Idolatry is the greatest evil a person can commit. It is a direct offense against who God is, and it does great harm to ourselves.
Idols offer pleasure and power, but only temporary and at a great cost.
To receive blessings, Canaanites sacrificed their children to Moloch by burning them alive.
To receive a quick pleasure, people destroy the temple of God for a one night stand.
To receive power, people destroy each other for Mammon.
The real God is merciful. His blessings cost us nothing (in the sense that we don't have to sacrifice to Him first to receive blessings), but costed Him His beloved Son,
His benefits are everlasting, those who go to Him through Jesus will by no means be cast out, reconciled sinners will never become enemies, no power in the universe can pluck the Christian from the love of God.
Moloch, immoral sex, and Mammon will be done away with, so will the temporary benefits they give. What is reaped from worshiping these gods is eternity under the wrath of God, this is a great cruelty to trade temporary pleasure for your soul.
Of course, these gods will never tell you that. Some are demons who love to lie, others have no mouths to speak.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Believing and obeying.
I was perplexed and puzzled for the longest time on faith and works.
For the longest time I was confused about what real faith is, and what it means to be saved apart from works.
So passages like Ephesians 2:8 and James 1:19-24, 2:8-6 made me really suspicious of the trustworthiness of scripture.
The fault is not with scripture, but me.
I was denying the need for response to God's word, both my view of grace and works was twisted.
Grace was twisted to be throw up my hands and let God do everything. When I do good, it's God's honor, when I sin, it's God's fault. (Do you know what's wrong with this kind of mindset?)
Works was twisted to include repentance. I thought repentance was no different than trying hard to not sin, and morally perfecting myself. What I was doing was denying aspects of my life that are sins (If I just watched porn this time, it's ok, God'll understand and forgive if I ask later.), and denying my need to stop.
But God was good to me, even though I was so confused and going coocoo in the head, He didn't leave me to perish in my stupid thoughts. I eventually realized that repentance starts with recognizing my sins, and faith starts with recognizing the sufficiency of Christ's righteous life, His finished work on the cross for a double transfer (my sin debt for his righteous blessing), and his resurrection for hope in the future resurrection of the saints.
Whoever I trust, I listen to. So there comes works that are according to the Law of Christ.
I hope this is helpful to whoever is reading this that are going through the same thing.
For the longest time I was confused about what real faith is, and what it means to be saved apart from works.
So passages like Ephesians 2:8 and James 1:19-24, 2:8-6 made me really suspicious of the trustworthiness of scripture.
The fault is not with scripture, but me.
I was denying the need for response to God's word, both my view of grace and works was twisted.
Grace was twisted to be throw up my hands and let God do everything. When I do good, it's God's honor, when I sin, it's God's fault. (Do you know what's wrong with this kind of mindset?)
Works was twisted to include repentance. I thought repentance was no different than trying hard to not sin, and morally perfecting myself. What I was doing was denying aspects of my life that are sins (If I just watched porn this time, it's ok, God'll understand and forgive if I ask later.), and denying my need to stop.
But God was good to me, even though I was so confused and going coocoo in the head, He didn't leave me to perish in my stupid thoughts. I eventually realized that repentance starts with recognizing my sins, and faith starts with recognizing the sufficiency of Christ's righteous life, His finished work on the cross for a double transfer (my sin debt for his righteous blessing), and his resurrection for hope in the future resurrection of the saints.
Whoever I trust, I listen to. So there comes works that are according to the Law of Christ.
I hope this is helpful to whoever is reading this that are going through the same thing.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Evangelism
Yesterday I had the priviledge of going to Toronto to share the gospel with some High school students from our church youth fellowship.
Marvin(Not his real name) and I went around the Eaton Center and tried to talk to people. We were pretty scared, and most conversations did not end with any gospel discussions.
Eventually we talked to some Muslims who were manning a booth, the person who was handing out reading materials referred us to someone at the back after we told him we were Christians and wanted to talk about Jesus.
The person at the back (I'll call him Mohan) started talking about errors in the Bible, how Acts 8:37 was missing from some translations and how that violated Revelations 22:19, I was taken back a bit because I didn't know Acts 8:37 was missing , but told him it probably has something to do with manuscripts.
