Being shrewd

The parable of the unjust steward always left me scratching my head. But it made sense experiencing the mentality I have when justifying my sins. For the audience is people who loved money, who also justified themselves.

There is a certain mentality when a person justifies themselves, we are unwilling to let go of the wrong things we love, yet we like to pretend we are not wrong. And one way to do this is to go hard against the exact same thing we love so much!

Perhaps this is one reason why Christ told the story the way he did, the protagonist is not a moral man(he cheated his master to prepare for his future in case he got fired, and was called unjust), yet Christ told the story to commend how he used money to make friends(for both him and his master!!! Christ did not commend the unjust aspect though) so that Pharisees learn from him. Perhaps this is also to rattle our self righteous feathers a bit.

He then built up on the theme of money handling and went on to the real issue, the love of money, and he does it graciously and truthfully, pointing to how giving away their idol(money in this case) would benefit them - they would have friends, and also pointing to the fact that they would be able to serve God, no longer being bound to money.

Not surprisingly, the Pharisees justified themselves and rebuked Jesus.

How do we be shrewd? Get to know Christ from the scriptures and imitate him, he is the most shrewd of them all. People were blown away after hearing him speak, or they were convicted because his words pierced their hearts.

Encouragement

Yesterday I went to play ball(basketball) with a friend from university. The original plan was to watch a movie with him over the weekend because his mom was supposed to use the car, but it turns out she didn't need it anymore.

My friend is Muslim, after meeting up with him and catching up for a bit he told me a lot of encouraging things. He says that a lot of bible verses seems pretty awesome to him, such as when Jesus says "Let him who has no sin cast the first stone" and "If God is for us, then who can be against us?", another thing is that he noticed the love and care between Christians, how "people at church seems to have got each other's backs" and how the atmosphere during basketball games(it was at a church, I dunno about this but maybe a lot of those who show up are members of that church) is different, people are relaxed and friendly and polite. That was such an awesome encouragement because when we love our brothers and sisters others notice.

On the way back we got to talk about sin and our need for Christ, I don't think I did a good job because I should've been more focused on Christ, but I hope God will make him see the truth one day that God indeed can become man, and He did it because He loves us. But overall yesterday was a good day.

A reason to love our neighbours - God's marvelous love for ungodly nations.

The Lord, Merciful and Just - Great cause for worship

In Exodus 34, it is written that when Moses heard God proclaiming that He is a God who abounds in mercy, forgiving iniquity, yet also by no means leaving the guilty unpunished, he bowed down and worshiped. These 2 great truths of who God is ought to cause us to worship as well, because they are great gospel truths.

First of all, if God was not merciful, we would all be dead. since Adam and Eve's first act of disobedience, they would've been destroyed for the satisfaction of justice, perhaps God would not even create them in the first place.

But if God was not just, at least the coming age would not be anything good to look forward to, one amazing thing about the new heaven and earth is that all that is wrong and perverse with this world will be made right.

Last but not least, these are the characteristics of God that compelled Him to create, despite knowing Adam and Eve would sin, it is what compelled Him to send Christ, so that both the sinner and God would be justified in reconciliation through the cross, that He would be just in showing mercy to all. This should cause all who believe to marvel and worship.

Numbers 11-14: Bitter pills of unblief

After numbering off the warriors and laying down more laws, the Israelites offer sacrifices to be used in the tabernacle, all seems good until the complaining begins.

People desired to return to Egypt because they were sick of eating mana, so they complained
People did not believe that God would give them the land so they did not obey God to go and fight, but spread fear of their enemies to others and wanted to go back to Egypt.

After their initial disobedience people did not believe that God is no longer giving them the land so they went up to fight and were defeated.

Here's a couple of things I noticed

• The root of disobedience is not believing in God's promises
• The result is not acting when you are supposed to and acting when you are not supposed to act, and an exaggeration of the goodness of the former things (they were slaves in Egypt, yet they remembered supposedly the abundance of fish, meat, melons, onions...)
• Even though sins are forgiven, there is still consequences of sin in this life
• Parallel with Lot's wife who longed after Sodom after leaving
• Parallel with the NT's warning of longing after this world and sin after coming to the knowledge of the gospel
• The remedy for unbelief is belief, holding unto God's promises, parallel with NT is believing the things unseen and are to come is better than what is seen now.
• What do I do after sinning? Is it to accept Lord's forgiveness and consequences or is it to try and make things better myself?

