A Landmark of Grace

 A Landmark of Grace

Collin Leong, February 16, 2020

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)

I. Introduction

I awoke in the High Dependency Ward after a five-hour brain tumour surgery on 6th February 2020. The first thing that came to my mind was thankfulness to God that I am still alive and that my mental capacity was still more or less intact.

But what came after was this overwhelming gratitude that so many prayers had been offered for me, maybe by up to a hundred people, through word-of-Whatsapp in my chat groups. I am aware God has everything under control, but the love and care shown must have touched His heart. 

I felt this is what it should be like being in God's family. The willingness to be transparent with our weaknesses and pain, and allowing us to show compassion and care for each other. I realise many Christians, especially Asians, do not feel comfortable sharing their difficulties with others. I felt a strong urge to say something about this when I felt better.

I believe being transparent and confessing to our brethren is a biblical principle that helps us all be more Christ-like in our journey together. The goal is not just about sharing information, but to arrive at a decision point to change or transform part of our lives that the Spirit is highlighting in times of darkness. 

Before I entered the hospital, I wrote a blog named "Life of Gratitude" to express my thanksgiving to God for the life He had given me, and for my faithful friends and family. This was my first time expressing my thanks in advance after two other major surgery. If something had gone wrong with my brain, then what would my last word be about God's faithfulness in my life? I did not want silence to mark my passing. 

While the "Life of Gratitude" was a personal acknowledgement to God, this unplanned blog, "Landmark of Grace," is about allowing our decision to change visible to the family of Christ for their support. This joint commitment to support one another will strengthen our resolve to transform and the opportunity for others to show Christ's love. 

II. Acknowledging the Grace of God

The problem we have, and me included, is that we tend to withdraw when faced with trials that we don't think anyone can help with. We may even shut God out as we grapple with it using our intellect or unstable emotions.  But the principle of being open and honest to God and to our Christian family is important in the following manner:

1. There are no greater motivation for us to change our attitudes, behaviours and character than the painful trials that God allowed in our lives.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

“May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” (1 Peter 5:10)

It is a lot easier to share the good things that God had done in our lives, and we do that a lot. Sharing the painful things – things that we brought upon ourselves after many years self-deception, or things we totally have no control over such as medical issues, is difficult.

2. There are no greater motivation for Christians to express love for each other unconditionally during painful trials.

“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another.  (Jn 13:34).

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” (Romans 12:12-16)

If we do not share our sufferings with our brothers and sisters close to us, then how will the Spirit of God prompt them to show the love of Christ to one another? How would they pray? How would they meet the needs of others? How would they practice hospitality?

By not sharing and confessing, we don't just deny ourselves a milestone to make a significant transformation in our lives, but we also deny the opportunities for our Christian brethren to practice their love.

3. There are no greater motivation for us to effectively acknowledge the love of Christ in difficult trials, regardless of the outcome of the trial.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10.)

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15)

The entire gospel is about the inheritance of Christ’s glory in eternal life. Our glory, and our “face value,” is not on this earth. Everything we have now is temporary, and our identity with Christ has no relevance to the circumstances we have on earth.

When we do not share or acknowledge God’s dealing with us on Earth, it is not just because of our worldly pride, but because we are shameful of how God is dealing with us. Yet, just as Christ was not ashamed to be crucified like a criminal for us, we should not be ashamed to “go to the cross” with Him.

In my own personal experience, the saddest things were when close friends experience serious medical issues, mental disabilities or prolonged cancers without acknowledging God’s blessings and love, and getting the love and support from closest Christian friends.

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Yes, some of the medical issues could be too sudden for us to respond to, but generally, we just take too long to make that decision to accept His grace through the trials and make a change of our attitudes towards it.

In other words, we took too long or never make the “Landmark of Grace” in our lives

III.  Landmark of Grace

What is a “Landmark of Grace?”

Grace works slowly in our lives. God doesn’t hit our heads with a sledgehammer the moment we disobey Him and go the wrong way. His Spirit is gentle and tries to coax us, give us insights, gives us circumstances and even corrects us through mature Christians.