Mohan then brought up more errors and I remembered not to get caught up in debate on words, so I asked him how he would get to heaven, interestingly he firmly believes that by keeping the law he would go to heaven and that the Apostle Paul was wrong in relieving people of the stray jacket of the law.
I then asked him what he thought of the sacrificial systems of the OT, he said something about the Jews trying to make up a false religion.
We eventually ended our conversation with a discussion about the deity of Christ, he told me if I could show him where Jesus explicitly calls himself God, he would become a Christian, so I told him about the incident when the Jews tried to stone Jesus because he said "Before Abraham was, I am." Mohan denied it and said in the omniscience of God, all men existed before they where born. I told him that was not in the text and we bid our farewell, he told me to come visit soon, and that God willing, we shall meet again. I hope that God willing, he would see the truth and be set free from the bondage of sin and trying to earn God's favor by keeping the law.
Evangelism is exciting and I learned a lot:
1. I need to know my bible better
2. Avoid excessive debates about words and secondary issues and focus on who Jesus is and how he saves men from our sin.
2. Just be yourself and talk naturally and honestly with people, who knows what God is doing in a person's heart
3. Despite being afraid and nervous, I need to take initiative to approach strangers
4. Evangelism is fulfilling and brings a lot of joy. Maybe that's why Jesus told the disciples he has food that they don't know about (Doing God's will).
5. We should do this more often, and God willing this will become a habit for the youth fellowship.
Marvin(Not his real name) and I went around the Eaton Center and tried to talk to people. We were pretty scared, and most conversations did not end with any gospel discussions.
Eventually we talked to some Muslims who were manning a booth, the person who was handing out reading materials referred us to someone at the back after we told him we were Christians and wanted to talk about Jesus.
The person at the back (I'll call him Mohan) started talking about errors in the Bible, how Acts 8:37 was missing from some translations and how that violated Revelations 22:19, I was taken back a bit because I didn't know Acts 8:37 was missing , but told him it probably has something to do with manuscripts.
Mohan then brought up more errors and I remembered not to get caught up in debate on words, so I asked him how he would get to heaven, interestingly he firmly believes that by keeping the law he would go to heaven and that the Apostle Paul was wrong in relieving people of the stray jacket of the law.
I then asked him what he thought of the sacrificial systems of the OT, he said something about the Jews trying to make up a false religion.
We eventually ended our conversation with a discussion about the deity of Christ, he told me if I could show him where Jesus explicitly calls himself God, he would become a Christian, so I told him about the incident when the Jews tried to stone Jesus because he said "Before Abraham was, I am." Mohan denied it and said in the omniscience of God, all men existed before they where born. I told him that was not in the text and we bid our farewell, he told me to come visit soon, and that God willing, we shall meet again. I hope that God willing, he would see the truth and be set free from the bondage of sin and trying to earn God's favor by keeping the law.
Evangelism is exciting and I learned a lot:
1. I need to know my bible better
2. Avoid excessive debates about words and secondary issues and focus on who Jesus is and how he saves men from our sin.
2. Just be yourself and talk naturally and honestly with people, who knows what God is doing in a person's heart
3. Despite being afraid and nervous, I need to take initiative to approach strangers
4. Evangelism is fulfilling and brings a lot of joy. Maybe that's why Jesus told the disciples he has food that they don't know about (Doing God's will).
5. We should do this more often, and God willing this will become a habit for the youth fellowship.
Monday, November 24, 2014
When obedience is rewarded with suffering
Joseph and Job.
After refusing the continual temptations from his master's wife, he was thrown in jail.
After serving God faithfully, almost everything he possessed was taken away.
Is God cruel? He is if our hope is to avoid suffering.
My desire for a long time was to live a comfortable life, time after time standing at the edge of the diving board, I knew what God expects, to forsake all hope and love for this world and follow him.
Isn't it funny? God doesn't promise comfort, but suffering. "All who desires to live a righteous life will suffer" "They hate you because they first hated me"
Broken families, sickness, strained relationships, accidents, death.
This life is full of tears and sorrow, sometimes becoming a Christian causes more sorrow, and God doesn't take these bad circumstances away.
But there is hope, and comfort. Suffering is like throwing gold into the furnace, what comes out is purer than what went in. It's like a loud reminder of how messed up this world is and how weak and helpless we are in dealing with the waves of history and circumstances. It's a reminder that we are but pilgrims, and life is short.