James does not contradict Paul, they did not contradict Jesus

Does James 2:24 and Romans 3:28 seem contradictory? The confusion can come from a misunderstood/badly explained "we are saved by faith alone."

Paul in Romans 3:28 is speaking against a specific type of mentality called works of the law. If a person relies on living up to the standards of the Law to be saved it won't be possible, because sin keeps him from even desiring to do what the Law says, therefore he will fail and lower the standards or give up eventually or live in perpetual misery, so the only option is to trust not in what he can do, but in the works of Christ on his behalf. That is what Paul is saying in Romans 3:28, but James is talking about a different issue, probably something close to cheap grace, where if a person just have a profession of faith he can go to heaven while living like a devil his whole life. James says this type of faith is no good. Even Paul demolishes this type of thinking in the end of Romans 3 when he says we do not demolish the Law through faith but establish the Law instead!

We can see the same mentality as the apostles in Jesus' parable of the good and bad fruit tree, where he says a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit, ending in a warning that those who practice lawlessness will not enter heaven(matt 7:15-23). An indication of true faith is that the person produces good fruit (fruit of the spirit),  he loves the law of God and keeps it...

So we see there are 2 ways to be deceived: Trusting in one's ability, and false confidence of salvation with no change of heart. Both are a result of man's own doing. The remedy is justification and regeneration, justification deals with man's guilty legal standing before God with the work Christ did on the cross, regeneration deals with man's sin nature in hating God and his law with the work of the Holy Spirit in making the person a new creature.

The implication/application of these truths are huge. It helps ministers and church leaders to see the congregation and minister to them better(dealing with believers and false converts more accurately), and it helps people in either gaining assurance of salvation or waking them up if they do not have saving faith so that they can have an opportunity to be made right with God.

Those who walked before us III: Living among the dead - Melito of Sardis

Jesus says in Revelation 3 that the Sardis church is a dead church with a reputation of being alive. But He also says that there are some who were alive among the dead.

Melito of Sardis is one of them.

He was the bishop of the Sardis church shortly after the apostolic period ( around 160-177 ). He was probably martyred during the time of Marcus Aurileus, around 177 AD.

His apologetics in front of the emperor is bold and clear, and his preaching is Christ exalting, explaining the OT with the new, here's an example:

From the Catena on Genesis.

In place of Isaac the just, a ram appeared for slaughter, in order that Isaac might be liberated from his bonds. The slaughter of this animal redeemed Isaac from death. In like manner, the Lord, being slain, saved us; being bound, He loosed us; being sacrificed, He redeemed us ...
For the Lord was a lamb, like the ram which Abraham saw caught in the bush Sabec. But this bush represented the cross, and that place Jerusalem, and the lamb the Lord bound for slaughter.
For as a ram was He bound, says he concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, and as a lamb was He shorn, and as a sheep was He led to the slaughter, and as a lamb was He crucified; and He carried the cross on His shoulders when He was led up to the hill to be slain, as was Isaac by his father. But Christ suffered, and Isaac did not suffer: for he was but a type of Him who should suffer. Yet, even when serving only for a type of Christ, he smote men with astonishment and fear.
For a new mystery was presented to view,-a son led by his father to a mountain to be slain, whose feet he bound together, and laid him on the wood of the sacrifice, preparing with care whatever was necessary to his immolation. Isaac on his part is silent, bound like a ram, not opening his mouth, nor uttering a sound with his voice. For, not fearing the knife, nor quailing before the fire, nor troubled by the prospect of suffering, he sustained bravely the character of the type of the Lord. Accordingly there lies Isaac before us, with his feet bound like a ram, his father standing by, with the knife all bare in his hand, not shrinking from shedding the blood of his son.

