每逢農曆新年，大家都會互相恭賀。傳統的「恭喜發財」、「萬事如意」、「龍馬精神」是大家見面必然的賀詞，代表的不只是禮貌的對答，亦是對來年一份的希望和祝禱。
近年來為求創意，有人會用一些比較另類的祝賀語，如：「不勞而獲」、「百毒不侵」、「彩票多中」等。可算是對來年另類的期望，也可說是對生活的無奈作少許抗議。
我在想基督徒又有什麼既正氣且另類的祝賀呢？我想到了傳道書3:12-13。
12 我知道，世人莫強如終身喜樂、行善。 13 並且人人吃喝，在他一切勞碌中享福，這也是神的恩賜。
原來神的恩賜不只是「喜樂」、「享福」，「勞碌」和「行善」也是神對人莫大的恩賜。誠然努力得來的成就比不勞而獲的利益珍貴得多。在「勞碌中享福」是上帝給我們的禮物，也是對現世為富不仁者的警誡。
所以我在這裡祝大家在蛇年：「心安理得」、「自食其力」
身體的需要 – 睡眠 –運動 –感官過勞
資訊超載 (Information Overload)
工作入侵私人空間
Perhaps we remember the thrill of getting a company issued cell phone – we are now important enough that the company is going to pay to allow us to communicate. That delusion is quickly replaced by unrelenting assault that little device perform against our personal lives. In 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that employees with company phones often worked more than 50 hours a week, with 62 percent saying that having the gadgets triggered demands that they work more hours; 38 percent said that the demands increased “a lot.”
European companies have started to wake up against this invasion. For example Volkswagen has banned email to employees outside work hours – with the exception of senior management. Here in the “highly productive” U.S., we probably will never follow the examples of those “lazy” Europeans. We love our Blackberries, even when they are poisoning us.
Let us wake up to the fact that having a company issued phone really does not mean that you are important. When your company downsize, you’ll be gone regardless. To the contrary, the more your business is conducted over the network, the easier it is for your job to be outsourced to India.
“No!”, you might say, “if I miss my message, the company will suffer a great loss!”
Let’s look at this from another perspective. In the computer industry, we all know the value of having backup systems. Every system fails sooner or later – human beings included. To survive failures, we need backup plans. Those backup plans need to be up to date and exercised – that is why we have to have fire drills regularly. A well designed system cannot have a single point of failure, just as any building needs multiple fire escapes.
If your company suffers loss when you miss a phone call during your dinner, you are the company’s single point of failure. A well run company should have arranged for backup staff, and those backup staff should be well trained and authorized to make decisions in your place. In a well organized company, there should be no one who can hold the entire company hostage.
So if you get a lot of emails and phone calls after hours, or when you find yourself having to interrupt your family life to attend to business, do not rejoice and think that you are indispensable. You are just working for a dysfunctional company.
Looking back at 2012, the year ended with sad news. Here on the US east coast, we were first struck with Super-storm Sandy, which killed at least 135 people, and then with the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, which took away 26 innocent lives. If I were to make a bold prediction, I would say that among baby girls born in 2013, “Sandy” will not be a very popular name. To make these events specially tragic, both tragedies occurred a few weeks before major holidays for US families. We had a chaotic Thanksgiving and a Christmas with broken hearts.
In the political world, even though the three largest economies (US, China, Japan) had elections and/or leadership changes, the entire world is still living on the edge of fiscal collapse. Political change means very little true reform, and instills little hope.
In such times, we often doubt God. Is God spiteful or incompetent? Are we being punished by God? or is God incapable in helping us?
My friend Bill Peel reminded me that at the time of the birth of Christ, God’s people were asking the same questions. They were under uncertain leadership, they were displaced from their homes, and their children were brutally massacred.
To quote my favorite book title from Francis Shaeffer, “He is here and He is not silent”. God was present inside every storm of our lives. He was there when the innocent were slain. He grieves with every parent the same way He grieved at the Cross.
Our Lord asked in Gethsemane, “Is there is another way?” The answer was “No.” The Cross is the only answer.
When we see that Cross, every question is answered. He gave us his Son, what other proofs of His love do we need? If God is for us, who can be against us? This world is not the best of all worlds, but this is the best way to the best world.
The Cross prove that He is not spiteful, the Resurrection prove that He is not incompetent.
Just got a letter from the IRS that I owe them about $40 – I have paid off my taxes alright, but that is the interest and penalty from 2 years ago. Uncle Sam always gets you up to the last penny you owe him.
Leviticus 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.
In the Old Testament history of Israel, we learn that Israel have been unfaithful to the Lord and therefore the Lord punished them through exile into Babylon. We have learned that they were punished because of idolatry. Leviticus 26 put the exile in a different light. The exile is also a punishment for violating Sabbath.