It is said that the present suffering is light and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory that is to come (I have no idea what that's like). Do I really believe that? God help us to rejoice in suffering.
After refusing the continual temptations from his master's wife, he was thrown in jail.
After serving God faithfully, almost everything he possessed was taken away.
Is God cruel? He is if our hope is to avoid suffering.
My desire for a long time was to live a comfortable life, time after time standing at the edge of the diving board, I knew what God expects, to forsake all hope and love for this world and follow him.
Isn't it funny? God doesn't promise comfort, but suffering. "All who desires to live a righteous life will suffer" "They hate you because they first hated me"
Broken families, sickness, strained relationships, accidents, death.
This life is full of tears and sorrow, sometimes becoming a Christian causes more sorrow, and God doesn't take these bad circumstances away.
But there is hope, and comfort. Suffering is like throwing gold into the furnace, what comes out is purer than what went in. It's like a loud reminder of how messed up this world is and how weak and helpless we are in dealing with the waves of history and circumstances. It's a reminder that we are but pilgrims, and life is short.
It is said that the present suffering is light and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory that is to come (I have no idea what that's like). Do I really believe that? God help us to rejoice in suffering.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Drawing out people's desires
Have you ever noticed that Jesus asks people a lot of questions? If God is omniscient, why does he ask questions?
It's definitely not to gain information or understanding, because he's omniscient, but it's for the good of the person who's being asked these questions.
We are human beings with blind or hazy spiritual eyes, men's hearts are like deep waters, who can understand it? But a wise man(!) can draw it out.
This is something I've been noticing and learning, especially from the story of the rich young ruler, I noticed God's kindness to self-righteous, blind sinners.
The young man thought 3 things were good, Jesus, himself, and money. Maybe he calls Jesus good to flatter him, or maybe he has heard of his miracles and teachings and are intrigued. He thought himself was good and has obeyed the commandments since he was young. He thought money was good, because he was unwilling to part with it.
But the truth is only God is good. When the young man went to Jesus with flattery, and self righteousness, Jesus did not respond with hatred or contempt, but Mark's gospel tells us that he loved the young man, and finally asked him to give away his wealth to help him see his bondage to the love of money.
Way too many times I'm quick to speak rashly and harshly when sharing the gospel and try to condemn people's sins in a self righteous manner, perhaps that's why I've been afraid to share the gospel. God have mercy.
It's definitely not to gain information or understanding, because he's omniscient, but it's for the good of the person who's being asked these questions.
We are human beings with blind or hazy spiritual eyes, men's hearts are like deep waters, who can understand it? But a wise man(!) can draw it out.
This is something I've been noticing and learning, especially from the story of the rich young ruler, I noticed God's kindness to self-righteous, blind sinners.
The young man thought 3 things were good, Jesus, himself, and money. Maybe he calls Jesus good to flatter him, or maybe he has heard of his miracles and teachings and are intrigued. He thought himself was good and has obeyed the commandments since he was young. He thought money was good, because he was unwilling to part with it.
But the truth is only God is good. When the young man went to Jesus with flattery, and self righteousness, Jesus did not respond with hatred or contempt, but Mark's gospel tells us that he loved the young man, and finally asked him to give away his wealth to help him see his bondage to the love of money.
Way too many times I'm quick to speak rashly and harshly when sharing the gospel and try to condemn people's sins in a self righteous manner, perhaps that's why I've been afraid to share the gospel. God have mercy.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Focus
Recently 1 John 5 and Jesus' words of him rebuilding the temple after 3 days have been very encouraging to me.
People have told me before that the church is not a building but people, I've never truly grasped this until recently, it happened when I was preparing for sunday school, there was this activity with a maze, where you are supposed to find a path to the church.
I tried to find the path to the building, which was super complex. Then I read the words at the bottom, which said that the church is not a building, but people! And voila, I see a group of people in the lower right hand side with a very simple path that led to them!
It was cool because Jesus and the apostles thought this way too, what was precious to them wasn't a physical building, but people redeemed by the blood of Christ.
When Jesus told the Jewish leaders he would destroy the temple and raise it up again, they thought it was a physical temple, but he was refering to his body. When Paul warns against sexual sin, he tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and God will take vengeance upon everyone who destroys the temple.