More can be found at http://burondress.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=0bZfk0IBAAA.YrIdhp6YW7EbQWqfKx8NgQ.El5DU_51t6CG4agtkk4mAA&postId=5814525713765785831&type=POST

Indeed, Christ's words will always be found true.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Niblets in Genesis

1. God created animals for Adam to name and find a helper(no suitable one was found) - Gen 2:18-20
2. We still hide ourselves today like Adam and Eve - Gen 3:8-10
3. Methuselah died the same year the flood happened - Calculated from Gen 5
4. Terah(Abram's father) left Ur with Abram but never completed the journey - Gen 11:31-32
5. Abram knew about the Israelite's future because God told him- Gen 15:12-16
6. Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham, Jacob and Esau buried Isaac - Gen 25:9, 35:27-29
7. Ephraim and Manasseh are half Egyptian

Those who walked before us II: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts can be considered the father English hymns. He was among the first to use creative poetry in songs as worship to God.  During his time only poetry from the Bible were traditionally used during worship.

He was born in 1674 in Southampton, England. As a child he displayed a talent for making rhymes, one time he had to explain why his eyes were open during prayers, and he responded:

A little mouse for want of stairs
ran up a rope to say its prayers.

Receiving corporal punishment for this, he cried:

O father, father, pity take
And I will no more verses make.

As he grew up, Isaac Watts used his talent to write hymns. Some of his most well known hymns such as "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" and "Joy to the World" shows his love for God and his understanding of biblical doctrine.

He also made some contributions to the study of logic, having written a book called Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences. but that's less well known compared to his hymns.

Things I've learned, and am still learning

The gospel is a light shining in darkness
This is probably one of the hardest truths to accept about humanity. Because no one likes to admit they're as terrible and evil as the bible makes them out to be. But it's true, and the implications ought to drive me to pray, because my desire for respect and praise from others is a huge obstacle to being bold for the gospel, and contrary to a lot of evangelism methods, we ought to make it clear to people why Christ mattered, and that's because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There's an illustration that goes something like this: the light of the gospel is only seen against the backdrops of the darkness of the human heart, just as the stars are only seen against the night sky.

Being honest with God about my sins and screw ups and keep falling into the arms of Christ
This is related to the 1st point, but more personal. I am not special, just like everyone else I've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, was enslaved to sin, satan, and his dominion, was a hater of God and righteousness.

The thing is, even though God saved me I cannot go on living in my own efforts. I've learned this the hard way. The most miserable times come when I don't take 1 John 1:9-10 seriously, then I will pretend I've never sinned, or even worse justifying my sins in my mind, which leads to further sinning. The only way is to admit my sins in prayer and ask for forgiveness, trusting in what God said in the bible about his promise to forgive.

Labouring is a pleasure/Ephesians 2:1-10 is true
I'm a lazy person who doesn't enjoy work, when I was lost I despised the thought of being a slave/servant of God, I would think "who in their right mind would call themselves a slave or a servant? Isn't it shameful?" neither did I find a purpose in all my works in school.

But now I think it's a pleasure to labour for Christ's kingdom, sharing the gospel/doing bible study with others and seeing them enlightened to the things of God is the most joyful thing.

Christ is not anti-religion, Christ brings true religion.

I don't buy the movement that claims Christ is anti-religious. I get what they are trying to say, perhaps it's because religion is becoming such a taboo thing in society that it might make people uncomfortable, so in an effort to be relevant Christians try to distance themselves from being labeled as a religious group.

But the Bible doesn't criticize being religious. In fact James says "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained [a]by the world."

What the Jewish people have been given is a religion, organized beliefs, dogmas and doctrines about who God is, and laws teaching them how to have mercy and be unstained by the world.

The thing is Jesus was anti-people who pretend to be good and deny that their hearts are filled with wicked thoughts, the fake religious people who don't take care of widows and orphans on the day of need, and don't keep themselves pure and unstained by the world. He was never against religion.

Those who went before us: George Muller

Supposedly his face itself is a sermon.



Does it shine like a child?

Seriously though, his biography is very encouraging. Go read it if you have a chance.

Learning to labour

I'm a lazy person. Before I became a Christian I thought I could get away with not trying my best in school, work, and everything I do if I believed God, since He's sovereign and had control of everything. How awful was that thought.

I did not understand that faith alone saves, but saving faith is never alone.

Now I regret not studying hard in university, and wasting too much time on stupid things such as youtube and video games, these actions/choices have become habits and will take time to undo.

Now I want to do something useful for God, it is God's grace and I am happy.

Disobedience due to a lack of understanding

Have you ever desired to please God in a certain situation but don't know how?

I've been in this situation way too many times. It's because I don't know the Bible well enough.

What do I do when someone offends me? What if they don't know it? How do I know i've forgiven them?

