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.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
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.
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
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
Friday, August 23, 2013
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.
"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.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
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.
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.
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