What is amazing is that through faith we are united to Christ's resurrection, so that as he is risen, we have are also risen and have newness of life, and will receive a new body in the age to come.
This leads to 1 John 5, which says that the testimony of God is life in Christ, and that all believers have this testimony in them. That's why the focus of church is not buildings or programs, but the people, our relationship with God and with one another.
With God, our hatred is turned to love, commandments shouldn't be burdensome, but should be a delight to obey. With other believers, bitterness and grudge holding, malicious and suspicious thoughts should be turned into understanding, kindness, and forgiveness. Yet we are still a work in progress, may the Lord help us to grow in grace.
People have told me before that the church is not a building but people, I've never truly grasped this until recently, it happened when I was preparing for sunday school, there was this activity with a maze, where you are supposed to find a path to the church.
I tried to find the path to the building, which was super complex. Then I read the words at the bottom, which said that the church is not a building, but people! And voila, I see a group of people in the lower right hand side with a very simple path that led to them!
It was cool because Jesus and the apostles thought this way too, what was precious to them wasn't a physical building, but people redeemed by the blood of Christ.
When Jesus told the Jewish leaders he would destroy the temple and raise it up again, they thought it was a physical temple, but he was refering to his body. When Paul warns against sexual sin, he tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and God will take vengeance upon everyone who destroys the temple.
What is amazing is that through faith we are united to Christ's resurrection, so that as he is risen, we have are also risen and have newness of life, and will receive a new body in the age to come.
This leads to 1 John 5, which says that the testimony of God is life in Christ, and that all believers have this testimony in them. That's why the focus of church is not buildings or programs, but the people, our relationship with God and with one another.
With God, our hatred is turned to love, commandments shouldn't be burdensome, but should be a delight to obey. With other believers, bitterness and grudge holding, malicious and suspicious thoughts should be turned into understanding, kindness, and forgiveness. Yet we are still a work in progress, may the Lord help us to grow in grace.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Gospel call, human response, discipleship, and healthy church community
Do you want a good, loving church community? Are you a leader who is frustrated and perplexed at why it's so hard to motivate people to live for Christ?
The solution can be found in a honest, and strong grip on the gospel and it's contextual truths.
The gospel is called a light that shines in darkness, the word itself means news that brings blessing.
Therefore, pastors, leaders must not compromise it's contextual truths, that all natural men are slaves of sin, living in darkness, with no hope of digging ourselves out of the pit.
Only when this truth is grasped, and declared without compromise will the gospel be any good. Because only the sick needs a physician. Self righteous people always reject the gospel.
The difficult task in sharing the gospel is that this truth offends people, so we are tempted to compromise. Compromise produced massive damage in churches, men came up with many unbiblical, false methods to "convert" people, then discipleship is difficult because church members are still living in darkness, full of hatred for God and his commandments, no wonder nobody wants to follow Jesus.
Some examples include: redefining the church's mission into something that excludes the above truths from being declared, presumpsiously declaring people to be saved, an all inclusive mentality that blurrs the line between believer and non believer and true and false chrstians, emotional experiences passed off as spiritual and a right relationship with God with no regard to whether the words which produced such emotions are true or not, mysticism without understanding what the bible says about weighty matters.
Secondly, the gospel demands a response, the good and proper response to receive the gospel is repentance and faith. Again, due to a lack of understanding of repentance and fear of offense, repentance is hardly talked about in detail. (Faith is because it's not offensive).
But men cannot separate what God has put together without doing damage. A lack of understanding of true repentance makes it difficult for pastors to care for the souls of the congregation, it makes it difficult for people to examine their own lives so they can have assurance of salvation. If only faith is talked about and taught in churches then we have a man with only one leg, he cannot stand.
When talking about repentance, many may think it is contrary to being saved by grace, because it sounds like works, but this is not true because repentance is not the same as moral reformation and making myself better.
True repentance is rooted in sorrow at the realization that I have sinned against God, and a desire to turn away from sin and towards God. It is different from moral reform, or making comittments to better oneself. The later can come from a trust in myself and lead people further into their depraved, sin nature to find a cure, but the former always leads to trust Christ who is external, out side of men, to find righteousness and justification from the sins we've committed.
