THE WEDDING

Let me begin this New Year 2009 with the story of the father who prepared a great wedding banquet for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, “ Come, the banquet is ready.” But they all began making excuses. One said, I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “ I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.” Another said, “ I now have a wife, so I can't come.”

The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, “ Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” After the servant had done this, he reported, “There is still room for more.” So his master said, “ Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.

But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. “Friend,” he asked, “how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?” But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, “Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The story above can be likened to the Kingdom of Heaven as Jesus have told in the Parable of the Great Feast in Matthew 22 and Luke 14:15-24.

This story is one of my favorite in the Bible because it has a similarity with my story on how God found me. Long time ago, God used someone who shared to me the Word of God. At first, I was awkward of listening to it because I am not use of reading the bible and I thought I know God that much. Every time that person called me to eat from the banquet (bible sharing), I always make excuses like the people in the story. I even lied just to excused myself. However, that person is very patient and persistent (“very makulit”) with me. Now, I know why and I'm glad I listened.

From then on, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I thought that was it, my sins are forgiven and I'm free but it was just the beginning of my beautiful life relationship with Christ. If we are in Christ, we also have the responsibility to live it everyday of our life, to yield to his throne and to eat from his banquet for us to consistently maintain and live the gift of salvation that God has given. Waves of life are always there but the blessed thing is, we have the wisdom to confront all this things because the wisdom comes within which is Jesus. We have to continue wearing the proper clothes for the wedding so that we cannot be likened to the man in the story that was thrown out by the king into the outer darkness.

Let's enjoy our relationship with God. Let us not be stubborn and skip our manufacturer's instruction and try to figure out life as we went along. As Dr. Myles Munroe in his book “The Most Important Person on Earth” said, “Do not try to repair yourself. Return to the Manufacturer.”

Happy New Year 2009!