When we reflect upon this statement, violation of Sabbath is indeed both a form of idolatry and a result of idolatry. Worshiping idols in pagan temples demonstrates a lack of Faith in one’s religious life, violating Sabbath demonstrates a lack of Faith in one’s social-economic life. If you decide to work on Sabbath instead of honoring the Lord, you are showing the world that you have more faith in your bank account than in the Lord’s provisions.
Leviticus 26 also tells us that when we violate Sabbath, we owe a debt to “the land”. I have explained in previous blogs that “the land” is not a inanimate piece of real estate. Instead “the land” is an organic entity God created to sustain both the rich and the poor, both domesticated animals and wild beasts – what we would call an ecosystem. When we violate Sabbath, the environmental condition worsens; the land cannot adequately provide for the poor, and social-economic conditions worsens.
The land belongs to the Lord, and the Lord will be its advocate. Back to the example of Old Testament Israel: let’s say the nation began with King David, who rose to the throne circa 1010 B.C – give or take a few years as David did not rose to power overnight. The nation was destroy by the Babylonian around 590 B.C. also give or take a few years because the were a few rounds of destruction. (Jerusalem was captured 586 B.C.) So the nation lasted roughly 420 years. For every six years of working the land there should have been one year of Sabbath. 420 divided by 6 is 70. How long was the Babylonian captivity? 70 years. (Jeremiah 25:11) Bad news – God is a good accountant.
How much debt have we accumulated as a society against the environment? How much debt have we accumulated against the poor? How much do you owe personally?
I have bad news for you and for all of us – God is a good accountant.
Isaiah 5:8 Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land.
Within the Sabbath regulation is an elaborate control over land ownership (Read Leviticus 25 if you need a refresher). That include provision for land to be redeemed to its original owner during the Year of Jubilee.
Had that provision been followed, the situation as described in Isaiah 5:8 would never have happened. Wealthy land owners would not be able to purchase large expanse of land and build huge mansions (add house to house) and large farms (join field to field cf. Lev. 19:9).
What is the consequence of violating Sabbath provisions? Economic collapse. As we see in the next verse:
Isaiah5:9 The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:
“Surely the great houses will become desolate,
the fine mansions left without occupants.
10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath[a] of wine;
a homer[b] of seed will yield only an ephah[c] of grain.”
Those who are familiar with Old Testament history will realize that such collapse indeed occurred within the Northern Kingdom of Israel and led directly to its downfall.
Back to our modern time. We are not unfamiliar with economic collapses within our own generation. Our tendency to use land ownership as a mean of profit making has been and will be our downfall. Land belongs to the Lord. He grants us stewardship of the Land so that He can provide for everyone, rich or poor.
Be care not to use life’s essential resources as investment vehicle, or you may find yourself standing between the Lord and those He cares.
Lev 19:9 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Let me share the testimony of a elder in my church. In the past, he would mow his lawn on Sunday afternoons. He never thought of it as “work”. As he aged, it has become more and more taxing on his body for this weekly routine. What used to be a simple routine had slowly become a tiring job.
After hearing about the importance of keeping Sabbath, he decided to hire a neighbor to mow his lawn. Now, in this new arrangement, his neighbor appreciates the extra income. The elder has a more restful Sabbath and spends more time with his wife. His wife does not have to worry about him having a heart attack mowing the lawn. Friendship develop between the elder and his landscaping neighbor, and a door for the gospel is opened. Everybody win.
Modern management teaches maximizing profits. Sabbath teaches us to take a step back and remember that maximizing may not be optimizing. In our business life and our private life, leave some for others. Let other people help you even if you don’t necessarily need the help. Be careful that being “lean” does not become being “mean”.
啟蒙運動
啟蒙運動的歷史背景
啟蒙運動對基督教的影響
基督教之回應
基督教對啟蒙運動所引發的理性主義有四類的回應：
接受理性主義的神學思想
拒絕理性主義的神學思想
回應理性主義的神學思想
反對理性主義的神學思想
Lev 25:3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
One of the first questions people ask when I talk about Sabbath is “what should we do on Sabbath?” For those of us who are so used to being busy all the time, finding something to do is a genuine challenge. Surely we cannot sleep through the entire day. After we minus the 8 hours of sleep and 3 hours of church, we still have 13 hours of not knowing what to do.
If we have a problem staying still for one day, imagine how we can survive for a Sabbath year. Even when we think we are secured in finance and career, we just cannot image having nothing to do for a year.
When we read Leviticus 25, we can see that even without sowing and pruning, the land will produce something. Living systems are constantly productive. Somebody who is truly alive will always be creative. We are so used to being crowded by “sowing and pruning” that we have forgotten to be naturally creative. It is when we intentionally cease “artificial production” that we can discover our natural productivity.
What do you want to do on Sabbath? Do things that naturally come to you. Painting, poetry, make music, hanging out with friends. You will be amazed how productive you are when you are not trying.
Devotion for busy working people 