True repentance is also a lifelong journey, because even though Christians are righteous and becoming better as time goes by, the fact that we have sin is true until the day we die. 1 John 1 says that if we say we have no sin, then we lie, and declare God a liar. (John uses we so he is included too).
True repentance might start in shame, guilt, and sorrow, but it does not leave you in shame because heaven rejoices over 1 sinner who repents, a good motivation for repentance is hope to obtain joy from God.
True repentance brings a person new relationship with sin and God - the sins we loved we hate and wish to be rid of, the God we hated and who's commands we despised we now love and wants to obey
True repentance leads to a degree of changed behavior - this is different in each person, it's wrong to set up how one person's behavior changes as the standard everyone should follow, because that doesn't address the heart.
Therefore, those who responds to the gospel in repentance and faith can be discipled. When majority of the church members are like this, a healthy church is formed.
I hope this helps and may God bless you and give you comfort in realizing these issues the church is struggling with, and also encouragement and comfort knowing that the solution is a simple grasp of the gospel. Also we need courage to not compromise, and love to not be cruel in our endeavor to stand for the truth. God help us all.
The solution can be found in a honest, and strong grip on the gospel and it's contextual truths.
The gospel is called a light that shines in darkness, the word itself means news that brings blessing.
Therefore, pastors, leaders must not compromise it's contextual truths, that all natural men are slaves of sin, living in darkness, with no hope of digging ourselves out of the pit.
Only when this truth is grasped, and declared without compromise will the gospel be any good. Because only the sick needs a physician. Self righteous people always reject the gospel.
The difficult task in sharing the gospel is that this truth offends people, so we are tempted to compromise. Compromise produced massive damage in churches, men came up with many unbiblical, false methods to "convert" people, then discipleship is difficult because church members are still living in darkness, full of hatred for God and his commandments, no wonder nobody wants to follow Jesus.
Some examples include: redefining the church's mission into something that excludes the above truths from being declared, presumpsiously declaring people to be saved, an all inclusive mentality that blurrs the line between believer and non believer and true and false chrstians, emotional experiences passed off as spiritual and a right relationship with God with no regard to whether the words which produced such emotions are true or not, mysticism without understanding what the bible says about weighty matters.
Secondly, the gospel demands a response, the good and proper response to receive the gospel is repentance and faith. Again, due to a lack of understanding of repentance and fear of offense, repentance is hardly talked about in detail. (Faith is because it's not offensive).
But men cannot separate what God has put together without doing damage. A lack of understanding of true repentance makes it difficult for pastors to care for the souls of the congregation, it makes it difficult for people to examine their own lives so they can have assurance of salvation. If only faith is talked about and taught in churches then we have a man with only one leg, he cannot stand.
When talking about repentance, many may think it is contrary to being saved by grace, because it sounds like works, but this is not true because repentance is not the same as moral reformation and making myself better.
True repentance is rooted in sorrow at the realization that I have sinned against God, and a desire to turn away from sin and towards God. It is different from moral reform, or making comittments to better oneself. The later can come from a trust in myself and lead people further into their depraved, sin nature to find a cure, but the former always leads to trust Christ who is external, out side of men, to find righteousness and justification from the sins we've committed.
True repentance is also a lifelong journey, because even though Christians are righteous and becoming better as time goes by, the fact that we have sin is true until the day we die. 1 John 1 says that if we say we have no sin, then we lie, and declare God a liar. (John uses we so he is included too).
True repentance might start in shame, guilt, and sorrow, but it does not leave you in shame because heaven rejoices over 1 sinner who repents, a good motivation for repentance is hope to obtain joy from God.
True repentance brings a person new relationship with sin and God - the sins we loved we hate and wish to be rid of, the God we hated and who's commands we despised we now love and wants to obey
True repentance leads to a degree of changed behavior - this is different in each person, it's wrong to set up how one person's behavior changes as the standard everyone should follow, because that doesn't address the heart.
Therefore, those who responds to the gospel in repentance and faith can be discipled. When majority of the church members are like this, a healthy church is formed.
I hope this helps and may God bless you and give you comfort in realizing these issues the church is struggling with, and also encouragement and comfort knowing that the solution is a simple grasp of the gospel. Also we need courage to not compromise, and love to not be cruel in our endeavor to stand for the truth. God help us all.
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