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.