Experience is so important in the Christian life!
The trend is to downplay experience and exalt knowledge. But then we can just get a whole bunch of pagans who know how to quote the Bible.
It is like thirsty travelers in a desert who find a watermelon. Instead of cutting it open and drinking from the melony nectar inside, they start discussing whether the melon will be red or yellow on the inside, whether it will be sweet or sour, and in the end they die of thirst.
Experience is important because Christ is alive today, the covenant God makes with people in Jeremiah 32 and Ezekiel 37 is not a farse, it can be experienced in real life!! All that good heavenly blessing and deep peace, righteousness and joy from the Holy Spirit can be experienced!
But that makes knowledge so important doesn't it? It is important because without so, our experience will be just superstition, and we will worship a false god.
So dive into the Bible, make sure what you find is the true vine, then drink my dear friends! drink deeply until you are satisfied fully!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Very short summary of Ecclesiastes
This is taken from a preacher's blog.
Human wisdom cannot solve the deep rooted issues of this world.
Trying to defeat sin with morality is like hiding nakedness with a leaf,
trying to defeat death with medicine is like putting paint on a casket.
On this stage of sin and death, We can put on all kinds of drama and comedy,
but in the end it is only a tragedy.
Only the God who created and nurtured us, have taken care of sin and death in Christ, for those who believe in Him.
Human wisdom cannot solve the deep rooted issues of this world.
Trying to defeat sin with morality is like hiding nakedness with a leaf,
trying to defeat death with medicine is like putting paint on a casket.
On this stage of sin and death, We can put on all kinds of drama and comedy,
but in the end it is only a tragedy.
Only the God who created and nurtured us, have taken care of sin and death in Christ, for those who believe in Him.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Is it ok to be good?
I've often struggled with laziness. When I learned about God's sovereignty, that fed my laziness.
In my thinking I thought "If God is in control of everything, what's the point of me doing anything? I can just do nothing!" and I thought I had no choice in anything regarding my life either.
But that is a big lie.
It is true that God is in control of every circumstances that happen in everyone's lives, but we are moral beings who can make and ought to make choices.
God elected people unto salvation, but we ought to consider the cost of following Christ, and actually choose and be committed to following Him.
God woos us and helps us in our weaknesses during our life on earth so we will finally be saved in the end, but we have to draw near to Him, we have to fight our sins.
How that works in detail is a great mystery. But we shouldn't concern ourselves with trying to know the details of how God does things, living believing these truths and acting on them is more beneficial for our souls.
Then I thought about the desire of wanting to be good.
There's a lot of confusion about being good.
Arn't we totally depraved?
Arn't we utterly sinful?
Isn't there no good in me?
Doesn't all our goodness and righteousness come from Christ?
Then what's the point of being good?
Is it even ok to try to be good?
these were a lot of questions that haunted me, and probably a lot of my friends too.
After much thinking, reading the Bible, and listening to what some pastors had to say, I came up with the following conclusions:
Now I need to know what righteousness is...... back to more head scratching goodness.
In my thinking I thought "If God is in control of everything, what's the point of me doing anything? I can just do nothing!" and I thought I had no choice in anything regarding my life either.
But that is a big lie.
It is true that God is in control of every circumstances that happen in everyone's lives, but we are moral beings who can make and ought to make choices.
God elected people unto salvation, but we ought to consider the cost of following Christ, and actually choose and be committed to following Him.
God woos us and helps us in our weaknesses during our life on earth so we will finally be saved in the end, but we have to draw near to Him, we have to fight our sins.
How that works in detail is a great mystery. But we shouldn't concern ourselves with trying to know the details of how God does things, living believing these truths and acting on them is more beneficial for our souls.
Then I thought about the desire of wanting to be good.
There's a lot of confusion about being good.
Arn't we totally depraved?
Arn't we utterly sinful?
Isn't there no good in me?
Doesn't all our goodness and righteousness come from Christ?
Then what's the point of being good?
Is it even ok to try to be good?
these were a lot of questions that haunted me, and probably a lot of my friends too.
After much thinking, reading the Bible, and listening to what some pastors had to say, I came up with the following conclusions:
- We are sinful because our nature is tainted by sin, that nature produces desires and thoughts that manifest into sinful actions. [Genesis 3, Romans 5:12, James 1:13-15]
- Yet we still retain the image of God with the desire of wanting to be good(Normally)[Genesis 1:26-27, James 3:9]
- God does want us to be good and righteous, the imputation of Christ's righteousness and life in salvation will result in real, tangeble changes towards righteousness in real life(!other wise we might not have obtained Christ at all!) [John 8:11, Matthew 5:20, 1 John 3:7]
- Living a righteous life matters, it makes us good representatives of Christ, thus helps our presentation of the gospel. A bad, morally corrupt Christian taints the name of God.
- Therefore it is a noble desire to want to be good and righteous person, Christians ought to pursue righteousness, but we can't force our self into it.
