, 2010

Jojo Agot

As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

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Because No One Hired Us

April 26th, 2010

Jojo Agot

It happened again. While Pastor Ferdie was up in the pulpit preaching his Sunday sermon, I sat there in the audience listening to him but hearing an entirely different message. His topic was about the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20.

The message was supposed to be about God’s generosity, faithfulness and His plan to make us all part of the Kingdom but something about the hiring of the vineyard workers grabbed my attention. You see, in the parable, it was God himself who did the recruiting of new workers. He went out a few times that day to get people to work and on the eleventh hour, He met some people who were still not in the vineyard.

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