What if thoughts of vengeance comes back?

What do I do during this post-graduate time without a job?

How should I treat people who are older, younger, the same age as me?

These are just some questions that keeps on running through my brain. The bible speaks about all these things, but I don't know them.

Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

This story is amazing!
http://austinstone.org/stories/written/item/501-the-miracle-of-forgiveness

Being the idiot in the room

I love giving advice to others, fortunately there's no one to listen. This is shameful to admit because a lot of times I do it not out of love but to show off what I know and end up becoming a noisy gong like idiot, with my stupid comments ringing in the air.



This fellow might be all smiles and lovely as a gum, but ain't so pleasant in real life.

A most dangerous kind of heresy is obsession with orthodoxy without love. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut and listen to others. God help me.

Behold

Contrary to a popular christian saying of applying the bible to live it out in our daily lives, a lot of scriptures simply tells us to behold the glory of God.

Think about it: Jesus, the Son of God, with a face radiating like the sun, eyes blazing, who speaks words like a double edged sword, able to pierce the deepest thoughts of the hearts of men, who is the Word that spoke everything into existence, who is the one holding all authority on heaven and earth, who is worshiped by angels and saints in glory non-stop, who alone is worthy of all blessing, glory, thanksgiving, power honor, and might, if anyone deserves to be loved and blessed by God, it was He.

But instead of staying in His heavenly abode, Christ became one of us, living a good life fulfilling God's statues and commandments that no one was and is able to keep. Willingly becoming sin on our behalf, as an offering to pay for our enmity towards God, crushed by His own Father, taking on the wrath of God on wretched sinners' behalf, and pouring out the righteousness He earned to cover our shame.

On the third day He rose again, later ascending into heaven, making intercession and prayer for the saints.

"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."


99% (I made up this stat) of Scripture tells us to look at this Lamb, verses that tell us how to live our lives comes after those that tells us of His glory

Nasty things left from the Asian world

"WHAT! YOU ONLY GOT 95%? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER 5%?" *WHACK
"WHY ARN'T YOU LIKE JOHNNY OVER THERE, HE ALREADY BECAME A LAWYER!"

This is the stereotypical Asian parent-child relationship. The sad thing is, it's true(there are exceptions), Asian culture has deep rooted pride in education, and filial piety which is tainted by sin into competition with other kids, idolatry of studies, and fake filial piety with no respect or love for the parents, and condemnation towards others who are caring for their parents differently to ease your conscience.

Parent-child relationships are then twisted by these tainted values, parents only care about kid's study, love is only shown based on how well the kid performs in school/society, kid grows up and takes care of parents grudgingly because otherwise society would look down upon you.


I hope this picture distracts you form this wall of text, it's related to the topic so it's ok, right?

The even sadder thing is, many in Asian Christian families also have to deal with this issue. It's either on-going, or as a thing in the past that requires the child to forgive their parents and the parents to gain trust of the child and develop biblical parent-child relationships.

But this issue is not talked about enough in churches, I don't know why, perhaps it's because people like to pretend everything's ok. "We're church-goers right? so we can't be struggling with these things."

But I've learned over the years that not talking about it is the worst thing you can do. My parents are like this(they got a lot better as I grew older), it's still hard to talk about it and I still don't know how to deal with it, what they've done in the past still triggers anger (sometimes I wish they would just die). I need to forgive them.

The proper thing to do is to bring this issue into the light, so all parties involved can find redemption in Christ and have parental-child relationships where the kid honors their parents, and parents helps the kid grow in an environment of love and without exasperation.

This post is pointless. Or maybe it isn't

Do you ever mentally prepare yourself for a tough situation?

For example, what would you say if you were to conduct a funeral for someone you don't like? Or conduct a funeral for a non-believer?

Do these thoughts even help? Probably not.

I'm thinking these situations because I struggle with speaking the truth, always worrying how people would respond. Have you ever felt awkward saying the truth? Especially the gospel and talks about hell and where people would go after they die.

It's not an option to not talk about these things, neither is it good to say it with a condescending attitude.

It is good to love people and not interact with them with a hidden agenda to share the gospel. Sharing the gospel is done because I love someone.

Perhaps love is the issue. Fear has to do with punishment, but perfect love casts out fear. The times when I feel awkward and struggle with speaking the truth is because I'm trying to perform. Ah, but performing has to do with faithlessness and not believing in the finished work of Christ for my sins and short-comings.