However, we take a long time to get to the point of change. How many times have we shared among our cell groups that we have a bondage to something in the past, and that it has always prevented us from being an effective Christian? 

We do admit we want to make a decisive change (a landmark), but we just never get there! We continue to be driven by a deep desire to achieve the things that we believe are good or pleasurable for our own lives, even though we may feel guilty about it at times.

Sometimes we need parts of our brains to be removed! 

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.” (Rom 7:15)

One interesting cell group discussion I had was the unending passion to drive towards career success. It seemed to affect men more than women. As we discussed, we realized that we had been brainwashed to be high achievers, and to be better than our sibling and peers. We even called this phenomena “our father’s issues!”

Even when our parents have passed away, that bondage continues to stay in us, even though we all admit that it had a high cost to our family members, and to our focus on God’s kingdom. Worst of all, we impose the same expectations on our children, thus perpetuating the same worldly drive that prevents them from being truly effective for God, even if this was never our intention.

2 Tim 2:22 reminded us to “Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Each of us only have one life where God is transforming into a "new creature", and our response should to return a positive response to God’s grace in our lives. That’s why I call this the “Landmark of Grace.”

IV. How Can I Build A Landmark of Grace?

I wanted to make this article practical, with something real we can carry out rather than just talking about it.   God gave me an image from the Bible that can be used as a metaphor. They are the “Stone Pillars” that the Hebrews used as a personal, holy covenant with God.

1. A Stone Pillar Is Holy Boundary With God

“Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.” (Gen 35:13-14)

Jacob had always lived a deceitful life. But at one point, he obeyed God’s voice to leave Laban’s land and to return to Him. God told him to leave all the foreign gods and will give him a mighty nation.

This is not a covenant from God to Jacob, as God had already made that covenant with Abraham. However, Jacob must, at some point, make his own personal covenant with God in order to play a part of that covenant, as imperfect as he was.

There was a lot of struggle for Jacob to change his habitual life. He always wanted the best in life and to be first among all.  He ended up wrestling with God before He made that change.

Jacob marked that change in Bethel using a stone pillar. It was a Holy Boundary (landmark) between his previous life and this new life. God protected his life from Esau as promised and gave him the descendants of Jesus.

It is so easy to share God’s blessings and gifts as we always do, but it is our deepest struggles and shame that we are most afraid of. Life is dark, but God’s light will not shine in there unless you open the door.

When you build a "stone altar", you cross the line from one era of your life into another. It is a Holy Marker that says "I was like that, but now I'm making a commitment to be someone else because I see the grace of what God had done for me over the past years. My riches and glory is not on this earth, but with God."

The word "glory" is the translation of a Hebrew word meaning “weight” or “significance.” Is our significance with man or with God?

Just like God had made an unconditional and irrevocable covenant to give you salvation and eternal life out of His own free will, your “stone pillars” are small covenants you make to God in gratitude to the grace and goodness you have experienced from Him so far.

You can set up many "stone pillars" over the course of your life. You can build a "stone pillar" equivalent for every major “teshuvah” or a “return to God."

Your "stone pillar" should be a visible object, perhaps a wooden frame, an art piece, a ceramic or literally a stone sculpture. There should be an inscription on it that states the reason for your Landmark of Grace.

The "landmark" can represent something a very simple character or behaviour change, or something very drastic you want to totally transform in your life. It doesn't matter. Perhaps the size or can reflect the complexity of your struggles.