Now I need to know what righteousness is...... back to more head scratching goodness.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
The rugged narrow road
I have been struggling with lust and laziness, trying to remember and remind my self of the cross brings much comfort, but I felt there was more I needed to do, something was not right. I am starting to see the value of knowing and understanding and thinking through the Bible on my own.
Often we are told an over simplified version of the truths regarding salvation.
"Jesus died for our sins"
"We are justified by faith alone, we just need to believe in Jesus and what he has done on the cross"
"God is sovereign and we need to rely on Him to overcome our sin"
"When we sin, He is merciful to forgive us"
"The devil condemns us and we need to remember our sins are atoned for by Christ's death on the cross."
These are good summaries, but when we don't read through the Bible and change our thinking, but only know these vague understandings, we can get in trouble.
The reality of sin
I think the biggest trap is abusing God's grace. Paul warns against this in Romans 6. "Should I sin so that grace may abound? Absolutely not!" Sin is not just some vague theory, but a very serous matter and it is very real.
When I examine myself, I can agree with Paul's writing in Romans 7. There is are thoughts of lust, anger, hatred against others that come up in my head. The Jews have the law to guide them and reveal to them the reality of sin, we as gentiles have our conscious(But now also the law). For when I outburst against someone in anger, my conscious tells me it's wrong and I feel guilty, and I should apologize.
This is the reality of the law of flesh Paul wrote about, for some reason, we are indeed free from sin's power and our desire for sin if we believe in Christ and His work on the cross, but it is still present in us, constantly waging war against us as long as we live in this world.
The consequences of sin, and a covenant
And it would be bad for our souls if we don't wage war against it, as Paul then writes in Romans 8 "If you live by the flesh, then you will surely die." and again and again in his letters he encourages us to set our minds on things above, to put aside envy, malice, jealousy etc, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to put out brothers who are sexually immoral for the sake of repentance.
Why would he say this? Isn't it true that God has forgiven us through Christ? Isn't our salvation through faith in Christ alone?
When I read 1 and 2 Samuel recently, I am starting to see dire consequences of disobedience. The blood of Christ is not just the blood that cleanses our sins, but the blood of a new covenant, there are standards and rules we have to obey. When the old kings of Israel sinned, there were still consequences in this life. (Saul lost his favour with God, rebellion and unrest during the later years of David's reign, Israel's destruction in the future due to Solomon's idolatry etc.) God is merciful and will forgive us, yes, but He is just. He chastens those whom He loves when they disobey and sin, so they may return to Him and live(many times through painful suffering in this life). So when we are condemned, it is not always Satan. We have to forsake our sins and return to God. Because God will not lower the standards revealed through His laws and commandments.
Our choice, weakness, and strength to obey
It would be dangerous to think God is sovereign and wait on Him to take away our sins and temptations in this life, then we will make shipwreck of our faith (eg. parable of the talents in Matthew 25, although He promises to do so on the Day of the Lord.)
God is sovereign but we are responsible for our actions and need to make a choice to follow the Spirit or our flesh(See above on Paul's urging to battle sin), it is a sorrowful and hard battle against ourselves, because God will not relent by lowering His standards, even Jesus said "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." and again he says "be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect," and again to the adulteress woman, "Go and sin no longer."
But we are weak. Our efforts fall so short of these standards. Even Paul couldn't keep this standard through the law. That's why Jesus says it is a narrow road that leads to life, traveling with our cross in self denial. It is a road marked with pain and suffering. But also joy and delight. Because Christ travels this road with us. He became human and suffered, so He understands our weakness.
If we are willing to go to Him, honestly, openly, with our weakness, with our sin, and brokeness, if we let Him love us and wash our feet, we will find the strength to obey out of a love for Him.
I am a novice who just started to travel this road, let us encourage each other to love and good deeds.
Often we are told an over simplified version of the truths regarding salvation.
"Jesus died for our sins"
"We are justified by faith alone, we just need to believe in Jesus and what he has done on the cross"
"God is sovereign and we need to rely on Him to overcome our sin"
"When we sin, He is merciful to forgive us"
"The devil condemns us and we need to remember our sins are atoned for by Christ's death on the cross."
These are good summaries, but when we don't read through the Bible and change our thinking, but only know these vague understandings, we can get in trouble.
The reality of sin
I think the biggest trap is abusing God's grace. Paul warns against this in Romans 6. "Should I sin so that grace may abound? Absolutely not!" Sin is not just some vague theory, but a very serous matter and it is very real.
When I examine myself, I can agree with Paul's writing in Romans 7. There is are thoughts of lust, anger, hatred against others that come up in my head. The Jews have the law to guide them and reveal to them the reality of sin, we as gentiles have our conscious(But now also the law). For when I outburst against someone in anger, my conscious tells me it's wrong and I feel guilty, and I should apologize.
