A Growing Community (Psalm 1)

A Growing Community (Psalm 1)

This topic is talking about how to grow together in a Christian community, and equipped us with enough skills that we could survive the challenges/ battles in our every day's life in the world. It is not talking on how to get into highest position in a workplace nor talking about how to increase the amount of cash as fast as possible that we have in our bank. It is talking on how we could stand to be different in this corrupted world and how we stand strong together side-by-side as brothers and sisters in Christ keeping our Christ-like values in our daily lives with the constant war against the devil that tried to take away our eternal life in heaven.

Psalm 1 in the passage clearly stated that "..the way of the wicked will perish." (Psalm 1:7) This shows that even though there are a lot of injustice in this world, take for example, a wicked man still prospered and became wealthy while the righteous man suffered and became poor, ultimately those that do not follow God's way will eventually be destroyed and justice shall be served including 'Christians'. But this also serves as a remainder to all of us, that although we are Christians, we cannot just act the same way the wicked people does. Because when we did, we would eventually perish as well. We can loose our salvation if we did not act it out according to our faith!

So, how do we know to act according to God's will? In Psalm 1:2, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." This passage not only referring to that we know God's law, but also to meditates day and night. In our daily lives let us ponder each one to ourselves how often do we actually asked God to give us guidance in good times? It is easy to ask and depend on Him during bad times, but what about good times?

And one interesting point of view is that in Psalm 1:3, "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.." The word 'fruit' here is referring to the fruit of the spirit. The result of the fruit of the spirit could be found in Galatians 5:22-25. As we walked the our walk with God as our main guide, this fruit could be shown in our lives and it transforms us!

However, let us be careful not to neglect about the other opposite of characteristics that are not the fruit of the spirit which can be found in Galatians 5:19-21. This is because as it stated clearly that "..who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21) Let this be a warning to us to live in accordance to God's way and not based on our own desires.

After our small group meeting there were several interesting changes that we could find in our lives as we walked together with God. There are several 'negative' points that could be found namely: pride, looking down on people, vulgarities, easy to get angry, achievement-oriented, possessive and domineering, stubborn, wanted to control everything, self-blame for anything that is wrong, never accept any weaknesses, and also violence. Some of these negative traits occurred because of our position as a leader in our job/ school, some because of our family and our friends that we mixed around with, and some we are just born with it.

However, there is some changes that happened after our walk with God which result in: accepting one's weaknesses, more open up to people, toning down on criticism, better management of anger through prayer, surrendering more on God instead to control all that we can, became more aware about our words that we use, became humble, and also to learn that we need to walk our life and not just knowing how to do good!

It is interesting that these changes occurred through different reason as well, some of us changed because we sang doxology in the church, some through prayers, some through a very difficult situation such as unemployment and confrontation from people around us, even through a near-death experience. And more surprisingly, these changes not only happened with those who just became Christian, but also to those of us who have became Christian for our whole life! These changes does not occurred just in overnight but it takes time to change us, and sometimes, through painful experiences. Expect this, and do not think that life as a Christian just as bed of roses, there are a lot of thorns as well. This is how Jesus molded us to become closer to what He has planned for us to be since before our birth in this world.

As a final word, we must also acknowledge that we are not yet perfect and there are bound to be more changes that we need to experience to be closer to God, and some may not be pleasant. However, that was a Christian community is for! That is to provide us with shelters and replenishment that we need for our wounded soul after waging a war with outside world in our spiritual battle but also to make us more aware of our sinful self that yet still need to be changed and be equipped to handle our struggles with it. So that in the end, we all could say that "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith." - 2 Timothy 4:7