Practical Examples

Here are some examples of the "landmark of Grace." I have ordered them from simple cases to complex cases for your reference.

a) You have been eating too much or the wrong stuff (cake, sweets, soda, alcohol, cigarettes.) You feel guilty but did not have the discipline to change. The Spirit (and your doctor) have been prompting you to reduce sugar, cholesterol, or whatever to improve your weight/health, so that you can be more energetic for God.

b) You have been working too hard, taking away time from your spouse and children. Or perhaps you have too high an expectation from your family. You want to make a commitment to your family to reduce the size of your business, your travels and to spent more time with them.

c) You are constantly in emotional struggles and depression. This could be due to consistent negativity about own circumstances, self-resentment, being unforgiving, unable to let go of something in the past, or spiritual bondage. Does God wants you to let go and be free?

d) You just lost your job or are in a financial crisis. This could have been a bad decision (greed, debt, materialism), or something outside of your control. Does God want you to make a change of focus to what is more important with this trial?

e) There is a breakup of family relationships (spouse, rouge children) that may or may not be recoverable. God doesn't give up on you or the other person, regardless of whose fault it was. What does God want you to do - work on reconciliation or allow Him to take control?

f) Life and death. You have a medical crisis - either manageable or perhaps lethal. You are disabled, or are given months to die. You know you have wasted most of your life with God. What can you do now to recover the very little time or abilities you have left? 

I hope you get the idea that the "landmark" can represent something simple or complex in your life. You can even have multiple landmarks for the same subject, each time making a deeper commitment.

It may take some time for you to get to the point of making that transformation, as there needs to be a lot of “struggle” and “wrestling” with God before you make that serious commitment. You may even need one or two close friends or professionals to help in some situations.

Perhaps you can build the sculpture or object first, but take some time to be confident about your boundaries with God before you make it public. You can even do a "group" landmark event!

2. A Stone Pillar is a Witness By and For Others

Joshua set up a Stone Pillar in Gilgal to remind the children of Israel of a great event, their crossing of the Jordan River.

"Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: ‘When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, "What are these stones?" then you shall let your children know, saying, "Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land" for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever'" (Joshua 4:21-24).

Your “stone pillar” should be shared with some Christian friends and family. It is up to you who you choose. If you can invite more, the better.  There must be a lot of honesty and openness when doing this, as they are your witness.

Other than benefiting yourself through a Holy Boundary with God, the opportunity for you to change the lives of your invitees is more than astounding, as it encourages them to do the same with the deep issues they have.

We are not God, and our personal covenant will never be executed perfectly. We will fail in our evil world and fall into temptations. It is our duty to humbly return back to our “stone pillars” and to remind ourselves what happened, and why we made that commitment.

Our friends will serve in continually praying for us in our commitments, and petition to God to make His will be done in us. They will continue to support us in our honest efforts, yet not judging that we can do them perfectly. If this is not an on-going commitment to loving that person, I don’t know what is.

3. A Stone Pillar is a Legacy After Me

“As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shena and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.” So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel.”  (1 Samuel 7:10-12)

Ebenezer means ‘the stone of help.’ Although the Philistines were the chief enemy of Israel, the stone pillar Samuel set up was the final testimony of Israel’s victory through the help of God.

Our "stone pillars" will become memorial objects that will be remembered by our future generations after we have passed on.  They will ensure that God continues to be honoured by how He dealt with our lives.

Our grandchildren will ask their parents what these "stone pillars" represent, and the story would be retold. It will be easier for them to commit to changes that the Holy Spirit wants in their life if they start practising this when young.  

V. Conclusion

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2: 4,5,9)

Peter described us as “living stones”, and the Lord Jesus the precious “cornerstone.” As living stones that follows the example of Rock, it is our responsibility to tell the difference that God had made in our lives.

Being alive makes us dynamic and fluid, and it is difficult to put a definite marker where God changed our lives. A Landmark of Grace creates that mark in time where we decided to commit to a difficult change, and to ensure that there are witnesses and a memorial to our legacy.

Interestingly, we will also be made into a "stone pillar" when we overcome our past bondage or trials. Revelation 3:12 says: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.”

Blogs In This Series

1) Life of Gratitude. https://biblepics.blogspot.com/2020/02/life-of-thanksgiving.html

2) My Tumor Surgery Experience. https://biblepics.blogspot.com/2020/02/brain-surgery-experience.html

Other Sharing Blogs:

1. https://biblepics.blogspot.com/

2. https://wordforseason.blogspot.com/

3. https://act3life.blogspot.com/