Will God ever punish someone for whom Christ was punished already? No absolutely not. I need to stand firm in this truth, otherwise God would be grieved.

Christianity is not morality

Christianity is not about being moral, and being a Christian is not about being a good person. Churches point out people's sins and short coming and then tell them to change, but don't connect their need to Christ. It's like telling cancerous folks to stop growing tumours.

We have rules to obey but the reason why we obey is not to be good or to change ourselves. But because of love for and from God.

Voddie Baucham had an good example regarding pre-marital sex, morality would say that sex before marriage was wrong, and the parent would say you gotta wait till your married son cause that's the right thing to do, but Christians do not have sex before marriage cause Christ would not join himself with an harlot. It is because of Christ's love for his bride the church that men and women abstain from sexual immorality.

Paul has a good mentality when he went to the Corinthians resolving to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. The gospel is very rich and it is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe.

Morality brings shame and judgement, Christ brings life.

Marriage

When I went back to China some of the most asked question was "Do you have a girlfriend?" and "When are you gonna get married?"

I used to be under pressure to get married, I made a goal to have kids before 28... Now looking back I was pretty silly, and did a lot of foolish things, bought into many lies: "It is better to marry than burn with passion" means marriage will cure my problem with lust and pornography, and "He who does not marry does better" thinking singleness was somehow a more spiritually superior state.

Oh ya, there's also this tendency to poke around with relationships with the opposite sex, sometimes thinking if I went to this event my wife might be there, or thinking "is she the one for me?" "Does she like me?" That was pretty foolish for me to do as well.

Now I'm at peace. I do want to get married because it'll be a beautiful thing, but even if I don't get married I'm content with having Christ.

Brother Charles shares some really good wisdom and advice in this podcast. Pursue Christ while you are single, and God will wake you up when he brings your spouse to you.

https://soundcloud.com/illbehonest/marriage-and-singleness

The Good Samaritan

This hit me on my way to China, the Good Samaritan parable may not be as simple as it seems.

Usually it's told as a story for people to love their neighbour and be like the Samaritan to help those in need. This is one purpose of this story, but I believe Jesus wants us to see ourselves in the role of the beat up Jew.

I say this because of the question Jesus asks the lawyer after he told the parable: "Which one of these 3 proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell to the robber's hands?" to which the lawyer correctly replies "the one who showed mercy to him". Isn't that interesting in light of the original conversation? The lawyer wanted to know how he can inherit eternal life, and the law says to love your neighbour as yourself, the lawyer probably realized he failed so many times to love his neighbour as himself and wanted to justify himself by asking Jesus who his neighbour is(if Jesus answers straightforwardly the lawyer will follow with many "buts" and "ifs"), but Jesus makes the Samaritan to be the neighbour who the Jew ought to love as himself, in other words "love those who showed love to you"

Christ is addressing another issue, he's saying our view of ourselves needs to be changed, we think in our pride that we are the rich man who's able to help others, but Christ is trying to point out that we are the poor man who's in need of help. This is a parallel to the gospel, in that the natural man is an enemy of God, hating him for no reason, but God through Christ loved his enemies and took care of his needs(freedom from sin, and from the damage done by Satan), so we can fulfill the righteous demands of the law to love our neighbours out of gratitude as a response to what God has done for us. Jesus's yoke is indeed easy, and his burden light.

Hydra code

Supposedly there's a jargon in programming called hydra code. Where a deadly error exists in that any attempt to fix it would produce more errors.

This is like the state of the human soul.

Jesus says whoever sins is a slave to sin. Like the hydra code, any attempt by man to fix his problems will only create more.

Trying to be kind to people only to be met with a cold response, man becomes bitter.
Trying to quit an addiction and succeeding, only to become proud and look down on others.
Trying to be more social and friendly only to be constrained by one's past, fears, bitterness and anxiety, then great depression crushes man.

To every corner, and at every turn, his conscience accuses him, fear, anxiety, restlessness, depression weighs down heavily upon him, pride tells him to save face and makes him irrational by trying to hide his struggles, or makes him the object of contempt in the eyes of his peers because he looks down upon them.