This is the reality of the law of flesh Paul wrote about, for some reason, we are indeed free from sin's power and our desire for sin if we believe in Christ and His work on the cross, but it is still present in us, constantly waging war against us as long as we live in this world.
The consequences of sin, and a covenant
And it would be bad for our souls if we don't wage war against it, as Paul then writes in Romans 8 "If you live by the flesh, then you will surely die." and again and again in his letters he encourages us to set our minds on things above, to put aside envy, malice, jealousy etc, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to put out brothers who are sexually immoral for the sake of repentance.
Why would he say this? Isn't it true that God has forgiven us through Christ? Isn't our salvation through faith in Christ alone?
When I read 1 and 2 Samuel recently, I am starting to see dire consequences of disobedience. The blood of Christ is not just the blood that cleanses our sins, but the blood of a new covenant, there are standards and rules we have to obey. When the old kings of Israel sinned, there were still consequences in this life. (Saul lost his favour with God, rebellion and unrest during the later years of David's reign, Israel's destruction in the future due to Solomon's idolatry etc.) God is merciful and will forgive us, yes, but He is just. He chastens those whom He loves when they disobey and sin, so they may return to Him and live(many times through painful suffering in this life). So when we are condemned, it is not always Satan. We have to forsake our sins and return to God. Because God will not lower the standards revealed through His laws and commandments.
Our choice, weakness, and strength to obey
It would be dangerous to think God is sovereign and wait on Him to take away our sins and temptations in this life, then we will make shipwreck of our faith (eg. parable of the talents in Matthew 25, although He promises to do so on the Day of the Lord.)
God is sovereign but we are responsible for our actions and need to make a choice to follow the Spirit or our flesh(See above on Paul's urging to battle sin), it is a sorrowful and hard battle against ourselves, because God will not relent by lowering His standards, even Jesus said "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." and again he says "be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect," and again to the adulteress woman, "Go and sin no longer."
But we are weak. Our efforts fall so short of these standards. Even Paul couldn't keep this standard through the law. That's why Jesus says it is a narrow road that leads to life, traveling with our cross in self denial. It is a road marked with pain and suffering. But also joy and delight. Because Christ travels this road with us. He became human and suffered, so He understands our weakness.
If we are willing to go to Him, honestly, openly, with our weakness, with our sin, and brokeness, if we let Him love us and wash our feet, we will find the strength to obey out of a love for Him.
I am a novice who just started to travel this road, let us encourage each other to love and good deeds.
Monday, May 21, 2012
The worth of worthless sinners
"We love God centered theology!"
"Well me too, but that always involves people."
"Well me too, but that always involves people."
Monday, May 14, 2012
Some thoughts on theological study
For the past while I was struggling a lot with what to do with theology. The thought of theology makes me feel disgusted because of bad experience. I hurt others out of pride and arrogance, using knowledge to judge and condemn, in turn being hurt by other arrogant people. Some brothers and sisters around me were also hurt, and thinking about these things made me very sad and disappointed.
I then realized my struggle is God's grace. By struggling and making mistakes God was teaching me the importance of having good character and being kind and patient with others. We can choose to use what we know to feed our ego, or we can choose to use it for self control and loving others.
Although tempted to do it many times, I realized throwing out knowledge is not an option. Peter tells us to add to our faith goodness and knowledge. But the chain doesn't end there. Love is at the end of the chain and we are to grow in everything described by Peter(Faith, virtue, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love). If we do not grow in these then we have forgotten that Christ has cleansed our sin and will not be good for works. But there are several things to keep in mind:
I then realized my struggle is God's grace. By struggling and making mistakes God was teaching me the importance of having good character and being kind and patient with others. We can choose to use what we know to feed our ego, or we can choose to use it for self control and loving others.
Although tempted to do it many times, I realized throwing out knowledge is not an option. Peter tells us to add to our faith goodness and knowledge. But the chain doesn't end there. Love is at the end of the chain and we are to grow in everything described by Peter(Faith, virtue, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love). If we do not grow in these then we have forgotten that Christ has cleansed our sin and will not be good for works. But there are several things to keep in mind:
- The object of faith is the person of Jesus, not Calvinism or any other doctrine.
- Doctrine and truth help us to know who Jesus is and what he has done for humanity.
- Don't be too quick to believe in doctrines and systems people tell us, read the Bible and meditate on it, the Bereans were noble for doing so.
- Any good doctrine and truths can be abused. Paul warns us about this many times, (using freedom in Christ for evil; knowledge puffs up; if I understand mysteries of the faith but have not love, then I have nothing; the issue in 1 Corinthians of being considerate towards brothers who believe eating food from idol is a sin etc)
- Character and Christ-likeness is to be the goal of studying the Bible. Knowledge is important in being a footstool for self control, and ultimately, love.
- If we are kind with our words, and if our lives testify to the truth we proclaim to people, they are more likely to listen to what we say.
- If we meet God and drink deeper from His love for us in our learning process, we have done well.
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