All this is only his earthly state, a fate far worse than these await him after death, because in the eyes of God who has authority over his fate, men is evil and not fit for a kingdom of righteousness without suffering. He will be cast into the outer darkness, weeping and gnashing his teeth for all eternity.

How wretched!

How hopeless!

But it is only true if man does not find Christ.

Christ is the one who brings joy, because he looked at man's heavy laden state and took pity on him and loved him. Christ being God became man and walked with him in his suffering, told him about a kingdom to come, proved His divinity through miracles, and took man's burden upon Himself.

But God put Christ at the very bottom of the pile, beneath all other things that are deemed glorious by man. Only those who are willing to take off their mask of pretense, and admit, "yes, we are messed up, and unable to save ourselves, so help us God" can find Him.

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. - Jesus Christ.

Truths about salvation: A new birth vs making a decision about Christ

Do you believe you just need to make a decision for Christ to be saved? Sadly that is not what the Bible teaches.

To be saved does not depend on whether you've made a willful decision to make Jesus your savior, but it depends fully on whether or not God has made you a new man, and this new birth comes with a view of Christ as your savior.

This is what Jesus told Nicodemus when he visited Jesus. (John 3) The new birth is not something that is produced by our will, but by the will of God. This is supposed to be an amazing thing, but because it robs the man of control, man despise this truth.

But look at it this way, would you agree that all your efforts in trying to be good have failed? Isn't it hard not to become prideful and despise others when we overcome some of our sins? (I stopped watching porn, but you haven't, so I think I'm better than you and treat you with contempt) So why do we want salvation to be in our hands by reducing it to a human decision?

Also, this concept of salvation being just receiving Christ will make the sinner play a game of make belief. He knows his desires are not for God, but when he reads biblical descriptions of a new man, he will try to produce these characteristics. O how much suffering this will produce! These truths are not commandments, but for us to discern the state of our soul.

Here are some characteristics of the new man according to 1 John:

• The new man walks in the light(He is not afraid of his deeds being known by others)
• The new man admits and confesses his sins
• The new man does not live in sin
• The new man loves other Christians (in thought and in deed)
• The new man loves God and obeys his commandments

So what should we do if we are not born again? Seek God and take him at his word. He has promised that whoever seeks shall find, and whoever asks shall receive. (Matthew 7:8-12) God knows and desires to give you good gifts( such as the holy spirit and salvation) Be persistent in seeking God. Jacob laid hold of the angel until he was blessed(Genesis 32:24-30); The Canaanite women persisted after Jesus' initial refusal(Matthew 15:21-27). It might take some time, but God will save you if you are willing to come to Him.

*This post has been updated. Before it was called Truths about salvation: A new birth vs receiving Christ but receiving Christ is true and mentioned in John 1, it's just the misinterpretation of receiving Christ being just an act of the will is what is not true. Sorry about the confusion and mistake.

Beware of mysticism

I used to love and endorse mysticism and teachers like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, but I was wrong.

Paul warned us against being deceived by such sophisticated and persuasive philosophies. (Colossians 2:4)

Beware, when people confuse the purpose of the law(it's not to guide us to be good, but to show God's disdain and hatred for sin, and the reality of our sin)
Beware, when someone tells you everyone who deserves to be saved will be saved.
Beware, when someone tells you a gospel devoid of the 3 essentials: Christ came in the flesh, died for sin, and was resurrected.
Beware, when philosophy is mixed with truths from the Bible.

If someone's not content with fixing their mind on Christ, how he loved us by giving up his life for us, how he drank God's wrath on our behalf, how he overcame death, and all the glories of God shown in the scripture is not enough, then no amount of sophisticated wisdom will do them any good.

Run from mysticism, run from these seemingly spiritual man, but are devoid of understanding of Biblical Christ, go and understand what scripture says for yourself, they are sufficient for wisdom and salvation.

Memoir of a centurion

<Post removed. Mark 15 shows the centurion believed>

What happened on the cross?

Many people have said different things regarding what happened on the cross. A popular saying is that we killed Jesus with our sin, others say that Jesus took on God's wrath, while others would disagree, saying that's divine child abuse.

I haven't really thought about this until I read this blog post yesterday. It is strangely joyful and humbling to know what happened to Jesus on the cross and understand our salvation biblicaly. To me, it really is the greatest love when someone lays down their life for their friends, especially when that friend is a worthless mess.